MONTREAL.- Yesterday the vernissage of Embodied Narrative: Sensory Stories of the Digital Age took place at the Phi Centre. The exhibition, opening its doors today, features 13 works by worldwide pioneers of emerging technologies. Until August 21, visitors will have the opportunity to engage with virtual reality experiences, interactive films, participatory installations, touch-responsive interfaces, and more.

Charles Melcher, founder and director of Future of StoryTelling (FoST), explains to us the curatorial thinking behind the exhibition: "People aren’t content to just read about characters, they want to make up their own stories. There are all these other examples in place now that people want to be able to be ‘in’ the story. That’s the basis for this curatorial statement and this selection: to explore and celebrate this next generation of immersive storytelling."

The exhibition’s diverse program includes: Oscar Raby’s The Turning Forest (BBC Research and Development/ VRTOV), a virtual reality fairy tale in a land that never was and a time that could never be, presented for the first time in Canada. Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness (produced by Ex Nihilo, ARTE France, and AudioGaming, in co-production with Archer’s Mark) is a VR journey into a world beyond sight that won the 2016 Storyscapes Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Presented for the first time in Montreal, Nomads: Sea Gypsies, by Felix & Paul Studios, is an encounter with the Sama-Bajau people who have lived on the sea along the coasts of Borneo for centuries.

Seances, created by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, and the National Film Board of Canada, presents a new way of experiencing film narrative, framed through the lens of loss, as films are dynamically assembled in never-to-be-repeated configurations. The installation Famous Deaths (by Sense of Smell) recreates through smell and sound the final moments of Whitney Houston and John F. Kennedy. Both of the works are presented for the first time in Canada.