Deadline:
Accessing New Technologies
November to December 2021
Are you curious about new technologies, accessibility features and their implications for your practise as an artist or producer?
BSL video, British Dyslexia Association style guide version and Large Print versions of this advert are available below.
Accessing New Technologies will be a six-week investigative project for Deaf, disabled and neuro-divergent artists and producers who want to explore new technology and specifically Virtual Reality.
This is not a 'course' but a space of co-learning that will be facilitated jointly for the Young Vic by Sacha Wares’ company Trial and Error and director Rachel Bagshaw. The main focus is to consider current and future implications of new technologies as production and rehearsal tools.
Over a period of up to six weeks, starting on week commencing 1 November 2021 the group will meet with exact dates and times to be decided by the needs, interests and availability of the group. The new technology we will be exploring in depth is VR (technology provided by the Young Vic), with reference to other formats.
All the sessions will take place over Zoom.
Activities will include: presentations by guest speakers, watching and discussing VR work, thinking collectively about what the opportunities and limitations of the technology are now, how that might be different in the future and the role we might have in shaping that.
We acknowledge that the technology and existing work available to discuss may not all currently be fully accessible to everyone in the group. A core focus of our collective activity will be to interrogate why that is, and what could and should change. Our goal is that the six weeks will provide a safe and creative thinking space to share ideas and challenges and to consider what may be around the corner in terms of technology and the arts.
WHO IS IT FOR?
The project is for Deaf, disabled or neuro-divergent theatre professionals who are producers, writers, directors, theatre makers, multi-disciplinary artists, or practitioners with a combination of those skillsets, and experience of making theatre / live performance. We will also consider applications from artists who do not fit into the above categories but who can demonstrate a longstanding track record in innovation and accessible art making.
Quantifying level of experience is always tricky, but this course is best suited to individuals who have already made work, are confident in their current practice and crave new challenges. You will be happy to share your experience, skills, knowledge and at the same time happy to admit what you don’t know. You should be interested in co-learning and want to deepen your understanding of current technological advances and VR specifically.
You will need to have a working connection to Wifi/Zoom and have availability from week commencing 1 November 2021. We will aim to arrange the sessions at a time that best suits the group.
HOW TO EXPRESS AN INTEREST
Please submit a CV and a short email, audio recording or video that answers the following questions:
- What is the most formally innovative piece of work you’ve been part of? What worked about it and what didn’t?
- If you were to imagine a rehearsal room in 10 years’ time where technology is being used brilliantly, what do you picture? You can refer to existing or not yet invented technologies in your answer.
(Maximum 1000 words or 5- 6 minutes video/audio for both answers).
Please also send your access rider or requirements so we can ensure provision is in place.
Please send this to Sue Emmas, Associate Director, Young Vic with the subject line ACCESSING NEW TECHNOLOGIES to eventsdirectorsprogram@youngvic.org
Deadline Monday 13 September at 12pm
Project Facilitators
Sacha Wares
Sacha is founder of Trial & Error Studio, a new curiosity driven creative studio exploring ways to evolve the theatrical form to suit changing times. She is also an associate at the National Theatre’s Immersive Storytelling Studio and also currently an associate at the Donmar and ETT. She has spent the last three years researching and developing work with new technologies and was a recipient of Creative XR funding 2020.
Her directing work for theatre includes: Boy by Leo Butler and Game by Mike Bartlett (Almeida); Wild Swans, adapted from Jung Chang’s novel by Alexandra Wood, and generations by debbie tucker green (Young Vic), trade by debbie tucker green (RSC and Soho Theatre), Sucker Punch by Roy Williams, random by debbie tucker green, and My Child by Mike Bartlett (Royal Court Theatre).
Rachel Bagshaw
Rachel is Associate Director at the Unicorn Theatre where work includes: Summer of Play (Unicorn Digital collaboration with English National Ballet), Grimm Tales (Unicorn Digital), The Bee in Me and Aesop’s Fables. Other film work includes BBC Culture in Quarantine commission Where I Go When I Can’t be Where I Am. Theatre credits include: Augmented (Told by an Idiot); Midnight Movie (Royal Court); The Shape of the Pain (BAC / UK tour); Icons (WOW Festival, Hull); Resonance at the Still Point of Change (Unlimited Festival, Southbank); The Rhinestone Rollers, Just Me, Bell (Graeae). She won a Fringe First Award for The Shape of the Pain. Rachel also works as a coach for organisations including Clore and Tonic Theatre.
Accessing New Technologies is made possible by Jerwood Arts.