Immersion in digital theatre for remote audiences

Spencer, A ORCID: 0000-0002-6786-4706 (2023) Immersion in digital theatre for remote audiences. In: MIX, 7 July 2023, British Library, London, UK.

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Official URL: https://mixconference.org/session/panel-9-experime...

Abstract

The recent surge in remote theatre experiences has challenged theatres and theatre practitioners to think more than ever about remote audiences, their behaviours, their needs, the way they engage with and access work and the role they play in shaping a virtual performance. This paper seeks to understand how a remote theatre experience can be experienced by audiences, how they can be curated by theatre practitioners and explores emerging findings around liveness, hybridity and embodiment for remote audiences. To do so, the paper presents a recent case study developed as part of MyWorld, a project supporting the development of the creative technology industry in the West of England. This case study follows the development of a remote performance of Nobel Prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk’s novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, involving collaboration between the international touring company Complicité, Bristol Old Vic and several universities in the UK. In this project, audience data, including heart rate, was gathered by a team of psychologists, led by University of Bristol, to track long-form continuous immersion measures of audiences and analysed to understand audience experience. This paper presents key findings from a case study that documented and reflected on the process of this research project. It reflects on how we can seek to understand the experiences of remote audiences through the use of technologically-led audience research, examines the concepts of liveness and immersion and explores their impact on remote experiences.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
UN SDGs: Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Keywords: theatre, immersion, digital, audience research
Subjects: T Technology > T Technology (General)
Divisions: School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
Research Centres and Groups: Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries (CCCI)
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Date Deposited: 11 Sep 2024 09:39
Last Modified: 11 Sep 2024 09:39
URI / Page ID: https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/16456
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