FLOAT LAND

Factsheet

Developer:
FLOAT LAND
Based in Los Angeles, California

Founding date:
October 2017

Website:
http://www.float.land

Press / Business contact:
pr@float.land

Social:
instagram.com/float.land
twitter.com/float_land
facebook.com/gotofloatland/

Releases:
Screensavers VR 1.0
Screensavers VR 2.0 + Evening Dreams

Address:
2500 W 8th St Suite 207
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Description

We create interactive art across the media landscape, from video, to AR and VR. We specialize in creating evocative, nuanced art experiences, and applying novel processes to new problems, rooted in the life-long practices of founders Kate Parsons and Ben Vance.

History

FLOAT LAND would begin in a trial-by-fire. With only one week before a gallery show at the (now defunct) UFO gallery in Hollywood, late 2015, Parsons was asked if any of her video work could be interactive. As she mulled over the options, she discussed them with Vance, who was working on soon-to-be-released VR experiences Irrational Exuberance: Prologue and The Blu: Whale Encounter.

The two decided to create a room-scale work using Parsons's video as foundation, creating what would become Liminal Realities, an interrogation of full body movement & perception, collapsing the space between viewer and art object. The piece would go on to be exhibited internationally at TIFF, Slamdance, SXSW, Art Toronto, VR Scout's 1st VR Art Show, and online platform Acute Art.

Since then, Parsons and Vance have been creating and exhibiting across media and industries, whether art, music, or entertainment, in AR, VR, and video. FLOAT LAND has had the privilege of showing work on MOCA.tv, Creative Applications, VICE’s The Creators Project, Standard Vision, and at SFMOMA, SXSW, and The Museum of The Moving Image. They often work with galleries such as Sprueth Magers, and VR companies such as Within, Wevr, and Kaleidoscope VR.

Parsons is a video artist, VR artist, and educator living in Los Angeles. She obtained her M.F.A. in Media Arts from UCLA in 2015, and completed her M.A. in Digital Art and Video from CSU-Northridge in 2013. She is also the Director of Femmebit, a video art festival celebrating female artists working in video and new media in Los Angeles. Much of her work centers on the use of the moving image to convey themes of memory and mortality, and is firmly grounded in the history of abstract film and expanded cinema. She is currently faculty at Art Center College of Design and Pepperdine University.

Vance has been working in VR and interactive media since the late 90s. Best known for his award-winning VR experience Irrational Exuberance: Prologue, his work has been exhibited worldwide, including Sundance, SFMOMA, IndieCade, and TIFF. He works at many scales, prototyping and shipping games at EA, VR and AR startups, small independent studios, and on solo efforts. His mission is to expand the practice, expression, and cultural experience of interactive games and media and is particularly interested in exciting wider audiences about art and creativity.

Their collaborators on this project include Daniel Lisi, who helps produce many of FLOAT’s art pieces. Lisi is a producer that specializes in operations for studio structures. He has consulted at the executive level and has worked hands-on as a producer for a number of media and virtual reality studios. He is co-founder of Not A Cult publishing house and on the Board of Directors at arts non-profit Art Share LA.

Projects

• Screensavers Vr
• Screensavers Vr Evening Dreams

Team & Repeating Collaborator

Kate Parsons
Co-founder, Design Director

Ben Vance
Co-founder, Technical Director

Daniel Lisi
Producer

Contact

Inquiries
pr@float.land

Web
http://float.land

Instagram
http://instagram.com/float.land

Twitter
http://twitter.com/float_land

Facebook
http://facebook.com/gotofloatland

Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Lxxz7Nl4uNiGFP74SDiPg/featured

Twitch
https://www.twitch.tv/float_land

Discord
https://discord.gg/zyuQhkg