Hummingbird: Collaborative Virtual Reality for
Tele-Immersive Interactive Theater
Tele-Immersive Interactive Theater
Hummingbird is an ongoing project developing multiuser theatrical performances that
merge real and virtual worlds with the goal of encouraging stronger theater engagement
with tech-savvy younger audiences. Participants follow the story’s protagonist into an
immersive virtual world reminiscent of Japanese paintings. They embark on a collaborative journey to overcome challenges, such as finding hidden drawers, planting seeds and using pick-axes to chip away rock. This tele-immersive, interactive experience has the potential to reimagine theatrical storytelling.
merge real and virtual worlds with the goal of encouraging stronger theater engagement
with tech-savvy younger audiences. Participants follow the story’s protagonist into an
immersive virtual world reminiscent of Japanese paintings. They embark on a collaborative journey to overcome challenges, such as finding hidden drawers, planting seeds and using pick-axes to chip away rock. This tele-immersive, interactive experience has the potential to reimagine theatrical storytelling.
VR Theater
The project bridges art, science and live theater through a collaborative research effort
between computer science and design faculty and students at the University of Illinois at
between computer science and design faculty and students at the University of Illinois at
Chicago (UIC) Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) and Chicago’s Tony Award-
winning Goodman Theatre, whose youth program works with Chicago’s diverse
winning Goodman Theatre, whose youth program works with Chicago’s diverse
demographics of middle-grade and teenage youth. The project is being designed for the
Goodman Theater New Stages showcasing experimental and ground-breaking theater works.
Chicago youth will attend tele-immersive real-time performances that will run concurrently at the UIC/EVL Continuum and 3036Lab (due to COVID the Goodman Theatre’s Alice Rapport Center is closed), allowing for untethered social interaction and collaborative exploration of the plot lines through avatars and multiuser interaction. Hummingbird extends traditional live theater and makes virtual reality art accessible to a broader audience. It will demonstrate how virtual reality technology can be both an artistic and a storytelling medium integrated with a live theater performance.
Project website https://www.evl.uic.edu/hummingbird/
Goodman Theater New Stages showcasing experimental and ground-breaking theater works.
Chicago youth will attend tele-immersive real-time performances that will run concurrently at the UIC/EVL Continuum and 3036Lab (due to COVID the Goodman Theatre’s Alice Rapport Center is closed), allowing for untethered social interaction and collaborative exploration of the plot lines through avatars and multiuser interaction. Hummingbird extends traditional live theater and makes virtual reality art accessible to a broader audience. It will demonstrate how virtual reality technology can be both an artistic and a storytelling medium integrated with a live theater performance.
Project website https://www.evl.uic.edu/hummingbird/
My task was to complete a Virtual Reality Introduction room where participants gather before entering VR, getting to know the Gerard Corps theme, their avatars, and calibration for VR tracking. My room I designed was based off the theme of high technology in a abstract open space, where VR participants get a feel of the story and it's backstory.
