Stage360

EnKnap

@DigitalBigScreen 2021

Stage360 is a project by the EN-KNAP Institute that looks up to the future and explores the potentials of dance in virtual reality. It establishes a new type of post production, where the performance is virtualized, recorded with a 360° video camera and then available to the audience in a special (guided) screening with the VR headset.

With the help of a VR headset, Iztok Kovač, choreographer and art director of the EN-KNAP Institute, takes us on a journey through several parts of the performance, where the spectator is brought from his seat in the auditorium into the middle of the stage and, thereby, into the heart of the event itself.

The initial phase of the project, which included real case study and testing the technology under guidance of the new-technology experts, showed that performances recorded with 360° cameras, ambisonic sound, and adapted light support, offer a completely new experience; they facilitate the spectator to connect with the performance in a different way, thereby breaking the classical theatrical form where the view is only directed over the fourth stage wall. A view without a frame becomes an individual choice and the proximity of the dancers a privilege we have not witnessed before.

Oder360 does not want to replace the classic approach to viewing theater performances, but rather it strives to establish an entirely new view, a simulacrum of theater in new environments and circumstances. Not only is the use of new technologies in theatre a way to adapt to new situations; it is also a new type of promotion for contemporary performance practices, a way to bring them closer to potential new audiences.

In times of uncertainty for the performing arts and theatre, this creates a whole new artistic genre that establishes a connection between past and future, all the while preserving the freshness of works of art by arousing in the audience a certain new curiosity.

Project director: Iztok Kovač
Camera and editing: Andrej Lamut
Technical support: Omar Ismail
Sound recording and processing: Studio 100
VR support: Marko Cafnik & Multiversum 
Light adjustment: Španski borci Cultural Centre technical team
Executive producer: Zala Česnik
Production: EN-KNAP Institute Ljubljana and EN-KNAP Institute Trbovlje
In collaboration with:
Aerowaves Dance Network 
DDTLab RUK Trbovlje
Delavski dom Trbovlje – Virtual Mining Museum
Multiversum 

The program of the EN-KNAP Institute is financially supported by the City of Ljubljana – the Department of Culture, which also supports the activities of Španski Borci Cultural Centre, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.The Stage360 project is part of the Center for Creativity Platform partner network. The project is co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund and by the Republic of Slovenia.