PROJECTS
These projects, demos and events are part of LiDiA’s on-going enquiries on how events relying on live participation could be constructed or revitalised in a hybrid form.
Strangelith (01 / 2023)
Project LiDiA’s extended reality (XR) installation “Strangelith” expanded Tampere Tavara-asema venue’s Stranger Things -themed event into virtual reality by integrating physical and virtual event spaces. The installation lured event attendees to move between these spaces while partying and provided them a chance to become a theme-based virtual avatar while doing so. The interface between realities were window-like portals that allowed direct speechless communication and interaction between the virtual avatars and attendees.
A continuum to project LiDiA’s previous works “Psychelith” (07/22) and “Discolith” (12/22), “Strangelith” installation explores the possibilities of integrating extended reality (XR) with live events, and the interaction between virtual and physical audiences.
Discolith (12 / 2022)
Based on project LiDiA’s previous work, “Psychelith” installation, “Discolith” was an extended reality (XR) installation that continued to explore the physical and virtual co-presence of live and remote audiences. Set inside Tampere Tullikamari’s Klubi venue, the installation invited the local club-goers to interact with a virtual dance party, and dance together with remote party-goers’ avatars.
VR Residency (09 – 12 / 2022)
VR Residencies provide the possibility to explore the effect of virtual reality technology on the traditional work of an actor / performer. The aim of the residencies is to create new knowledge for the members of the working group (performers Jenna Teinilä & Johanna Tohni) about VR/AR-enhanced performing. Furthermore, the residencies aim at renegotiating the contract between performance and spectator. The design of new performative experiences and environments call for a new kind of dramaturgy, in which the spectator is no longer a passive receiver but holds an agency within the experience.
VR residencies are carried out in 2022 with the support of Finnish Cultural Foundation (Pirkanmaa region fund).
Psychelith (07 / 2022)
“Psychelith”– thus named due to its psychedelic aesthetics and monolith-like structure – was a public extended reality (XR) installation realized during the Uusi Tampere music festival at the Hiedanranta area in Tampere, Finland. Inside the festival area, the LiDiA team composed an interactive, hybrid environment that invited festival goers to experience each other’s physical and virtual co-presence through a screen-based interface. In addition to this, the installation offered them an opportunity to jump into the virtual extension of the festival site.