Digital and artistic tools to combat social exclusion: presentation of results of the SO-CLOSE and TRACTION co-creation projects The research and innovation projects SO-CLOSE (coordinated by the Autonomous University of Barcelona -UAB) and TRACTION (led by the Catalan company Vicomtech and with the participation of the UAB) will present their main results on Wednesday 30 November at 10:00 am at the headquarters of the European Commission in Barcelona Over the last three years, the research teams of the European projects SO-CLOSE and TRACTION have been working on [...]

The Final Embrace Friday 25 November, 2022 On Saturday, November 26, 2022, Ópera na Prisão (Opera in Prison) and TRACTION will be sharing its final embrace at the José Lúcio da Silva theatre, at 16:00 (GMT). This final event celebrates the intense work developed throughout the past two years by the young inmates and professional artists on co-creation, drama rehearsals, singing, score reading and technology, that led to the public performance of the opera O TEMPO (SOMOS NÓS)/Time (As we are). Everyone attending the theatre [...]

The TRACTION Toolset Wiki: Making the Technology Toolkit Available to the Community Tuesday 22 November, 2022 The TRACTION project aims to contribute to opera’s renewal as a territory of cultural and social inclusion through three community opera trials in Barcelona, Portugal, and Ireland. These trials have been supported and facilitated by the new technology tools developed during the project: The Co-Creation Space and the Co-Creation Stage. The development of the new technologies followed a user-centric design methodology, where end-users were involved in all stages of the process. This [...]

An Out of the Ordinary Experience Tania Banotti – Creative Ireland – 14 October 2022 Out of the Ordinary @ Dublin Fringe Festival © Simon Lazewski I visited Out of the Ordinary /As an nGnach this September in Dublin as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival. I deliberately didn’t read too much about how the project had evolved over COVID before I went with a friend to experience it. Like the Dr Spock quote: “It’s life Jim, but not as you know it”. “It’s opera [...]

The Odd Couple François Matarasso – 5 October 2022 In Neil Simon’s Broadway play, The Odd Couple, two divorced men agree to share an apartment. They are, of course, wildly unsuited to living together. Uptight, neurotic Felix and carefree, untidy Oscar find each other intolerable. It’s a simple dramatic device, made memorable by great performances from Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau who starred in the 1968 film. And, like many simple stories, The Odd Couple has a gentle lesson, as Oscar and Felix both learn from [...]

The Art of VR Facilitation Camille Donegan (Virtual Reality Ireland) – 20 September 2022 Virtual Reality facilitators, or hosts as we prefer to call them, are paramount to audience members having a positive virtual reality experience. The user journey is everything, particularly when it is their first time trying the medium. The comfort of the user in the headset is imperative and the new list of considerations vary from the audience members wondering “where's my stuff going to be when I'm in the headset” to “will [...]

A prison opera and digital transformation boost diversity of artistic voices A special opera performance in Lisbon improves inclusivity for the marginalised while digital literacy will create new artistic opportunities. Written by Emanuela Barbiroglio Pictured above, 'O Tempo (Somos Nós)', performance June 17th 2022, Lisboa, Portugal © Joaquim Dâmaso/SAMP Research projects are exploring the capacity of artists to reduce inequality in the digital age. A special opera performance in Lisbon improves inclusivity for the marginalised while digital literacy will create new artistic opportunities. Four professional Portuguese [...]

Opera from the inside out Irish National Opera Presents Out of the Ordinary/As an nGnách The world’s first Virtual Reality Community Opera Premiering at Kilkenny Arts Festival Tuesday 9 to Sunday 14 August Also at Dublin Fringe Festival Friday 12 to Thursday 25 September Irish National Opera’s new Out of the Ordinary/As an nGnách is as close as you’ll get to an opera for the people and by the people. It’s the world’s first virtual reality community opera, and it has been developed [...]

A Culture of Possibility Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso interview David Ramy and Bruno Homem of SAMP on Co-creating Original Opera with Incarcerated Youth Arlene Goldbard - 15 July 2022   NOTE: This post is to introduce you to the 19th episode of François Matarasso’s and my monthly podcast, “A Culture of Possibility.” It will be available starting 15 July 2022. You can find it and all episodes at Stitcher, iTunes, and wherever you get your podcasts, along with miaaw.net’s other podcasts by Owen Kelly, Sophie [...]

TRACTION at IMX 2022 Thomas Roggla – CWI – 11 July 2022 From June 22nd to 24th 2022, the TRACTION project had a presence at the ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences (IMX) hosted by the University of Aveiro in Aveiro, Portugal. The conference gathers an international community of researchers and professionals in human-computer interaction, design, and sociology. Two peer reviewed works from the TRACTION project were presented by Sueyoon Lee and Thomas Röggla from CWI, a work-in-progress, and a demo paper. Titled “Designing [...]