Hello and welcome friends of the Wider Web!
This week I took a break from exploring Shader Park and sketching with Bloom3D to bring you news from the Wider Web and Agreement Bedrock. It was a tense week on a global scale but many people in our community seemed to find a bit of comfort by sharing new XR experiences and tools.
As always, send your tips, corrections, and offers of support to trevor@TransmutableNews.com or @TransmutableNew on Twitter.
Prep a rue, stir the risotto, and let the wine breath because it’s time for another issue of the Transmutable News Weekly!
Opportunities for support
If you appreciate my work and want it to continue then I hope that you’ll head to my Ko-fi for a single contribution 🎉 or to Patreon for a subscription 🎉🎉.
Jobs
Antonia Foster is hiring a producer and fund raiser for the LGBTQ+ VR Museum’s new location-based exhibition.
News
Wider Poke Balls
Long-time W3C Immersive Web Community Group members 8th Wall announced that the team was acquired by Niantic, the folks who created Pokemon Go. The team will be contributing to the Lightship platform which to date has been focused on native mobile applications. Hopefully the 8th Wall team can help bring a Wider Web attitude to Niantic.
So Many GBs
The next best thing to attending SXSW’s many XR happenings is Kent Bye’s ongoing Twitter thread about the XR-related musical performances, competitions, and meetups. Remote access to many of the experiences is through Vast World XR’s Windows app which is a 62 GB download 🙀 and requires Meta or HTC immersive hardware. Maybe for next year’s SXSW the Wider Web community can show them a better way?
Airborne Stew
Ada Rose Cannon announced a remixable Glitch project with hand tracking, physics, and (of course) the ability to throw things.
Twice Launched Art
Caroline May from Paradowski Creative relaunched their Apart poster gallery with an all new environments that she described as “gorgeous and performative”. They also released a nice write-up of their design and production process for this exploration of separation and togetherness during the most recent pandemic.
Hardware is Hard
Simon Taylor of Zappar sent an update about Zapbox, their low cost, mobile phone based XR rig. I backed their original Kickstarter project back in November of 2020 and have enjoyed their regular updates as they handle the vagarities of new hardware design and production. Since that time they’ve switched to an active controller design, released a demo video, and started exploring WebXR support.
Pay More Artists, Burn Less Carbon
Co2ignArt launched a digital art market to sell “digital signed copies” from artists who will receive 30% of the price. Unusually, Co2ign state that they avoid blockchain technology and also use carbon credits to become carbon negative.
Stay open, friends.