Immersive and Interactive Technologies and Live Performance: VR/AR/MR practices
Date: Saturday 6 April 2019
Immersive and Interactive Technologies and Live Performance: VR/AR/MR practices
TaPRA Performance & New Technologies Working Group Interim Event
Saturday 6th April 2019, University of South Wales, Cardiff Campus, The ATRiuM
Booking: https://immersivetechnologies.eventbrite.co.uk [This is a one-day event, with tea/coffee and lunch included and all participants must be TaPRA members. If you are not currently a member, you will be asked to join the organization at the interim rate of £15 via http://tapra.org/join-tapra/ before the date of the event.]
Keynote Speaker: Dr Jorge Lopes Ramos (executive director ZU-UK)
Launch & Wine Reception: Launch of Performance and VR Practice special issue, IJPADM. Wine reception and conversation with Dr Kerry Francksen and Prof. Sophy Smith (guest editors).
Following on from the annual conference at Aberystwyth and previous group events and conversations, the aim of the 2019 interim event is to explore different practices and modes of immersive and interactive technologies in live performance, as well as to investigate new narrative possibilities and audiences’ virtual experiences in live performance created by immersive technologies. As Kerry Francksen and Sophy Smith (2018) note, ‘[t]he use of virtual reality (VR) technologies has seen a significant resurgence in both industry-led and artistic communities in recent times. This re-emergence can be linked to the continuing growth and advancement in smart phone technologies (e.g. developments in accelerometers and gyrospic chips), as well as a significant interest within the games industry for developing a greater quality gaming experience.’ We want to explore this emergent theme and extend the 2018 TaPRA working group’s discussions on Empathy and Inclusiveness in Immersive Technologies to question: What new tools and spaces do immersive technologies offer to theatre and live performance? What opportunities and challenges do immersive technologies bring to the digital performer/performance-maker, from new forms of audience/participant interaction to new performance training methodologies, to new rehearsal methods and documentation strategies?
Itinerary: 11.30-12:20 Registration, lunch [ATRiuM, Mingle], One-to-one short Demo of Goodnight, Sleep Tight performance (first come first served) [ZEN Room] 12:20 Welcome 12:30 Keynote: Dr Jorge Lopes Ramos (executive director ZU-UK) 13:30 Dr Joseph Dunne-Howrie (research associate at ZU-UK Theatre and Digital Arts company), Post-Immersive Performance. Chair: Dr Christina Papagiannouli (University of South Wales) 13:50 Break 14:00 Empathy, Inclusiveness and Embodiment in Immersive technologies performance practices Eleni Kolliopoulou (Ulster University), Empathy and inclusiveness in immersive technologies: Sky-field 1&2. Dr Styliani Keramida (University of Reading), Performance, Immersive Technologies and Theatrical Aesthetics: Remediating video gaming technologies in the theatre in order to produce effects of empathy and inclusiveness. Kerryn Wise (De Montfort University), DIS/PLACE. Chair: Dr Piotr Woycicki (Aberystwyth University) 15:15 Break 15:30 Immersive Storytelling and Dramaturgy: Immersive technologies as a Narrative Medium Dr Harry Robert Wilson (Digital Thinker in Residence, National Theatre of Scotland), Virtual Reality experiences as intimate performance. Prof. Sophy Smith (DeMontfort University), Immersive Dance Practice and Storytelling – a transdisciplinary approach. Dr Piotr Woycicki (Aberystwyth University), Intermedial dramaturgies of flux in the AR version of Our Lady of Shadows. Chair: Dr Joanne Scott (University of Salford) 16:45-18:00 Launch and Wine reception Launch of Performance and VR Practice special issue, IJPADM. Wine reception and conversation with Dr Kerry Francksen and Prof. Sophy Smith (guest editors).