Edmonton Electrician Brings Virtual Reality Technology to Artists and Students

October 12, 2017

Kyle Gagnon got hooked on virtual reality quickly, after watching a demonstration of the HTC Vive at the West Edmonton Mall Microsoft Store last year.

“My mind was turning,” he recalled. He was already thinking about the technology’s applications. About a week later, he bought his own virtual reality equipment, then realized his laptop wasn’t powerful enough to run VR.

That didn’t phase him.

“I was set on making it work,” he said.

The 25-year-old Edmonton resident is a journeyman electrician with an entrepreneurial streak. Using money from his RRSPs, he invested in three VR units and opened a VR cafe in a rented basement space on Whyte Avenue last fall.

At Inception VR, people could try out the equipment for free, then pay $20 to use it for 30 minutes.

That November, he recruited three artists to contribute to a VR art show at the space. Ariel Durkin, Ryan Weisser and Tristan Stewart each used Tilt Brush, a Google tool that allows you to paint virtually in 3D space, to create their own virtual rooms. Guests at the show donned headsets to walk through the artists’ work.

Durkin, who met Gagnon through mutual friends in school, drew a 3D female figure floating in a vortex in space.

In a second VR show, this time at the Art Gallery of Alberta, she collaborated with a dancer. They took turns painting and performing in a small space, each responding to traces of colour the other left.

Durkin, who is new to the technology, said she’s excited to experiment more with VR.

“It’s new and fresh and exciting,” she said. “Because there’s room for the technology to grow, there’s room for the art to follow along and grow as well.”

The success of the art shows inspired Gagnon to think more creatively about the power of the technology.

Realizing that an arcade-style business wasn’t for him, he shut down the Whyte Avenue space and went back to school to study business at NAIT. After he earns his diploma this semester, he’ll start a trades-to-degree program that takes two years to complete.

For the full article written by Madeleine Cummings see:

http://www.edmontonexaminer.com/2017/10/03/an-edmonton-electrician-is-bringing-virtual-reality-technology-to-artists-and-students