BRIEF: An in-depth, deep-dive investigation of Extended Reality (XR) technologies and their creative use in Shakespeare performance to breakdown barriers for artists and audiences.
To explore the groundbreaking creative potential of combining Shakespeare with Extended Reality technologies in order to find new entry points, breaking down barriers and encouraging audiences to experience and engage with Shakespeare’s language, characters and stories in previously unimagined ways.
ACTIVITY: 1 week practical workshop learning the basic technical elements of ER technology, testing artistic potential via practical application using Shakespeare's Julius Caesar as practical text.
FINDINGS:
-New perspectives immersive technology presents. Able to access positions, insight, data or detail is insightful and creates new ways to experience not only Shakespeare.
-Might this form of tech to create backdrops or worlds in which the audience are immersed work better on more fantastical plays like The Tempest. It seems crazy to attempt to create a really real world which your already in, in augmented reality, when you could just been in the real world – your already in. The tech needs to do something, be of service, not dressing.
-Performers need to be kept up to date with the tech and the rules of performing with it, where can and cannot they stand or move too when in an augmented world where what they might be seeing on headsets is not what the audience see.
-Forgiving what’s real Vs requiring imagination – when experiencing graphics via the tech or real things – they just don’t actually look as real as the real thing – so when you don’t believe the tech, you don’t believe the world or actors.
-Access – Mixed reality could be a game changer for access audiences – creative captioning for example could be terrific here. But a note of caution; certain devices prove quite inaccessible!!!
-Audience expectation of augmented / virtual reality – It could be quite hard to manage this depending on your target audience and their experience of it.
COLLOBRATORS:
Performers: Jamie O'Neill, Mylo McDonald, Jordan Peedell.
Creatives: Adam Lenson, Gavin Harrington Odedra, Ricky Dukes.
Photography: Henry Roberts
