PXR2026 - Uncanny Alley

The PXR2026 Conference is excited to announce "Uncanny Alley" as part of our Experience Stream! Every show that is part of our Experience Stream features VR, or Mixed Reality. For Uncanny Alley, when you arrive at the venue, you will be provided with a VR Headset. Someone will be there to help you get acclimated to the headset and you will participate in a live VR Experience!

Uncanny Alley: A New Day is a guided virtual reality theater experience with live actors. Each show runs approx. 75 minutes long.

Uncanny Alley: A New Day, a collaboration by Ferryman Collective and Virtual Worlds Company, had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where it received the Fanheart3 XR Experience Award. It went on to win XR Must’s 2024 award for Best Interactivity/Performance and took 2nd place for Best Sound Design.

Following its international debut, the piece was featured at Imagine Fantastic Film Festival, Tempo Dokumentärfestival, and had its U.S. premiere at SXSW in March. It was also selected by NewImages Festival, where it hosted the world premiere of its French-language performances, and just finished a festival run of shows at Raindance Immersive, a festival that champions independent XR creators, game designers, world builders, and performers — continuing our journey of innovation and storytelling in virtual reality.

NARRATIVE SUMMARY

Adaptive Learning Industries is about to launch the New Day update through legislation that passed with little public support. Uncanny Alley’s “Metizens” will soon feel the amnesia-like effects from weaponized Radio Frequency waves.

Cyberpunk hacker-whiz, Gh0st, breaks a group of protesters out of jail to lead them and her increasingly sentient Service-Bot, Atom, to safety through a hacked portal, out of the city and to a new metaverse. They must stick together, evade capture, and decide whether to leave Uncanny Alley or stay and fight for their freedom, and their home.

IMMERSIVE THEATRE

This immersive theatre experience differentiates itself from traditional theater by removing the stage and immersing audiences within the performance itself. Participants can expect a high level of interactivity, audiences will converse with the actors, other audience members and interact with their virtual surroundings.

With the transformative power of VR technology, participants are fully immersed in our captivating 3D world. Audiences will go through multiple environments, exploring all the way from the tunnel system underneath the fictional Uncanny Alley world, traversing through hackerspaces, caravans, secret workshops, nightclubs and all the way to the heights of the ALI government penthouse offices.

PROJECT HISTORY

Uncanny Alley began as two award-winning virtual worlds before evolving into a theatrical show. Its creator, Rick Treweek, also known as MetaRick and praised as “one of the smartest minds in XR,” was approached by Stephen Butchko from Ferryman Collective to explore the idea of setting a live theatrical performance within the world of Uncanny Alley. However, MetaRick wanted to go further; he aimed to create a world specifically for the show, expanding the IP of his beloved characters and universe. The Ferryman team further challenged him to develop this expansive experience for standalone headsets like the Quest, which have significantly less computing power than tethered VR headsets.

MORE INFORMATION

To learn more, please visit our websites:

Ferryman Collective + Virtual Worlds Company

If you have any questions about the event or if finances are a barrier, please email Melissa at melissa@singlethread.ca or contact us here.