Month: March 2020

Dionysus 360 – an experimental performance based on three tragedies by Euripides

Dionysus 360 (directed by Paweł Passini) is an experimental performance co-produced with the Visual Narratives Laboratory, filmed with a 360° camera and based on three tragedies by Euripides: The Phoenician Women, The Suppliants, and The Bacchae. A key aspect of the work is its emphasis on reconstruction and the presentation of the mechanism of character transformation.

The production team studied the previously unexplored sequence of roles played by three ancient actors who created all the characters in the tragedies – for this reason, no more than three characters appear on stage at any one time, not counting the chorus, of course. It turned out that, based on the algorithm of the entrances and exits of individual characters, for most tragedies only one “feasible” combination is possible. The creators´ assumptions that the order of transformations is a carrier of meaning for the entire trilogy, determines the choice of acting techniques, and often directly influences the characters´ behavior on stage, were confirmed. Subsequent acting incarnations give new meaning to the myth evoked in the tragedy, and the chain of transformations binds all the characters played by one actor into a single meta-character. Its successive incarnations fuel each other, often anticipating their appearance on stage, constantly reminding the viewer that someone is hiding behind the mask.

The succession of characters played allows the actor to create space for the next character. It also allows, in the case of a quotation, for the voice of the quoted character, already familiar to the audience, to speak up, suddenly and sharply “disagreeing” with the new mask. Euripides makes his audience aware of how far one can identify with someone else’s fate, joy, or suffering, and encourages them to do so. This extraordinary internalization of the fates of different people takes place according to certain rules. Discovering and understanding them through acting practice is the subject of this project.

Referring to the working methods of ancient actors, and responding to the current epidemic, Paweł Passini and his team decided to try a new way of working on acting scores. Each of the actors worked in isolation – the first and only joint meeting took place during the premiere. Working in isolation, mostly confined to their homes, the actors were forced to place the greatest emphasis on the interpretation of the text and characterization, but also on understanding the mechanism of change. The need to leave space for their partner, to anticipate their presence in their actions, the effectiveness of which was only verified on the day of the premiere, in front of the audience, allowed the producers to gain a deeper understanding of the craft of ancient actors.

Thanks to the use of VR technology, the audience is invited to actively participate in the performance, to look around the stage. Acoustically, they are still at the heart of the action, and thanks to the omnidirectional cameras, they can decide for themselves which actor to follow with their eyes, whom to observe at any given moment. This kind of audience involvement in the performance creates a completely new form of reception, which, paradoxically, brings us closer to our ancient predecessors.

Sector – an immersive environmental protest

Sector ( dir. Wojciech Olchowski) is an artistic impression, expressed through butoh dance, of the controversial transformation of the landscape and biotope by humans, in the form of an immersive 360-degree video with evocative sound and original music. The project was co-produced with the Visual Narratives Laboratory at the Łódź Film School.

Filming for Sector took place in September 2019 in a landscape park on the narrowest section of the Vistula Spit, which in February 2019 was stripped of 10,000 trees in just a few days. The site was designated for leveling and digging a canal, which, according to most experts, will have no significant economic utility, but will cause enormous damage to local nature and tourism.

The Sector – how to look at it – is like any other land. The sun warms it just as it warms the rest of the forest around it, only there are no trees. They were taken away, but some remain. The Sector defines itself – trees on both sides, cut off as if with a knife. The wind blows differently here, even though it seems to be the same wind from the sea. The easiest way to reach the Sector is from the asphalt road. The asphalt is even and smooth, but here there are hills, and you have to walk between them and climb them. You can see them from the asphalt road, standing there, inviting you. They have marked the way to the viewpoint overlooking the sea and the bay. Oh, here is the Valley of Despair, and here is the Field of Bones, and here is Skull Hill. The Sector doesn’t ask if you’re good or bad, but shows you a certain path. The path we are all now following, where it leads – you see, you know. The Sector is a section that is healing with greenery, maybe it will heal, maybe on its own, maybe with help, maybe not at all…

(Text based on Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky)

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From my Point of View – a story about a subjective way of seeing

From my point of view (dir. Monika Masłoń) ia a story about a subjective way of seeing, empathy, perceptual and emotional disorders. It consists of two layers. The first one has an interactive character, resembling a computer game. It is an experience based on acting in a digitally generated world. We start it in the training room, we learn about the possibilities and limitations of the virtual world. We get tasks to do. The second layer is the story we we learn along the way. The project is co-produced with the Visual Narratives Laboratory.

Both layers are interconnected. Immersant’s actions are a metaphor. His experiences are parallel to those of the voice that leads him. Immersion disorders resulting from unusual ways of controlling and perceiving the image are related to the feeling of emotional imbalance caused by mourning. This second layer reveals itself in the sound narration and the elements of the image, which seem to be pieces of the narrator’s memories. What happens to the viewer, what he or she experiences is similar to a disturbance in the perception of reality related to loss and stages of mourning.

The visual side of the project consists of a slowed-down black and white negative image associated with the world of the past, memories. It is both real and unreal. There are also generated objects and spaces that will enhance the impression of being in the training space and will be strongly associated with the interaction. Both recorded and generated materials will be achromatic. The film image will be used to show recorded scenes and textured 3D objects. Subsequent locations will be separated by a complete fading out of the image. The narrator’s voice will move and make the impression that sometimes it is addressed to us and sometimes it speaks to itself. The storytelling mode will be a mixture of ongoing events of a certain duration and course and elements of interaction that will influence the length of the experience.

The aim of the project is to create an artistic realization that will use the technology of virtual reality with its specific features of creation and reception. The artistic issue undertaken in the project will be, among others, the interpenetration of reality and fiction based on the immersion character of the technology used. The work is supposed to reveal the mechanisms of illusion and talk about existential and emotional disorders characteristic of the feeling of loss (e.g. reaction to an unexpected change of situation, inability to experience what one wants and what was possible a moment ago, the feeling of being lost, disagreement, searching for meaning).

An important aspect of the project will be the use of equipment allowing the recipient to move around and thus enabling the introduction of more complex interaction elements related to navigation by means of body movement. A key element of the project will be the experience of immersion sensation disorder.

Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment
Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment
Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment
Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment
Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment

Memesis – an experimental VR experience on the intersection of game and movie

Memesis (dir. Marta Giec) is an experimental VR experience on the intersection of game and movie made in CGI. Project involves the creation of the first part, which would be approximately 7 minutes long and constitute a kind of “demo,” an invitation to a further story, combining a surreal vision with a horror film. The project is co-produced with the Visual Narratives Laboratory.

Memesis aim is to function in a double mode. On the one hand, as an adventure in the VR environment, in which the user has to move further into the world in order to move the action forward. On the other hand, it is supposed to be a realization of surprising clashes and cultural references. The convention of mystery and horror is loosely connected to the theme of the Holocaust through discrete symbolic and visual references. Memesis is supposed to be a new form of working through trauma and breaking with national myths and identity. The aforementioned horror will be enriched in the later parts of the memetic adventure with various references to the newest post-internet culture, such as memes or the shanzhai culture. Intertextual references and references to contemporary art and culture are to be a “bonus” treat for the conscious viewer.

The overriding goal of Memesis is to create an alternative, artificial reality in a 360° world, where the formal procedures characteristic for VR will fit the narration in such compatible way that they produce highly immersive experience in which the user will move in waves from a feeling of calm to horror and uncertainty. Additionally, the immersion will benefit from experimental treatments enhancing the VR experience, such as eye adaptation, video projection in the user immobilization mode (video plain), abstract textures created with analog video synthesizer and captured into digital environment, as well as triggers.

The beginning of the adventure with Memesis is a desert submerged in darkness, containing a path that leads the user into an everchanging landscape. There are dead trees, dilapidated objects, ruins and most of all, an abandoned allotment with a garden. The immersion into the mysterious, empty world begins to give way to the feeling of dread when the user starts to hear moans and cries of pain. The sound comes from under his feet. The meme-faced mud suffers.

Better for the user to choose the path on which he doesn’t cause any suffering – then he’ll arrive to a wooden house with a sukkah. In its abandoned interior, not succumbing to fear and following the directions, he’ll meet a guide, the anthropomorphic Challah. She’ll guide him to the stove, where a surprise awaits the user as well an invitation to the second chapter of this surreal adventure.

Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment
Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment
Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment

SELF – a journey into the human psyche

How does a mentally ill person feel? How do they perceive the world? Or perhaps the division between mentally healthy and mentally ill people does not exist at all? For the creators of the project, their interest in producing photographic and film images has for years gone hand in hand with an attempt to understand and be open to the world of the psyche. When these two worlds (film and psychology) have the opportunity to meet – finding common ground on an artistic level – ideas such as SELF ( dir. Patryk Jordanowicz, Tadeusz Chudy) are born, to which viewers will be invited through the audiovisual medium of VR.

SELF is intended to be a powerful and memorable immersive experience for the viewer. Understanding otherness comes from experience, which is understood as a lived experience. Understanding, in turn, creates tolerance. The visual and audio stimuli of this project are only a path, a tool to generate emotions in the audience similar to those experienced by people affected by mental illness. The creators want to evoke a state of contemplation, melancholy, and empathy in the viewer. SELF touches on an extremely sensitive topic, which is why it has been created from the very beginning with the participation of people who deal with mental health on a daily basis.

The concept of SELF’s story is based on a mosaic structure. The stories presented are memories from different stages of the recovery process of former patients, and their real silhouettes will be set in a minimalist 3D environment. Flashbacks will materialize in the form of voice-over commentary, and the use of ambisonic sound will highlight the properties of the cinematic VR category.

Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment
Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment
Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment
Materials showing sketches of the three-dimensional environment