Mo-Cap Experiments – The Performance Corporation

The Mo-Cap Experiments at Dublin Theatre Festival

The Performance Corporation were one of the first companies in the world to combine Virtual Reality and live theatrical performance [with with Emperor 101 at Dublin Theatre Festival 2021, SXSW in Texas 2022, LP360 Vancouver 2023).

With the Perf Corp Mo-Cap Experiments we continue to explore artistic possibilities at the cutting edge of tech/arts crossover as the world frets over the implications of rapidly emerging technologies like AI.

Presenting 3 new works-in-progress exploring the impact on identity from AI biases, the clash between humans and ever expanding technologies and the relationship between the audience, choreography and performative spaces. Presented using Motion Capture, Facial Recognition and Virtual Reality.

The Halting Problem (working title) by Caitríona Ní Mhurchú

The Apartment by Karl Quinn

The Front by Caoimhe Wandall-Brannigan

Directed by Jo Mangan

2pm, Sunday 15 October at The Digital Hub [fully booked]
as part of Dublin Theatre Festival

This work is made possible by by a Project Grant from the Arts Council of Ireland

Production support from Once Off Productions

The Mo-Cap Experiments at Dublin Theatre Festival

The Halting Problem [Working Title]

Written & Performed by Cáitríona Ní Mhurcú

If a shopping centre service robot is bullied by children, who needs re-programming? The machines? Or the humans?

A field trip to an AI Lab unveils a buried trauma and probes the ethical challenges facing us as we rely on increasingly intelligent machines and algorithms as tools, without really knowing how they work, or how they even make decisions.

Loosely inspired by Karel Capek’s Rossum’s Universal Robots [1920], and riffing on scientific breakthroughs in bio-electricity, The Halting Problem (or The Field Trip) asks if the roots of AI reach back to the ancients’ obsession with automatons?

Can technology reveal ourselves to ourselves?

Can the trained neural system of an AI unveil the mystery of human consciousness?

And if it can, do we want it to?

The Apartment

Written & Performed by Karl Quinn

Data centres litter the planet, sucking up vast amounts of energy, leading to ever more cataclysmic earth warming, wealth inequality and societal collapse.

Yet humans struggle to stay within their data limits.

A new rehabilitation programme aims to solve the problem.

A choice, wipe out your own digital life or delete someone else’s.

Not as simple as it sounds, enter the Apartment.

The Front

Written / Choreographed by Caoimhe Wandel-Brannigan
Performed by Yves Lorrhan

The Front explores the dynamic relationship between the audience, the choreography and the performative spaces that co-exist between human, technological and other non-human performances.

Inspired by the concept of Ephemera, this work-in-progress performance seeks to reimagine notions of physicality through abstracted digital bodies. They continuously transform, flow, and dissolve, reflecting the impermanence and malleability of the physical form.

This work for one dancer uses live motion capture in seeking to blur the boundaries between physical and digital realities, and between performer and audience through the manipulation of sensory modalities. It is an invitation to the audience to become active participants in the unfolding artistry, and to experience the intimacy of human movement in close proximity.

Supported by – PIX-ART Project, School of Creative Arts, Trinity College Dublin | Special Thanks – Hannah Slattery

CREDITS

Director
Jo Mangan

Technical Facilitator
Guillaume Auvray

Project Manager
Morgan Steele

Technical Coordinator
Camille Donegan

Dramaturg
Liz Fisher

Communications Manager
Ciara Gogarty

Videographer
José Jimenez

Special Thanks to
Dublin Theatre Festival, The Digital Hub, Dr. Gareth Young and Andrew Crowley

The Halting Problem

Written & Performed by Cáitríona Ní Mhurcú
Additional Performers Joshua McEneaney and Morgan Steele

The Apartment

Written & Performed by Karl Quinn
Additional Performer Joshua McEneaney
Special Thanks to Declan McKibben and team at ADAPT Centre

The Front

Choreographed by Caoimhe Wandel-Brannigan
Performer Yves Lorrhan
Music “The Front” by Conor Walsh
Supported by PIX-ART Project, School of Creative Arts, Trinity College Dublin
Special Thanks to Hannah Slattery and Dr. Gareth Young

BIOGRAPHIES

Caitríona Ní Mhurchú

An award-winning performer//theatre maker/writer, Caitríona is currently working on a show for Performance Corporation using live motion-capture suits which will be seen in the development strand DTF 2023.

Caitríona most recently played Maria Callas in Masterclass by Terence McNally for Smock Alley Theatre, Micheál Mac Liammóir in Waltzail Abhaile at the Taibhdhearc and Marthe Fleischmann in Edna O’ Brien’s Joyce’s Women at the Abbey Theatre for Dublin Theatre Festival 2022. She performed her own show [in Irish and English] for younger audiences A Suburban Legend in The Ark in November 2022.

Prior to that she played Lady Lavery and Sir James Craig in Fishamble’s The Treaty by Colin Murphy [London/Dublin], ‘C’ in Emperor 101, Performance Corporation’s live and mixed reality experience for Boco Loco, Canada April 2023, South by South-West Festival 2022 and Dublin Theatre Festival For Dublin Fringe Festival 2021 she co-created Minseach with dancer and choreographer Sibeal Davitt.

She was commissioned by Aisling Ghéar to write on online play for 7-12 year olds; An Botún. Transmission – for her own company Little Wolf – played Abbey Theatre/ Peacock Stage DFF 2020.Other recent work includes Nassim for DTF 2019 and the title role in Forever Yours Mary-Lou at the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath. Favourite work includes Lippy, The Seagull, 16 Possible Glimpses, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Sit, Guaranteed and the 10th Anniversary Celebration of The Oak Tree by Tim Crouch at The Traverse.

She is a regular performer on Radio Drama and has made numerous appearences on television – RTÉ, TG4, BBC, BBC NI – the most recent including Fair City, The Bailout, Acceptable Risk, Ros na Rún, Scúp, Seachtar na Cásca.

An Oireachtas award-winner, Caitríona has written extensively for children’s television and her children’s books are published by Cló Iar-Chonnachta/O’Brien Press. Her book Ó Lúibíní Lú was nominated for a Glen Dimplex Award. Her first radio play Momento Mori was a PJ O Connor award-winner. The Little Penpal won Gold in New York Radio Festivals for Best Writing. Gadhar a sound-story commissioned by RnaG 2019 was published in a compendium in 2020. And Mise & Ise was comissioned by RTÉ 1 as a response to the pandemic.

Caitríona is also a Story Line writer for Fair City, RTÉ.

Karl Quinn

Karl is a Dublin based Theatre Maker with over twenty-five years’ experience creating work nationally and internationally.

He is currently performing in the Mill Theatre, Dundrum’s production of Hamlet.

Also developing a new play, The Trolley Man which has been kindly supported by The Glens Centre (Manorhamilton) and Axis theatre (Dublin).

Recent work includes Staging the Treaty, a recreation of Ireland’s parliamentary debates on ending the War of Independence with the British Empire with multi-disciplinary theatre company Anu; a national tour of Breath (Carpet Theatre), a music play with Steve Wickham (The Waterboys); and Holding (ITV) a mini-series based on Graham Norton’s novel, directed by Kathy Burke.

International work includes SXSW, (USA), Washington DC (USA), Yukon and Vancouver (Canada), with The Performance Corporation; (Romania), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Wales (UK) with Carpet Theatre; London (UK) with Tall Tales and The Bush Theatre; Edinburgh (UK) with Yew Tree.

In Ireland my work includes Actor (Fidget Feet, The Performance Corporation, Abbey Theatre, Rough Magic, Ark Theatre, Broken Talkers); Director (Crude Mechanicals, The Ould Fella, Trolly); Writer (Connected, Crude Mechanicals, Trolly); Devising (Aeneid, The Flood, Pigeon); Applied Drama Facilitator (Abbey Theatre, Globe College, Munich); Voice Over (RTE TV and Radio continuity).

Caoimhe Wandel-Brannigan

Caoimhe is a dance maker, movement director and teacher from the west of Ireland. Her work sits at the intersection of dance, psychology and technology and her interest in non-traditional theatre spaces has led to the creation of dance work in a variety of contexts, including with professional and non-professional dance artists, for live performance and for film. She is currently undertaking PhD research at Trinity College Dublin, where she explores how emerging technologies such as virtual and augmented reality (XR) are reshaping choreographic processes, physicality, and audience-performer relationships. Her work has been supported by The Arts Council, Dance Ireland, Galway Dance Project, Mayo County Council and Science Foundation Ireland. In 2022, she was a recipient of the North-West Dance Residency Award, and was a Dance Artist in Residence in Áras Inis Gluaire, Belmullet. In 2023, she presented a mixed reality work-in-progress as part of the 36Q°+H40 programme at Prague Quadrennial.

Jo Mangan

Jo Mangan is Artistic Director/CEO of The Performance Corporation – a multi-platform creative company working in theatre, opera and immersive technologies, creator of festivals and artist residencies. She also works freelance as Director, Curator, Producer and Consultant. Jo has directed a range of award winning projects for the company.

Next up is MoCap Experiments for Dublin Theatre Festival 2023. Most recently she directed Emperor 101, (Live/Virtual Reality) presented at Dublin Theatre Festival, SXSW in Austin Texas, and at LP360 in Vancouver; Disappearing Islands, a site-specific dance/opera work on a tidal pool on the west coast of Ireland; and The Dead (Opera) at the Gaiety Theatre, and on tour nationally. She founded the SPACE Programme - Ireland’s longest running multi-disciplinary international artists residency with a current focus on Arts and Immersive Technology. Running since 2008, the most recent 2023 iteration was in Paris at the Centre Culturel Irlandais. She also designed and delivered Creation 21/22, an international Artist’s residency in Catalonia and Ireland, and has been a Tutor for the International Performing Arts Network (IETM) in Berlin and Italy. As recent Director/CEO of Carlow Arts Festival, she pioneered Outdoor and Digital work including VR Cinema and created a Virtual Reality Festival Campus. Recent independent directing work includes directing 5 films for Irish National Opera’s 20 Shots of Opera, 14 Voices from the Bloody Field (Abbey Theatre), Out of the Ordinary – VR Opera (Irish National Opera). Curation work includes the Prague Quadrennial Design Exhibition – PQ2019 for Ireland, Digital Consultant for Brightening Air, and International Programmer for Limerick National City of Culture and design of the annual Theatre Forum conference. She also founded and curated the BIG House Festival at Castletown House, and was director of as the Bram Stoker Festival.She has served on many boards, including Chair of the National Campaign for the Arts and currently The Gate Theatre and INY Festival. Awarded the Clore Cultural Leadership Fellowship saw her take up roles in the Barbican London, and the Department of Arts in Dublin. Awards include multiple Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards and the prestigious Fedora Digital Prize for Opera.

Liz Fisher

Liz Fisher is an interdisciplinary theatermaker based in Central Texas. Her directing work explores applications of mixed realities, immersive theatre strategies, and game mechanics in new play development and reimaginings of classic texts. She has worked for organizations that include the Kennedy Center, Fusebox Festival, Pittsburgh Public, The Tank [NYC], National Black Theatre, Zach Theatre, Penfold Theatre, National Women’s Theatre Festival, University of Texas at Austin, James Madison University, Mary Baldwin University, St. Edward’s University, Southwestern University, University of Arkansas, and others. She has been invited to residencies to develop new plays that focus on transmedia storytelling, including The Playwrights’ Center, The Orchard Project,tMoRPH, and the National Winter Playwrights Retreat. Her digital theater work has been streamed on the Emmys OTT platform and a winner of the Broadway On Demand’s Stage/Screen Festival. She designs and implements performance platforms as a technology consultant and creative director for organizations like Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies. She was a featured speaker at TEDx, SXSW Interactive, and other conferences and organizations on her work in building audience engagement via integrations of network technology, collaboration, and live performance. Liz is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award in Theatre, the Kennedy Center’s Stage Directors and Choreographer’s National Directing Award, and a fellowship to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Liz is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of the Incarnate Word and an Associate Artistic Director of Penfold Theatre. www.lizfisher.net

Camille Donnegan

Camille is a Virtual Reality consultant and content producer with 15 year parallel careers in both technology and the arts (theatre, film, radio). In the last few years, Camille’s passion for theatre, the arts and VR have converged. She partnered with Irish National Opera on a 3 year European Union funded project called TRACTION culminating in Out of the Ordinary / As an nGnách a VR Opera directed by Jo Mangan. She also produced Emperor 101 a live VR and Theatre show from The Performance Corporation and Matt & Hat, an animated VR dance film using motion capture that premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival 2023. She is a director of Eirmersive, the voice of the Irish Immersive sector. See: eirmersive.com.

Morgan Steele

Morgan Steele is an arts administrator and producer originally from Los Angeles, California. Notable work in North America includes the pre-Broadway tour of Ain’t Too Proud (2018), company managing multiple projects at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and working as an Associate Producer for Disney Channel Media Relations. Ireland and UK projects include Once (Landmark Productions, 2017), Medicine by Enda Walsh (Galway International Arts Festival and Edinburgh International Festival, 2021), and Daughter of God by Roderick Ford (Once Off and Asylum Productions, 2023). Morgan has previously worked with The Performance Corporation on The SPACE Programme 2023 in Paris, and is an Assistant Producer with Once Off Productions. She holds a B.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from UC Berkeley and a M.Sc. in Business Management from Trinity College Dublin.

The Mo-Cap Experiments at Dublin Theatre Festival

The Halting Problem [Working Title]

Written & Performed by Cáitríona Ní Mhurcú

The Apartment

Written & Performed by Karl Quinn

The Front

Written / Choreographed by Caoimhe Wandel-Brannigan Performed by Yves Lorrhan

CREDITS

The Halting Problem

The Apartment

The Front

BIOGRAPHIES

Caitríona Ní Mhurchú

Karl Quinn

Caoimhe Wandel-Brannigan

Jo Mangan

Liz Fisher

Camille Donnegan

Morgan Steele

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Written / Choreographed by Caoimhe Wandel-Brannigan
Performed by Yves Lorrhan