Ithra project brings VR monsoon rains and more to London

 England is famous for precipitation but the showcase of a Saudi-based artist's conceptualisation of Anticipation of Rain offers a new dimension on the familiar.

The environmental reflection by Naima Karim is a virtual reality exploration of environment’s relationship with rain as experienced in Bangladesh, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia. It even incorporates the smell of rain from Switzerland. “I love monsoon rain,” she told a gathering a London's County Hall. “This is so exciting, romantic and at the same time it is very scary because it destroys a lot.

Creative Solutions Demo Day at London's County Hall by The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture “Ithra”.

“I wanted to connect my childhood memory of monsoon rain with my audience.”

The presentation is one of five projects that came out of a year-long programme themed “Digital Immersive Content Creation”, whittled down from 30 ideas by 59 creatives in Saudi Arabia by the Ithra project.

“The UK is a global hub of innovation, and our young creatives have benefited from collaborating with industry leaders who shared their keen insights and helped to develop these prototypes,” said Miznah Alzamil, head of creativity and innovation at Ithra, as she opened the event.

“Ithra is at the centre of the kingdom’s cultural and creative ecosystem, and Creative Solutions is testament to our commitment to building a sustainable creative industry. The 2021 cohort demonstrated truly innovative thinking and we are excited to see how they perform in front of our industry experts and investors.”

Alqatt XR is an immersive experience created by Layla Albabtain featuring culture and history of the traditional Al-Qatt art in southern Saudi Arabia. “I'm a conceptual artist and the designer of the project which is a gaming VR experience that represents the cultural heritage of the southern area of Saudi Arabia, specifically that of women,” she said.

Nouf Al Sughier represented an augmented reality-based interactive museum based on movement. “Raya means a flag or a pin where you can save a spot in your map, which leads us to our project idea, which is enabling people to create, deploy and share journeys using an augmented reality base without the need of hiring developers or even having a technical background,” she said. “By this we are getting the idea of having an augmented reality technology. The experience explores how facilities such as galleries, museums, and others can improve the user experience.”

Abdullah Al Arfaj's History of Science concept reflects his time working in an observatory and is suffuse with a fascination with the celestial. “With virtual reality, I was able to take ideas from [making] moulds in the air and put them into the user's hand in a way that allows them to understand what I'm talking about in such a depth that is comparable to previous technology. We aim with this experience to make learning immersive, tangible, approachable and fun.” It blends the greatest scientists and astronomers with the storyteller's art as well as holograms, game design and VR. "If you see a video or photo on a topic it will leave a strong impression on you but if experience it, if you interact with it, then that thing is just unforgettable."

The journey to the modern city Neom is rooted in the experiences of the 1970s for Abdullah Ba Mashmos. “This an XR/VR interactive story about a guy who was from the 1970s and who goes on a journey to find his lost brother,” he said. "Every player going to put on their VR headset and they're going to experience life from the day through the protagonist's eyes. They're going to go from one place to another until they reach the mountains where they will get trapped in an ancient time machine which will take them to Saudi Arabia, all the way to the future in a city called Neom.”

Ithra is the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture and means “enrichment”. It was launched by Saudi Aramco to be a vehicle for cultural and creative talent development as well as cross-cultural experiences.