Cannes Lions: VR and the dawn of the last medium

A celebration of the best creative work, the Cannes festival of creativity is also a frontline for the latest technology and innovations from brands, startups and individuals. Something that has been on the cusp of “new” for a while is virtual reality, but it finally feels like it is having a moment.

While attending a panel on VR hosted by Samsung, VR filmmaking pioneer Chris Milk offered an interesting perspective. He said that VR is the start of what he calls “the last medium.” Previously, art had been all about rectangles. From painting to photography to film, we captured our experience and stories in a 2D rectangular frame, with the frame revealing the singular point-of-view of the works’ creator.

But VR is changing that. It presents a completely new medium that feels invisible, creating a more immersive experience that directly engages our senses in a way that makes us feel as if we’re experiencing things firsthand.

What I found most interesting about Milk’s talk is that he likened the current state of VR to early photography and film. That is, we’ve only begun to explore this medium. The current experience of VR can be wildly inconsistent and at times primitive—but this could also mean huge opportunities for creatives and technologists to push the possibilities of the medium forward.

It remains to be seen whether the dawn of VR truly is the first step of the last medium. But I look forward to finding out.