An avatar in a holographic costume saunters down a VRML stage, mimicking the movements of her flesh-and-blood counterpart in a Japanese club. An electronic musician lays down some beats on a Roland 303, while Japanese, American, and British partiers dance around a light sculpture and watch their images flicker on computer screens, as they will be doing around the world.
It may sound like a scene from a sci-fi flick, but it's all part of the second annual Neoteric Festival, taking place this weekend in Niigata, Japan.
"We wanted to do a multicultural festival of the new generation celebrating new ways of thinking, order, and computer technology," says event founder and designer Richard Sharpe of DeepSpaceTime. "We're eager to pool our talents and have a peek into the future."
The two-day event will include live webcasts of the music and video, as well as a VRML fashion show - to be simultaneously "broadcast" over the Internet while the real fashion show takes place, using pre-programmed avatars wearing digital representations of the clothes.
"This [VRML fashion show] gives a surreal experience to fashion, it allows the users to see the textures of the garments and to view these famous designers in a new format - it does not replicate the live show in order to be realistic," says Aeon, a member of the Web site coordinators Web Design Group. "The idea is to show the public how computers are a part of our new lifestyles and new communication tools."
Conceived by Sharpe in 1994, the Neoteric Festival brings together an international collective of about 50 musicians, artists, clothing designers, and Web designers who use emerging technology for two days of parties and celebrations.
Participants this year include DJ Mix Master Morris, electronic musician Jonah Sharpe, fashion king Jean Paul Gaultier, and Japanese company 10MHZ. The event is sponsored in part by Sega Japan, and uses clubs stuffed with VR game machines. Up to 3,000 people are expected for the free party, and three more festivals are planned around the world in the next few years.
