133755'Virtual sites' for site specific theatreClosedFeasibility StudiesISCF"Site-specific theatre is a novel, incredibly successful and increasingly popular genre of performance in which the UK is an acknowledged leader. Performances are devised to play out within, and react against 'real world' locations rather than traditional performance spaces. It is a style of performance that lends itself to reaching new audiences, and at its best is both artistically innovative and commercially successful. Despite its benefits and recent popularity, the industry has a major audience challenge: by its nature, performances often take place in low-capacity venues, without the facilities available in bespoke performance spaces. It is often confined to cities where a range of venues exist, and is very hard to export or record for future sale in the way that, for example, a theatrical performance might be released on DVD. Our project aims to take recent innovations that allow for effective augmented reality via computer vision techniques on consumer-level hardware (e.g. Apple and Android devices) to bring site-specific theatre to new audiences. We will design and develop a short prototype of an existing site-specific performance in a format that can be 'played back' via a smartphone or VR headset, essentially bringing the site, as well as the performance, to the user. The audience member would see their existing environment, but with objects, performers and decorative elements textured onto that environment, taking into account existing surfaces, entrances and exits. We are also interested in finding ways to harness this technology to make the experience more accessible for people with visual or hearing impairments, or mobility issues that would make attending a live performance difficult. To do this, we will take a user-centred design approach, quickly prototyping different solutions based on observations and feedback from a range of users through short, iterative prototyping sprints. We hope then to have a clear concept for further R&D. This is an ambitious project and we believe it is truly innovative. Existing AR/VR solutions tend to focus either on interactivity, typically with relatively simplistic interactions with your immediate environment, or on placing you in an entirely new location. This will be a rare investigation into creating a truly hybrid environment. In doing so, we think there is the potential to create an entirely new artform - and one with significant commercial and artistic potential."