NI Theatre Company Develops Post-conflict Interviews into VR & Multi-media Experience

The Portstewart-based, site specific/immersive games and participatory community project provider professional theatre producer Big Telly Theatre Company, have partnered with The Commission for Victims and Survivors and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to develop an arts and technology driven project The House. Developed by Katy Radford and Zoe Seaton to raise awareness of the legacy of The Troubles/Conflict using the arts and digital technology to represent the Commission’s research. All the quotations in the performance and exhibition are drawn from research conducted by or for the Commission for Victims and Survivors.

THE HOUSE, a curated installation and theatrical performance by Big Telly includes quotations and dialogue drawn from research carried out by and on behalf of the Commission and which uses the words of Victims and Survivors of the Northern Ireland Troubles/Conflict. The House (Virtual Reality), funded by Future Screens NI’s Narrative Futures funding stream, was developed to extend the site-specific nature of the experience and for a wider audience in other contexts. The original cast and crew were augmented by collaborators in a Virtual Reality team directed by Gavin Peden and included work by Circo Rum Ba Ba and RETìníZE.

VR short film developed exploring game engine tech for animation

Michael O’Callaghan of the University of Ulster has developed a VR experience and short film, created from a single pipeline, exploring the possibilities of VR and game engine technology for animation studios. The Future Screens NI R&D-funded project looks at the different considerations, benefits and downsides of the joint approach in the case of a small film and a small studio. As a film, Shell hopes to explore themes of grief and bereavement through a surrealist lens as a dark dream like journey into a stricken mind.

Shell is a story written by O’Callaghan (previously of Oaken Studios) and produced both as a short animated film and as a Virtual Reality narrative experience. The project delves into the various benefits, downsides, costs and considerations of implementing game engine technology into an animated film pipeline (Unreal Engine in this case). Beyond this, the project sought to understand the process of developing VR narrative and consider how easily this can be done alongside the production of an animated film to potentially create two products from a shared pipeline.

As a film, Shell explores themes of grief and bereavement in a surrealist manner by delving into a dark nightmarish visualisation of the mind of a recently bereaved character. Here O’Callaghan and his team explored how the grief has punctured a hole in the characters mind and see the darkness that resides there. Rich with metaphor and subjective meaning, Shell illustrates the internal damage and change suffered by the bereaved and examines how this impacts their manner and how it may affect those around them. By exploring this kind of world and subject in VR, the project hopes to determine if VR as a medium can help to truly better immerse viewers in its narratives and incite a greater emotional response relative to the film equivalent.

Tessa’s Journey seeks to normalize and celebrate breastfeeding in everyday life.

Belfast-based Breastival is a unique, award-winning festival which aims to support, normalise and celebrate breastfeeding as part of everyday life. Using Future Screens NI R&D funding Breastival produced a program that could be used across Health Trusts (and around the world) to provide high quality training in an innovative and user focused manner. Four 1-minute animations were created that showed lived experiences of four Northern Ireland breastfeeding mothers. These animations were launched at Breastival, the online festival with an audience of breastfeeding mothers, breastfeeding supporters, media, health care professionals and politicians.

NI social enterprise develops animation for children who have experienced loss.

Northern Irish social enterprise WayMaker Child Therapy completed a Future Screens NI R&D project A New Day for Little Bear. The animation was developed for children who have experienced loss written by professional play therapist Eileen Russell.  Eileen has worked with children and families for eighteen years and has the heart to help children and families hold hard things.  The funding helped bring a therapeutic story Eileen wrote to life through animation. 

Each night after his dinner of fresh fish, Little Bear loves to run past the blanket of green trees to the top of the mountain, where he watches his beloved stars each night.  It’s the thing that makes him feel alive, and he is a fun bear with all his bear friends.  One night he races to the mountain, flings back his head, and there is nothing.  Join Little Bear as he tries to figure life out without his beloved stars. 

WayMaker Child Therapy provides play therapy, parenting support and training for professionals in Northern Ireland. 

PhD research in music copyright and moral rights enhanced by Future Creatives

Ulster University PhD researcher Paul O’Hagan’s Future Screens NI Future Creatives award was used for mentoring experience with Peter Jenner in support of research. Drawn from Sincere Management, Jenner is a veteran music manager and activist for creators’ rights. Peter’s background working with artists and record labels over five decades presented a unique opportunity for a mentorship related to O’Hagan’s PhD topic examining music copyright and moral rights as a lived practice. 

Over a period of nine months, Sincere Management scheduled and supported a series of weekly phone calls with Peter Jenner. Each conversation lasted approximately 50 minutes and over the period a close rapport developed which opened many areas of interest. Peter’s role as a mentor has enhanced and enriched O’Hagan’s PhD research and has been invaluable in developing not just a sense of actuality, (i.e. how the Creative Sector works), but also of potentiality, (i.e. how the Creative Sector ‘ought’ to work, or might work better). 

Following PhD submission, Paul O’Hagan intends to continue working with Sincere Management, with an aim of publishing a joint paper on label services with Peter Jenner. 

The Future Creatives scheme was designed to enable participants to make a step change in their research and innovation by enhanced leadership and collaboration skills and developing new practices in the field of creativity and technology. Each awardee has been matched with an industry or academic mentor working at the cutting edge of new, emerging and immersive technologies.