The Invited: An immersive AR pop-up book

Project partners: Studio McGuire, Creative XR and the University of York

XR Stories awarded match funding to Hull-based media art specialists, Studio McGuire, for their project The Invited. This project was also funded by Creative XR, an accelerator programme that supports new extended-reality (XR) ideas, and promotes the commercialisation and scalability of innovative XR projects.

The Invited combines a ‘real world’ fine art pop-up book, with immersive augmented reality animations, to bring the story of Dracula to life. Set in a dark, secret location, a physical pop-up book and a tablet dressed as a ‘spirit detector’ summons one to five audience members through a captivating 20-minute experience. Each page turn reveals a new paper world and a set of haunting animations to those who are invited to become part of Dracula’s reincarnation.

The project enabled the development and testing of a location-based version of The Invited. Studio McGuire worked with their academic partner, the University of Hull, during the R&D process and the production went onto tour internationally.

Davy McGuire, director and industry partner, says:

“The Invited is an artist-led project that will bring together diverse disciplines, from computer scientists to playwrights and animation specialists to gamers. It will forge new international partnerships and support interdisciplinary exchanges between traditional artistic genres and extended-reality (XR) art experiences.

We are delighted to have been awarded match funding from XR Stories. The project will help us to test the potential for a location-based production that could tour major festivals and venues.

The project will also contribute to Hull’s cultural strategy for 2016-26 and the ongoing legacy from Hull 2017 City of Culture. Highlighting the city as a growing hotbed for digital creativity, both nationally and internationally.”

Categories: Arts, Performance