Makropol is an entity formed of artist and entrepreneurs, filmmakers and designers. Based in Copenhagen and lead by Johan Knattrup Jensen and Mads Damsbo, Makropol strives to create transforming stories with tools from the new digital age. Our credo is that art can drive innovation, and innovation can be art. Our current obsession and fascination is with how we tell great stories in virtual reality. Subscribe to the Makropol IDEAFEED here: EWA Out of Body Doom Room – Sold out After 2 weekends of screening DOOM ROOM at Chateau Motel in Copenhagen, Doom Room is now showing 4 more nights. The massive interest and great reviews have reminded us that there is a large audience hungry for new types of experiences. Ones that are neither, theater nor film, neither art nor commercial. Experiences that in them selves justify their own existence. This will not be forgotten. Makropol is growing – fast. And we are looking for dedicated talent to join our team. With several major projects already in production and more to come, we are looking to hire independent individuals that are ready to be busy, and able to think on their feet.
Makropol is a production facility that churns out a wide variety of content, from VR fiction and documentary to art installations and interactive live events. See makropol.dk for a list of projects. Makropol is lead by director Johan Knattrup Jensen and producer Mads Damsbo, with Darshika Karanuhara as head of Education. We are looking for an experienced and hardworking producer that is up for a challenge. We are good at financing projects but we need help controlling our budgets and keeping track of all our ideas. We need someone that wants to learn how to produce content and experiences in a new digital reality, but that at the same time has experience in producing in the old analogue one. We are open to provide production facilities for a new producer’s own ideas, so that we can fully integrate you as a Makropol producer. For more information about the job, feel free to contact Mads Damsbo at +45 61606164 mads@makropol.dk Are you a fabulous geek? Do you love fiddling with new tech and invent weird contraptions that solve problems?
Do you like cameras and do you know your way around any OS and can adapt to any interface? Do you like putting things in their place and keeping yourself updated? Then you might be perfect for this job. We are always coming up with new workflows and methods for creating our experiences, and we need someone to help invent, run, and coordinate this playground, so we dont waste time reinventing the wheel every time. This job begins now! Depending on your availability of course. CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST (UX DESIGNER) You are creative with code. You are not hardcore, but a generalist, ready to imagine how any idea could be solved. You have experience in interaction design and/or game design and you have a strong opinion about aesthetics. You are ready to build a prototype in 24 hours to prove a point, and you are comfortable with running af team of developers. Job begins from November 1st. (Own hardware is a plus.) All terms and salaries will be negotiated in light of qualifications and commitment.
Send your application to darshika@makropol.dk DEADLINE for application is Monday the 24th of October, interviews will be held immediately after. NJALA MALAWI – a VR doc You are hovering above a broad river, with lush fields to eachYou slowly start to float forward. the side of the river, the landscape changes from the dark green, fertile fields into a dry and impoverished landscape.A nation of contrast. A nation in dire need ofA nation going through what’s been called, the ‘slow,Due to several factors, like a flood last year, and a drought this year, the crops have failed, and the government has declared the need of food a national crisis. One hour from the river lives Edward, his wife, and their 6 children, in a house surrounded by a garden. This was once aBut as everything else around here, the garden is no longer a garden, but a desert with a few once green tops of Ewa is going to Cannes Marché. As part of the NEXT platform in Cannes during what is called VR days, Makropol will be screening the brand new EWA pilot and a special multiple serving of the Doghouse.
So come by the NEXT pavillion monday the 16th of May from 10 am get inside the head of someone else, and leave your body in Cannes. See the full Line up here -> link To walk among the music Makropol produced this little journey. Watch it with your mobile phone and headphones. NEW EYES for students The “NEW EYES” concept uses a combination of virtual reality video and corresponding learning material to create an innovative and immersive way of teaching in the Danish primary school. By using Google Cardboard Glasses we make abstract and complex content tangible and even exciting. Through the glasses pupils will enter a virtual world where they will feel and experience what a teacher can only attempt to explain. The first material to be launched under the NEW EYES concept is called NEW EYES ON THE WORLD, it looks to engage pupils in the UN’s 2015 Sustainable Development Goals. Ewa is a woman that anyone can embody. She is a chance to become present in a fiction.
It’s a story of a young girls coming of age and her struggle to escape her given reality. Her story will depend on the subject inside her. But remember, to become Ewa, she will in turn become you. Ewa is slowly becoming real and will ultimately exist as a feature length virtual reality film experience. VR:NORDIC will be a (new) reality. The promise of VR is unfolding all around the world. Triggered by Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus, global players are emerging with accessible consumer friendly tech that will allow millions of audiences to experience the thrill of escaping reality. Samsung and Oculus, with their Gear VR and Google with Cardboard VR, have cheekily set the scene for an early peak in to this fascinating future, but the question remains; What will we be experiencing, in these virtual realities? To answer this we will invite 10 up and coming Nordic artist, filmmakers and experience designers to submit their vision of what the medium can convey.
With a small budget, and access to Makropol’s VR record kit, talents will produce experimental experiences, focused on storytelling, lasting up to 10 minutes, that will premiere during CPH:DOX at a symposium dedicated to VR. International guests and speakers will be flown in to give their perspectives of the emerging possibilities and pitfalls of VR. All the original VR experiences will be gathered on an app (VR:CHANNEL) that will work as a continued feed of new experiences to be explored through smartphone VR devices. VR:NORDIC is supported by Nordic Culture Fund. Subscribe to Makropol’s ideafeed to keep updated! To kick off Makropol’s grand collaboration with Copenhagen Phil, we are inviting interested to join us for a night of symphonic experiments. For now I cant say more, but take a look at the Facebook event if you want to come. The craft of building your own medium. As a catalyst and producer of several media experiences, Mads has always been interested in the role of the user (formally known as the audience) and their interactions with stories.