Nearly two weeks out, Burning Man-inspired Further Future is starting to tease its eclectic mix of offerings. When the musical festival comes back to the Moapa River Reservation in the Southern Nevada desert April 29-May 1, Further Future will feature an interactive technology program with virtual reality displays, a demo of the world’s most realistic robotic face and a film/video panel that includes Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky.
Organizers had already announced some tech-related offerings, including a speech from Silicon Valley giant Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company. But in unveiling the full tech program today—the entire schedule of performances, talks, dinners and wellness sessions was also dropped—Further Future formalized its effort to incorporate bleeding-edge technologies, including virtual reality, artificial intelligence and robotics, into its lineup. It also expands on last year’s inaugural festival, which included some tech-related speakers but not nearly as many panels and few, if any, demonstrations.
Since the festival, whose music lineup includes live performances by Caribou, Nicolas Jaar and Four Tet, looks to address innovation in different areas—music, food and wellness—the technology program is focused on potentially disruptive tools like virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Event organizers said they included demos to provide tangible experiences to try something new.
At least three panels will specifically address technology, exploring its relationship to sound, light and consciousness. Panelists include entrepreneurs, founders, content creators and even several academics, including a cognitive scientist from the MIT Media Lab.
A big focus will be on virtual and augmented reality. The creator of Avegant’s Glyph mediawear headset is slated to do a demonstration of the company’s platform, which has built-in over-ear headphones and was named one of the best products at CES in January.
Another demo will showcase SoundSelf, virtual reality software that draws on meditation techniques to induce altered states. The technology program will also feature an immersive 3D audio space and a live presentation of wearable devices that increase self-awareness.
Others involved in the technology program include David Hanson, whose company was recently featured on CNBC for creating an eerily lifelike human robot face that can simulate emotions and process speech through a seemingly human face made of a silicon. Pete Blumel, a former Call of Duty producer who works in immersive storytelling, is also involved.
On the music tech front, Further Future recently revealed that techno producer Richie Hawtin (and his unannounced guests) will be showing off the new PLAYdifferently DJ mixer he developed with the Allen and Heath music hardware company for much of the weekend. He'll do this as he also hosts and tends the bar at the pop-up for Enter.Sake, his boutique sake collection named after his DJ parties.
Mike Prevatt contributed to this story.
