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Exploring Edinburgh in virtual reality

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Arts reporter Lindsey Chapman tries out Edinburgh 70: The ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ at the Festival, Virtually - an amazing virtual reality experience.

ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Arts reporter Lindsey Chapman tries out Edinburgh 70: The ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ at the Festival, Virtually - an amazing virtual reality experience that celebrates the craziness and vibrancy of the world’s biggest arts festival.

In the 70th anniversary year, this new VR project – created by digital artists Dennis and Debbie Club, and supported by ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Scotland and Creative Scotland – brings the spirt of the city right into the audience’s home.

Working with ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Arts Digital, Dennis & Debbie Club has created a wild VR tour, mixing digital modelling of Edinburgh and ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ archive highlights from previous Edinburgh festivals – all at the control of the viewer’s gaze.

β€œEdinburgh 70 is an artistic distillation of Edinburgh at festival time over the last 70 years,” say Dennis and Debbie. ”We’ve built 3D representations of city landmarks and populated them with everything the festival experience has to offer. It’s our attempt to capture the joyful carnival of serendipity and craziness.

β€œThis kind of experience is only possible in virtual reality. We’ve been able to build a surreal collage of geography, history and entertainment – and it’s all going on all around you. You can’t really convey that in any other medium.

β€œThe specially selected ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ archive is essential to the overall experience, because it lets you see first-hand the festivals’ amazing history and get a sense of the scope of all the amazing people and performances that have come to Edinburgh through the years.”

The first Edinburgh International Festival took place in 1947. It was joined from its inception by what subsequently became known as the Fringe and by the Film Festival.

Edinburgh 70: The ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ at the Festival, Virtually runs on Samsung mobile devices with Gear VR headsets.It can be downloaded for free at the Oculus website or via ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Taster. It will also be exhibited at the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Festival Site in Edinburgh during the duration of the festival.

Release date:

Duration:

4 minutes