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Eat a bug, travel the Amazon, get abducted by aliens — all in virtual reality at Sundance

Artists using technology to tell stories “without a frame,” surrounding the viewer in 360 degrees of sound and image.

(Yifu Zhou | courtesy Sundance Institute) An image of a much-magnified insect from Yifu Zhou's "Micro Giants," which will appear in the New Frontier VR Experiences program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Park City • Ready to travel the Amazon? Get abducted by aliens? Have yourself sucked dry by a spider? Team up to fight creatures on a distant planet?

You can experience all that, and more, in an hour or so, through the virtual-reality exhibits at the New Frontier program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

The varied VR offerings, ranging from space-specific installations to works shown on mobile phones rigged with goggles, show the growing possibilities of the technology. More filmmakers and artists have embraced VR as a way to expand storytelling past the limits of movies.

“The difference is you don’t frame stuff,” said Nice Casavecchia, who created the VR story “BattleScar” with Martin Allais. “We reimagined how to tell a story without a frame.”

( | courtesy Sundance Institute) A character from "BattleScar," by Martin Allais and Nico Casavecchia, which will appear in the New Frontier VR Experiences program of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

“BattleScar” uses computer animation to dig into the diary of Lupe, a runaway teen living homeless in 1970s New York. Lupe lands in juvenile detention, where she meets Debbie, a punk teen who thinks Lupe’s notebook of verses could be turned into rock songs.

Casavecchia and Allais shift perspectives frequently, using projected text to guide the viewer into turning left or right, up or down, to follow the action. Tying it together is a dynamic narration by Rosario Dawson. And the work is being shown in a room, downstairs at The Ray, that resembles the flophouse where Lupe lands.

One of the bigger rooms at The Ray is The Box, a 40-seat “microcinema” in which each seat has a set of goggles and swivels 360 degrees. The idea is to let 40 people watch the same VR programs at the same time, bringing the communal movie-theater experience to what is often a solitary delivery system.

Among the highlights in the VR programs:

(Skybound Entertainment | courtesy Sundance Institute) Sarah Sokolovic (left) and Malcom Barrett portray Betty and Barney Hill, victims of one of the first widely reported cases of being abducted by aliens, in director Angel Manuel Soto's "Dinner Party," which will appear in the New Frontier VR Experiences program of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

• “Dinner Party,” a mix of live action and animation directed by Angel Manuel Soto and written by Charlotte Stoudt and Laura Wexler, that dramatizes the first recorded UFO abduction case — Betty and Barney Hill, a New Hampshire couple in the 1960s.

• “Chorus,” created by Tyler Hurd, which puts six people into video-game-like avatars, shooting lightning from their hands, as they are confronted by various monsters on a distant planet.

• “Micro Giants,” a computer-animated work by Chinese artist Yifu Zhou, in which the audience witnesses the insect food chain: Ladybug eats aphid, ladybug gets caught in a spider web, spider drinks the ladybug’s juices, wasp stings spider and lays eggs in its body, and so on.

(Lynette Wallworth | courtesy Sundance Institute) An image from Lynette Wallworth's "Awavena," which will appear in the New Frontier Exhibitions program of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

• “Awavena,” artist Lynette Wallworth’s collaboration with the Yawanawa, an indigenous people in the Amazon region, who use immersive technologies as tools to share their connected worldview.

New Frontier has three Park City locations during the festival running through Sunday: The Ray, 1568 Park Ave.; Kimball Art Center, 1400 Kearns Blvd.; and evenings in the Music Cafe location, 751 S. Main.