BATMAN X SPYSCAPE – THE FUTURE OF IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY IN FASHION

Spyscape Museum has launched a new immersive experience with Warner Brother’s Entertainment – Batman x Spyscape. This use of technology and space can help to teach the fashion world a few lessons in using technology. And the joy of creating exciting and new immersive experiences.

Credit: WWD

The Batman x Spyscape immersive experience utilises a mixed reality approach by combining a physical exhibition, with an app, that works together to put you in the narrative. This immersive experience is controlled by a phone app. It can be used within the Spyscape Museum, or wherever you are in the world.

The Experience

Batman X Spyscape Experience - 10
Credit: Batman x Spyscape Experience New York City

In a group or by yourself, you are put into the middle of a Gotham City Mystery. The objective is to save the day, alongside Batman and other heroes from the DC World. At the Spyscape Museum, the adventure features a combination of immersive physical experiences of rich media and interactivity within the app. This mystery is able to continue long after you leave the museum, turning the streets of your city into Gotham City. This mixed-media approach allows for the participant to gather clues within the physical exhibition. Then, users can keep in contact with the Batman characters through the app to solve the mysteries.

Applying New Technology to Fashion Environments

As technology continues to develop at a rapid pace, we are beginning to transform those technologies into art and fashion. One of the biggest examples of technology’s influence is this year’s first ever Metaverse Fashion Week. The event hosted fashion showcases, parties, shopping options and musical events. The event was fully immersive, designed as its own world to explore. And a custom avatar could watch the virtual runway.

How Immersive Experiences Play a Role in the Fashion Industry — AMT Lab @ CMU
Credit: XR Goes Pop

Another example is Louis Vuitton’s dabbling in Augmented Reality and NFTs. Louis Vuitton has had storefront window displays that use Augmented reality. The goal is to enhance the meaning behind their collections, and give them more dimension. Another example is The Fabric of Reality – a fully virtual reality fashion show. This was launched within the virtual Museum of Other Realities and in partnership with RYOT (Verizon Media’s storytelling/ immersive production house) and Kaleidoscope. It aims to take audiences on a journey, exploring the story and narrative behind the designer’s collection. This allowed for the designer’s work to elevate beyond the visual aesthetics and to tell the story it was made to tell.

Contemporary Design

The Batman x Spyscape exhibition designer, Mona Kim talks about how the fashion world falls flat when it comes to immersive experiences. Her work in this current Batman exhibition draws inspiration from elements of contemporary theatre and dance. It references light, audio and media. This allows for her design to transform the space, not just physically and visually, but emotionally. The participants will have an emotional journey.

Credit: Spyscape

The flow of the experience is smooth thanks to the phone app that is tracking your whereabouts. This allows for the immersive experience to move smoothly and help the narrative flow. Perhaps in a fashion immersive experience, this technology can help to strengthen the narratives behind collections.

Immersive Experiences

Mona Kim also takes care to ensure that the experience isn’t flat. It honours a shared understanding that a full narrative has a beginning, middle and an after. In the Batman x Spyscape experience, participants can interact with the world before going to the museum via the app. Then they can visit the physical experience. Afterwards, they can then continue the mystery at home. For immersive experience fashion shows to not fall flat, there should be interaction before the physical or main event. And then, engagement provided afterwards.

Mona Kim explains,

They could be inspired in terms of their brand activations as well as fashion shows. It’s the use of strategy to engage the public and the end user.

It’s safe to say that technology nowadays has a large role in fashion, given that this technology allows designers to showcase their designs in a more artistic way and how it is giving consumers easier access to these products. The way for the fashion industry to move forward into more immersive experiences is to harness and strengthen the technology available to them and find ways to create immersive narratives with them.

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