Gate Ways: Immersive Technologies for Heritage Archives

Support from the Creative Research Capability fund is sought to establish Gate Ways: Immersive Technologies for Heritage Archives: GW:ITHA (from the Cornish word to guard, to keep). GW:ITHA seeks to establish an open centre for immersive approaches to archives and draw together the rich potential these resources have in supporting the capturing and sharing both the material and intangible cultural heritage of the far South West. The nature of site-specific/ landscape theatre has rendered much of its outcomes as resitant to documentation. The use of volumetric and capturing technologies in both the visual and sonic domains will shift significantly how this work is documented, archived, and accessed. Using the existing Kneehigh and WildWorks archives housed within Falmouth University as case-studies, GW:ITHA will build on Immersive Business infrastructure to capture the various collections of material objects, traditional textual artefacts, and the documentation of ephemeral, process-driven practice, to improve access and develop strategies for new income streams from these new digital assets to support the creative industries in Cornwall.
GW:ITHA will establish a protocol and workflow for capturing material from existing archives in XR formats, and work with performance companies to document large-scale, live practice using cutting edge volumetric capture techniques. The result will be the creation of a digital asset library, allowing the archive to be accessed and shared in ways not currently possible. The lack of an established network of regional touring theatres in the far South West in general, and Cornwall in particular, coupled with the significant number of landscape and sited theatre companies, means there is a wealth of performance material wedded to specific locations, yet resistant to traditional modes of documentation.
Falmouth University has an extensive track record of delivering both large and small scale externally funded projects relating to digital technologies in cultural settings. This includes European Structural Funds, Coastal Communities and UK Research Council funded initiatives. For example, Falmouth collaborated in the Seventh Framework Programme, V-Connect project. This enabled the development of high-quality real-time video and audio communication between geographically dispersed performers. The project enabled videoconferencing to be moved outside the boardroom, allowing one (or more) locations to be accessed by groups and individuals in real-time. In September 2014, in a world-first, V-Connect supported a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, by Miracle Theatre Company, with actors situated in two geographically dispersed locations, delivering a single performance together, with local and remote audiences being able to experience an immersive production in different physical locations.
With established staff expertise and already delivered projects V-connect, wAVE , Immersive Business, Augmented Telegrapher, Story Futures, Online Orchestra, Edinburgh Fringe Digital Showcase, support to renew and upgrade facilities which foreground digital, cloud-based platforms for the generation and dissemination of creative and cultural research would allow us to expand our activities, extend our reach, and significantly improve audience access. The project offers scalable benefits that would further support not only the region's creative and cultural economy, but those performance companies making work in non-traditional venues around the UK, support to renew and upgrade facilities which foreground digital, cloud-based platforms for the generation and dissemination of creative and cultural research would allow us to expand our activities, extend our reach, and significantly improve audience access. The project offers scalable benefits that would further support not only the region's creative and cultural economy, but those performance companies making work in non-traditional venues around the UK.