PHI, Felix & Paul Studios Form JV For Immersive Works

Pioneers in immersive arts and entertainment partner to produce and market the next generation in spatial and immersive exhibitions.

PHI Studio and Felix & Paul Studios announced today the first joint venture in their history, INFINITY Experiences, with the goal of creating and marketing large-scale immersive projects such as the traveling exhibition ∞INFINITY: Living Among the Stars, developed in collaboration with TIME Studios. For these two Montreal innovative leaders, it signals a new step in their complementary and strategic partnership, which was launched in 2014.

“For many years, PHI has been dedicated to new ways of appreciating culture and promoting works combining art and technology, particularly through exhibits that travel the planet,” explained Phoebe Greenberg, Founder and Director of PHI. “In its role as a multidisciplinary cultural and artistic hub, PHI was the first investor in Felix & Paul Studios, now the only entertainment studio in the world to offer the full range of immersive experiences. This new chapter which combines our respective strengths is a great source of pride.“ Phoebe Greenberg, a cultural entrepreneur who received the Ordre national du Québec and the Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec for her unwavering commitment to artists, is enthusiastic about the concept of joint ventures to promote the energy and avant-gardism of the artistic scenes in Montreal, Quebec and Canada.

„Phi and Felix & Paul Studios share a common mission: To enable people to live new experiences and forge authentic and meaningful connections through these shared experiences,” said Félix Lajeunesse, co-founder and creative director of Felix & Paul Studios. “This joint venture is just the latest collaboration in our longstanding partnership, having previously worked with PHI on bringing immersive experiences like Traveling While Black and Gymnasia to audiences across Europe, Asia and the Americas.  We are thrilled to work together to help bring millions of spectators to space through this latest venture.”

First Production: Around ∞INFINITY

The joint venture is already hard at work on its world and Montreal premiere of the exhibition ∞INFINITY: Living Among the Stars, scheduled for 2021. The large-scale traveling exhibition, covering more than 10,000 square feet in a multi-phased circuit, will leverage all the latest innovations in technological storytelling. It will integrate never-before-seen footage from Space Explorers: The ISS Experience filmed in 3D 360-degrees in the International Space Station in its walk-through of the life-scale Space Station.

Space Explorers is an EMMY-nominated immersive entertainment series, chronicling the lives of astronauts as they adapt to life in space. The series is produced by Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios in collaboration with the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and other space agencies involved with the International Space Station. Finally, the exhibit will culminate with viewers experiencing a spacewalk side by side with an astronaut in fully-immersive virtual reality.

For Félix Lajeunesse of Felix & Paul Studios, this ambitious project is also a dream come true: „∞INFINITY transports worldwide audiences at the forefront of human space exploration, through an extraordinary immersion full of poetry and emotional impact. Leveraging exclusive cinematic VR footage filmed inside and outside the International Space Station over two years, as well as the breathtaking sense of presence and intimacy provided by the very edge of immersive media, the exhibition explores the inspiring and revealing journey of astronauts living in orbit — and humanity’s future among the stars.“

For its part, as curator and producer, PHI Studio will offer its renowned expertise and know-how in the conception and marketing of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR) works. The PHI Studio team will design and produce the exhibition to elevate the project to the same experiential and revelatory level as space travel. Distribution will also be handled by PHI Studio.

Jonathan Woods, Executive Producer for the ISS Experience at TIME Studios and Emmy-winning producer of A Year in Space, said, „The joint venture between Phi and Felix & Paul Studios is an exciting and essential next step in this project’s long history which will ensure audiences around the world can immerse themselves in the historic work that’s been done to capture what it’s like to adapt to life in space as an astronaut.“

As Phoebe Greenberg explained: “For PHI, this joint venture is also a unique opportunity to expand the notion of curating into the realm of deep space VR. By finding pathways to experience the extraordinary footage shot in and around the International Space Station, we considered the overall landscape of presenting this type of experience to an audience. Void of any artefacts, our exhibition will activate the senses as you wander through a facsimile of the ISS and immerse yourself in a sound and visual landscape that reveals the deep poetry of space exploration.”

Beyond INFINITY: A global reach

The traveling exhibition, which will be funded through the Montreal joint venture, will visit several cities across North America and Europe over a five-year period, reaching an estimated audience of 1.2 million spectators. ∞INFINITY: Living Among the Stars should also be accessible on digital, immersive and physical platforms to provide an educational tool that will inspire generations to come. A digital application is being considered.

Building on this first major initiative, PHI Studio and Felix & Paul Studios intend to pursue other equally ambitious projects to broaden public access to immersive works and produce even more innovative and engaging content.