Backstage Academy Symposium 2022

PresentersPanelLocation

“Pitching a tent in a field to watch some of music’s biggest acts is a British institution, but not one that caters to every community; Glastonbury is a central, celebrated part of British culture much of the social landscape has changed since the first festival in

The1970.Black

Lives Matter movement and the subsequent slew of initiatives and declarations focused on diversity and inclusion within the arts have highlighted the lack of diversity in music festivals is not an isolated issue but rather an indication of the state of the wider UK arts and culture sector.

The 2020 Arts Council England diversity report found that just 11% of staff at organizations it funded were not white and 93% of audiences at National Portfolio Organizations events were White and 7% of audiences responded ‘yes’ to having a disability and described their ethnicity as ‘Mixed’, ‘Asian or Asian British’, ‘Black or Black British’, or “Other”.

Studio 001 Power to the People: The British Festival Audience Landscape

Felix J. Prince, Ant Forbes and Lost Wolf

Studio RepresentationDisability001 In Immersive Stories

PresentersPaperLocation

Dr. Anna Bramwell-Dicks

The portrayal of people with disability, chronic and mental illness in the media has led to a pervasive stigmatization and misunderstanding of people who live with these conditions, including within TV (e.g. Hoffner & Cohen, 2015), film (e.g. Lawson & Fouts, 2004), and video games (e.g. Shapiro & Rotter, 2016).

Research has shown that alongside the symptoms and disabilities associated with these conditions themselves leading to lower life quality, stereotypes and misunderstandings also significantly contribute to reduced opportunities for jobs, unsafe housing, unsatisfactory health care and being marginalized from society (Corrigan & Watson, 2002).

The media portrayal has also been shown to negatively influence the beliefs, understanding and practice of medical students, clinicians and other professional services who are responsible providing support and treatment affecting the level of care provided (Sartorius et al. 2010). As we move into more immersive storytelling formats (e.g. VR, AR, XR), we argue there is a risk of greater stigmatizing effects of inappropriate representation due to the embodied nature of interaction within these formats.

In this paper, we report on the current status of our Wheelchair VR project, where we are developing a VR experience where the user navigates a supermarket as a wheelchair user. We will discuss insights from preliminary interviews with 10 wheelchair users that were used to inform the design of the VR experience, together with how we intend to use this VR experience as a tool for future research to understand how people who don’t use wheelchairs perceive wheelchairs and, by extension, their users after using a wheelchair VR experience.

We anticipate participants will find the wheelchair VR experience to be limiting and restrictive, which contrasts significantly to how wheelchair users typically view their wheelchairs as the mobility aid that gives them freedom and independence. As a result, we will argue that careful consideration must be taken with how stories are told, particularly regarding people from minority and marginalized communities, and argue against the premise of VR as an “empathy machine”.

As an aspiring sound engineer, filmmaker and musician, the best and the worst part about my job is that every gig is different and I’ve got to learn my body and my mind, how I feel how energy effects my performance, how what I and others do effect how everyone is feeling, the best and the worst way to do a show and what we should do about it.

PresentersProvocation

Throughout the Industrial Revolution women were not in positions of authority or power. They were not at the table when the forty-hour week was brought into play or when the roadmap of concert touring was created. What might the world have looked like if women had been consulted?

Women are often held back in the workplace by the demands of childcare, parenting and care giving. How might they have created a more equalitarian working environment? How would this change the way concert touring developed? Would we have seen venues with lighting, sound, video and staging in house that was reconfigured to the artists requirement with the touring production reduced to the band, backline and operators. This would create the potential for more women to become technicians, working in house with all the benefits of regulated hours. Not being on the road would mean they no longer had to choose between motherhood and their career.

If we had created an industry that worked for women, would we have inadvertently created an industry that is more sustainable and diverse than our current working methodology? What further universal benefits might we have seen; a move from a workforce that

What if women had been at the table? Carol Scott

is 70% freelance to more permanent positions with greater job security and defined career paths, access to company pensions, better training and continual professional development etc.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” Albert Einstein. The climate crisis will pose many problems for our industry. If we are to survive it is imperative that we don’t remain in our own echo chamber. New and different ways of thinking and working derived from a diverse and equal workforce are the only way we can protect our future. How do we create a platform where everyone

TakingPresentersInspirationProjection out of its straight jacket (Dynamic Projections)

Tony Gill

Practical demonstrations of the Dynamic Projection System from the Dynamic Projection Institute. Video projection is Mono directional. Pointing a projector at a surface creates an image in front of you. Placing images on different surfaces requires the addition of more projectors and support infrastructure. Not any more. Dynamic Projection Institutes Mirror Head System takes video out of its straitjacket and lets it move dynamically. Anywhere within a space. On the floor, ceiling, walls, or mapped to move around the room whilst minimising support infrastructure and energy requirements that a more multi-projector approach would require. It opens up spaces that otherwise may be unsuitable for more conventional Creativemethods.possibilities are limited only by the designer’s imagination. Enabling the concentration of Pixel density and brightness, rather than saturating the performance space and only using a small section for the desired images. It does not seek to displace existing projection methods but to offer a new tool in the arsenal. It brings image placement to life, opening the way to interactivity and introducing the possibility of selective tracking of performers in a new way creating innovative storytelling whilst offering benefits in energy and infrastructure reduction.

PresentersProvocationLocation

Virtual production (VP) is a new way film and TV is being made. It is achieving widespread recognition and awareness because of hits such as Disney’s ‘The Mandalorian’, the BBC’s Olympic coverage and Netflix’s ‘The Midnight Sky’. VP has been hailed as innovative as it offers more flexible production methods, and a technofix with the potential to make film and TV carbon neutral.

Using videogames technologies to capture computergenerated environments in real-time, VP offers huge flexibility in production workflows and reduces the need to fly to film on location. Remote cooperation is also key, which offers the potential to further democratise cast and crew involvement in the film and TV industry. However, questions remain about whether VP’s innovation can fundamentally address film and TV’s dirty secrets of long-standing equality, diversity, and inclusivity (EDI) issues, a mental health crisis and endemic overwork.

CanXPLORvirtual production improve the structural issues of equality, diversity and inclusion within the film and TV Ninaindustry?Willment

IntroducingPresentersProvocation sustainable practices into teaching

Fraser Gall

For many years, festivals such as Glastonbury have worked hard towards becoming more sustainable, in more recent times, high profile artists such as Massive Attack and Coldplay have publicly highlighted their approach to sustainable concerts and touring.

As an institution, at what point do we introduce sustainable practices? It seems obvious that it should be the absolute priority from day one; however, do we have to balance this with the need to produce ‘industry ready’ students that are able to work with numerous companies with different approaches? Can/should we teach students to question ‘standard practices?

WisdomPresentersInspiration&the

Wood Wide Web Carol Scott

Trees are smarter than humans. They know their individual success is dependent on the health of the forest. Trees are in constant communication with each other; working together for the greater good. What if we literally took a leaf out their book and started working as one organism; what benefits would this bring the industry as a whole?

In the face of the climate crisis why is interdisciplinary communication and cooperation crucial to the survival of our industry? Why do we need to break down the silos of our current working practices? What are the benefits for the individual and the collective? How do we go about creating that change?

Kate Bailey - Senior Curator, Theatre and Performance at V&A London

JoslinProfessorPresentersMcKinney

Scenography is no longer reliant on a theatre stage or a play text and it may not even require actors. It can happen anywhere, including ‘a restaurant, a cruise ship, a parking lot, a public square’ (Lotker and Gough 2013). But it does require an audience of some kind because it is in the interaction of perceiving bodies with spaces and materials that scenography is activated and can begin to have its effect.

In some ways, the role of the audience in expanded scenography is more pronounced than before and several artists and theorists consider audience as co-creators of Whatscenography.doesthis

expansion mean for the way we conceptualise scenography and teach students? In this paper I will reflect on how Performance Design as a subject area is being developed at the University of Leeds and elsewhere in the UK and draw on ideas developed in ‘Scenography Expanded: an introduction to contemporary performance design’ (McKinney and Palmer 2017). & ScenographyExpanded

Site Specific, Site-responsive, Site-located theatre.., there are many terms. They all present challenges and opportunities that a venue does not. Once a location has been identified a significant challenge is finding an audience, unusual locations do not have established audiences, no-one thinks of an old recycling centre as “our theatre” nor do they regard their town centre as a performance space.

Despite the town centre manager’s excitement or the working men’s club secretary’s fascination we are not always welcome. The audience performance relationship can be a difficult but digital tools help. Finding an audience through social media and communicating with them via email greatly increase reach and very importantly inform the audience about the nature of the performance, “wear sensible footwear”, “dress for rain” crucial information essential to an audience’s enjoyment and reducing how much attention they in turn will demand.

Shared spaces can be a town centre, a park, a moving train – they will not stop to accommodate our work, we must find ways to work together. Silent Disco headphones mean that an audience can walk through

PresentersPaper not annoying the locals.

David Evans ABTT / Robin PP/ Rachel BSA

busy streets experiencing a live show with minimal impact on the hustle and bustle of a busy high street, battery powered lighting and sound systems mean that we can reduce fit-up and get-out times to a minimum.

Bluetooth and dedicated wifi networks enable mobile cuing, communication and LX operation and sound mixing. Mobile phones mean that we can communicate with audiences and performers as they travel between Bristol and Cardiff. Live Streaming increases the reach of a show, not everyone can climb Mount Snowden, but they can watch the five-hour live-streamed performance. Non-traditional theatre requires non-traditional ways to present the work and engage with the audiences. Digital tools are part of this tool kit.

Happy Networkinghour / Graham Thorne

AXPLORTaxonomy of On-Set Virtual Production

PresentersPaperLocation

Ian Caballero & Phil Adlam

On-Set Virtual Production is gaining traction as a popular process in film-making. With an increasingly available access to high-power graphics processing, a perpetually evolving array of digital toolsets, and procedurally complex workflows, On-Set Virtual Production currently in a state of developmental flux.

A proposed taxonomy aims to categorise and define theoretical and practical elements, with a goal to represent the varied processes in a logical visual format.

Presenters-PresentationLocationGuestspeaker

Just three days after XPLOR, our two-year EC funded collaborative project hits the finishing line. Concurrently, we’ve been awarded a new grant to continue our research under the EC Horizon Programme and kicked-off a new 30-months project last week, with eight international Partners.

This said, it feels a must to share some highlights: focusing on improving quality and realism in the interactions between physical and virtual elements on xR and VP productions, Dr Dominic Brown will run through our main results and their potential impact on future workflows.

FocusingXPLOR on improving quality and realism in the interactions between physical and virtual elements in XR and VP

XPLORShannonLocationPresentersHarvey

The past 3 years have seen a renaissance in visual storytelling on a predicted path as graphics and computing power reached a technical milestone of fidelity to reproducing reality. Virtual Production techniques and real-time workflows have seen 10 years of workflow advancement in less than 1 - because of the pandemic. This rapid development raises a number of challenges in fitting in with traditional processes and workflows as highly disruptive new tools are being implemented into visual design across multiple industries.

The next evolution of digital workflows in this area seems poised to develop further with Deep Learning and Object based programing techniques allowing for automation and efficiency improvements in the creative process. This paper will look at a number of new creative tools and processes and introduce discussion around the future of computer assisted design and creative programing. Looking at: Text to Image Deep Learning for concept creation and storyboarding. Improvements in AI based markerless camera tracking, And an instanced object module based approach to creative programming.

The presentation will include live demonstrations of software approaches and creative case studies highlighting our research into these techniques, present a hypothesis on direction of travel for technical advancement and discuss the challenges of educating creators and producers into these advancing workflows. Paper Artificial Intelligence and Object Modularity in Visual Design Workflows

worldwide, a team from DC Labs have been exploring virtual music theatre-making in VR. We are now investigating hybrid production, where live performance is delivered simultaneously on a physical stage and in a games engine, using Virtual Production methods employed by the film industry. As Film, Theatre and Narrative Games design techniques and technology converge, we ask not, where will it end, but how do we begin?

ExploringLocationProvocationthe current state of the art of VR TheatreXPLORProductions

DanielPresentersLock

Virtual Reality and theatre have been an interdisciplinary area of research for years (Ahn et al, 2001), (Reeve, 2000), (Anstey, 2007). With the recent development in new and affordable consumer Virtual Reality devices (Oculus, 2022), (Vive, 2022), (Valve, 2022) a fresh wave of creative experimentation and research has be undertaken by both theatre productions companies (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2021), (PunchDrunk, 2022), (National Theatre, 2019) and academics (Popat, 2016), (Dam et al, 2020), (Bonyadi, 2018).

For theatre production companies this has led to the creation of various productions differing in size and complexity that aim to use Virtual Reality and virtual environments to develop immersive theatre productions for expansive digital audiences across the world (Dream Adoption Society, 2022), (Tender Claws, 2022). Research

in this area has focuses on immersion (Reaney, 1999) and viewership (Charlton and Moar, 2018) as well as “access and propinquity to a live performance” (Srinivasan and Schott, Such2020).research

has aimed to provide the audience with an equivalent experience to that of attending a live theatre performance by translating the “traditional audience-drama relationship of viewer invisibility and non-participation... into a viewing experience as a VR drama” (Charlton and Moar, 2018) as well as “Bridging the non-co-location gap” (Singh et al, 2019) between performances, actors and audiences to develop an understanding of how audience can be involved in performances though immersive theatre.

As commented on in Am I Theatre [35] it is suggested that if Virtual Reality is going to be an alternative digital platform for Theatre then it must be able to provide a strong emotional experience for the audience that is similar, if not parallel, to the emotion response experienced when observing live theatre.

This implies that for Virtual Reality to be use as a true extension of the physically stage a understanding on how Theatrical Design can be translated, or ‘encoded’, into Virtual Reality for use in Virtual Reality Performances must be developed. This paper explores and develops such an understanding alongside insight into the core emergent issues of developing VR Theatre productions. This paper reports the results of two qualitative studies that explore the current state of the art in professional VR theatre productions, with a focus on the technical challenges faced by theatre makers.

The first study focuses on the experience of the final production from the perspective of viewers, which is complemented by a thematic analysis of interview with theatre makers about the challengers they faced in this space. Reflecting on the outcomes of these studies, we present a theoretical framework through which we can better understand the opportunities and challenges of VR theatre, and better support theatre makers and professionals working with this emerging new form.

TakingPresentersInspirationProjection out of its straight Jacket

Tony Gill

Practical demonstrations of the Dynamic Projection System from the Dynamic Projection Institute. Video projection is Mono directional. Pointing a projector at a surface creates an image in front of you. Placing images on different surfaces requires the addition of more projectors and support infrastructure. Not any more. Dynamic Projection Institutes Mirror Head System takes video out of its straitjacket and lets it move dynamically. Anywhere within a space. On the floor, ceiling, walls, or mapped to move around the room whilst minimising support infrastructure and energy requirements that a more multi-projector approach would require. It opens up spaces that otherwise may be unsuitable for more conventional

Creativemethods.possibilities

are limited only by the designer’s imagination. Enabling the concentration of Pixel density and brightness, rather than saturating the performance space and only using a small section for the desired images. It does not seek to displace existing projection methods but to offer a new tool in the arsenal. It brings image placement to life, opening the way to interactivity and introducing the possibility of selective tracking of performers in a new way creating innovative storytelling whilst offering benefits in energy and infrastructure reduction.

PresentersPanelLocation

Studio Archiving,001 Curating & Exhibiting Design for ShannonPerformanceHarvey, Andreas Skourtis, Katherine Sandys & Dr Aby Cohen

Focused on documenting, archiving and exhibiting the ephemeris, in this panel, the participants are invited to speak about the curatorial and design approach in creating and presenting design for performance and live events at national and international events and festivals of their experience. Relevant events and venues as: the Prague Quadrennial, Museums - V&A, Galleries and Arts Centres, among others. The panel aims to be an inspiring conversation, bringing to the focus the audience perspective and how their experience in curation, design and investigation of different ways of working between the archive and the immersive experience affects the audience and enhance the communication between the venue and its community.

The topics that will be explored are: the use of technology; the dialogue with the space and its reconfiguration to create a unique experience, the different ways for the audience to experience and capture the design aspects of a performance after it has taken place as a live event.

As part of the panel, Hello Stranger: National Exhibition of UK Performance Design 2019-2023 will be presented by Kathrine Sandys, one of the project curators.

The Hello Stranger National Exhibition will take the form of a series of regional events, rather than a singular exhibition, emphasizing discourse and exchange, presenting live discussions, presentations, workshops and/or performance, taking place within a designed event space hosted in a public area of an NPO venue with a public-facing remit. Regional designer-curator(s) will work closely with the national curators, local host venue and regional Higher Education Institution partner, to curate and deliver the event(s).The design of the event space will focus on the repurposing and curating of materials and artefacts from within the partner buildings, organisations and regional designers contributions. This mapping of the work of the region is informed by a curatorial commitment to limiting virgin materials and consideration of initial-use, re-use and return.

The concept of the national exhibition will be duplicated as the UK exhibit of Regions and Countries at the Prague Quadrennial 2023. The curators will take the document of all regional events as a map of the UK exhibit. The concept of no virgin materials, locally sourced stock items and minimal cargo will be replicated in the UK exhibit. The UK will host a series of events, discussions and workshops, inviting international discussion. The UK will also invite a series of take-over days for other countries to colonise the UK for a day and form interventions within the space. Each stage of Hello Stranger will be documented and published with invited contributions. Hello Stranger is hosted and produced by the SBTD, in conjunction with industry, education and professional body partners.

FestForward magazine is a fictional, speculative cultural magazine, written in 2022 and set in 2030, that aims to stimulate conversations in the cultural and festivals sector about how digital technologies and data-driven innovation might support equitable and sustainable futures for festivals. This presentation will explore how participatory futuring (Kozubaev et al., 2020) and speculative design methods (Mitrović et al., 2009) can be used to comprehend, reimagine, and map the challenges of imagining and implementing equitable and sustainable approaches to digital technologies and data in festivals and culture for artists, freelancers, organisations, and audiences.

In telling these stories of possible digital and data-driven futures, FestForward is a playful, creative, and hopeful provocation for humanising and opening up debate into how technologies are emerging in live events and performances.

The magazine was produced by researchers from the AHRCfunded Creative Informatics project at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University, which is part of the UK-wide Creative Industries Clusters Programme, in partnership with Glasgow-based futures design researchers

FestForwardProvocation Magazine: a provocation for envisaging equitable and sustainable digital futures for the festivals and cultural sector

Andthen. FestForward was produced as part of the Creative Informatics Creative Horizon 3 project, Envisioning Digital Futures for Equitable and Sustainable Festivals in 2030.

All the content the magazine contains was developed through interviews, conversations and workshops with individuals and organisations working in the Edinburgh and South East Scotland region’s festivals and cultural sector. Imaginaries developed included: controversy over dynamic pricing models that determine the cost of festival tickets through the plug-in in of diverse sources of personal data; the impact of AI scriptwriting software on perceptions of what it means to be ‘creative’; an exploration of responses to recommendation agents in audience decision-making; and a ‘top ten’ of hybrid performances at 2030 festivals.

WarrenPresentersFearn

It has previously been argued that Augmented Reality (AR) has the potential to provide relevant digital information to support pupils learning in real-time through engaging formats. However, the use of AR in the classroom remains uncommon for mainstream adoption. Service Design thinking uses a holistic approach, and we investigate how we can create more meaningful AR experiences.

WhatLocationPaperare the barriers and opportunities of using Augmented Reality for Primary Science Education?

Provocation & InspirationMultimediaLocation artist working Intersection of art and science

DianaPresentersScarborough

Introducing my art practice as an artist-engineer collaborating with scientific institutions to create multimedia art. Current collaborations include British Antarctic Survey with space weather (5 years) and more recently with the Dept of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology on the nanoscale. Having access to high level institutions is a privilege but my strength is that as an electronic engineer I understand the data, conversations and their research trajectory ... and I also live in Cambridge! My collaborations with composers, researchers, dancers and other artists are long-term allowing time to explore and ‘play’ with concepts and build up a body of work as well as respect for each other’s skillset and working together that is the art of collaboration. I am ‘the creative glue’ as quoted by one my co-creators!

In the session I share artworks that have been exhibited at widely including, events the Venice Biennale, Dark Skies and Blue Dot Festival. Given my themes - to make the ‘inaudible audible’ or the ‘invisible visible’ of science I have set myself a real challenge. However, it is a desire to make art that is about now and a call to action for a positive climate future that inspires me. Using an art palette of music, animation, film and interactive installation through technology can be a powerful way to entice people to engage!

InteractiveProvocation - No ones knows.

Interactivity has been the backbone of my career for over a decade. I have been using interactive technologies in various ways in many different scenarios. But it’s a love hate relationship, as most people don’t really know what ‘interactive’ really means. It’s been a splinter in my mind for many years.

In my opinion the word has become diluted, deflated and stretched across a gigantic spectrum of industries and sectors that we simply don’t know what it means; a marketing gimmick for Sky TV? A fairground ride with buttons? A piece of code for a web designer? A dance show where the dancer moves the video on the screen? My aim is to provoke a thought; what does interactive mean to you?

InteractivePresentersInspiration audiences:

The Quest to Break the 4th TanyaWallVital

At the height of lockdown an industry who’d treat digital advancement in the arts like a dirty word, suddenly found themselves clamouring for ways to share their work digitally. Their only problem was trying to repackage a square peg for a round hole. Many believed that showing a video of pre-recorded work would resonate with an audience. It didn’t, it just created another “4th wall”. Following in the footsteps of Charlie Brooker, Swamp Motel and Artificial Next, there is a growing palate for dramatised live-action game experiences and immersive entertainment, where the audience take charge of the narrative. With Vital Stories, we married gaming with live performance to make our audience the ‘Hero of their own journey’.

Vital Stories is what happens if Bandersnatch & the movie Clue had a baby - but LIVE! A branching narrative crime thriller played on Twitch, where the audience becomes the detective: working together to interrogate the prime suspect, gather the evidence and get a confession. We want to find likeminded creatives who can work with us to forge the way in this growing area and develop effective business models with engaging solutions that work best for audiences.