Interface[s] Montréal

Immersion

Robert Faguy

Professor and Director of the theatre program, Laval University, Quebec City

Immersive practices: the complexity of integrating physical and perceptual spaces

View the presentation [In French]

"It is in order to adopt the perspective of the spectator that we proclaim a movable play which ... spreads out its visual impacts onto the entire audience of spectators". This citation from Antonin Artaud (The Theatre of Cruelty - 1933) summarizes well the desire of may artists for over a century to place the spectator in a total theatre experience. This type of integral play which seeks to stimulate the full range of sensory functions of the spectator always poses several problems regarding the capacity of the receiver to decode and rearrange the various messages contained in the play. How do we think about and write this complex perceptual choreography across immersive practices, whether they are experienced in an unique simulated space or within complex multimedia mechanisms? This is the subject of Faguy's presentation. Examples of simulations will be presented based on the prototype of the Castelet electronique, modeled on a 10:1 reduced scale for an environment of stage and performance hall.

	Castelet1: The Castelet electronique in movement - Photo: Jean-Philippe Jobin
	Castelet2: Extract from the show Le voyage de Tchékhov vers Sakhaline (November 2007) - photo : Frédéric Gasse

For the past 25 years Robert Faguy has worked in the area of multidisciplinary artistic creation. He holds a doctorate based on exploring the diverse uses of video on the stage, and is currently director of the theatre program at Laval university. From 2003 to 2006 he conceived and coordinated the launch of the LANTISS project Laboratory for new technologies in image, sound and the stage) and also launched in November 2007 Castelet electronique, a prototype developed with scientists for reproducing miniaturized stages with mobile floors and adaptive lighting.