Digital Autumn is a cross-cultural VR initiative introduced by Less Media Group in partnership with the French Institute
Since its inception in 2022, Digital Autumn has attracted over 10,000 viewers, many of whom experienced virtual reality as an artform for the very first time.
This growing audience reflects the festival’s ongoing mission to introduce French innovative digital experiences to new communities across the region.
The main program featured 11 cutting-edge immersive artworks, including several recently awarded pieces available exclusively to festival audiences.
In each country and city, the core VR selection was enriched with other forms of French digital art — ranging from augmented reality installations and 360° mapping projections to interactive experiences like Aqua Alta.
The 2024 edition of Digital Autumn centered around the theme “Changing Perspective”, exploring how immersive technologies can shift our ways of seeing, understanding, and engaging with the world. This theme is particularly resonant in virtual reality, where viewers are not just passive observers but active participants — placed inside the artwork, experiencing new viewpoints both literally and conceptually. By inviting audiences to step into different realities, the program underscored VR’s unique power to foster empathy, curiosity, and deeper emotional connection.
This multifaceted approach allowed audiences to engage with digital creativity in diverse and unexpected ways.
In 2024 Digital Autumn marked the third and largest edition of the festival to date, further establishing its position as a leading showcase of French digital and immersive art in Central Asia and beyond. The exhibition began in Tashkent and continued across four cities in Kazakhstan — Almaty, Astana, Atyrau and Aktobe — before concluding in two largest cities in Russia.
Key visual for the Digital Autumn VR festival in 2024 was created by digital media artist Anastasiia Kraynyuk from Belgrade, Serbia.