Immersive Storytelling Studio: past projects
Artificial: Room 1
How do you know if the person you’re talking to online is real and not a chatbot? The smarter the artificial intelligence behind the robots becomes, the harder it is to make a distinction. Members of the theater and performance company Ontroerend Goed (the Dutch play on words could roughly be translated as “Feel Estate”) recently had a conversation with a chatbot, which for a long time was indistinguishable from a “real” conversation. Then, out of the blue, the AI asked them if they like to eat purple penguins.
Ten years ago the theater collective made a triptych of one-on-one performances. In Artificial: Room One, they return to this idea, but this time the participants are not two people, but a person and a machine. You’re invited to have an individual conversation with an AI to teach it how to become more human, or to explain what it means to be human. Can the two of you develop an emotional relationship? And to what extent is this machine capable of evoking human emotions?
Artificial: Room One is co-commissioned by the National Theatre’s Immersive Storytelling Studio and IDFA DocLab.
fabulous wonder.land
‘fabulous wonder.land’ is a virtual reality music video inspired by wonder.land, the National Theatre’s musical created by Damon Albarn, Moira Buffini and Rufus Norris, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s iconic Alice in Wonderland.
Fall down the rabbit hole and experience the magical, vibrant, digital world of wonder.land. As the full multi-coloured brilliance of wonder.land is revealed, the Cheshire cat serenades you with ‘Fabulous’, an original composition by Damon Albarn with lyrics by Moira Buffini.
A collaboration between the National Theatre, 59 Productions and Play Nicely with Production Partner Mahdi Yahya, Managing Director of Room One.
London Film Festival | VRUK | Adelaide Fringe Festival | SXSW | Cleveland International Film Festival | World Virtual Reality Forum, Switzerland | Seattle International Film Festival | Future of Storytelling, New York Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis | Shanghai International Film Festival, SONAR, Hong Kong | Sydney Film Festival
National Theatre & The National Film Board of Canada
In autumn 2016, the National Theatre’s Immersive Storytelling Studio began a collaboration with National Film Board Canada, one of the world’s leading documentary, animation and interactive producers, to explore and advance the language of creative non-fiction VR storytelling.
The initial three-week phase set out to engage acclaimed theatre artists and creatives from the UK and Canada to develop work combining the strengths of each institution in creative documentary, theatre and VR production. What happens when an artist employs all three disciplines to tell a story? More importantly, which stories can be told better by specifically bringing the three crafts together?
For the first phase of the project the artists collaborated with creative technologists and developers from All Seeing Eye and had production support from the National Theatre and the National Film Board Canada. That phase finished with an eight-day production sprint in which a prototype for each of the artists’ work was developed.
The prototypes:
Amy Hodge – Once a Man Twice a Child.
What is it like to have Alzheimer’s? This piece seeks to put the audience in a position that we might all one day find ourselves in.
Mitchell Kushman – TomorrowLoveVR
A psychologically personalised experience that invites you to experience love, intimacy, passion and loss, in step with a virtual partner.
Jordan Tannahill – Draw Me Close
Draw Me Close has been selected for the 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival in their Storyscapes strand. Further details can be found on the Draw Me Close project page.
Jo Tyabji – Drones
A compelling and immersive look at drone warfare that places you on both sides of this divisive form of combat.
The second phase of the project sought finance and production partners for each of the prototype pieces, to move all four artists’ work forward into full production.
Please contact jnicholls@nationaltheatre.org.uk if you are interested in becoming a partner on any or all of these projects.
The Barber Shop Chronicles 360 video
Newsroom, political platform, local hotspot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling.
Get the best seat in the house, by watching this 360 video to see the action right from centre stage. Use your mouse to click and drag to look around the action.
