In September this year I received funding from Arts Council England through their Develop Your Creative Practice grant which would allow me to take some time out of my freelance work and focus on developing my virtual production skills. I will be documenting the process here and any interesting findings/companies/projects. 

Project Summary 

The work will be split into four different sections of research and skill development. They will all focus around the uses of VR and AR in the performing arts particularly immersive theatre, and will build off my previous work on the uses in pre-production. However this time I will focus more on the uses within performance. 

The R&D periods will be based around the following prompts: 

• What are the current innovative Extended Reality Technologies and how are they being utilised in the immersive performance industry?

• What benefits do they provide in terms of accessibility, either physically or financially, and how can these be further improved?

• The use of Virtual Reality/Production in large scale live events has gained popularity over the pandemic, how can this be scaled for use in smaller events?

• How can Extended Reality increase the collaboration between different creative sectors, from physical art work, to videography, to live performance?

After each period I will spend time collating and documenting the findings and will then share them on my website alongside my other digital work. Throughout the process I will also be attending current productions which utilise virtual production techniques. During the final R&D period I will bring together artists from different sectors (physical art and videography/photography) and use the skills I have developed to create a final short piece of immersive performance/art which will be shared informally.