The creation of the Quills Fest VR World was led by OSF Creative Technologists-in-Residence, Cyril Tsiboulski & Illya Szilak. Designed by architect Paolo Barlascini, the Quills Fest VR World is a playful and surreal take on OSF’s iconic Elizabethan stage, inspired by the original Shakespearean dramaturgy of the Elizabethan theatre as a radically welcoming space where the public gathered to have shared theatrical experiences. Emmy Yupa led the development of the Virtual Reality world in Unreal, manifesting an environment that is richly interactive, celebrates curiosity, and is full of “easter eggs”!
The Quills Fest VR World features Avatar Design by Selly Raby Kane, a renowned Sengalese fashion designer and artist pioneering Africa’s booming art and design movement in collaboration with Avatar Modeler Dulce Baerga, and original music by Justin Hicks, a groundbreaking multidisciplinary artist, composer, and vocalist, in collaboration with Sound Designer and Mixing Engineer Sean Davis.
Quills Fest VR World will serve as an ever-evolving playground and exhibition space for Quills Fest projects current and in the future.
I wanted to recreate some moments I had in the summer watching people playfully interact in public as they anticipate or decompress in outdoor festival spaces. I imagined this open-air theater as a mellotron-inspired instrument or music box activated by presence in ways that range from passive to rhythmic to playfully direct.
– Justin Hicks, Composer
