Key visual for the future of performance, Presence

Poster for Future of Performance: Presence

Rooftop Productions

Arts Tech

Presence (Phase 2)

Name: Presence
Start: Fri Mar 17 2023 06:30:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
End: Sun Mar 26 2023 09:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Location: Online

Teleoperation in a real-time live performance

17–26 Mar 2023

Online

2 hours

Creative Team Gallery Artistic Statement

Explore the potential of telepresence techniques in a real-time live performance

Shuttling between the real and virtual worlds with tiny robotic vehicles, Presence is a real-time adventure that offers the audience the chance to participate in a live performance via an online platform. Through an interdisciplinary combination of live performance, installation, game control programming and first-person game play, the work-in-progress piece examines the potential of telepresence techniques in online performance.

The performance offers two levels of participation: Drivers extend their physical presence by remotely operating robotic video vehicles to interact with the performers and objects on-site to unlock hidden plots and stories; and Observers, able to choose an overview or Drivers' viewpoint, to explore several unnamed locations, viewing them from unfamiliar perspectives.

Presence is presented as part of Freespace’s Future of Performance series.

Cast

Sam is preparing for Tasseography but he needs some tea leaves. Do you have any? Give him some!

Mak Ho-tin

Performer

Expected degradation time: Nylon 30-40 years; Plastic 500 years

Sung Boon Ho

Performer

I never thought I’d think of death in my twenties.

Abigail So

Performer

July is preparing for the spring sowing. Why don’t you catch up with this opportunity too?

Yang Zhi-yan

Performer

Alfie needs charcoal to draw; do you have any? Give it to Alfie!

Alfie Leung

Performer

Arisa Yasaratne

Host for Observers

Yoyo Fung

Host for Observers

Cheng Suet-gei

3D Model Art

Creative and Production Team

Programmer	Ivor Houlker
Producer	Michelle Li
Mechatronics	Kenny Wong Chi-chuen
Assistant Producer	Tiffany Wong
Performers	Abigail So, Alfie Leung, Mak Ho-tin, Sung Boon Ho, Yang Zhi-yan
Mechatronics Production Coordinator	Kaka Leung Ka-yan
Host for Observers	Arisa Yasaratne, Yoyo Fung
User Interface Design	Pang Ho-jing
3D Model Art	Cheng Suet-gei
Broadcast System	Polygon Lab

The Programme is part of “Creative Tomorrow” exclusively sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club. Presented by Freespace Part of the research and development is supported by HKADC

Gallery

Artistic Statement

We came up with the idea for Presence during the peak of the pandemic. In October 2020, performance venues were still closed, and the whole performing arts industry was put on hold. With no places open for live performances, artists around the world started streaming their stage performances online. But something was missing.

In a live theatre performance, the audience and the performers are co-present: they exist in the same time and space. Online streaming might get close to existing at the same time, but there isn’t the same sense of shared space. On the other hand, there is already an existing art form with a sense of spatial co-presence, in the genre of online computer games. Our research led us to explore how we could create this same sense of a shared remote space… but in the real world, with live performers.

At that time, Freespace introduced Rooftop Productions to Kenny Wong, a media artist working with mechatronics. Together, we began experimenting with robots and programming, to see what kind of ‘avatar’ we could create that would give a remote audience free and independent movement in a real space.

In March 2021, the first stage was launched. We had 14 internal test performances and presented an open seminar based on our research. These performances took place in a warehouse building, using the warehouse company’s wifi, with the audience operating remotely controlled cars over the internet using our custom-built platform. They could explore the space freely, and talk to a live performer via text-to-speech, asking questions or choosing what they wanted the performer to talk to them about.

Based on our test audience’s responses, we were keen to increase the flexibility and immediacy of the robot avatars. Technically, this meant finding a way to let them visit outdoor spaces and eventually other parts of the world away from wifi networks by using 5G, allowing them to speak directly rather than only type messages, and finding new ways to detect and interact with objects in the real world with RFID scanning. For the performances, this meant leaning more into the structures and dramaturgy of open world computer games, to find a form that fits this hybrid mode of interaction.

Since Presence began, three years have passed, and the pandemic is over. We can gather in real spaces again… so now, as artists, the challenge has been to find what is special and unique about this form, which cannot be done better in the theatre. In a time when computer games are starting to be taken seriously as an artistic medium, what can we learn from them about the potential futures of performance?

About the Artists

Learn more about everyone involved in the production

Ivor Houlker

Ivor Houlker is a multidisciplinary theatre artist, who works internationally as a director, actor, musician, and programmer. He specialises in hybrid forms involving technology, as well as physical theatre and site-specific performances. His work often involves live music, chorus, multimedia projection, sound installation, and audience interaction. Since 2014 his work has incorporated programming and developing original apps to support interactive work. Recent works also include original real-time online platforms and to enable new forms of live interaction. Ivor is a founder and artistic director of Rooftop Productions in Hong Kong.

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Programmer

Michelle Li

Michelle Li Yuen Jing is the founder and co-artistic director of Rooftop Productions, and the recipient of the Award for Young Artist (Drama) at the 16th Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Performance Creation from Goldsmiths, University of London, and holds a Bachelor’s degree with Honours in English Studies from the University of Hong Kong.

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Producer

Kenny Wong Chi-chuen

Kenny Wong is an independent artist and designer and established the creative studio Things That Move. He worked as a creative craftsman (Creative Technologist) in IOIO creative, and studied for a master's degree in Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, majoring in sculpture. He was a lecturer at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong in 2015.

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Mechatronics

Tiffany Wong

Graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Language and Communication, Tiffany has then completed multiple professional performing arts training programmes, mainly focusing on physical theatre and drama. These courses include a 2-year programme, Physical Theatre Institute (PTI) by Tang Shu-wing Theatre studio, where she takes part in the exploration of body techniques based on Tang Shu-wing’s pre-language concept and applies them to various creative pieces and text-based theatre works. While working as a freelance actor, she has then continued her learning in the 2021 Physical Acting Lab programme by Ata Wong, focusing on theatre performing techniques based on the instructor’s education at École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq, including neutral and expressive masks, character development and melodrama.

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Assistant Producer