Early 3D model of the space (model created in Maya by Arthur Sommer)
The Garden of Adrian, 2009. Designed by Minty Donald.
Beyond The Garden of Adrian: Examining intimacy, presence, and liveness in virtual reality performance
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of the theatre industry. For over 18 months, performance artists turned to digital and virtual media to create. For some artists and audiences, this was only a temporary fix before getting back to “real” live performance, but I believe we can improve the quality of virtual performance for future creators. This project attempts to discover ways to improve the emotional experience of virtual "live" performance by recreating one piece by performance artist Adrian Howells in virtual reality.
Howells was a one-on-one performer known for his works that invited honest, emotional participation. His pieces frequently involved acts of care, touch, or confession, and they are well-documented, as are audience responses to them.
This project will attempt to answer the question: how can a virtual performance evoke the same emotions and empathy in its audience members that a similar or identical live performance did?
The Garden of Adrian - 2009
The original piece was part of the West End Festival in 2009, performed at the University of Glasgow
“Performer Adrian Howells accompanies individual audience members on a physical and metaphorical journey through interactive stations installed around Gilmorehill. This journey intends to make participants explore the possibility of achieving a sense of absolution or ease through revelation, confession and contemplation…”
The Garden of Adrian, performed at Gilmorehill, University of Glasgow, 2009; designed by Minty Donald, lighting design by Mike Brookes; photography by Minty Donald.
This year, I am working with an undergraduate assistant to recreate Howells’ piece The Garden of Adrian in virtual space. I chose this piece because it had a scenic, lighting, and sound design, giving us plenty of design elements to build and work with in VR, and also because it was a linear journey through five “stations,” each representing one of the five senses. Once the space is built, the next step will be workshopping the stations in VR to determine how (if) we can effectively replicate the audience experience of the original piece without the physicality that Howells had in one-to-one performance.
Resources
Heddon, Deirdre, Helen Iball, and Rachel Zerihan. “Come Closer: Confessions of Intimate Spectators in One-to-One Performance.” Essay. In It's All Allowed: the Performances of Adrian Howells, 170–82. London: Live Art Development Agency, 2016.
Heddon, Deirdre, and Adrian Howells. “From Talking to Silence: A Confessional Journey.” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 33, no. 1 (2011): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1162/pajj_a_00018.
Johnson, Dominic. “The Kindness of Strangers: An Interview with Adrian Howells.” Performing Ethos: International Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance 3, no. 2 (2012): 173–90. https://doi.org/10.1386/peet.3.2.173_7.
Walsh, Fintan. “Touching, Flirting, Whispering: Performing Intimacy in Public.” TDR/The Drama Review 58, no. 4 (2014): 56–67. https://doi.org/10.1162/dram_a_00398.