#1788: Curatorial Overview of Venice Immersive 2026 & Celebrating 10 Years of Immersive Storytelling

The 2026 edition of Venice Immersive marks their 10-year anniversary, and I interviewed the co-curators Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac about this year's selection that includes 30 projects in competition, 9 Best of selections, 3 Biennale College Cinema – Immersive projects, 26 VRChat worlds, as well as a special immersive event. Rosenthal and Reilhac talk about how the structures and forms of immersive storytelling have really matured, and how they're still really novel and compelling ways that artists are using XR and the affordances of immersive design to tell really compelling stories. The diversity and comprehensive scope of the selection each year reflects a vibrant creative exploration that is being grounded into more and more viable revenue streams through "location-based entertainment" or LBE. Be sure to check out the 121-page IDFA DocLab Immersive Think Tank Report 2026 that I wrote for more details on this emerging indie XR distribution ecosystem. Rosenthal and Reilhac talk about the latest trends of immersive storytelling, but also what keeps them coming back to this emerging medium. To me, it's one of the most vital and interesting aspects of the XR industry, and it is also where I'm seeing some of the most intersting innovations for the medium. I've now published 692 episodes on Immersive Storytelling on the Voices of VR podcast since 2014 with many more unpublished in my backlog yet to come. This accounts for over a third of all my coverage as it's a really great testing ground for really understanding the affordances of the medium as it is used to tell so many different types of stories across many contexts, and using many different combinations of disciplines. Check out my previous episode #1787 for some of my philosophical musings on "Blending the Elements of Experiential Design."I'll be attending this year's edition of Venice Immersive to both see the program and to interview as many of the featured creators as I can, and last year I topped more than 30 hours conducted onsite. I will update this post here once I post all of my coverage from Venice Immersive 2026. Selected Projects that You Can Watch at Home Right Now If you won't be able to make it Venice Immersive, then there are a number of Best of Selections that are available on the Oculus store, that are very much worth checking out. Spymaster Crafting Crimes: The Mona Lisa Heist Hotel Infinity The Amusement Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes All but one of the 26 VRChat worlds in the VRChat World Gallery are already publicly available, and I'll leave a list of links down below if you'd like to get an early start on worldhopping. There will be an official Hub world in VRChat with portals to all of the worlds published on September 2nd by the VeniceImmersive user account, and if you're onsite, then I'd highly recommend checking these out as a guided tour. Celestium by Lavryou Memory by LeraNibiru_art Blumea… by TontonDemon Frozen Signal by Lavryou The Antikythera Mechanism by Thrill, PHIAbunny Come Home by Aruse Arkani A World Of My Own by 襟草たぬ Demonhour – Chapter 1 by Kitsunaki [Jan Köster] Dawn Beyond… by TontonDemon Noctiluca by LuminaPalette {黒熊１３} I Feel Small by Fewiix Veiled Dark by Dean`, Karl Kroenen Patriki VR by DrMorro Specularium by jasper ｡ Spatialography by VoxelKei Limitless Pt․1˸ Enter The Void by HILL JR Fractured Winter by Lavryou town of connection by haruki_haru Vertical Horizon ⁄ 361 Degrees by Inloco Gallery Tokogrammetry Museum by Tokoyoshi A Wonderful Thing To Realize by Screaming Color [not currently public] Volare by Juice … Break 25: Sinto Feliz by PK Half Empty by yuri_ts Forgotten Empire by 3D Master Liminal Nightmares by ∗Lotus∗ [Autumn Boyd] To sign up for Venice Immersive, then check out these logistical details as well asl accreditation process. If you are already signed up, then these are the four dates to pay attention to for booking experiences: Thursday, August 27th at 2.00 pm CET to book for September 2nd-4th Saturday, August 29th at 2.00 pm CET to book for September 5th-7th Monday, August 31st at 11.00 am CET to book for September 8th-10th Friday, September 4th at 6.45 am CET to book for September 11th-12th And be sure to check out my write-up from last year for more tips and tricks for attending Venice Immersive. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality