A Machine for Viewing

VRTOV 2020

A unique three-episode hybrid of real-time VR experience, live performance, and video essay in which three moving image makers explore how we now watch films by putting various ‘machines for viewing’ including cinema and virtual reality face to face.

An echo of a VR experience reverberates through an empty cinema

Originally taking the form of an in-person VR piece, this dynamic hybrid work previously screened in alternate iterations at IDFA and Sundance. Slated for the MIFF 68½ program but delayed owing to lockdown, the project has now been reimagined as a digital offering for a virtual MIFF audience. Online viewers will follow a single Astor Theatre audience member’s interaction with the piece, which unfolds in three parts.

In devising this unique screen experience, directors Charlie Shackleton, Richard Misek and Oscar Raby were inspired by filmmaker Peter Kubelka. In 1970, Kubelka designed a movie theatre enveloped in black velvet and controlled lighting, which left all but the silver screen visible. He called this his “machine for viewing”.

Half a century later – in a world replete with screens – Shackleton, Misek and Raby invite us to ponder what it means to ‘watch’ a piece of cinema.