Ardak Mukanova from Kazakhstan created a VR space based on the theme of Tengri, an ancient nomadic religion based on folk shamanism in Mongolia. As an artist who specializes in creating transmedia spaces, Ardak Mukanova crafted a mysterious world order in virtual space. The ancient gods depicted in this work are deviant creatures, depicting a fantasy of this century. In addition, the story of Tengri, a monotheistic religion, creates an extremely deep sense of immersion through the VR experience with a head-mounted display, reminiscent of a ritual space like a sublime initiation.

Although there was no description of the borderline between the everyday and the extraordinary, which is my own point of view, the work was outstanding in its presentation of the world view with its unique design and sense of color. I look forward to the further blossoming of the talent in the future.

A beautifully warped, alien world - with a fitting soundtrack.

I chose Neo Tengri because I found it to be a very complete and creative work in all aspects. First of all, I could sense a core of creativity with a very solid religious background. It also made me feel like I wanted to experience a world beyond our everyday perceptions in a VR work. The creativity and imagination in this piece breaks our everyday perception of the real world, as if we were taken into space. The creatures I encountered in the work were also very mature and visually beautiful. With the current maturity of the technology, there are still some limitations in creating VR productions, such as model size, texture size, data volume, need to consider more computer compatibility, and how to optimize it to be playable. I think this is a well-deserved gold prize because I felt that the production of the work within this framework and the cultural core within the work is also very thick.

A magical space that asked us to find our way through the world. Today we dont always require every answer, with sign posts for each move; this space asked us to intertwine with the imagination of the designer. The work made me long for the development of more sensory elements about VR that could include sensors on our 'headsets'. As I walked across the land I swallowed small moons and wanted to feel the 'gulp', the tase and smell to further involve me. Great design not only gives us something today but ask us all where do we go next and NEO TENGRI does that.

The way the world was created, the direction, the interactivity, the concept, it all felt highly accurate as an experience level.
It made me feel like I wanted to stay long in this experience.

Neo Tengri stands out due to its high quality of the concept, the visual implementation, and the interaction design. It offers an unusual and a very immersive fantasy-like world that engages the users intuitively. The users meet and interact with new organisms that are very well animated. The work addresses the unknown both conceptually and visually. The users deal with yet unfamiliar entities in a safe and poetic environment and acquaint themselves with the uncharted world. Getting to know the unfamiliar in the virtual realm encourages the familiarization with new entities in the physical world and thereby fosters mutual knowledge and understanding among humans. Neo Tengri highly contributes to that.

I liked the way it imagined a new landscape, strange species, and it was one of the only works that played well with the format of VR, changing how you look and move up, down, forward, backwards and so forth. It also had a strong visual identity and awareness of its own form.

First, the story's setting of the energy revolution in the near future is excellent. The idea that luminescent paint for building facades can absorb sunlight and function as a light source at night is brilliant. It is not a Blade Runner-style dystopia, but a vivid luminescent light source that illuminates the orderly suburban landscape and 20th century-designed streetlights that fly in the air. Such vivid projections of dead-tech future create a POP avant-garde image of the near future that hasn't really been done in science fiction. It is not a decadent future, and yet it is the year 2045, when solar panels have become useless. The artist explains this by using Genpei Akasegawa's term "Thomason". What awesome VR!

A place in the virtual that lead us back to make changes in our real world is a powerful statement in design. Whilst it is evident the virtual world will wrap about us more and more... we feel in this 'city' a potential for our real world that would offer a beauty and a respect to our planet. The cinematic sound, use of light changing and the hovering on the edge of the real gave us a relatable magic that really gave me an emotional sense of change. Can the role of VR change our cities, discarding what is 'useless' and replacing that with an effervescent colouration that equally takes us into a new art of the real. The Phosphorescent City is a place I would choose to live in.

Personally, this is the direction I would most like to experience in VR. Although it is a simple entry for this year's competition, I selected it because I thought it could create a unique experience and sensation if a complex structure, gimmick, and storyline could be incorporated based on this format.

This VR work made great use of changing scale.

In order to create an emotional point for people, things that they have already seen in the real world should be extended virtually.
That's what makes it easy for people to move, and that's what I felt in this work.

This work starts from the usual daily activities, taking the viewers onto an expedition of the gaps between architectures and objects, and transforms the perspective of the known reality into a brand new one. Different from most other VR works constructed upon the basis of a known universe, the artist gives the viewers a stressful feel by compressing the environments, and from the confines he/she again opens up a new level of imagination, liberating the body and soul of the viewers. This does not only subvert the known reality, but also broaden the potential of the VR technology.

This work is very interactive, so we can switch into the real world and AR world at any time, it is a very mature work, and I think if it hits the app store, there will be quite a lot of people willing to participate to use this tool to do some interesting expression.

This work has employed the AR technology to capture the spatial elements of the site. The movements of the viewers become the strokes, helping to create an array of graphics that correspond to the real world. The artist has also made the best of the bodies, interactivities, and on-siteness to smash our imagination of the application of the AR technology, hence giving it a new face. How the technology speaks to the contents of an artwork and how it calls for the participation of the viewers have both been effectively put into practice in this piece.

World’s Palette uses the potential of virtual worlds and interaction design at its best. While employing their own smart phones, users intuitively draw a visual abstraction from reality in the virtual space and create aesthetically new pictures on their own phone display. The users interact with the virtual world by using their own body movements in the physical realm in real time. A highlight of the work is the auditive engagement, as users not only create new visuals, but also compose a musical piece, that contributes highly to the immersive feeling of the user’s engagement. World’s Palette entangles perfectly the physical and the virtual world with each other by including the user’s body movements as an intuitive interaction tool. World’s Palette is playful, engaging, and highly captivating.

I liked this work because it explores new ways of using XR spatially, tracking movement and form together across an imaginative space. It has alot of potential because few projects uses the format to such a creative extend.