Research and Discovery is a new open research initiative to develop innovative online collaboration and remote performance. R&D artists will work in 3 two-month cohorts to experiment with collaborative technologies, devise new ways to present performance, and share insights into ways to imbue online platforms with qualities that make live performance compelling and important. Its purpose is to discover and share the skills performance artists need to work together and reach audiences when traditional gathering is too dangerous or who face physical and economic barriers to attending live performance.
Each cohort will culminate in a free, public showing of work, and the results of this research will be made available online.
February/March
Presenting
This cohort will examine the unique challenges, losses, and opportunities with translating performance to remote channels. Artists will experiment with how changing the medium of their work changes how it is perceived and look at what is lost and what is gained in moving from physical space to online. Other topics will include technical basics/requirements for remote broadcasting, how to use off-the-shelf software to best showcase different types of performance, and ways to escape the perils of Zoom.
April/May
Interact
Remote performance often lacks the feedback loop between audience and performer. This cohort will research interactive techniques that help restore the connections between the two and explore ways in which online technologies can facilitate improvisation, branching works, and direct address. Other topics will include the merits of simultaneity, applications of audience agency within performance, and the use of software to personalize a viewer’s experience.
June/July
Space & Time
This cohort will focus on the burgeoning fields of Virtual and Augmented Reality as applied to performance and hybrid media. While growing in popularity, VR and AR both contend with technical and financial barriers of entry as well as accessible examples of their application within performing arts. Artists in this cohort will experiment with the way VR/AR transforms the relationship between audience, environment, and narrative as well as come up with advice for different levels of performance budgets.
R&D Artists will meet once a week online and will work on solo or group remote projects. A public showing of work will occur the final Saturday of each cohort.
We are primarily seeking artists who work in performance or time-based media (video, media collage, etc).
Technical requirements are:
a stable-ish internet connection
broadcast device like a computer or a phone
minimal viable space to perform, i.e. not too noisy for sound/voice-based artists, enough room to move for dance/body artists.