Goodbye 2021, Hello 2022!

It seems hard to believe it, but 2021 is drawing to a close and we’re getting ready to start 2022. January seems simultaneously to have been just last week and a small geological age ago, but here at Cooperative Innovations we’re looking back on the last twelve months, the wonderful projects we’ve been part of, and the amazing things our team has achieved.

We Created a Real-Time 3D Music Video for Tate McRae / Sony

Back in March we were thrilled to share our work on ‘you broke me first’, a real-time music video for Tate McRae, developed in collaboration with Sony and Ralph. We used an Unreal Engine and our internal plugins to create the video, which can be watched in real-time via Sony’s Spatial Reality Display. The display is a stereo 4k image with head-tracking which gives the impression of the content really being on your desk. If you’ve not yet had chance to check out the finished product, it’s available to watch in flagship stores, or you can watch the 2D web version below, along with some behind the scenes footage! 

We Researched How Children Interact With Immersive Media

2021 also saw fascinating further development of our innovative StoryLand project, which explores immersive storytelling experiences for young audiences, and what can happen when we put XR technologies in the hands of children.

We gained funding for this project back in 2020, and we responded to the challenges of the pandemic by adjusting our methods of research. We pivoted from our original intention – of holding short workshops – to giving young people VR headsets to take home and interact with over a longer period of time. We’re eagerly awaiting the publication of the full research paper from our partners at the University of Sheffield, which we’ll share with you in the coming months – watch this space!

 

We're Bringing Spaceteam VR Chaos To 2D and PSVR

We’ve continued to work on and develop Spaceteam VR throughout 2021, marking our first birthday in May this year. We also hosted our Coming of the Martian event with extra UFO attacks, and more recently the Halloween event with our spooky pumpkins and player accessories. Spaceteam: The Second Dimension is coming soon on Steam, and you can wishlist it here. Spaceteam for PSVR will be released in early 2022, so keep your eyes peeled for further details on that front.

Spaceteam Second Dimension Logo

We've Launched Curatours, Our Metaverse for Arts, Culture, Heritage & Museums

The final months of the year were particularly exciting for us as we launched our new platform, Curatours – a friendly portal for arts and culture. We’d been working hard on the development of Curatours throughout 2021, and seeing the platform go live on Oculus AppLab (for VR headsets) and on Steam (for Non-VR/Windows desktops) with our first museum tour was a hugely fulfilling moment. And what a museum! The Museum of Plastic 2121 is a speculative museum of the future, built 100 years from now in an imagined future where things have worked out well for both the planet and humanity.

We were supported by the British Council’s Creative Commissions programme, which explores climate change through art, science and digital technology as part of The Climate Connection global initiative. The museum is made up of four wings – focussing on the environment, science, history and industry – and was developed in collaboration with activists Greenpop and arts organisation Baz-Art, alongside Possible, the Circular Plastics Collaboratory at Hull University and the Museum of Design in Plastics, Arts University Bournemouth. If you haven’t yet had the chance to tour all four wings of the museum, and to experience the amazing narration by Dr Alice Bell, get downloading now and join your friends and family for a museum experience like no other. To keep up to date with all things Curatours, why not join our mailing list here.

We've Got Even More Planned More For Next Year

Since we first founded Cooperative Innovations we’ve had a strong focus on producing virtual worlds and the technologies that drive them. This is more the case than ever when we look at what we’ve produced with Spaceteam and Curatours. This last year has seen a strong re-emergence of the idea of the ‘Metaverse’, and while definitions of that term might be a little controversial we’re excited to be at the bleeding edge of design and development in this area. Watch out for further announcements from us in this space as we move into 2022.

After that stellar roster for 2021, we’ve got plenty more exciting projects in the pipeline, many of which will be coming soon in 2022 – so watch this space! Curatours will be coming soon to iOS devices, and we’ll be adding new museum tours and experiences to the platform in the next few months – look out for a virtual tour of the Anne Frank House, one of our absolute highlights – and we’ve also got some very exciting irons in the Cooperative Innovations fire, and we’ll be sharing details soon.

For now, from the entire Cooperative Innovations team, we wish you a happy and healthy festive period, and look forward to catching up with you again in 2022.