XR Technology for Live Performance

Project partners: David Gochfeld and XR Stories

Throughout its long history, theatre has often been at the forefront of adopting new technology to bring stories to life on stage. Many theatre and dance artists are working with XR technologies: VR, AR, motion capture, volumetric video, virtual humans, and real-time rendering. This project investigates how theatre artists and companies engage with immersive technologies and incorporate them into their practice, and how audiences experience the work. David Gochfeld will look at both the challenges and opportunities presented by these new technologies, by observing rehearsal processes and interviewing creators and audience members. With a better understanding of how the technologies are used and where they fall short we can begin to design better tools for live performances with immersive technology.

The aim of the project is to enable more performing artists to utilise XR and immersive technologies to expand their creative vision and reach audiences around the world.

As part of the work, David has participated in workshops and rehearsals for shows; conducted interviews and surveys; produced a 10-minute VR musical; and contributed to the development of show control tools for Mozilla Hubs performance.

Categories: Performance, Research