Trinity College Dublin: Public invited to enjoy VR Ulysses Live to celebrate Bloomsday 2021
V-SENSE, a Trinity-based research group pioneering content production for extended reality (XR) and the creative industries, is set to deliver an innovative experiment that will enable individuals to experience a dramatic re-enactment of James Joyce’s Ulysses live in virtual reality (VR) for the first time.
In this cutting-edge production of VR drama, computer science and drama researchers will reimagine a section of the opening scene of Joyce’s classical modernist work of literature in a way that is engaging for 21st century audiences by using state-of-the-art interactive digital media technologies.
Néill O’Dwyer, Research Fellow in Computer Science at Trinity, is the co-producer of VR Ulysses Live. He said:
“This is the second part of a series of creative–cultural experiments investigating questions around preservation, access, reactivation, and transmission of intangible cultural heritage –drama and literature – in the context of interactive digital media technologies.
“We are continuing the collaboration with Joycean scholar Paul O’Hanrahan, our director, in this episode, expanding on last year’s version, MR Ulysses, which reimagined the same scene using cutting-edge volumetric video techniques.
“XR Ulysses Live is yet another pioneering milestone for our V-SENSE research group, and we look forward to welcoming lots of interested people on Bloomsday.”
In VR Ulysses Live, audiences are invited to either put on a VR headset and ‘virtually’ attend the Martello tower-top or watch via a live stream of the performance (https://youtu.be/uFy2VFIuQ_I).
Whereas the live stream will be available to all, spaces for the virtual tower-top performance (in AltSpaceVR) are limited.
If you would like to attend in VR, you must have an AltspaceVR account set up and ready to go (the research team cannot provide tech support for registering an AltSpace account).
There will be a short (30-minute) Q&A session on Zoom, immediately following the performance, from 3:30 to 4 pm. The Q&A will be recorded.