SIGGRAPH 2025 Experience Hall Ignites the Future of Interaction and Storytelling

The Experience Hall Returns to SIGGRAPH 2025 With Five Interactive Programs Featuring Boundary-Breaking Art, Technology, and the Debut of Spatial Storytelling.

VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The SIGGRAPH Experience Hall has always been more than a show floor; it's a portal. At SIGGRAPH 2025, that portal opens again, inviting attendees to step inside the future of creation, connection, and immersive exploration. From Monday, 11 August through Thursday, 14 August at the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Experience Hall will showcase five distinct programs, Art Gallery, Emerging Technologies, Immersive Pavilion, Labs, and the newly launched Spatial Storytelling, each delivering hands-on discovery with the boundary-pushing tools and techniques shaping tomorrow.

In this interactive environment, lines blur between audience and artist, prototype and performance, machine and mind. "It's the only place where you might fly with drones in a dance performance, train a swarm of fluid-mimicking robots, talk to a puppet's digital twin, or code a paper arcade controller, all in the span of an afternoon," said Nathan Matsuda, Emerging Technologies Chair. "The Experience Hall is where our most radical ideas become real — often for the very first time."

Spatial Storytelling: A New Chapter

Perhaps the most significant transformation this year is the debut of the Spatial Storytelling program, a bold evolution of the former VR Theater. The new format is a creator-centric showcase that invites audiences to witness how creators build spatial experiences in real time. Through live demonstrations and behind-the-scenes walkthroughs, contributors reveal how they build spatial technologies in real-time, motion capture, extended reality (XR), and mixed reality (MR) to push the boundaries of storytelling, audience engagement, and creative expression.

"Spatial Storytelling is built for creators. It's about real-time, real-world engagement — with story, space, and audience. It's a spectacle and a masterclass," Spatial Storytelling Chair Marco Cermusoni explained. "You see the magic, and then learn how it's done."

Submissions ranged from speculative artificial intelligence (AI) that spatializes audiobooks to innovative dance and holographic storytelling, emphasizing what Cermusoni calls "the magic of human imperfection" in an increasingly generative world. "In a time when computer graphics can create everything, it's the human touch, the imperfection of life, that resonates most," he said.

This year's top selections reflect the program's emphasis on experimentation and emotional resonance. "Puppet In The Room - Live Performed Digital Characters Using Physical Puppet Twins" introduces puppix, a system that bridges physical puppetry and digital animation in live performance. "The Scylla System: Dancer-Drone Interactivity as Performance" choreographs an improvisational dialogue between a dancer and 10 flying drones. "Breaking Ground in Mixed-Reality Storytelling: 'What If...? An Immersive Story'", developed by ILM for Apple Vision Pro, offers a cinematic deep dive into mixed-reality storytelling. "BEASTS: Dual Perspectives on Virtual Puppetry through Theatrical Expression and XR Research" weaves Korean folklore with live XR puppetry to explore embodiment and identity. And "Psychonauts in Water: Spatial Storytelling and the Double Immersion of Aquatic Virtual Reality" streams an underwater virtual reality (VR) experience from France, immersing viewers in a surreal aquatic journey through synchronized feeds and narration. Together, these works and more transform narrative into an event that unfolds in space, in real time, and in connection with the audience.

The Art of the Future, Now

The Art Gallery continues its tradition of presenting digital art that provokes, questions, and inspires, serving as both a mirror to society and a lens into possible futures. This year's collection brings together works that span continents, generations, and ecosystems, inviting audiences to explore themes of memory, identity, environmental change, and interspecies connection. From AI-driven storytelling to real-time telepresence and speculative biology, each piece offers a deeply reflective, often immersive experience that bridges the technological with the poetic.

"What makes this year particularly exciting is our intentional bridging of generations," explained Francesca Franco, Art Gallery Chair. "We're revisiting the lessons of pioneering digital artists, some of whom are exhibiting both historical and new works, while also spotlighting the voices of emerging creators. It's a dynamic, intergenerational dialogue that fosters a thought-provoking conversation between past, present, and future."

Highlights include showcases by two ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award winners, "Cubic Limit / Liquid Symmetry" by Manfred Mohr and "Quantum Tango" by Ernest Edmonds, which links live audiences in Vancouver, London, and Padua through generative networked art. "How to Find the Soul of a Sailor", by Kasia Molga, draws from her late father's nautical journals to create a speculative, AI-driven meditation on marine life and digital afterlife. In "AI in the Sky", Laura Cinti uses drones and artificial intelligence to search for a female specimen of an extinct plant — merging environmental inquiry with technological imagination. "We Are Entanglement" immerses viewers in a forest floor of fungal networks, using generative AI and simulation to explore interspecies communication. Through these works, the Art Gallery encourages active participation, reflection, and a deeper emotional connection to the natural and technological worlds that shape us.

Emerging Technologies: Tangible Innovation, Real-World Impact

The Emerging Technologies program bridges the conceptual and the tactile, bringing advanced research out of the abstract and into the hands of attendees. "The visceral side of technical innovation comes to life here," noted Matsuda. "Where math-heavy models and theories are transformed into something you can see, touch, and explore."

From sensing systems and haptics to robotics, fabrication, and display technologies, this year's selections spotlight breakthroughs that model the physical world and invite meaningful interaction with it. Among the top featured projects is "FluidicSwarm: Embodiment of Swarm Robots Using Fluid Behavior Imitation", a robot control system that mimics fluid dynamics through user gestures, allowing swarms to reshape and adapt in real time. "Handoid: Inter-morphologic Robotic Hand Avatar for Multi Presence" introduces a shape-shifting robotic hand that acts both as part of a humanoid and as a free-moving avatar. "Wide Field-of-View Mixed Reality" showcases groundbreaking headsets offering ultra-wide views with sleek, compact designs. "Parasitic Finger: Coexistence with Artificial Organism" playfully probes the boundaries of human augmentation with tentacle-like finger extensions that react and move independently. And in "DreamPrinting: Volumetric Printing Primitives for High-Fidelity 3D Printing", a generative 3D printing pipeline converts radiance-based models into high-fidelity, full-color volumetric sculptures, preserving ephemeral moments like clouds and steam inside resin blocks.

These projects embody the program's goal of making emerging technology not only accessible, but tangible. "It's like a science fair for the future," Matsuda observed. "A place where artists, engineers, and researchers converge to bring their ideas into the real world."

Immersive Pavilion: New Realities, Shared Perspectives

This year's Immersive Pavilion invites attendees to do more than observe. They're invited to step inside new worlds, new bodies, and new ways of seeing. From giant virtual pets to cultural heritage rendered in generative AI, the Immersive Pavilion spans a sweeping spectrum of innovation where attendees can not only explore memory, emotion, empathy, and play, but also engage with technically advanced applications such as AI-guided task support and historical mission simulations. This convergence of immersive storytelling, real-world problem-solving, and cutting-edge interactivity offers a powerful look at how augmented reality (AR), VR, and AI are reshaping both human experience and professional practice.

"At its core, immersive technologies are about stepping into someone else's world — and in many of these pieces, that's exactly what you do," said Immersive Pavilion Chair Saskia Groenewegen. "You might see through the eyes of a newborn, a stressed parent, or a historical figure. These works aren't just simulations, they're emotional experiences."

Among this year's highlights is "Monsteroom: Embodied Giant Pets at Home in Substitutional Reality with Movable Furniture and Appliances", a playful but technically sophisticated experience where attendees interact with colossal digital pets in a substitutional reality setup with real furniture and appliances. "Primordial Reality: Relive the Baby's Mind and Body" uses a VR membrane bodysuit to recreate the sensory world of infancy, while "Blossoms Across Time: AI-Assisted Cultural Dialogue Through Diverse Artistic Expressions in VR Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience" transforms a traditional Chinese flower arrangement into a dynamic, cross-cultural art encounter through real-time AI painting. In "Seed of Light: Evoking Emotional Connection Between Physical and Virtual Game Players Through Real-Time, Mass-Scale Interaction", online players and in-person visitors at a museum connect through an emotionally rich, interactive narrative spanning digital and physical realms. Finally, "Palace Immersive Goong" brings Korean history to life, recreating the unrealized royal banquet of the Joseon Dynasty in a visually stunning VR journey.

Whether reimagining culture, sparking empathy, or showcasing advanced AI and simulation, the Immersive Pavilion blurs the lines between reality, identity, and storytelling.

Labs: Learning, Rewired

The Labs program offers a rare opportunity to move beyond passive learning and engage directly with the tools, techniques, and technologies shaping the future of digital creation. Designed as a hands-on learning environment, Labs empowers attendees of all skill levels, from students to seasoned professionals, to explore everything from open-source development to real-time rendering through interactive workshops and installations. "This is SIGGRAPH's classroom," stated Labs Chair Thierry Frey. "We're not just talking about innovation, we're teaching it."

This year, Labs expands across two venues, offering 28 sessions that emphasize experimentation, education, and access. Attendees can build shaders, experiment with physical AI, or even write quantum code on their own laptops. For those intrigued by the tools behind award-winning projects, Labs offers in-depth sessions on Blender, the open-source software used to animate the Oscar-winning short film "Flow".

Highlights from the 2025 program showcase its breadth and spirit of playful ingenuity. The "Paper Animatronics Workshop 2025" invites participants to animate stories through sound and motion using simple papercraft, while the "Scrapyard Challenge: Classic Arcade Game Controller Redesign Workshop" channels nostalgia and creativity by guiding attendees in building custom game controllers from found objects. For developers, "Optimizing Real-Time Gaussian Splat Rendering for Mobile and Standalone VR" delivers practical training in next-gen rendering techniques for mobile VR, and "Import bpy: Modern Add-on Development With Blender" unlocks Blender's Python API for those interested in building sophisticated add-ons. These sessions, alongside others, reflect Labs' core mission: to foster technical mastery and creative exploration through open, hands-on engagement.

Together, these five programs offer more than awe — they offer insight. As SIGGRAPH 2025 continues its legacy of showcasing what's next, the Experience Hall reminds us that the future isn't something to wait for; it's something to step into. "Everything here invites you to touch, try, and learn," Matsuda said. "The Experience Hall is SIGGRAPH's core, tying together the many communities that come here to share their ideas."

Find more information about SIGGRAPH 2025, including registration options, at s2025.siggraph.org.

About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2025
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field's challenges.  SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world's leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2025, the 52nd annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 10–14 August at the Vancouver Convention Centre, along with a Virtual Access option.

SOURCE SIGGRAPH 2025