#Congratulations! Director Hsin-Chien Huang's latest VR works, Samsara and The Starry Sand Beach, were nominated for the 78th Venice International Film Festival!

The 78th Venice International Film Festival (VIFF) announced the shortlisted nominees for the category of VR Film. Taiwanese new media artist, Distinguished Professor of NTNU, Hsin-Chien Huang, winner of the BEST VR Experience in 2017 with his work La Camera Insabbiata, will again contest for the Leone d’oro this year with two of his latest, sci-fi inspired works, Samsara and The Starry Sand Beach. While the Taiwanese athletes are striving for the Gold Medals at the Tokyo Olympics as we speak, director Hsin-Chien Huang dazzles the jury of VIFF with his visually-stunning and thought-provoking works — bringing cutting-edge Taiwanese VR films onto the international stage and letting world-wide audience sees Taiwan!

Before being selected for the 78th Venice International Film Festival, Samsara episode 1. has already grabbed the Jury Award at SXSW and Best VR Story at the Cannes XR Competition. This futuristic VR experience teleports the audience onto a journey that spans millions of years. Samsara is a Sanskrit word meaning “ the world ”. In Buddhism, it means what we perceive as the world is actually an endless cycle of karma (cause and effect), a cycle of life, death and rebirth in the six realms of existence. In this fascinating VR work, the audience is reincarnated into the bodies of different persons and creatures, experiencing the universe in their new bodies and in search for the ultimate spiritual transcendence.

Samsara depicts an apocalyptical story in the near future where human greed has depleted the earth’s resource. Catastrophic wars to fight for resource resulted in global destruction. Finally, the remaining humans had to leave the Earth and go on a search in space for a new place to live.

Nevertheless, their desperate, long quest for a new homeland… could it be just a loop in space and time? The cycle of greedy domination and total destruction that then necessitates the search for a new home…. may have hopelessly repeated itself over and over again? The constant evolutionary process and so-called progress, without transformation in consciousness and spiritual advancement, is nothing more than a Möbius strip that leads nowhere, perhaps…?

Samsara is an experiment based on the theory of Embodied Cognition. Through interactivity and VR, the audience gets to live inside the bodies of different persons and creatures, experiencing their feelings from within. Perhaps It is when we can perceive the world in different bodies that we may truly appreciate the thoughts of others and empathize with them. An experience that will also help us better comprehend our own existence and learn to live in harmony with all.

Samsara explores a complex of deeply interconnected issues of ecology, technology, natural resource and war, etc. It's a story about a journey humans are forced to take on, after having destroyed the earth with nuclear disasters. The survivors seek a new planet, in the boundless, interstellar space, to carry on their lives. Gradually they evolve into a new life form artificially. Yet, many years passed and they’ve come to realize that they would never make it to the new planet they’ve been dreaming of. In fact, they have simply been returning to the Earth, in different life forms, time after time.

Director Huang applies the concepts of embodied cognition, offering a unique way to contemplate about the nature of life. As the audience are transported into different bodies each time, they gain a brand new perspective to experience the world views presented in Samsara.

Samsara was produced under the guidance of Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) and Kaohsiung Film Archive VR(VR FILM LAB), it’s a sate-of-the-art VR production made 100% in Taiwan. In the VR experience, viewers are transformed into various kinds of animals to interact with the scenes, including species unique and indigenous to Taiwan, such as Taiwan Blue Magpie and Formosan Black Bear.

Samsara Ep.1 features the latest somatosensory technology, including 4D views shooting techniques by the Industrial Technology Research Institute and TAICCA. A digital shooting system comprised of a high-sensitivity 4 million-pixel, full-color CCD sensor and 48 4DV-EX-Z cameras made it possible for Samsara Ep.1 to be taken from an omnidirectional view and shot without any blind spots, creating the ultimate immersive experience.

THE STARRY SAND BEACH, directed by Hsin-Chien Huang and produced in cooperation with Lucid Reality (France) and Oready 瑞意創科 Oready Innovation Lab (Taiwan), is a scientific fairy tale about a unique ecological wonder in Taiwan and Japan, the shiny starry sand beaches. Foraminifera, from the Latin word “foramen” meaning hole, is a single-celled organism that builds a shell with multiple chambers which intercommunicate with one another through holes. On the Qimei Island, Taiwan and the Yaeyama Islands, Japan, beaches have been formed by a specific species of foraminifera with star-shaped shells made of calcium carbonate. Like the real stars in the legends, grains of the starry sand have also been preserving the earth’s memories for millions of years.

THE STARRY SAND BEACH is a real-time 3D interactive VR adventure into the natural and mythological landscape of the starry sand beaches on Qimei Island in Penghu Archipelago, Xing Sha Wan in Kenting National Park and Taketomi Island in the far south of Japan. The experience is full of aesthetically-amazing elements and enriched with cultural and religious significance like Shintoism in Japan. A beautiful, haunting legend tells the story of the starry sand…

The final winners will be presented at the award ceremony held on Sep11. With great anticipation and hopes, Hsin-Chien Huang is expected to bring home again the grand prize for Taiwan!

https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/selection-complete-works-venice-vr-expanded-0

#黃心健 #HsinChienHuang
#samsara #chalkroom
#LaCameraInsabbiata
#VeniceInternationalFilmFestival #VIFF
#Thestarrysandbeach
#LucidReality
#OreadyInnovationLab

歡迎重溫🤗🤗07/11/2021
Movie Songs #3
First 1/2 hr: Pop n craze
01/ 101 Strings Orchestra - Rocky (Gotta fly now)
02/ Bee Gees - Stayin’ alive
03/ Olivia Newton-John - Hopelessly devoted to you
04/ David Gates - Goodbye girl
05/ Francis Lai - A man and a woman
06/ Pierre Bachelet - Emmanuel
07/ Hannes Tesar - Be a rover
Second 1/2 hr: Musicals n Silver screen
01/ My Fair Lady Overture
02/ Bill Lee & Charmian Carr - Edelweiss
03/ Ray Conniff - Somewhere my love
04/ Andy Williams - Anniversary song
05/ City of Prague Philharmonic - Godfather
06/ Andrea Bocelli - Maria
07/ Barbra Streisand - Tomorrow
08/ Jennifer Nettles - Almost like being in love
09/ Toots Thielemans - Stranger in paradise
Third 1/2 hr: By Request
01/ Timi Yuro - Interlude
02/ City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra - My heart will go on
03/ Robbie Benson -
Blue balloon
04/ Maureen McGovern - The morning after
05/ Henry Mancini - Two for the road
06/ Elvis Presley - Blue Hawaii
07/ Dion - In the still of the night
Last 1/2 hr: Non movies’ movie songs
01/ Bertie Higgins - Key Largo
02/ Al Stewart - Year of the cat
03/ Pink Martini - Splendor in the grass
04/ Hunter Hayes - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
05/ Rod Stewart - Batman Superman Spiderman
06/ Jon Bon Jovi & Ray Davis - Celluloid heroes

https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio2/programme/friendsunlimited

20 COLLOCATIONS GHI ĐIỂM CHỦ ĐỀ DU LỊCH & MẠO HIỂM

A sense of adventure: Cảm giác phiêu lưu mạo hiểm
Arduous journey: Chuyến đi mệt mỏi, khó khăn
A low-cost airline: Hàng không giá rẻ
An intrepid explorer: Một nhà thám hiểm dũng cảm, không sợ nguy hiểm
Unexplored wilderness: Nơi hoang dã, chưa được khám phá
To break the journey: Bỏ ngang giữa chừng.
To have a stopover: Nghỉ ngắn giữa cuộc hành trình dài, thường là đi bằng máy bay
To put somebody on standby: Bắt ai đó phải chờ đến khi có chỗ ngồi
To go trekking: Đi bộ, leo núi
To have a thirst for adventure: Có niềm khao khát được đi thám hiểm
To get itchy feet: Ngứa ngáy chân tay (nghĩa bóng)
To get hopelessly lost: Bị lạc
To send out a search party: Gửi một đội tìm kiếm
Sunny-spells: Những ngày nắng đẹp (đối lập với những ngày mưa liên tục – liên quan đến thời tiết ở Anh) -> mang ý nghĩa thời tiết tốt.
To boost the spirit: Làm ai đó cảm thấy phấn chấn, yêu đời, vui vẻ
To face the severe weather conditions: Đối mặt với tình hình thời tiết khắc nghiệt
Spirit + to be + high: Tinh thần phấn chấn, yêu đời
Sheer epic grandeur: Cảnh tượng hùng vĩ, kỳ vĩ
To have a special charm: Vẻ đẹp đặc biệt
To keep one’s eyes peeled: Mở to mắt (informal) – nghĩa bóng là cố gắng tìm kiếm
(Budget) to stretch to something: Cannot afford something = không đủ tiền
To lull somebody to sleep: Ru ai đó vào giấc ngủ
Leg of the journey: Phần của chuyến đi

Cả nhà cùng lưu về học nhé!

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Tháng 4+5 này, IELTS Fighter đại khai trương từ Bắc vô Nam luôn cả nhà ạ. Cùng hóng chờ cơ sở mới tại
Hà Nội:
- 107 Xuân La - Số nhà D21, P. Xuân Tảo, Q. Bắc Từ Liêm (Gần Hồ Tây)
- 214 Trường Chinh, Ngã Tư Sở, Q. Đống Đa
Hồ Chí Minh:
- 49F Phan Đăng Lưu, Phường 3, Quận Bình Thạnh
- 278 Lũy Bán Bích, P. Hòa Thạnh, Q. Tân Phú
Đồng Nai
- R76, Võ Thị Sáu, phường Thống Nhất, thành phố Biên Hòa,
Nghệ An:
- 74 Đường Hermann – P Hưng Phúc – TP Vinh
Cả nhà đón chờ cùng chúng mình nhé!

My Socials:
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Hopelessly Devoted Cover #Shorts
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Hopelessly Devoted Duet with Afgan #Shorts My Socials:
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