Why is the immersive, technical side of the project so important?
Alistair
In October last year Light Theatre Company presented the results of work created in the preceding ten months with an award from Future Screens NI, to an invited audience in the Armagh Planetarium Dome. The work had been created with Dr. Kerem Çubuk the Full Dome Producer at the Planetarium who in collaborated on the design of the visuals and Dr. Isaac Gibson and Prof Pedro Rebelo from SARC (The Centre for Interdisciplinary sound at Queen University) who created the sonic soundtrack.
As we didn’t have the time or resources to adapt the visual material used in Armagh Planetarium Dome presentation these were adapted without the dancer attached for the live Ulster University showcase performance. Isaac created a stereo version of the sound without Lucia’s voice attached, as Talitha was speaking as she danced.
Seeing Talitha rehearsing without visuals and in performance at the VP Studio at Ulster University led me to consider whether the performance, without the visuals, with just the dancer, the movement and the text, could work in that way? I am giving a lot of thought to this question.
As it was, neither I, nor Talitha saw the visuals until a day before the showcase in Belfast, so she didn’t have time to respond to them.
How did you feel about the visuals, Talitha?
Talitha
I knew that the visuals were not going to be the way Alistair ideally wanted them, so I really didn’t let that worry me. They were integrated a little, but there were limits in terms of how I could interact with the visuals. I just wanted to perform as well as I could with what we had available to us.
I think that it is useful to look at the use of the immersive technology. It’s the cool thing right now. I know the technician we worked with had all sorts of thoughts as to what we could potentially do and I think there is a possibility that we could enhance the space we are working in with this new technology.
There is the potential to add layering, like using technology which can respond to emotions in the audience, and reflect that through light, and so I am certainly interested in adding to the theatre experience this way. I am interested in innovation.
Where to now?
Alistair
Eventually we would like to create a project, a product, which is sufficiently developed that it can tour to international festivals, That, of course, will be much easier with just the dancer/actress and the voice and music soundtrack. With the audience on four sides of the acting space, I think it is likely to be something different again and maybe even more powerful with just those simple elements.
Earlier I said that what I wanted was to have the sense that this piece was being performed in a ‘Theatre -in-the-Round’. So, if we were able to get access to or able to commission a portable immersive space in which the audience are on the periphery and we are able to create high quality visuals and sound, I think a quite a different dynamic would emerge from the experience. The imagery might become much more abstract. At the moment it is very concrete. But I think there is a huge scope to work with the imagery which I think could create a completely different energy, In any event we have a long way to go to create a full-length work and to test the immersive technical side of it.
Although it is only a brief sample I think we have already demonstrated the potential of the complete work, both at the Planetarium and at Ulster University. We urgently need funding to be able to present the project as it was originally intended or even to continue without the visuals in a simpler space.
Talitha
At the moment the piece is about 15 minutes long and we need to develop it to the point where it is a full show that we could tour and sell tickets to, and I think there would definitely be an audience for this show.
Hopefully we will be able to perform the work we have now in Cardiff and get feedback and grow the project from there.
To see more of the work of Alistair Livingstone and Talitha Maslin go to the links below
