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Announcing our VR Artist in Residence

May 2, 2017 in Technology | 2 min. read
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As you may remember from our GDC keynote, Unity is invested not only in enabling success for virtual reality creators but also artists in particular; with new tools for artists on the horizon, we can’t wait to see what VR artists will create. With our enthusiasm for the art community and for the role artists play in VR production, we’re thrilled to introduce you to Isaac Cohen (also known as Cabbibo), Unity’s very first Artist in Residence!

Isaac’s passion lies around the power of computers to create real-time, reactive worlds. “Think about what art, games, instruments, and even books can be, when you apply the awesome power of computation to them,” says Cohen.

In looking through his extensive portfolio, we saw not just playful music toys like My Lil Donut, Architectural haikus (L U N E), and addicting arcade titles BLARP! and Warka Flarka Flim Flam, but a plethora of sketches, tools, and larger projects that range from a Audio Visual kids book (ENOUGH), to an open source GPGPU library.

“I like making people marvel and wonder -- to rekindle the delight of discovering something for the first time,” he says. This comes from Cohen’s ability to dig deep into what makes computers tick. “I try to use raytracing in strange ways, make compute shaders tell stories, and create art that is inherently physical.”

With his dedication not just to radically new artwork but also how an artist’s vision can be magnified by things like scriptable render pipelines, Cabbibo’s combination of creative and technical expertise made him the perfect fit for our Artist in Residence role.

“I want to create experiences that stay with you. That aren’t just methods for escape, but pieces that pose questions and make you consider more what it means to be in our miraculous reality.”

Isaac will be embedded with the Unity Labs team in our San Francisco office for several months, and we can’t wait to see what he will create. “It's amazing to sit next to people who actually know what they are doing!” jokes Isaac. “Sitting next to graphics genius Morten Mikkelsen, I've already learned in 3 days what took me all last year, and it's so exciting to see how these new learnings will affect what I'm making next!”

Keep an eye out for guest blogs from Isaac on his work and how he’s using Unity to push the boundaries of what’s possible for artists in VR -- also keep an eye out for releases of his projects. To stay up to date, make sure to follow him on Twitter (@cabbibo), check out his WebGL Work (cabbi.bo), and explore his writings on VR (cabbibo.is). Welcome, Cabbibo!

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You can also check out his demo reel here:

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May 2, 2017 in Technology | 2 min. read

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