The NEWVIEW Awards Reopens Call For VR/AR Works Designing New Ultra Experiences Post-Pandemic

The NewView Awards, which honors the next generation of experience design in the 3D space, has returned for the third year with its annual call for entries.

Launched in 2018 to encourage the use of VR beyond the gaming industry, the NEWVIEW Awards will for the first time this year be expanded to include AR content, in addition to VR content.

The extended reality content design award aims to discover and amplify the next generation of creators who are leading “super-dimensional design” in the fields of fashion, culture and art.

This year, the awards boasts an impressive lineup of esteemed international jury members who work across fields from XR and computer programming to entertainment and music.

Japanese contemporary artist Naohiro Ukawa will serve as the head juror. Born in 1968, Ukawa is an all-around artist who works across filmmaking, graphic design, VJ, university professor, writer and contemporary artist. His live-streaming studio and channel DOMMUNE has participated in numerous international exhibitions of contemporary art.

Other jurors include Japanese artist, interaction designer, programmer and DJ Daito Manabe and idol Ayaka Wada.

They will be joined by Irish artist, film maker and game developer David OReilly, the creator of the iconic game Mountain and the universe simulation game Everything, narrated by Alan Watts; Shanghai-based multi-disciplinary artist Lu Yang; writer, producer, curator Jesse Damiani, the Deputy Director of Emerging Technology at Southern New Hampshire University, Editor-at-Large of VRScout, and Director of Simulation Literacies at Nxt Museum; as well as Director of STRP festival in the Netherlands, Ton van Gool.

This year, NEWVIEW also collaborated with seven artists who created their first AR works to serve as inspiration for those looking to enter the competition. 

The works are being unveiled on STYLY Mobile and include designs by Psychic VR Lab, Ryo Takegawa from xorium, and Moe Meiko-menmeiz- x Jennykaori.

Based in Tokyo, NEWVIEW is a guerilla movement jointly founded by Japanese online VR creation platform STYLY, PARCO Department Store, and design company Loftwork to develop the next generation of VR creators through lectures, gatherings, and exchange in and outside Japan. 

NEWVIEW hosts specialized programs at various FabCafe locations worldwide in service of this goal. In 2017, Loftwork first organized workshops and interviews with target users of Styly at FabCafe branches in Barcelona, Bangkok, and Taipei, to lay the foundations of the movement. 

A year later, the 2018 NewView Award was held in Taipei, and NewView workshops and exhibitions then expanded to Monterrey, Mexico, as well as Taipei in 2019. Winning works are then exhibited at various FabCafe locations around the world.

This year, the NEWVIEW School, a series of courses in Tokyo and Kyoto aimed at teaching students about VR as an artform, expanded to open its second branch in Taipei, Taiwan.

Twenty creators were chosen for the NEWVIEW School in Taipei, which consists of eight sessions taught by some of this year’s NEWVIEW Award jurors, as well as a wide range of pioneers outside the VR/AR field who will encourage creators to look at XR from a different perspective.

The Taipei school comes following a successful launch in Tokyo and Kyoto last year that saw students learn the technicalities of VR including how to use Styly and Unity and submit their creative works in the 2019 NewView Awards.

The theme of this year’s awards is “Design Your Ultra Experience,” and entries are open from now until November 2, 2020. 

Anyone around the world can take part by designing their 3D experiences on VR/AR/MR creation platform STYLY. The use of non-STYLY tools (3DCG, game engine, DAW, etc.) in the production process is accepted, and existing works are also welcomed. VR and AR works will be judged with the same criteria – novelty/originality, experience and impact.

Prize Information

• Gold Prize: US$20,000 (1 work)
• Silver Prize: USD $4,000 (3 works)
• PARCO Prize: One winner will be able to create a 3D work in collaboration with PARCO Department store to be exhibited in Shibuya PARCO.

Winning works will be exhibited at commercial space PARCO Shibuya in Tokyo. Other prizes will be announced in due course.

Inspired by the ‘Fab’ revolution as prescribed by MIT maverick Neil Gershenfeld, FabCafe is a series of ‘Fab’ innovation labs that specialize in creating products, services and experiences of the future. Here, maker enthusiasts, businesses and everyday people can access digital fabrication tools and experiences for fields ranging from fashion to bio. Founded in Tokyo in 2012, FabCafe’s global network now serves and fosters creative communities in 11 locations around the world, including Bangkok, Barcelona, Hong Kong, and many more. Subscribe to FabCafe Global newsletter here.