Collaborative Solutions for the Performing Arts: A Telepresence Stage
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Brighton
Department Name: Sch of Art and Media (SAM)
Abstract
Performing arts professionals must collaborate to create, rehearse and perform. COVID-19 restrictions on shared spaces and physical contact now prevent them from working effectively. This project will reframe and customise conventional web-conferencing technologies to create innovative performance spaces, enabling collaboration in a shared online environment that we refer to as a telepresence stage. Real-time video images of remote performers are merged within virtual stage sets, so participants appear to co-exist in the same online space. This enables actors and dancers to simulate presence together from their homes, studios, theatres, or other remote locations to advance online creation, rehearsal and performance.
The project team from media and performing arts backgrounds bring together their knowledge and experience of developing live networked performance research and practice for over 30 years. They will develop a Telepresence Laboratory between University of Brighton UK, Third Space Network Studios in Washington DC and LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, combining green- screen technology and virtual set design to enable full-body interactions between remote performers in shared online spaces. Eight UK performing arts groups will test, explore, and perform online techniques. These groups include youth theatre, dance companies, musical theatre and regional theatres, working from remote locations using standard computing and video resources. Each 4-month residency will culminate in a live-streamed public performance demonstrating unique telepresence solutions to be immediately disseminated via multiple easy- to-use PDF help guides, step-by-step video tutorials and open-source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals in returning to work regardless of lockdown restrictions.
The project team from media and performing arts backgrounds bring together their knowledge and experience of developing live networked performance research and practice for over 30 years. They will develop a Telepresence Laboratory between University of Brighton UK, Third Space Network Studios in Washington DC and LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, combining green- screen technology and virtual set design to enable full-body interactions between remote performers in shared online spaces. Eight UK performing arts groups will test, explore, and perform online techniques. These groups include youth theatre, dance companies, musical theatre and regional theatres, working from remote locations using standard computing and video resources. Each 4-month residency will culminate in a live-streamed public performance demonstrating unique telepresence solutions to be immediately disseminated via multiple easy- to-use PDF help guides, step-by-step video tutorials and open-source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals in returning to work regardless of lockdown restrictions.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Paul Sermon (Principal Investigator) | |
| Steve Dixon (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Sermon P
(2021)
A Telepresence Stage: or how to create theatre in a pandemic - project report
in International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media
| Title | Creation Theatre Presents The Card Players |
| Description | With the starting point of Paul Cézanne's classic painting The Card Players (1895), two actors from Creation Theatre take the places of their nineteenth century counterparts to engage in a surreal card game and to wonder why a glass of wine poured by one of them cannot be tasted by the other. Giles Stoakley and Graeme Rose, working in their separate locations and brought together on screen using video chromakey techniques, enthusiastically explore the illusionary, laconic and comic potentials of live telematic theatre. Physical objects and props play a major part, with them placing their domestic tables and chairs to exactly line up with those in Cézanne's painting so they can appear to truly inhabit its virtual space. Games are played, with balls being thrown and rolled across the table to one another, although they all seem very difficult for the other to catch Playing cards are dealt and are miraculously picked up by the player opposite, and wads of banknotes suddenly appear as the stakes are raised. As the competition and tension mounts, things turn ugly as a weapon is produced and the argument begins to get physical. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Feedback from Giles Stoakley, Actor and Production Manager for Creation Theatre "Since we've started doing digital theatre I've always thought the kind of kitchen sink drama with small casts would just not work, but actually the feeling of real space and confinement that this gives you opens up a whole raft of drama that I never thought would work digitally, I think it's really, really exciting." |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/creation-theatre |
| Title | DAP-Lab Presents The river of no one |
| Description | The DAP-Lab residency was facilitated by project partners Third Space Network (3SN), involving geographically remote directors and performers based in London and Bath in the UK. DAP-Lab are an experienced multi-disciplinary performance ensemble that bring numerous artistic skills and methods to their work. From the outset of the residency, they developed ecologically focused concepts particularly centring on the human relationship to water, its movement and places. These ideas were explored and developed using rural imagery, audio and movement ideas, as well as varied props and mise-en-scène elements, including the use of fabrics as objects and scenic elements. Drawing on their previous experiences, DAP-Lab were well prepared for the residency and proved to be adept at investigating their artistic material, applying technology, and exploring the potential of the Telepresence Stage online media environment. Their final 30-minute performance, The river of no one was performed in six parts and included multiple video and photographic images, scene transitions and audio accompaniments. This was a fluid performance that journeys through place and time, literally and figuratively, with a uniquely personal, yet collective voice. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Feedback from DAP-Lab Co-Director, Johannes Birringer "This residency allowed the company to take their recent interest in VR technologies and the somatechnics of dis/ability one step further into questioning the connectability of the virtual (and real-time composited telematic performance space) with a sensual and sensorial as well as organic-experiential collectivity - now urgently envisioned since the 2020 Covid pandemic." |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/dap-lab |
| Title | Guttersnipe Theatre Presents SHUGA FIXX vs The Illuminati |
| Description | As part of their ongoing production of SHUGA FIXX vs The Illuminati, Guttersnipe Theatre explored and produced a telepresence staging of the Triple Threat Teen Awards, a 'behind the scenes' talent show parody of television's X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. The show took the form of a satirical black comedy that explores the dark absurdity of conspiracy theories, the poor treatment of young talent and the rise of fear culture through the eyes of SHUGA FIXX, a tween pop-band who have become prime targets of the ultimate inner circle. The Guttersnipe Theatre residency was facilitated by project guest researcher Boyd Branch, utilising his online 3D compositing software Virtual Director, a particularly suitable telepresence solution for Guttersnipe's unique cabaret style of theatre. Boyd Branch, Lecturer in the School of Media and Performing Arts at Coventry University, developed and built Virtual Director to explore the effects of immersive visualisations on rehearsing and performing theatre online as part of his PhD at the University of Kent. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Feedback from Grace Church, Guttersnipe Theatre "We are so excited to be working with the Telepresence Stage team on this exciting venture into uncharted digital performance territory. Our company had received Arts Council funding for our show 'SHUGA FIXX vs The Illuminati' in February 2020, thus due to COVID-19 our rehearsals and performances were cancelled. We managed to make videos, do live sharing and make scenes, dances and music from our bedrooms. However, this certainly doesn't compare to our experience of being composited in the virtual space all together." |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/guttersnipe-theatre |
| Title | Improbable Presents Outside the Frame |
| Description | The team from Improbable commenced their residency wanting to explore moving in and out of boxes, breaking down the barriers that separated them in their previous Zoom performance work. They sought to create a spacious open space to speak from and to identify and explore what they described as "the fun, the creativity, the outrageous, the intimate, the beautiful, the human, the theatrical, the unexpected and unlikely". Reflecting on what was technically possible whilst maintaining their original dramaturgical approach, they developed a handmade tactile aesthetic that uses the technology in a unique way, whilst maintaining the attributes of live theatre. The Improbable team brought a wide range of skills and experiences to the residency, including directing, acting, making, design and stage management. Their unique style of research and development resembled a jazz improvisation ensemble, working together in unison and riffing off each other to develop ideas, and compositional scenes and dialogues. Their residency resulted in a rich and original layering of scenography, animation, painting and live action in their final 20-minute performance, entitled Outside the Frame. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Feedback from Improbable Co-Director and Actor, Angela Clerkin "I really wanted it to still feel like theatre, and to me it did! This really opened up a world for us, that we could use different techniques that felt real 'you could feel the set wobble' you know, that's what I really liked about it. It felt really right with the type of work that we were developing." |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/improbable |
| Title | Phoenix Dance Theatre Presents Experiments in Wonderland |
| Description | The Phoenix Dance Theatre Residency consisted of 5 practical sessions/rehearsals to investigate the possibilities of working with telepresence as a creative space. There was also an introductory meeting and a reflective session to gather feedback from the team. The decision was made to work with improvisation as an exploratory tool, rather than to focus on choreographing a final performance. This provided the maximum opportunity to try different approaches and possibilities with in the time available. Background images were used to inspire simple narrative situations, with which the dancers could interact if they chose. In the first session, the team worked together in a studio space, learning how to use the equipment and how to interact with the digital scenography via the screens. Subsequent sessions took place with team members working remotely. Two dancers were in the same household so they were together physically, while all of the other team members were in separate spaces, each setting up their own equipment. By the end of the residency, a collection of simple improvisations had indicated several possibilities for expansion into more formal choreographic works for future times. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Feedback from Charis Charles, Executive Director of Phoenix Dance Theatre "This project is highly important to performing arts companies, as we seek ways to rehearse and create new work in the wake of COVID 19. It has the potential to reinvent collaborative workshopping, rehearsal and performance spaces in virtual environments that support social distancing even when dancers are working closely together. We are excited by the opportunities that it offers at a time when new possibilities are few and far between for the arts." |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/phoenix-dance-theatre |
| Title | Pigeon Theatre Presents Where are the children? |
| Description | The company decided strategically to commence with no preconceptions or initial creative ideas, starting from an entirely empty page. This was in order to allow the Telepresence Stage platform and the experience of working in virtual spaces to help prompt their approach, and inspire storylines and dramaturgical ideas. A number of digital scenographies were created as the project progressed, from a building frontage with large, ornate Gothic windows to a long corridor with multiple doors which were sometimes open, sometimes closed. The 25-minute performance follows two mother characters as they lose and find one another in various locations, tidy away toys, converse, drink, dance and repeat themselves. They discuss the intricacies of domestic chores, making lists, worrying and not worrying, self-confidence (or lack of it), semantics and verbal articulacy. Intermittently, they ask "Where are the children?" and note that it becomes "impossible to say where we are right now" as they move through continually changing virtual sets. The sense of togetherness followed by separation grew increasingly marked and dramatic as the performance progressed. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Feedback from Pigeon Theatre performer, Anna Fenemore "It opened up new levels of imagination with a feeling of a kind of otherworldliness which is so completely opposite to any Pigeon show that we do normally, which is about being rooted in whatever space it's in but that sense of a kind of fantasy world where you're not quite sure what is happening or who is who is a very different kind of content and approach to thinking about theatre." |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/pigeon-theatre |
| Title | Project Partner Third Space Network and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company Presents Black|White |
| Description | Following their four month residency Third Space Network (3SN) and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company presented Black|White, an online dance/music performance workshop on Thursday, July 15th, 6pm EDT. The performance workshop showcased Los Angeles tenor and performance artist Charles Lane, along with dancer/choreographer Daniel Charon, artistic director of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in Salt Lake City. The two artists, performed live from their home studios and were united live and online in the 3SN Deep Third Space Performance Lab. The work is a creation of 3SN Artistic Director Randall Packer in collaboration with Multimedia Designer Gregory Kuhn, Daniel Charon, and Charles Lane. Black|White is a response to the crises of pandemic isolation and racial polarization in the aftermath of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd. The work situates two men: one Black, one White, one a singer, the other a dancer, two individuals who must negotiate distant worlds, distant neighborhoods, distant lives, and different skin, a reconciliation through the language of image, music, rhythm, collage, and movement, co-mingled in the immaterial space of the Network. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Feedback from Tenor and performance artist, Charles Lane "Being inside of my apartment in downtown LA surrounded by all this technology it was hard to get a sense of theatre at the beginning, but eventually through the process and entire performance I completely forgot that I was in my apartment studio and it really did feel like Daniel and I shared the same stage and that was a remarkable and rewarding feeling and experience for me." |
| URL | https://youtu.be/daGZI7pvOBU |
| Title | Red Ladder Theatre Company Presents TAXI |
| Description | This residency was configured within the Research and Development phase for Red Ladder Theatre Company's new production, TAXI. The show was based around the experiences of a taxi driver in Leeds, portraying issues of mental health and the fragility of society. The company intended to combine live stage performances with digital elements, to create a world in which strange and surreal events could happen in a believable way around the physical actors. They used the Telepresence Stage residency to experiment with the technology as a possible way to achieve this. The final outcome of this residency took the form of a 3-minute performance, in which a taxi driver takes a passenger on a journey that ends in a philosophical discussion about the journey of life. The action remains static, with the driver in the front seat behind the steering wheel and the passenger sitting on the rear seat, while the images outside the car give the impression of driving along a road in Leeds. Different arrangements of the digital scenery result in the visual effect of various camera angles and shots in the format and style of a television or film production. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Feedback from Rod Dixon, Artistic Director, Red Ladder Theatre Company "We wanted the audience to experience or question what their understanding of reality is, and present to them the feeling that they'd either entered a film or even more fantastically entered a graphic novel to such a high quality so the audience actually couldn't quite believe their eyes." |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/red-ladder-theatre |
| Title | Sharp Teeth Theatre Presents Sherlock in Homes |
| Description | Sharp Teeth Theatre wanted to build on their experience and success of their earlier Sherlock in Homes productions for Zoom. They were interested in exploring what more could be possible using the Telepresence Stage platform, with the actors being allowed the freedom to share the same screen space scenographies, rather than being confined to their individual Zoom windows. They were therefore keen to share their final Telepresence Stage performance on Zoom, but also emphasise its liveness and include their Zoom audience in the Telepresence Stage output through live video and audio inputs as well as incorporating the chat from the Zoom audience. For their Telepresence Stage residency, Sharp Teeth Theatre decided to rework their previous performance of Sherlock in Homes II: Murder on Ice, with two actors playing all the parts form their separate homes in London and Bristol. The Sherlock in Homes performance is an interactive murder mystery comedy, demonstrating a variety of 'live action' layering techniques and effects. The audience plays detectives on the 1929 International Detective Booze Cruise, invited by Captain El Sharto to solve the murder of Admiral Albert Ross in the nearby Antarctic expedition base camp. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | Feedback from Sharp Teeth Theatre Co-Director, Stephanie Kempson "This medium feels like it wants to be more live than the way that we've been using it, so it will be really nice to look at how we can incorporate more audience interaction and improvisation into what we are doing" |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/sharp-teeth-theatre |
| Title | Telematic Quarantine: Telepresent stories of self [isolation] |
| Description | A live telematic video performance for the International Limestone Coast Video Art Festival, 6th November to 6th December 2020. In this new telematic commission for the International Limestone Coast Video Art Festival 'Video Art during and after the pandemic' in Mount Gambier, South Australia I connected with artists participating in the festival at The Riddoch Arts & Cultural Centre in Mount Gambier and other remote artists and performers around the world. A customised Skype connection brought them into my home in an uncanny telepresent encounter. Together we shared a space to perform, play and improvise, telling our stories of self-isolation in a new found telematic intimacy that broke free from the constraints of those video chat windows we have become so accustomed to. Telematic Quarantine was a layered video environment and experience of domesticity, fantasy and dream in COVID-19 times. Streamed on YouTube Live. Contributing performers included: Cynthia Schwertsik at The Riddoch in Mount Gambier, South Australia - Steve Dixon, Felipe Cervera and Khalid Al Mkhlaafy at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore - David Blaiklock, Dan McLean and Mostyn Jacob at The Riddoch in Mount Gambier, South Australia - Indumathi Tamilselvan, Nurulhuda Hassan and Alex Kong at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore - Kristina Pulejkova in London, UK - Birgitta Hosea in London, UK - Tania Fraga in São Paulo, Brazil. The contributing performers were invited to participate in advance of the event. They were provided with background information and online support on how to prepare their Skype connection, studio spaces and green-screen setup using a range of options provided. Telematic Quarantine: Telepresent stories of self [isolation] was presented as part of the International Limestone Coast Video Art Festival 2020, under this year's festival theme 'Video Art during and after the pandemic'. The full festival programme and further festival information about the online Telematic Quarantine performance event can be downloaded here: https://riddochartgallery.org.au/events/telematic-quarantine/. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | The performance was streamed on YouTube Live to over a 1000 online attendees, and involved the live participation of 14 international artists, from 3 continents. The performance provided those taking part with direct access to the technical innovations involved in the online telepresence performance as well as in rehearsals and workshops. Further material and documentation is provided on the performance webpage, allowing audience members with access to technical flow diagrams and concept documents for direct use and implantation in future telepresence performance productions. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/telematic-quarantine |
| Description | Completed residences since the start of the project have included Telematic Quarantine, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Creation Theatre, Pigeon Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Guttersnipe Theatre and Red Ladder Theatre Company. Following each residency extensive debriefing discussion have taken place to inform Key findings, presented in case study reports on each residency available on the project website https://www.telepresencestage.org. These are presented through company reflections and analysis, and summarised as 'Key Takeaway Points' at the end of each case study. And include both performer experience and knowledge transfer in relation to working in lockdown. Performer Experience: • Telepresence Stage solutions provided a far greater sense coexistent collaboration and shared space than Zoom and MS Teams applications. • Residency participants all reported a heightened sense of social coexistence using Telepresence Stage solutions, that was markedly so when having to end an online session. • Participants quickly learnt how to orientate themselves on the Telepresence stage after continued interaction, becoming self-aware and co-productive in online shared space. Knowledge Transfer: • Residency participants with no previous knowledge of green-screen technology and online video became increasingly confident and adept at setting up and adjusting their equipment. • Using mime performance techniques and tutorials aided performed routines and interactions between remote performers. • It was necessary to learn and negotiate network latency when using Telepresence Stage solutions; skills not normally required in other networked video applications. Each residency has trialled and tested a range of green-screen video setups and utilised differing communications and video-switching software solutions, appropriate to the company and performing arts genre. These have included: - Software solutions and advice for low-budget productions. - Specific home studio green-screen requirements and recommendations. - Considerations and approaches to scenography for online theatre. - Working without scenography elements to explore body/dance interaction. - Rehearsal requirements and techniques specific to telepresence performance. - Positioning and using preview monitors for self-monitoring. - Working with different camera angles/positions for maximum effect. - Methods to prepare and become accustomed to performing online. - The necessity to plan, design and construct green-screen sets. - Appropriate use of green screen backdrops or painted green-screen sets. - Illusionary green-screen techniques/effects 'suspending the audience's disbelief'. - Methods and approaches to include audience participation in productions. For each company the Telepresence Stage residency has been a radically different approach to online performance. The fundamental change has been to move away from the 'performance to camera' model, utilised previously by some in Zoom performances, to 'performing on camera' in a telepresence shared space. As Creation Theatre explained A key shift for them during the residency was to "unlearn a camera centric focus and think differently" about digital theatre as a space to coexist. "When you become two people engaging in a different way ... it allows you to do things that are emotionally very difficult to do down the lens" to create theatrical tension. As a site-specific company, the actors' relationship with the audience is critical. Creation Theatre were excited to "mix carefully choreographed and technically competent acting with an audience participant ... [or] 'rogue agent' who could do or say anything to disrupt the activity". Compositing performers into the same video image is a signature approach to the Telepresence Stage project. Collaborators in Telematic Quarantine described how "the surprising elements of domesticity, fantasy, and interaction not only allowed participants to perform together, but to dream together, to create a world together". It went further than they expected, "having a tactile feeling that was suddenly much deeper than previous telematic projects" seen before. Following their residency Creation Theatre's Creative Producer wrote to the research team to let them know that "we're already using things we discovered in the next show!" |
| Exploitation Route | Summary of the research This project aims to identify new and creative ways for actors, dancers and other performing arts professionals to rehearse and interact together in shared online spaces and to produce collaborative live performances from remote sites. In a dramatic shift from the paradigm of the web-conference grid, the Telepresence Stage seeks to identify conceptual and technical solutions to break free of these isolating constraints and provide an altogether new platform, where our experience of online connection is heightened and re-envisioned through the superimposition of our bodies in virtual spaces. Eight UK performing arts companies will undertake residencies to test, explore, and perform online techniques, between their participating members in remote locations. Each residency will explore and develop a live- streamed public performance demonstrating a unique range of telepresence solutions, made available via case study documents and videos, providing help guides, tutorial support and open-source resources. Policy recommendations People: Working practices in the performing arts sector, training needs and preparedness to innovate. Theatre production, of all scales involves technical personnel. Production teams and training in set design, lighting, audio mixing, video and special effects are all familiar requirements. But following the pandemic it is also necessary to include the provision and training in Internet videoconference, video streaming and Telepresence Stage solutions for the sustainability of theatre and innovation in the sector. The Telepresence Stage project outcomes recommend the need to implement network video resources, training and personnel alongside the existing skills in theatre production. Environment: Opportunities arising from the project include reducing the need for travel, national and international for the sake of auditions, script read-throughs, rehearsals and developing/ discussing scenography audio/visuals. We are developing full body immersive telepresence that not only offers new online show possibilities, but also for the development of traditional staged theatre productions, making it possible to do the work that occurs in the rehearsal room online, and in a much more appropriate way to traditional video chat applications, such as Zoom. A truly fit for purpose system that allows actors to rehearse with full body interaction, with sets designs, effects and audio etc. Key findings Outcomes and findings from this project are experiential and qualitive in nature. Working with 8 performing arts companies though our residency programme we have received direct feedback from participants on the opportunities and barriers to implementing Telepresence Stage solutions. These findings include: • Most performers were unfamiliar with green-screen video technology - the first time they had used it. • Participants preferred to focus on the performance aspects and leave the telepresence technology to the research team and follow up on this knowledge through our case studies and guidance documents. • Technical personnel were less involved in the residency programmes than the performers - although interested they were unfamiliar with the technical and conceptual solutions being developed. • All participants agreed how effective the solutions were, but would need technical support to implement. • Participants often spoke about the possibilities of new hybrid/mixed forms of online/offline productions. • Many companies wanted to explore new modes of online audience participation and also considered the opportunities to reach new international audiences. • Participants discussed the opportunity to reduce budgets by using Telepresence Stage solutions for auditions, script read-throughs and rehearsal for planning and development of staged productions. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org |
| Description | Evidence based impacts resulting from residencies Telepresence Stage residencies continue explore and develop radically different approaches to online performance video chat applications such as Zoom. Participants repeatidly evidence a significantly different approach, including Guttersnipe Theatre "We are so excited to be working with the Telepresence Stage team on this exciting venture into uncharted digital performance territory. Our company had received Arts Council funding for our show 'SHUGA FIXX vs The Illuminati' in February 2020, thus due to COVID-19 our rehearsals and performances were cancelled. We managed to make videos, do live sharing and make scenes, dances and music from our bedrooms. However, this certainly doesn't compare to our experience of being composited in the virtual space all together." And as Ririe-Woodbury Dance Theatre also highlighted "Being inside of my apartment in downtown LA surrounded by all this technology it was hard to get a sense of theatre at the beginning, but eventually through the process and entire performance I completely forgot that I was in my apartment studio and it really did feel like Daniel and I shared the same stage and that was a remarkable and rewarding feeling and experience for me. ... I agree totally, and that really just happened in the last day or two when we were able to just keep running, it was like diving into the third space and I had to picture you next to me, like I really had you in this space with me, and it felt a little bit like a an alternate reality, which was really awesome." Following their residency Creation Theatre's Creative Producer wrote to the research team to let them know that... "we're already using things we discovered in the next show!" Further non academic impacts/policy People: Working practices in the performing arts sector, training needs and preparedness to innovate. Theatre production, of all scales involves technical personnel. Production teams and training in set design, lighting, audio mixing, video and special effects are all familiar requirements. But following the pandemic it is also necessary to include the provision and training in Internet videoconference, video streaming and Telepresence Stage solutions for the sustainability of theatre and innovation in the sector. The Telepresence Stage project outcomes recommend the need to implement network video resources, training and personnel alongside the existing skills in theatre production. Environment: Opportunities arising from the project include reducing the need for travel, national and international for the sake of auditions, script read-throughs, rehearsals and developing/ discussing scenography audio/visuals. We are developing full body immersive telepresence that not only offers new online show possibilities, but also for the development of traditional staged theatre productions, making it possible to do the work that occurs in the rehearsal room online, and in a much more appropriate way to traditional video chat applications, such as Zoom. A truly fit for purpose system that allows actors to rehearse with full body interaction, with sets designs, effects and audio etc. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Collaborative Solutions for the Performing Arts: A Telepresence Stage |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| Impact | Outcomes and findings from this project are experiential and qualitive in nature. Working with 8 performing arts companies though our residency programme we have received direct feedback from participants on the opportunities and barriers to implementing Telepresence Stage solutions. These findings include: • Most performers were unfamiliar with green-screen video technology - the first time they had used it. • Participants preferred to focus on the performance aspects and leave the telepresence technology to the research team and follow up on this knowledge through our case studies and guidance documents. • Technical personnel were less involved in the residency programmes than the performers - although interested they were unfamiliar with the technical and conceptual solutions being developed. • All participants agreed how effective the solutions were, but would need technical support to implement. • Participants often spoke about the possibilities of new hybrid/mixed forms of online/offline productions. • Many companies wanted to explore new modes of online audience participation and also considered the opportunities to reach new international audiences. • Participants discussed the opportunity to reduce budgets by using Telepresence Stage solutions for auditions, script read-throughs and rehearsal for planning and development of staged productions. |
| URL | https://pandemicandbeyond.exeter.ac.uk/projects/bridging-distance-in-the-creative-industries/collabo... |
| Description | Input and contribution to UK Parliament POSTnote - Approved work: The impact of digital technology on arts and culture in the UK Work programme. Published Friday, 28 January, 2022 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fparliament.us16.list-manage.com%2F... |
| Title | Creation Theatre Case Study |
| Description | Creation Theatre Residency Case Study, April to June 2021. Introduction: Company Summary Residency Summary Company Engagement Ideas and Experiments Performance: Technical Approaches Participants Technical Setup Equipment and Materials Description and Analysis Video Recordings Evaluation: Company Reflections Research Team Reflections Key Takeaway Points |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open-source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points Precise set up diagrams were drawn up in accordance with the virtual set, allowing the remote actors to construct identical green-screen sets. The provision of identical tables and certain props was clearly important in ensuring the illusion and the visual alignments between the actors' two green-screen spaces. Careful consideration of the green-screen set design in advance remains crucial to such performances, ensuring the objects and green-screen interfaces are identical, and allowing the actors to coexist in the same scale and from the same camera angle within their set arrangements. The use of green-screen paint rather than green fabric material was found to be preferable when working with certain green-screen sets and physical objects such as tables, where movements or objects placed on the table may result in creases in the material. These do not 'key' well and will show up on screen to disturb the illusion of a consistent and flat table surface. Green-screen paint allows for better physical interaction with objects, providing a consistent shade of green throughout the set design, which enables greater precision for chromakeying the separate locations together. The Creation Theatre actors considered and developed green-screen effects to attempt to blend their sense of coexistence. Some worked successfully but others failed in their efforts at 'suspending the audience's disbelief'. Some of this was due to a lack of rehearsal time to fully explore and practice the various illusionary effects and tricks, and this is an important consideration in increasing a sense of authenticity and spatial fusion in telepresence stage productions. Creation Theatre used a typical 'head and shoulders' video-chat image of a live audience member to great effect, by scaling and placing their video to fit within the scene as though he was sitting at the head of the table. The ability to incorporate audience participation directly into telepresence scenes, either as passive or active contributors enhances the theatricality of such performances. It provides a real sense of liveness (this cannot be a recording) as well as suspense for other members of the audience, who realise they may also find themselves suddenly appearing 'on stage' within the mise-en-scène. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/uploads/case-study-pdfs/Creation-Theatre-Case-Study.pdf |
| Title | DAP-Lab Case Study |
| Description | DAP-Lab Residency Case Study, January to March 2022. Introduction: Company Summary, Residency Summary, Company Engagement, Ideas and Experiments. Performance: Technical Approaches, Participants Technical Setup, Equipment and Materials, Description and Analysis, Video Recordings. Evaluation: Company Reflections, Research Team Reflections, Key Takeaway Points. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open- source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points: 1. Consistent physical layout and placement of lights, mics, green screens, cameras, monitors, etc., is critical for audio- visual quality and continuity and the ability to successfully repeat scenes, cues and transitions. 2. Stable high speed, low-latency internet is critical to consistent work flow productivity, and to facilitate ease of communication between remote participants. Decreases in the quality and speed of the connections proportionally reduce the effectiveness and breadth of participant communication. 3. Many physical theatrical staging elements, like blocking and placement, and many cinematic effects, such as multi- image content or degree of transparency, require carefully coordinated queuing between the participants. 4. Whether utilising photo-realistic or fantastical imagery, the crucial factor remains its effectiveness in maximising the artists' conceptual and expressive intentions. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/uploads/case-study-pdfs/DAP-Lab-Case-Study.pdf |
| Title | Guttersnipe Theatre Case Study |
| Description | Guttersnipe Theatre Residency Case Study, July to September 2021. Introduction: Company Summary Residency Summary Company Engagement Ideas and Experiments Performance: Technical Approaches Participants Technical Setup Equipment and Materials Description and Analysis Video Recordings Evaluation: Company Reflections Research Team Reflections Key Takeaway Points |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open-source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points Commencing the first practical session with a series of telepresence interaction exercises introduces the performers to the space very effectively. They quickly learn how to orientate themselves, react and respond to virtual interactions, through techniques such as 'high-fiving', 'virtual hugging', 'virtual combat' and 'gift- giving'. The performers learn how to negotiate latency and develop a telepresence sense of proprioception in relation to themselves and other performers in the space. Wearing a costume helps the performer get into character and further embody the role they are playing on screen in front of them. When the performer is dressed according to the scenography they are placed within, the experience becomes more intuitive, they immediately feel in context and a sense of freedom in performing in character. Using video clips or 'idents' between scenes provides an opportunity for costume changes and scene setting interludes, as well as for the preparation of props or physical objects. Video clips of pre-recorded performers can be used to integrate additional characters. By rehearsing and synchronising interactions with a pre-recorded video it is possible to create convincing interactions between live and pre-recorded performers. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/uploads/case-study-pdfs/Guttersnipe-Theatre-Case-Study.pdf |
| Title | Improbable Case Study |
| Description | Improbable Case Study, February to May 2022. Introduction: Company Summary, Residency Summary, Company Engagement, Ideas and Experiments. Performance: Technical Approaches, Participants Technical Setup, Equipment and Materials, Description and Analysis, Video Recordings. Evaluation: Company Reflections, Research Team Reflections, Key Takeaway Points. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open- source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points: 1 Aim to include a full production team: Like all theatre performances the involvement of a full production team will help guarantee a successful outcome. Alongside directors and actors consider the inclusion of a video designer/ animator, an artist and technical stage manager, as well as a Telepresence Stage/vMix operator and sound engineer. 2 Use a copy stand/rostrum camera for live artwork: Hand painted scenes, assemblages of objects and collage can be added as a live background using a 'copy stand/rostrum' to mount a webcam and light ring above the artist's paper and their hands. Green screen paper can also be used to chromakey paintings and objects as foreground props/sections. 3 Adding preview monitors to both sides of the green screen: Adding further preview monitors will provide the actors with the ability to monitor their performance on both sides of the green screen, left and right, as well as straight on using their laptop screen, giving them complete observation and control of their telepresence performance from all available angles. 4 Embrace the mistakes as a part of live theatre: Both human and technical mistakes will occur, as with all theatre productions. Be prepared to adlib and embrace the mistakes, it reaffirms the 'liveness' and unpredictability of the theatrical experience for the performers and audience members. 5 Consider an 'action research' approach: Develop ideas as a team at the research stage and in rehearsals. Work together to propose a scenario using the resources available, try it out, reflect on it, adapt it and try it out again. Keep repeating the action research method to finalise a scene or to expand and develop further ideas from it. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/residencies/improbable |
| Title | Phoenix Dance Theatre Case Study |
| Description | Phoenix Dance Theatre Residency Case Study, February to April 2021. Introduction: Company Summary Residency Summary Company Engagement Ideas and Experiments Performance: Technical Approaches Participants Technical Setup Equipment and Materials Description and Analysis Video Recordings Evaluation: Company Reflections Research Team Reflections Key Takeaway Points |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open-source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points: Working with overhead cameras and green screens on the floor presents an unusual perspective with many possibilities for choreography. Wherever the cameras and green screens are placed, it is important to consider the positioning of screens so that the performers can see the composite image whilst performing. For dance companies, we recommend experimenting both with and without digital scenography. Working with digital scenography helps to give the digital space shape and provide inspiration. However, working without it places emphasis on relationships between bodies within the digital space, and also upon each dancer's relationship with their own image. It takes time for a dancer to become accustomed to the relationship between their physical body and their digital body in the telepresence stage, as they learn to work with/through the screens. Allow time initially for that relationship to develop - several hours will be beneficial for a deeper sense of moving simultaneously in physical and digital space. Time invested at this stage will pay off later in the creative and rehearsal processes as the dancers will be able to move more confidently and with a stronger sense of presence in the digital space. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/uploads/case-study-pdfs/Phoenix-Dance-Theatre-Case-Study.pdf |
| Title | Pigeon Theatre Case Study |
| Description | Pigeon Theatre Residency Case Study, April to July 2021. Introduction: Company Summary Residency Summary Company Engagement Ideas and Experiments Performance: Technical Approaches Participants Technical Setup Equipment and Materials Description and Analysis Video Recordings Evaluation: Company Reflections Research Team Reflections Key Takeaway Points |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open-source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points This was a successful project in terms of meeting the company's objectives to begin working again within a lockdown context, and to expand their ideas and scope into new telematic/digital contexts. It culminated in a strong and engaging final performance. The research team believe its success was in part due to the company setting high ambitions for themselves, including developing a complete and densely worded script from scratch, as well as employing multiple virtual set designs and a range of visual effects. They were also able to rehearse and hone their performances in detail by arranging separate sessions beyond the regular 3-hour sessions with the research team, where the two of them could work alone and explore the virtual settings. There were some technical issues that were resolved, including ensuring effective blackout of windows in their domestic spaces to provide consistent lighting. Other technical aspects worth noting include optimising the positioning of the greenscreen and the camera in relation to the size of home spaces, since one performer had very little room outside of the sides of the camera frame. This resulted in occasional limbs or body parts inadvertently appearing or remaining in the shot. Whilst the main focus of this research was to find ways of working remotely during lockdown situations, this residency demonstrated the value of remote home rehearsals for people with caring responsibilities. The two actors were able to rehearse and perform whilst their children were in the house with them, removing the need for sometimes difficult and/or costly childcare arrangements. This is no small benefit for many actors and performers, regardless of wider circumstances. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/uploads/case-study-pdfs/Pigeon-Theatre-Case-Study.pdf |
| Title | Project Partner Third Space Network and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company Case study |
| Description | Project Partner Third Space Network and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company Residency Case study, April to July 2021. Introduction: Company Summary Residency Summary Company Engagement Ideas and Experiments Performance: Technical Approaches Participants Technical Setup Equipment and Materials Description and Analysis Video Recordings Evaluation: Company Reflections Research Team Reflections Key Takeaway Points |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open-source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points Like traditional theatre, online performance is a very challenging undertaking. There is a new set of technical challenges, particular in relation to the Internet, which introduces latencies, instabilities, and dependence on communications technology to interact and engage. However great the challenges are, it is well worth the effort. Despite these hurdles, the platform can reduce the labour-intensive nature of traditional theatre, which requires costly physical space and technicians to operate the venue. Here, it is possible to create powerful theatre with a laptop, camera, and free networking software. However, to pursue higher production values, like traditional theatre, requires extensive technological resources. The collaborators foresee that theatre companies, especially those who have been exposed to new techniques through workshops such as the Telepresence Stage project, will incorporate these techniques into their facilities and repertoire, perhaps blending them with traditional and online theatre. Third Space Network view the future of theatre as a hybrid of the physical stage and the virtual environment: breaking down the boundaries between the local and the remote to create a theatre of the "third space". When the performers have never met in person previously it was necessary to spend a great deal of time allowing them to talk to one another on set, getting to know each other better, before spending time rehearsing with sets and music. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/uploads/case-study-pdfs/BlackWhite-Case-Study.pdf |
| Title | Red Ladder Theatre Company Case Study |
| Description | Red Ladder Theatre Company Residency Case Study, January 2022. Introduction: Company Summary, Residency Summary, Company Engagement, Ideas and Experiments. Performance: Technical Approaches, Participants Technical Setup, Equipment and Materials, Description and Analysis, Video Recordings. Evaluation: Company Reflections, Research Team Reflections, Key Takeaway Points. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open- source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points: 1. Working with the Telepresence Stage system is not the same as working with television or film. It is essential that companies working for the first time with this system allow at least a short period of experimentation in order to become familiar with the opportunities that it offers, and to prevent assumptions that could be counterproductive to creativity. The residency case studies in our project are also useful places to learn about the creative possibilities of the system. 2. Using "spots" or markers to line up eyelines between performers can be useful, but allow for some movement in those markers to accommodate slight changes in positioning due to the "liveness" of the medium. 3. Changes in viewing angle can give the impression of camera editing, adding dynamics and movement to an otherwise static scene in a similar way to television or film. 4. Passing objects between remote participants can be done simply but convincingly if the object is in view as much of the time as possible but is just out of view at the point where it changes between hands. 5. Use the same types of lighting in all remote locations and at the same colour temperature (Daylight Kelvin Value: 5600K) to avoid noticeably differences between lighting conditions and colours. 6. Be aware of acoustics and echo, particularly when using large spaces. To avoid unwanted natural echo, try to use rooms with carpets, furniture/ objects and curtains or drapes to reduce unwanted room echo effects. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/uploads/case-study-pdfs/Red-Ladder-Theatre-Case-Study.pdf |
| Title | Sharp Teeth Theatre Case Study |
| Description | Sharp Teeth Theatre Residency Case Study, March to April 2022. Introduction: Company Summary, Residency Summary, Company Engagement, Ideas and Experiments. Performance: Technical Approaches, Participants Technical Setup, Equipment and Materials, Description and Analysis, Video Recordings. Evaluation: Company Reflections, Research Team Reflections, Key Takeaway Points. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open- source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points: 1 Monitoring the performance on multiple platforms: If the performance is being presented live in a Zoom or MS Teams meeting it is helpful for the performers to have a second device, such as a laptop or tablet to join the meeting and monitor the audience and their response, in addition to the computer/laptop connecting to vMix. This is particularly useful if the actors need to interact with or address members of the audience, but they should also be aware of their available bandwidth to do so. 2 Adding audience video to the production: Zoom audience members can appear in the Telepresence Stage performance using the ZoomISO application, integrating their full screen resolution image in the production. If the audience members use virtual green screen backgrounds in Zoom it also becomes possible to chromakey just their image into the scene, appearing to look through windows or placed in picture frames for example. 3 Including audience chat in the performance: Using the vMix addon 'vMix Social' makes it possible for remote audience members or producers, watching the performance on Zoom or YouTube etc. to add live social media chat to the production. The live chat can be overlayed in a range of fonts, styles and formats, appearing within the scenes as subtitles or handwritten letters, for example. 4 Using silhouetted actors in the production: Turning the actors into silhouettes provides them with the opportunity to interact together as a complete composition, without having to be concerned about being in front or behind each other. This effect can work well in physically-oriented scenes, such as fights, and particularly when the identity of the actors needs to be mysterious or disguised. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/uploads/case-study-pdfs/Sharp-Teeth-Theatre-Case-Study.pdf |
| Title | Telematic Quarantine Case Study |
| Description | Telematic Quarantine Residency Case Study, November 2020. Introduction: Company Summary Residency Summary Company Engagement Ideas and Experiments Performance: Technical Approaches Participants Technical Setup Equipment and Materials Description and Analysis Video Recordings Evaluation: Company Reflections Research Team Reflections Key Takeaway Points |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This Case Study is made publicly available through the project website (https://www.telepresencestage.org) providing help guides, tutorial support and open-source resources designed to assist UK performing arts professionals to adapt and continue to work online. Key Takeaway Points By using Skype, this telepresence system provides a low-cost solution, with the only significant software cost and requirement being for Resolume Avenue 6 or VDMX. However, the system does require a number of programmes to run concurrently. While this project was designed to run on a Mac it could be equally configured for Windows. The only drawback with Skype is the necessity to use an older version, 8.59.0.77, as later versions (tested on a MacBook Pro) will not allow a virtual camera input. The participants in Mount Gambier were restricted by the width of their green-screen backdrop, which was only 2 metres wide, which meant their image had to be cropped in Resolume for compositing. This limited their space for interaction. The project team strongly recommend green-screen backgrounds of at least 3 metres width, but preferably 4 metres or more. The system works best when the entire body of the performer is surrounded by green. The participants and researchers all commented on how successful the sense of visiting a real home space had been, with the scenographic architecture providing a sense of everyone existing together within it, as a unifying "space within a space". The project researchers concluded that when creating such telematic performances, artists and participants will do well to consider carefully ideas of location, spatiality and movement in relation to dramaturgy and story- telling, and how triggers and connections are made between spaces, performers and actions. Telematic Quarantine was intended to be an improvised exploration of the telepresence stage, but many participants and partners commented on a desire for more time to practice, rehearse and perfect their ability to interact. Performing on a telepresence stage requires time to get accustomed to, and the project team recommend that those unfamiliar with working in this space prepare for, explore and rehearse as much as possible. |
| URL | https://www.telepresencestage.org/uploads/case-study-pdfs/Telematic-Quarantine-Case-Study.pdf |
| Description | Multilateral Project Partnership and Agreements |
| Organisation | Gnural Net Inc |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | 'Collaborative Solutions for the Performing Arts: A Telepresence Stage' has formed a multilateral agreement between project partners in the UK, USA and Singapore. The research team specifically contribute new techniques and conceptual approaches to explore new platforms and methods for online performance, providing new approaches and techniques for the performing arts sector and for specific use and development by project partners Third Space Network in Washington DC, LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, Gnural Net Inc. in USA and LEONARDO ISAST in USA. |
| Collaborator Contribution | This multilateral partnership provides a range of bespoke contributions to the project including technological developments in the area of online video broadcast from Gnural Net Inc. in USA, cultural and artistic dialogue and performance from Third Space Network in Washington DC in USA, new contents and discussion on arts science and technology from LEONARDO ISAST and digital performance practice from LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, including contributions towards the project pilot study performance 'Telematic Quarantine: stories of self [isolation]' presented online for the Limestone Coast Video Art festival in Mount Gambia, Australia. |
| Impact | 'Telematic Quarantine: stories of self [isolation]' online performance for the Limestone Coast Video Art festival in Mount Gambia, Australia. In partnership with LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore http://www.paulsermon.org/quarantine/ '@ the Crossroads ::: where do our bodies go from here?' Telematic LASER Talk with Randall Packer (US) (moderator), Ghislaine Boddington (UK), Steve Dixon (SG) & Paul Sermon (UK). In partnership with LEONARDO ISAST and Third Space Network. https://www.leonardo.info/civicrm/event/info%3Fid%3D580%26reset%3D1 |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Multilateral Project Partnership and Agreements |
| Organisation | LASALLE College of the Arts |
| Country | Singapore |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | 'Collaborative Solutions for the Performing Arts: A Telepresence Stage' has formed a multilateral agreement between project partners in the UK, USA and Singapore. The research team specifically contribute new techniques and conceptual approaches to explore new platforms and methods for online performance, providing new approaches and techniques for the performing arts sector and for specific use and development by project partners Third Space Network in Washington DC, LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, Gnural Net Inc. in USA and LEONARDO ISAST in USA. |
| Collaborator Contribution | This multilateral partnership provides a range of bespoke contributions to the project including technological developments in the area of online video broadcast from Gnural Net Inc. in USA, cultural and artistic dialogue and performance from Third Space Network in Washington DC in USA, new contents and discussion on arts science and technology from LEONARDO ISAST and digital performance practice from LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, including contributions towards the project pilot study performance 'Telematic Quarantine: stories of self [isolation]' presented online for the Limestone Coast Video Art festival in Mount Gambia, Australia. |
| Impact | 'Telematic Quarantine: stories of self [isolation]' online performance for the Limestone Coast Video Art festival in Mount Gambia, Australia. In partnership with LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore http://www.paulsermon.org/quarantine/ '@ the Crossroads ::: where do our bodies go from here?' Telematic LASER Talk with Randall Packer (US) (moderator), Ghislaine Boddington (UK), Steve Dixon (SG) & Paul Sermon (UK). In partnership with LEONARDO ISAST and Third Space Network. https://www.leonardo.info/civicrm/event/info%3Fid%3D580%26reset%3D1 |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | @ the Crossroads ::: where do our bodies go from here? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Telematic LASER: @ the Crossroads ::: where do our bodies go from here? ONLINE PUBLIC DIALOGUE: Randall Packer (US) (moderator), Ghislaine Boddington (UK), Steve Dixon (SG) & Paul Sermon (UK) In the wake of Covid-19, we have witnessed a mass migration to the third space, that telematic region of shared networked space that lies between the local and the remote. We ask: what are the personal, social, and artistic implications of this migration in which our dependency on global communications to conduct the most essential human interactions has accelerated at an unprecedented rate? This acceleration into the third space has impacted, most notably, the performing arts, where alternative virtual platforms have challenged the ability to emotionally and intellectually engage with a live audience. As performance ensembles and theater companies attempt to shift, en masse and yet apprehensively, to the virtual stage - a place of impermanence and flux - they often find themselves confined to miniature boxes and a fixed frontal gaze where movement, speaking, play, and all the other critical elements of performance are compromised. For the inaugural Telematic LASER, in the face of this dilemma, our panel will discuss concepts, techniques and approaches garnered from the new media arts, those intrepid experimentalists who have been at the vanguard of telecommunication arts for decades. We will address and explore critical questions that now lie before us as we find ourselves at the crossroads between the physical and the virtual, contemplating our next steps. https://thirdspacenetwork.com/telematic-laser/crossroads/ and https://www.crowdcast.io/e/telematic-laser-crossroads |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.leonardo.info/civicrm/event/info%3Fid%3D580%26reset%3D1 |
| Description | Bournemouth University Telepresence to Teletrust Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Telepresence to Teletrust Symposium 8th July, hosted by Emerge. Live telepresence through new platforms such as Zoom, Teams, Facetime, Jitsi etc have become fully embedded in our lives. Like it or not this way of being together is here to stay. In the post-Covid push for a zero-carbon economy, international travel will be radically curtailed and remote working will become if not the norm then far more common. Welcome to a world of virtual assemblies and blended communications. This symposium aims to recuperate the rich resource of spatial and temporal experimentation that artists and creative researchers have developed over many years. Our conviction is that these experiments will help us move towards richer and more embodied forms of virtual encounter. In addition we aim to use the event to crystalise these ambitions in the form of proposals for exhibitions and/or a publication, a critical primer, an ABC of Telepresence, a phenomenology of Telematics. The talks and presentations will be on the themes of embodiment, society, aesthetics and politics, refracted through the lens of the following questions: •How is the proliferation telepresence changing what it means to be reflexively 'present' to one another? •What scope might there be to shape new directions for these platforms that go beyond the ghostly dance of endless 'talking-heads'? •How are we to avoid the emergence new forms of alienation? •Given that billions of live feeds can be seen as just one more stage in a process of endless fragmentation what are the possibilities for creating a third space between tangible and mediated presence, stepping outside the usual binaries of the real and the virtual? •How do we provoke creative responses that break the frame and go beyond the limitations of existing platforms? Speakers and Schedule for 8th July. 9.30 - 9:45 Introduction 9:45 - 10.30 Ghislaine Boddington : Reader in Digital Immersion Reader, Digital Immersion - University of Greenwich - Creative Director, body>data>space and Women Shift Digital- The Internet of Bodies 10.30 - 11.15 Caroline Nevejan : Chief Science Officer City of Amsterdam www.nevejan.org http://openresearch.amsterdam/ 11:15- 11:30 Break 11.30 - 12:15 Atau Tanaka : Professor of Media Computing Goldsmiths, University of London, https://www.gold.ac.uk/computing/people/tanaka-atau/ 12.15- 13.00 Paul Sermon: University of Brighton, Telematic Quarantine project http://www.paulsermon.org/quarantine/ & UKRI-AHRC project Collaborative Solutions for the Performing Arts: A Telepresence Stage https://www.telepresencestage.org 13:00- 14:00 Lunch 14.00 - 14:45 Herman Maat /Karen Lancel: Artists and researchers considered pioneers in exploring the tension between embodied presence, intimacy and alienation, social cohesion and isolation, privacy and trust in posthuman bio(techno)logical entanglement with (non-)human others. https://www.lancelmaat.nl/about/about/ 14.45 - 15.30 Maria Chatzichristodoulou: Associate Dean Research Kingston University, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Performance Arts & Digital Media (IJPADM) 15.30 - 16.15 Ali Hossaini: Co-director of National Gallery X, online gallery https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/national-gallery-x 16.15- 16:20 Concluding remarks |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2021/07/07/telepresence-to-teletrust-symposium-8th-july/ |
| Description | GLAD Conference presentation, 23 April 2021: Event 14.1 Paul Sermon (University of Brighton) "Be creative with your videoconferencing, make it memorable, it makes a difference". The development of Telematic Quarantine, a telepresence green-screen video installation. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Our themes for this year's conference are - Responding-Reframing-Rethinking - as we acknowledge the magnificent work done by staff and students, across the sector, to deal with and go beyond the limitations imposed by the pandemic. Over recent months we have seen the fantastic response in our to unprecedented uncertainty and change. How do we want to see the culture of creative education adapt? Is this a moment to re-frame our priorities and show a new way forward? What can we learn from how we, as educators and practitioners, have responded to the COVID-19 challenge? Event 14.1 Paul Sermon (University of Brighton) "Be creative with your videoconferencing, make it memorable, it makes a difference" Abstract On the 21st March 2020 I put a simple message on my Facebook profile in response to the increasing use of online video communications due to the imminent COVID-19 lockdown, "be creative with your videoconferencing, make it memorable, it makes a difference". Having spent almost thirty years working with videoconferencing in my arts practice, I felt compelled to respond to the current situation with some words of creative encouragement. Whilst we have been quick to creatively experiment our way out of isolation, there are I believe further considerations and approaches to our new networked coexistence we can take. Since the early 1990s I have combined and relocated distant audiences in a range of familiar settings in social and fictional contexts, from life size projections of remote participants in gallery installations to distant performers sharing the same stage. Although relatively complex, they are not impossible to set up at home with bit of video experimentation and some rearrangement of the furniture. Through this practice-based research I have strived to co-locate participants into shared spaces, having been frustrated with the assumption that simply looking into a camera will convey all the subtleties of body language, expression and a phenomenological sense of self and other. In November 2020 I took this proposition a stage further and developed a new telepresence green-screen video installation Telematic Quarantine from my own home for the International Limestone Coast Video Art Festival 'Video Art during and after the pandemic' in Mount Gambier, South Australia. I connected with remote artists and performers around the world using a customised Skype connection, bringing them into my home in an uncanny telepresent encounter. Together we shared a space to perform, play and improvise by breaking free from the constraints of the video chat windows we have become accustomed to. Telematic Quarantine was a layered video environment and experience of domesticity, fantasy and dream in COVID-19 times. Streamed on YouTube Live, on Saturday 7th November 2020, 7.30am to 10.00am GMT / 6.00pm to 8.30pm ACDT. http://www.paulsermon.org/quarantine/ This ongoing research was awarded a UKRI/AHRC COVID-19 Rapid Response award in December 2020 to identify Collaborative Solutions for the Performing Arts: A Telepresence Stage. Over the next 18 months I will be leading a research team to reframe and customise conventional web-conferencing technologies to create innovative performance spaces by combining green-screen technology and virtual set design to enable full-body interactions between remote performers in shared online spaces. Eight UK performing arts groups will test, explore, and perform online techniques. These include youth theatre students, dance companies, musical theatre and regional theatres, working from remote locations. Demonstrating unique telepresence solutions to be disseminated via multiple easy-to-use PDF help guides, step-by-step video tutorials and open-source resources designed to assist UK performing arts students and professionals in returning to work regardless of lockdown restrictions. This is a dramatic shift from the paradigm of the web-conference grid, to one in which our experience of online connection is heightened and re-envisioned through the superimposition of our bodies in virtual spaces. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://gladhe.com/events |
| Description | Harvard University, MetaLab Seminar: The Future of Transmedia Performance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | THE FUTURE OF TRANSMEDIA PERFORFORMANCE ONLINE DATE: MAY 14 TIME: 5 PM EST This panel of six distinguished speakers-scholars, dramaturgs, and directors-moderated by the Transmedia Arts seminar co-Chair, Magda Romanska, will explore the impact of pandemic on the experimental transmedia theatre and performance. Before the pandemic, theatre and performing arts had been experimenting with new media in a limited way. Although there were some experiments in multiplatform, transmedia, and digital theatre, they remained the domain of experimental avant-garde artists. The pandemic forced the performance artists, in theatre, dance, and music, who had not previously used these technologies, to begin devising new artistic models and genres that move across multiple platforms. As a result of the pandemic, our theatre culture began producing a broad range of web-based interactive and transmedia experiments, including, but not limited to, podplays and other sonic performance experiments (sound games, sound walks, transoperas, and immersive soundscapes), network plays (blockchain, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube plays), robo and data plays (algorithm, technobjects, and data-based plays), AI plays, VR plays (Second Life, VR, and other video game plays), and other interactive, new-media-based art, theatre, and performance projects. Likewise, the current VR- and AR-connected developments with Google AR Core or Apple AR kits are in the process of developing the experiential (real-time, 3D, and possibly geo-located) platforms for the future. A combination of Zoom theatre, live performance, interactive VR, and other modes of storytelling are shaking up the performing arts in form, content, and delivery methods. Although theatres and performing arts venues have been closed, digital platforms are providing greater access for both artists and audiences, impacting those for whom performing arts were previously unavailable: who can and cannot make and view theatre has changed. How are theatre and performance artists attempting to monetize these performances? How does live-streaming of traditional theatre add and hinder experimentation in new forms and genders? Will greater online access add to the elitist character of in-person performances when they return? PANELISTS: Antje Budde (Canada/Germany) Associate Professor and Founder of Digital Dramaturgy Lab at University of Toronto Paul Sermon (UK) Professor of Visual Communication at the University of Brighton Roman Senkl (Germany) Head of Digital Arts Lab at Berliner Festspiele; Theatre Director and Founder of Digitale Dramaturgie Ashley Tata (US), Transmedia Director Igor Golyak (USA/Russia),Artistic Director at Zero Gravity Virtual Theatre Lab Wang Chong (China): Artistic Director of Théâtre du Rêve Expérimental |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://metalabharvard.github.io/projects/transmediafuture/ |
| Description | National Arts Network 'Whats Next?' Talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Online presentation to the Brighton & Hove Chapter of the What Next? network https://www.whatnextculture.co.uk, with local and regional participants and members. "Our next meeting takes place on Thurs 18th Feb and we will be joined by Professor Paul Sermon, School of Art, University of Brighton who will be giving a short overview of the recently AHRC funded project Telepresence Stage. The 18-month study will see the University of Brighton join experts at Third Space Network Studios in Washington DC and LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore to combine techniques such as green-screen technology and virtual set design to create live network shows drawing on full-body interactions between remote performers in shared online spaces. Paul will talk about the importance of connecting what are doing with the creative and performing arts across Brighton & Hove." Following the talk, further contact has been made with potential performing arts companies, producers and artists, for future collaborations contributing to the project residencies. These include: Barmpot Theatre Lincolnshire http://www.barmpottheatre.com, AltPitch Southeast https://www.altpitch.org and performer/producer Grace Church https://www.graceemilychurch.com. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.whatnextculture.co.uk |
| Description | Pandemic and Beyond Episode 12: Digital Performance Beyond the Pandemic |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | How has digital innovation in theatrical and dance performance, including video streaming, disrupted the creative industries and improved access to the arts for both performers and audiences? In this podcast, Pascale Aebischer and her guests, Richard Misek (University of Kent), Daniel Strutt (Goldsmith's College) and Paul Sermon (University of Brighton) discuss how digital innovation has transformed the performance landscape since the start of the pandemic and think about the future for the industry. Follow these links for more information about The Goldsmiths Mocap Streamer (Dan Strutt); Digital Access to the Arts (Richard Misek); The Telepresence Stage (Paul Sermon) and Digital Theatre Transformation (Pascale Aebischer). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://anchor.fm/pandemicandbeyond/episodes/Pandemic-and-Beyond-Episode-12-Digital-Performance-Beyo... |
| Description | Paper: Fusion solutions for remote performers: A Telepresence Stage. NOWNET ARTS CONFERENCE 2021 Network Arts: Transformation of Distance November 4-7, 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | FRIDAY NOVEMBER 5, 3:30AM Paper: Fusion solutions for remote performers: A Telepresence Stage Steve Dixon, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore Paul Sermon, University of Brighton, United Kingdom The paper presents findings from the authors' (Steve Dixon and Paul Sermon) ongoing research project 'Collaborative Solutions for the Performing Arts: A Telepresence Stage', funded by a 'COVID-19 Rapid Response' scheme grant from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). In the light of lockdowns and safe distancing issues, the project aims to develop effective and affordable new approaches to connect theatre and dance performers from their separate homes or studios and place them within virtual sets online where they can improvise, devise, rehearse and perform together as if on a real stage. The paper presents and analyses how a range of telematic chromakey systems are being employed to bring a whole new level of creativity to videoconference-based performance work, freeing the performers' bodies from the entrapment of Zoom boxes and co-locating them in specially designed 3D environments. It examines case studies from some of the projects the researchers are working on with eight professional performance groups. These involve visually bringing together the remote individual performers within different types of virtual sets, configured using perspectival layers and objects to enable sophisticated effects and illusions. Working within such environments, and using different telematic hardware and software systems, leads them to experimentation with new audio-visual ideas and theatrical effects; and opens up opportunities for imaginative new approaches to dramaturgy and story-telling. They include Phoenix Dance Theatre's explorations of the potentials of dancing in and around holes in the ground into which they suddenly disappear; Creation Theatre's ability to join and take on 19th century opponents in a drunken card game, situated within Paul Cézanne's classic painting The Card Players (1895); and Pigeon Theatre's surreal journeys into a TV set and through endless corridors which rapidly fill with toys, children, then dangerously rising water ... The paper goes on to discuss a range of theoretical and psychological issues raised in telematic performance including empathy, communion, presence, intimacy, point of view, subjectivity and objectivity. It interrogates the mirroring notion of the third space (the screen where participants are conjoined) in relation to how the self and the other are allowed simultaneous reflection. By simply combining these views within the same image we become kinaesthetically conscious and in control of our combined coexistence, escaping our individual isolation. The project demonstrates how telematic performance can in certain ways offer more than physical encounters permit, since the presence and observation of their own body in the third space as well as 'the other(s)' provides the participant with an opportunity to make coinciding subjective and objective observations. Since on screen their self is also the other, they are able to reflect on the interactions and performances occurring in front of them while seeing themselves as being directly responsible for it. https://www.telepresencestage.org |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://nownetarts.org/nownet-arts-conference-2021 |
| Description | Project presentation at AltPitch PLATFORM |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The AltPitch Platform is a space for talks, debates, workshops and networking for artists, entrepreneurs, businesses and everyone who consider themselves creative. It acts as a mediator between creative and business communities, providing a productive environment for the ideas and initiatives to be presented and tested, and for the collaborations to be formed. In 2021 the AltPitch Platform will look into how the artists in the South East adapted to the lockdown using digital technology and what are their chances to monetise their work in the present conditions. The guests: • Composer, performer, choir director Polina Shepherd (Brighton) • Curator and artist Esther Fox (Hastings) • Filmmaker and digital artist Deborah Goatley-Birch (Southampton) • Hastings Contemporary Director Liz Gilmore (Hastings) • MD of the global experience agency Identity Michael Gietzen (Eastbourne) • Professor of Visual Communication Paul Sermon (University of Brighton) Produced and presented by Anastasia Witts. https://www.polinashepherd.co.uk/ http://www.deborahireland.com/film.html https://www.hastingscontemporary.org/ http://www.paulsermon.org/quarantine/ https://identitygroup.co.uk/ Produced by Artist Digital for the AltPitch Arts and Technology Festival https://www.artistdigital.co.uk/ https://www.altpitch.org/ Supported by the Arts Council England and South East Creatives. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/8qAlWXsreAc |
| Description | Telematic LASER: ALL THE WORLD'S A SCREEN |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | On Thursday 2 December 2021 at 4:00pm GMT the Telematic LASER presented the online panel discussion ALL THE WORLD'S A SCREEN with performance, Shakespeare and technology specialists, Pascale Aebischer, Lucy Askew and Sarah Ellis. Who discuss the impact of the pandemic on the performing arts, reflecting on the histories, contemporary practices and futures of online theatre that creatively engages remote performers and audiences. The panel was co-moderated by Paul Sermon and Satinder Gill from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Covid-19 Response project Telepresence Stage. The Telematic LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) is co-hosted by the University of Brighton's Centre for Digital Media Cultures, Leonardo ISAST and the Third Space Network. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/9PiTErmwOps |
| Description | Telepresence Stage website design feature in Creative Boom |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Creative Boom feature : Brighton studio Boyle&Perks has helped to create the identity and website for a new research project that hopes to connect performing artists from their homes and place them on a virtual set where they can rehearse and perform together like they would on a real stage. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/boyleperks-helps-performing-artists-to-collaborate-and-crea... |