Dafen Oil Painting Village: An Immersive Reality
Dafen Oil Painting Village: An Immersive Reality is a virtual reality experience about global creation, emerging technologies, and the future of media.
Developer
Publisher
Release
November 15, 2018
7 years and 262 days ago
Steam Reviews
Mixed17 reviews64.7%
Does this feel indie?
Vote based on whether this game feels indie to you. You can change your vote at any time. Results earn an IGF score after 10 accepted votes.No votes yet
Game contextLatest: IGF Team
| ContextThe evidence factors used to assess whether this game belongs on IndieGame.Fan. | Status | Notes Latest Contributor: IGF TeamEdit notes |
|---|---|---|
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Developer scaleThe operating scale of the game's developer. | ||
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Publisher scaleThe operating scale of the game's publisher. | A separate publisher is listed without a proven bounded regional or service-only role. | |
Updated: Jul 14, 2026Release statusWhether and how the game has been released. | The title released with a separate publisher relationship. |
Media
7 itemsAbout the Game
Dafen Oil Painting Village is a little like a factory, a little like a town, and a little like an open air art gallery. Located in the southern China city of Shenzhen, it is a collective of 20,000 artists and entrepreneurs. They sell millions of paintings piecewise and at scale throughout the world, totaling 56% of all commercial art in Europe and the Untied States, according to official sources. They achieve economies of scale emergently, with little reliance on central coordination.
In early 2017, Jeremy Kirshbaum spent weeks in Dafen conducting interviews and understanding its hidden inter-connections. Using an Occipital Structure sensor, he collected real-world models of what he saw, along with photos and videos, both flat and 360.
He has used these to create an experimental prototype to immerse the experiencer in the feeling of Shenzhen. It is neither a replication of reality, nor a fantasy, but something between and beyond…an immersive reality. As well as an immersion in a real place, it is a statement about the interaction of old and new media, information-rich research environments, and the tension between scientific instruments and artistic media.
This early stage prototype was made with the Emerging Media Lab at Institute for the Future, and Alexander Goldman at SiverVR. It is deliberately unpolished, so that the experiencer can see the way that the collage fits together, and consider the implications that this has for the future of media and simulation.
Thanks also to Imisi3d in Lagos, Nigeria for their support during the development process.
In early 2017, Jeremy Kirshbaum spent weeks in Dafen conducting interviews and understanding its hidden inter-connections. Using an Occipital Structure sensor, he collected real-world models of what he saw, along with photos and videos, both flat and 360.
He has used these to create an experimental prototype to immerse the experiencer in the feeling of Shenzhen. It is neither a replication of reality, nor a fantasy, but something between and beyond…an immersive reality. As well as an immersion in a real place, it is a statement about the interaction of old and new media, information-rich research environments, and the tension between scientific instruments and artistic media.
This early stage prototype was made with the Emerging Media Lab at Institute for the Future, and Alexander Goldman at SiverVR. It is deliberately unpolished, so that the experiencer can see the way that the collage fits together, and consider the implications that this has for the future of media and simulation.
Thanks also to Imisi3d in Lagos, Nigeria for their support during the development process.
