As the Creativity Conference kicks off its first day of speakers, many esteemed experts have begun sharing their perspectives on creativity and how it applies to their respective fields.
With the need to innovate industries, many speakers at the online event will showcase groundbreaking approaches to creativity in XR content creation, building information modelling (BIM), entertainment, filmmaking, and other disciplines.
XR Today has the honour of interviewing Samantha Tauber, Founder and Chief Executive, VNCCII, to discuss her views on the Creativity Conference and the future of XR ingenuity.
Tauber is an inventive Web3 artist, musician, entertainer, and futurist speaker, who envisions the future of radical technological concepts through her VNCCII project.
She is also a regular contributor to the monthly XR Today Big News Show series with some of the world’s leading futurists and XR experts.
XR Today: What are your thoughts on the Creativity Conference? How has it been?
Samantha Tauber: The Creativity Conference is a truly unique experience that encapsulates the quintessential essence of human creativity.
Maxim Jago, Conference Founder and Director, has an intrinsic talent for bringing out the highest potential in people. He would be what I would describe as a ‘creative shaman’ – uplifting creatives around the world to explore their purpose, their ‘why,’ and to fulfil their intrinsic potential.
I’m looking forward to taking part as a speaker at the upcoming online conference. Speaking earlier this year at the Microsoft Garage for the New York edition of The Creativity Conference was a pleasure.
My topic was ‘Attuning to Our Creative Divinity,’ and the feedback was phenomenal. The outcome was that the attendees felt motivated, inspired, and compelled to create.
If I could sum up the essence of this conference from my perspective, it is about celebrating the ‘inner child’ that creates freely and is an active, intentional participant in one’s life.
XR Today: Regarding XR, what was the focus of your presentation to audiences at the event?
Samantha Tauber: When I present as a global keynote speaker, I discuss topics such as next-generational multimedia storytelling and how the future of content is spatial.
I also explore the future of entertainment through the concept of the Metaverse, which is a set of universal standards for interoperability between experiences, platforms, and services.
I’m interested in unlocking how we can elevate live show experiences, particularly for music artists, to the next immersive level. I’m so excited about the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas, from the Sphere Entertainment Co, which is a shining example of the future of live show entertainment.
I also use technologies such as Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, motion capture (mocap), and Disguise Designer to produce my VNCCII XR stage shows. It’s my passion to share knowledge on how we can future-proof our brands and businesses for this next wave of technological innovation.
In my presentations, I philosophically dive deeply into whether artificial intelligence — generative, interactive, and sentient AI — will surpass our primal desire and need for human-made creativity.
I believe that humans have the benefit of authenticity and intuition over machines. This line of questioning is interconnected with the mission of the VNCCII project, as my avatar is a fictional benign Super Sentient AI superheroine from the intergalactic future, intending to uplift humanity’s consciousness.
When I present, I explore pragmatic and energising solutions for next-generational immersive media. Above all, I love sharing my passion and ‘why’ behind the ethos of the VNCCII multimedia project in my presentations as a source of inspiration.
The outcome of sharing my passion, wisdom, and knowledge is that others feel empowered to embrace their limitless potential, with the ultimate realisation that the imagination has the positive power to reshape our reality and future.
XR Today: Why is creativity integral to a successful entrepreneurial venture? How does this apply to most industry verticals inside and outside traditionally creative sectors?
Samantha Tauber: I believe creativity is in the innate seed we are all gifted with when we are born. It allows neuroplasticity and the mind to expand, imagine, and create new possibilities and potential outcomes.
Applying divergent thinking with targeted convergent strategies is helpful when being an entrepreneur, as it allows you to simultaneously innovate outside of the ‘box,’ but also conjure up solutions pragmatically within the constraints of space and time.
As Music Producer Rick Rubin stated, “It’s a way of looking at the world.” Creativity is a way of being and is an intentional choice and decision. We all have platonic versions of ourselves, which include the pure dimension of ideas that houses our quintessential essence. It is about allowing the universe to positively conspire on our behalf.
Allowing oneself to align and flow with one’s true purpose is key, as that is when you are free to be your creative, platonic self. Like a quantum computer, our brain imagines multiple outcomes and simulates the most ‘probable’ version.
It is about listening to the brain’s antenna to inherit the universal ideas that arrive like waves and to enact them into tangible products, services, and content. It is such an exciting time to be an entrepreneur as we have the choice to create a positive future that we all would like to live in.
XR Today: What is VNCCII, your digital alter ego, up to these days?
VNCCII is a multi-dimensional project that is positioned to develop as a next-gen ‘multiplayer’ franchise. I believe the future of franchises will dissolve the barrier between the audience and the creator. There will be a reciprocal value flow between the ‘source’ creator and the community of co-creators.
I also forecast a future where there is symbiotic creativity between human input and AI output, namely generative and interactive AI.
Besides developing my live immersive VNCCII XR stage shows with new unreleased music, I’m also actively building the universe and franchise surrounding VNCCII, which will transform into a gamified, immersive, and interactive experience.
The activation will involve a multimodal strategy of a novel release, live show XR performances, spatial computing content, and Metaverse world-building.
XR Today: As an end user of Unreal Engine, have any changes to it provided you with more empowerment and ease of use within your enterprise?
Samantha Tauber: I am a huge fan of Unreal Engine and how it has democratised content creation for broadcasting, gaming, and spatial computing content. The release of Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is revolutionising the vision for Creator Economy 2.0.
Players can now use Fortnite Creative to add custom content to the game and create brand activations within Fortnite. What is special about UEFN is the ‘live edit’ feature, which allows anyone from your team to join your UEFN session on the platform that runs on Fortnite.
UEFN can access all Fortnite Creative devices, such as modular gameplay systems. Besides quickly changing your environment via landscape editing, you can then quickly play your game to check your results. This workflow is super friendly to creators and will revolutionize how content is created within the game engine.
Additionally, Unreal Engine’s latest update, v5.3, is a massive level-up for creators. Nanite, a feature in Unreal Engine, is now performing faster for masked materials, such as foliage. The update also introduces the ‘Explicit Tangents’ option, where Nanite represents a more versatile range of surfaces.
Lumen has also expanded its capabilities to support multiple reflection bounces and faster performance for consoles with hardware ray tracing.
These updates to the gaming engine are empowering to the end user because it doesn’t matter where you are in the world — having access to these high-quality tools is game-changing for both creation and gamification.
XR Today: As the next generation of content creators and startups fuel the rise of the Metaverse, what message do you have for them? How can they work with people like you and others at the Creativity Conference to launch their creative journey?
Samantha Tauber: I would say to the next generation of creatives and startups to be bold, brave, and to embrace the suite of next-gen tools available to you. I believe the future of brands and creativity involves a gamified, reciprocal value flow in a more open, iterative, and modular ecosystem.
Consumers are no longer passive creators, but active co-creators with an intrinsic sense of value and ownership. Players can design, remix, and cater to their own customised experiences. The acceleration of 3D and the Cambrian explosion of artificial intelligence are revolutionising and disrupting all industry verticals.
My advice is that ‘Love’ is a better guide than ‘Fear.’ It’s myopic and limiting to believe that human creativity will phase out in the wake of the AI explosion. Rather, perceiving these tools as a symbiotic partner is a healthier, more pragmatic path forward, where one is not just an ‘AI user’ but an ‘AI value creator.’
A memorable scene in the Disney movie Tomorrowland discusses the old Shaman’s tale, alluding to two wolves residing within everyone. One wolf represents ‘Love,’ and the other represents ‘Fear.’
It is about what future timeline you opt for or subscribe to. We have the free will to decide which wolf we choose to feed. Once again, it is such a pleasure and an honour to become a speaker at The Creativity Conference. I believe the event is an opportune place to network with high-calibre creatives around the world.
For more information, kindly visit https://www.vnccii.com/ and https://www.creativityconference.is/.
