Kick-off meeting of Traction in San Sebastian

The kick-off meeting of the Traction project coordinated by Vicomtech was held in San Sebastian (Spain) from February 3rd to 5th. This meeting was attended by representatives of the project partners from 5 different countries that launched the work plan for the next 3 years.

The aim of this project is to promote, through their empowerment, a transformation of communities at risk of exclusion. To achieve that goal, we will establish an effective collaborative and participatory production workflow for the co-creation and co-design of art representations, using a community-centric methodology to conduct a dialogue, and exploring novel audio-visual formats. A toolset will be designed and developed to foster democratisation of opera, using technology as a means to reach new audiences and to connect artists with audiences.

The integration of several socio-cultural groups in the creation of opera performances will be done through three concrete initiatives of the co-creation process:

In Barcelona, led by Liceu de Barcelona, a co-creation premium opera between professionals, neighbour and neighbours of the Raval neighbourhood and two performances in the Gran Teatre del Liceu with itinerant digital elements

In Portugal, promoted by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, there will be co-creation with prisoners, performances in the prison itself and a performance in an opera house using digital capsules.

In Ireland, with the collaboration of the Irish National Opera, the secrets of Ireland will be represented through a Digital Opera, with the aim of reaching unpopulated areas or difficult access to opera. The idea is to use immersive itinerant formats.

In this way, this exciting project starts, applying the latest technology to bring cultural events to sectors at risk of social exclusion.