Fusion solutions for remote performers: A Telepresence Stage
Channel: Telepresence Stage
Date: 2021-11-11

NOWNET ARTS CONFERENCE 2021. Network Arts: Transformation of Distance November 4-7, 2021. FRIDAY 5 NOVEMBER, 3:30AM Paper: Fusion solutions for remote performers: A Telepresence. Stage Steve Dixon, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore and Paul Sermon, University of Brighton, United Kingdom.

The paper presents findings from the authors’ (Steve Dixon and Paul Sermon) ongoing research project ‘Collaborative Solutions for the Performing Arts: A Telepresence Stage’, funded by a ‘COVID-19 Rapid Response’ scheme grant from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)—Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). In the light of lockdowns and safe distancing issues, the project aims to develop effective and affordable new approaches to connect theatre and dance performers from their separate homes or studios and place them within virtual sets online where they can improvise, devise, rehearse and perform together as if on a real stage. The paper presents and analyses how a range of telematic chromakey systems are being employed to bring a whole new level of creativity to videoconference-based performance work, freeing the performers’ bodies from the entrapment of Zoom boxes and co-locating them in specially designed 3D environments.