Art in VR : Virtual VIVID Ilya Kuvshinov Works Exhibition

Currently, art exhibitions have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Then, how about hold them in virtual worlds? "Virtual VIVID Ilya Kuvshinov Works Exhibition", an art exhibition of popular Russian illustrator Ilya Kuvshinov is being held at VR Chat and Japanese social VR platform clister until May 31.

Ilya Kuvshinov's works are popular in Japan, and she is known to have been in charge of character design for Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. This virtual exhibition is a reproduction of her real exhibition held in Tokyo, Akihabara in November 2019. However, no admission fee is required to view the virtual exhibition. Moreover, it is open 24 hours a day.

In addition, there are productions unique to the virtual world. When you go to the exhibition area of her Tokyo motif works, the crowds of town are played as background music. You will feel as you are in the middle of Tokyo.

When you stand in front of her work of snowscape, the sound of snowstorm is played as background music and snow particles come down.

Virtual art exhibitions are easier to hold in the virtual world than other events. Certainly, there are monetization challenges. However, it's a good way to get people around the world to appreciate art works. In addition, in this virtual exhibition, official goods sold at the gallery shop of the real exhibition are on sale. Mail order is good idea for monetization.

Virtual VIVID Ilya Kuvshinov Works Exhibition official site
http://vivid.gugenka.jp/

Self-care application of visualize your feelings "Awarefy"

The state of emergency imposed in response to the coronavirus was lifted in Japan except in some areas. However, we must still be alert, and it may help us with that.
Many companies are promoting remote work to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections, but as people continue to stay in their homes, more and more people are experiencing mental health problems. So Hakali has released Awarefy, a mobile application that makes it easy to self-care your mind.

It has a "feelings memo" feature that allows you to enter your daily feelings and emotional conditions into a chat-bot to interact with.

The emotional notes you continue to enter are regularly analyzed and reports generated and you can objectively see your emotions by checking these.

Besides this, it also has the feature to enter your own physical and mental conditions in the morning and night, and the trend of these data is shown by a bar graph. You can calmly analyze your worries and questions by checking this and emotional notes together.

If you are interested in mindfulness meditation, check out audio guides for beginners in it. It also has learning contents such as Anger Management. These audio guides are supervised by mindfulness instructors and clinical psychologists.

Downloading the application and using the basic features are free, and they will monetize with a paid premium plan in the future. However, the features of the premium plan are also provided free of charge until June 30. Currently they are releasing an Android version, and an iOS version will be released later this month.

Unite Tokyo 2020 by Unity Japan will be canceled

Events are being canceled one after another due to coronavirus pandemics. Unity Japan has announced that they will cancel the annual conference event Unite Tokyo 2020 in Tokyo since 2013.

Unite Tokyo is Japan's largest Unity event with many technical lectures and booth exhibitions for Japanese Unity users. This is the first time they have canceled this.
However, they are considering holding the event online and will announce more details once they are determined.
And, they will continue to support other Unity events, but these will only be online for a while, too.
They will post casual tech talks about Unity on Youtube until the coronavirus pandemic ends in Japan.
Their YouTube channel is here.

Facility for people with disabilities to become professional gamers

There are various welfare facilities for people with disabilities in Japan, but a cool facility ONEGAME will open in Ota City, Gunma Prefecture in June. It's a facility where they aim to become professional gamers in e-sports.

One-Life, a company that provides welfare services mainly in Gunma Prefecture, has originally been involved in e-Sports participation of people with disabilities. They introduce equipment for each type of people with disabilities and train by coaches. In addition, in August 2019, they held Japan's first people with disabilities e-Sports competition event using the League of Legends.
ONEGAME is a development form of these, and is a facility for continuing jobs. They not only train e-Sports players, but also event management staff and announcers to help people with disabilities become independent through e-Sports.

This is Japan's first welfare facility and a welfare project. I hope this succeeds.

Tokyo Game Show 2020 and CEDEC 2020 canceled(and CEDEC will be held online)

Of course this is due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Today, Japan's Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association(CESA) has made two big decisions. They will cancel this year's Tokyo Game Show 2020 and CEDEC 2020, the conference event for developers.

These two events are held in September each year, and autumn feature of Japanese game industries. However, CESA considers the health of visitors, exhibitors, presses, and staff, as the coronavirus infection is spreading worldwide and it is still unpredictable in Japan. So they decided to cancel.
However, they also decided to host the events online at the same time. It has already been decided that CEDEC 2020 will be held online without changing the schedule. Details such as specific contents and platforms will be announced in the near future.