VR Art, Immersive Storytelling, and Festival Culture Matter More Than Hype—Kent Bye, Voices of VR

Nov 25, 2025

Kent Bye, an influential independent immersive media journalist known for his deep dives into XR culture, joins the discussion to share his insights on the evolving landscape of immersive storytelling. He highlights the importance of grassroots creators and festival circuits, emphasizing their role in sustaining VR beyond the hype. The conversation covers the ethical implications of AI in art and critiques its 'colonizing force.' Kent's hands-on journalism approach sets a stark contrast to corporate narratives, advocating for a more human-centered perspective in XR.

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INSIGHT

Documenting VR's Creative Frontier

Kent Bye focuses on artists and creators to capture VR's front-line innovation and oral history.
He documents festival work that often lacks broader distribution so future audiences can learn from it.

ADVICE

Go To The Source For Real Insights

Talk to developers and creators rather than relying on corporate press releases to get honest, ground-level insight.
Use event-based coverage to capture oral transmission of practical knowledge in VR development.

ANECDOTE

Early Adoption Sparked Voices Of VR

Kent bought a DK1 on January 1st, 2014 and made his first VR game within weeks at a game jam.
He used early conferences to record dozens of interviews and build Voices of VR's oral history approach.

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Kent Bye—host of the Voices of VR podcast and one of XR's most prolific journalists with over 1,680 published interviews—joins Charlie and Ted for a wide ranging conversation on the state of immersive storytelling, the ethics of AI, and why XR's future might be less about consumer headsets and more about embodied presence and human connection. Kent's decade-long commitment to documenting artists, creators, and developers at the ground level offers a counterpoint to hype-driven tech coverage, revealing the messy, vital ecosystem sustaining VR through festival circuits, location-based entertainment, and government-funded experimental projects that rarely make headlines.

The conversation opens with Jeff Bezos's new AI robotics company Prometheus, Amazon's one-to-one human-robot workforce parity, and the implications of industrial AI automation. Ted shares his recent appearance on cinematographer Roger Deakins's podcast, where they discussed AI as a creative tool rather than a threat—a perspective Kent echoes when discussing artists who use AI to critique AI's "colonizing force." Kent explains his philosophy of "boots on the ground" journalism inspired by Knight Ridder's Iraq War reporting, focusing on developers and creators closest to the work rather than corporate press releases.

Kent reveals why he's been lukewarm on smart glasses despite industry excitement—monocular displays give him headaches, his prescription is too strong for current hardware, and most importantly, there's no compelling narrative content yet. He contrasts this with VR's rich immersive storytelling at festivals like Venice Immersive, Sundance New Frontier, IDFA DocLab, and Tribeca, where government-funded European projects push the medium's boundaries in ways U.S. startups can't afford to explore. The discussion touches on Meta's Ray-Ban AI glasses, the impracticality of Meta's neural band input, and why Snap's developer platform remains the most interesting AR ecosystem despite limited consumer traction.

Guest Highlights

Published 1,682 VR interviews with 1,000+ unpublished; focused on artists, creators, and developers over corporate narratives.
Covers 30+ hours of immersive content per festival at Venice, Sundance, IDFA DocLab—documenting ephemeral art that may never distribute widely.
Started in 2014 after buying Oculus DK1; began by capturing oral history at Silicon Valley VR Conference's first gathering.
Background as F-22 Raptor radar systems engineer turned documentary filmmaker—blends hardcore technical knowledge with artistic sensibility.
Advocates for XR as antidote to smartphone addiction—technologies that foster embodied presence rather than infinite distraction.

News Highlights

Jeff Bezos launches Prometheus AI robotics company—focusing on industrial applications where enterprise adoption will drive innovation faster than consumer markets.
Amazon hits one-to-one human-robot workforce parity—roughly 1 million humans, 1 million robots, with plans to shed 100K+ workers over five years.
Warner Brothers settles with AI music company Udio—following Axel Springer, AP, and Fox licensing deals as New York Times litigation drags on.
Enterprise AI startups raise massive rounds—Stut (collections automation, $29.5M from Andreessen), Albatross (real-time personalization, $12.5M), signaling vertical-specific AI SaaS wave.
HaptX acquired by Ohio manufacturer—haptic glove company pivots to industrial training applications after years targeting consumer VR.

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