Mixed reality in threatened environments

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article considers the ecoscenographer’s use of technologies to ‘timeshift’ performances. Timeshifting refers to watching locally recorded content after its originally scheduled broadcast. It explores the evolution, refinement, and emergent issues related to applying this approach to performing relationships within threatened environments, including how they relate to notions of ‘hauntology’ in highlighting and collapsing time in reference to climate change. The article reviews the cultivation of new technologies to provide located media in remote locations, such as: Dance Exchange’s 500 Miles/ 500 Stories, Out of Box Productions’ Rallentando, and more recent projects including Toasterlab’s Groundworks and park-based projects, Swim Pony’s TrailOff, The Only Animal’s 1000-Year Theatre, and Nakai Theatre’s Landscape Theatre. These projects establish a trajectory of emplaced mixed reality practice. This includes practical production topics such as asymmetrical data infrastructure and the trade-offs of accessible technology. It considers how gaming (i.e. open world games) and 360VR provide tools for scenographers to stage spatial performances that examine the deep performativity of space over time despite the limitations resulting from the phenomenology of archive.