ME DEA EX_

Intertwining virtual and real worlds

To form Immersive/Interactive Theatre

Neora (www.neora.com)

Abstract:

The intertwining of science, technology and art, results in the experience of the spirit (Webster: the intelligent, immaterial and immortal part of man). Inspiration and spirituality, in my approach, define the state of mind, the spirit, achieved by interlacing several worlds, different in time/space/persona/media, to form some new experience of knowledge and understanding. Information Technology enables us to map the virtual and real worlds, to mix and hyper in an interdisciplinary manner. Such experience may be complex/confusing; hence the way to reach clarity depends on our willingness to abandon or redesign our traditional solid grounds.

MEDEAEX is an adaptation of the classic Myth of Medea, projected cross-culture wise on:

* The Middle-East Reality (Medea = Paletinian, Jason = Israeli officer, Chorus = audience, Golden Fleece = national flags).

* The CyberSpace Virtual Reality (Medea is a hacker trying to debug and redesign the script).

The MEDEAEX universe is a 3D environment that resides on the internet and projected during the performance in 360 degrees around the audience. It is a pro-active environment, whereas Medea is a live actress (Khaula ElHadj-Dibsi) all the other characters are pre-programmed bot avatars, and the audience (e.g. the global village) can interact and influence the flow and ambience of the show, using SMS from their cellular phones.

The script is fully hyper-textual, based on the original texts by Euripides, Heiner Muller and Seneca. It is written and performed in English, Hebrew and Arabic, and so is the background music, cross cultural and cross lingual. The exposition to each scene is the actual Middle East News (Medea - betrayed, evicted, exiled, and after all sacrifices her children by sending them as suicide bombers to Jerusalem). The chorus lines are performed with text-to-speech mechanism, allowing online and realtime audience to add to their digital singing data bank.

The MEDEAEX project has been performed in Schiller Festival Germay, and Acco Festival in Israel, 2003. The technology and mechanisms are now tested as environment for VR studies program and interactive storytelling projects, in Shenkar College and other installtions. It is fully documented (including technical notes, images, critics, full script, video) in http://medeaex.org.

ME DEA EX_

Interactive/Immersive Theatre

A play for actress, (Ro)bot and chorus,

in 3D proactive environment

Created by Neora (www.neora.com)

* Poster presentation, Melilla Colloquium on art-science-spirituality, July 2004

ME DEA EX_ is a "cyber" adaptation of the Mythological story (based on Euripdes, Heiner Muller, Seneca), to �here and now�, taking to extent two major aspects:

Cyber Culture - Medea the hacker - Confronting the traditional theatre with the information age and media, examinig a new theatrical language using digital visualization and hypertextual technologies, with emphasis on 3D environment and pro-active bots. The Medeaex universe resides on the net, and projected 360 degrees around the audience, enabling them to interact and influence the ambience and flow.

Middle East Culture - Medea the Palestinian - Confronting the traditional myth with current events, by dealing with nowdays issues of exile in homeland and culture disambiguities. Medea is Palestinian, played live by Khaula ElHadg-Dibsi, sacrifices her homeland and children for her Israeli lover Jason (played by virtual avatar). The online and on-site audience, function as the chorus (global village) in text-to-speech tunes.

Virtual World à

� 3D online universe

� using Outerworlds (based on Activeworlds platfom)

� 2 designed environments

Amphi Theatre � Confrontation with previous productions of Medea.

Meta story happens there, in English, audience votes, chorus songs

NYSE � trading floor, changes textures each act: LOVE, SACRIFICE, EXILE, EVICTION, COLLISION, SHAHIDS (MURDER of kids)

Projected on� à

Using:

� 4 PCs connected to 4 wide-angle projectors

� 1 PC conneced to projector � for textual window

� 2 PCs for running the bot and controlling the sound,

� Fast internet connection, sound mixer, SMS server, sensors

Real World

� 4 walls � 12*12*6 meters each (vs. classic cave)

� Actress sitting on �bionic� wheelchair

� Audience sitting on office spinning chairs (100 seats)

Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, October 2003

(Construction within old AmphiTheatre)

Schiller Festival, Mannheim, Germany � July 2003
Online Audience

� Represented as avatars in the projected screens

� Use their home PC � click on screen buttons

� Choose order of scenes

� Influence some parameters of design and sound

� Contribute texts for the data bank of the chorus

� View realtime internet texts and translations

� Chat among themselves, anonymous logs kept

choice of playback sound

chat/news�

ß Flow and Interaction à

� The flow and design are calculated in realtime, based on:

o Time in the show � from before dawn to after sunset

o Choices of home audience: light/background music/skybox

o Choices of onsite audience(voting with SMS)+ online users � about scene order at some points

� The elements of the script (texts, textures, sounds, avatars, decision tables�) are kept in ADO/Access database.

� State Machine - the database has a rule-based approach (with priorities). Non-standard code can be added to override.

� html version is generated and resides online � also functions as simulator.

OnSite Audience

� Buy a ticket and attend the performance

� Sit on spinning chairs, to see all around

� Interact with 3D objects � sensors / remote control

� Choose order of scenes using SMS (their cellular phone)

Zara explaining how to vote

Chorus announcing what the audience chose

Characterization

	Medea		M Medea the hacker (only in meta scenes)	Jason, Creon, Nurse	Chorus

Appearance	Live, on �cyborgian� wheel chair. For home spectators - appears in webcam.			3D avatars. Jason � hollow heart Creon � army uniform, huge crown. Nurse � animated.	Male/female gray simple avatars (easier to identify with). Restricted from the virtual stage where Jason and Medea are.
Identity	Palestinian. Married Jason when he was soldier at her village.	Hacker, trying to redesign her history, the myth.		Pre-programmed, run by bot. As in the original texts.	Global Village, representing the online visitors.
Language	Hebrew and Arabic	English		Hebrew with English subtitles	English. Sometimes Hebrew.
Texts	Euripides, Heiner Muller, Seneca	Written by Neora		Euripides, Heiner Muller, Seneca	Euripides, known poems, Audience contributions
Sound	Live	Pre-recorded.		Pre-recorded Khaula, effects to fit the character.	Text to speech singing (synthesized sound)
Background Music	Live DJ � quiet/mellow music	Electronic sounds + keyboard clicks		Short loops for background, longer ones for cue delays	Electronic music

Open = Creative Commons license (similar to GNU open software license)

Khaula ElHaj - Dibsi

Performing as Medea

Coached by Amir Orian

Bot Prog. & Plot Tweaking

Nimrod Kerrett

Sensors, Tricks & 3D

Israeli Levin

Music & Sound

Eldad Lidor

Dramtorgy

Dr. Hadassa Shani

Wheel Chair Design

Eyal Weiss

Assosiate Producer

Royi Naveh

Adaptation & Media Co.  

Mashav Balzam

Technologies:

3D -  outerworlds.com

TalkIt  - text2speech

magsbot  - universe manag.

JS, zope.org, E-Motion

Safety Pins & Stitches

PreRecorded Narration:

Shoshi Rotem, Gili Zimerman,

Amir Orian, Norman Issa,

Khaula ElHaj - Dibsi,

Heli Zinder, Shlomit Gross

Digital Sound & Tech. Support

Eran Vered

Animation: Ifat Goldman

Hebrew Translation:                                          * * * More info, including video, images, full script:

Euripides - Aharon Shabtai                                      http://medeaex.org

Heiner Muller � Shimon Levi                                    --------------------------------------------------------------------

Seneca � Refael Eliaz

Artistic Supervision

Ati Zitron