This morning I Tweeted... Recommendation for a digital theatre, online live performance or immersive #XR remote access experience to attend this weekend or next week, please. @CITheatre @ImitatingtheDog @KillTheCatCo Other digital innovating tweeters welcomed. #DYCP
First, stop https://electricmedway.co.uk/about/
I attended Chronic Insanity Theatre’s Puncture the Screen festival during the first week of my holiday on the Isle of Mull at the end of July. The holiday location is super remote. I love it. Attending a festival of super interest to me combining the 2. I loved it. A mixture of on-demand pieces, performance, workshops and live expert panels was just what I needed to truly be rested and reset for when I returned home.
This is my first Saturday home and I have vowed to make Saturdays culturally enriching. Seeing shows, reading books and checking out VR, XR and immersive experiences.
Replying to @pcmcreative
@ImitatingtheDog We have Means of Production on at @ElectricMedway
and There’s Something Among Us on at @ththeatrespace at the moment :) plus loads of other work from throughout the year on our website.
First show of the day. It feels like my own mini-festival! There’s Something Among Us by Chronic Insanity Theatre
https://electricmedway.co.uk/events-2021/means-of-production-by-chronic-insanity-theatre/
There is a commitment to a piece of digital theatre. It is not a piece of scrolled to content. Just as you actively attend a venue so your activity navigates to the digital theatre piece be live or on-demand. The holding page is the digital foyer. The copy on screen the programme. If it is a paid experience this is also the box office.
For my first piece, 4 factory workers in a split-screen setup a-la securing cam stacking where I was an observer asked to review the footage that led to an incident.
“Based on the conditions in a number of smartphone factories around the world, Means of Production blurs the line between digital theatre and found footage, asking questions about corporate behemoths, global supply chains, and the murky ethics behind the 21st century’s need for new technology.”
A poignant monologue to the camera makes this most certainly theatre. Conscious of its 4th wall and in a suitably digital setting used that device to share its message.
At Chronic Insanity’s Puncture the Screen Festival https://bit.ly/citheatre-pts a platform Glitch.me was used to deliver the interactive story THE NEXT BEST THING by Emily Holyoake. Here it is again. As I emirs myself in the audience experience of immersive theatre, immersive performance and extended experience its platforms, access and set up expectations on the audience member are of deep interest as I contemplate this especial as part of my own practice since being awarded a CYPD grant from the Arts Council to develop my own immersive extended experience work.
Below the 2D digital experience was this
My first multi-screen extended digital theatre experience.
https://meansofproduction.glitch.me/
Following the prompts to configure 4 devised and place them at cardinal points around me East, South, West and North as the primary device the split-screen security monitor stacked surveillance footage surrounded me.
How here is the experience bearing in mind it was my first time and you will have your first time with these kinds of experiences. I would have needed a 3 set up to get it working seamlessly and I’d seen the 2D performance and enjoyed it. Not wanting to make the attendance of the performance about the fumbling with my tech I let it go. I know there will be another opportunity perhaps even from Chronic Insanity. I love this frontier.
So… I confess I struggled to get set up after 2 attempts. The simple instruction was perhaps a little too simple and wasn’t entirely clear to me. I worked it out. I decided to save the figuring it out for the next piece offering this extended experience.
My issues?
- The extending devices being my iMac, two iPads and my iPhone the control screen landing pages were not responsive so they didn’t fit on my devices. I fumbled to get the buttons. iPads OK, iMac no probs, iPhone no responsive adaptation problematic. Next time I will use a second laptop. Once the piece began the video sizing was fine.
- The primary device buffered making the sync affecting the other 3 devised which worked great. I wonder is that may have been my wifi as I wasn’t on a hard wire.
- There wasn’t a single audio feed and as I was listening on headphones I couldn’t get audio from 4 devices into one set of headphones.
- The first time round I didn’t see the room code generated for me.
From my Tweet, I had several recommendations.
A second suggestion from Chronic Insanity Theatre “Something Among Us” on at @ththeatrespace
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/chronicinsanity/483337
‘HEAR. SPEAK. SEE.’ a new immersive, digital drama by an all-female absurdist theatre company from EXPiAL ATROCiOUS @ExpiAtro An #EdFringe digital, on-demand and filmed in first-person POV (point of view) show.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/hear-speak-see
A dance piece "The Story of the Tower" with chroma-key tech and projection-mapping originally streamed live from Tokyo during the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games which was on-demand at the Edinburgh Fringe shared by @comitu
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/story-of-the-tower
and from Imitating The Dog “I, Melania” on the program of @Summerhallery festival (Summerhall, a vibrant cultural village in the heart of Edinburgh. A place where things happen, all kinds of interesting, wonderful and downright inspiring things.) and I quote “totally brilliant” from @paulavarjack & @ChuckBlueLowry
An extension to the Edinburgh Fringe it seems. I love the EdFringe.
I, Melina being a live experience next showing on Tuesday 24 Aug at 7:30 PM - 8:30 pm taking place in GatherTown. How cool is that!
https://www.summerhall.co.uk/sh-event/imelania/2021-08-24/
So it looks like I’m off to Edinburgh with my consciousness if not my physical body.
I, Melina next Tuesday. Anyone want to join me after in a PCM video chat room let me know. Happy to accommodate the ‘in the bar’ experience!
Chronic Insanity Theatre “Something Among Us” programmed at Thornhill Theatre Space 𝘈 𝘋𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘦
My request for digital shows took me on a wonderful trip. Before covid I struggled to locate digital work I knew it was out there but I couldn’t find it. Now it’s like the Edinburgh Fringe every day! Overwhelm Overload excess of choice, a digital kid in a virtual candy store!
The final recommendation of the day is another EdFringe - PLANET OF THE GRAPES - LIVE FROM NYC is a programmed live event tomorrow.
https://www.planetgrapeshow.com/
6 shows.
There is a world of digital wonder out there. So much digital augmenting talent.
