Meet the team behind Shapeshifter, a new location-based virtual reality installation enabling the audience to explore aspects of the natural world that are normally hidden to the human eye.
Join us for this informative discussion in Broadway's Mezz Lounge. Access via stairs or lift to Floor 1.
A limited amount of complimentary pizza (including vegan options), alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks will be available courtesy of University of Nottingham's Virtual and Immersive Production Studio.
For this Near Now Studio Talk, presented in collaboration with University of Nottingham's Virtual and Immersive Production Studio, we'll be joined by members of the project's creative team which includes:
- Co-creative Director and Actor: Maggie Bain
- Co-creative director and scriptwriter: Ruth Mariner
- Art Director: Freyja Sewell
- Technical Director: David Gochfeld
What is Shapeshifter?
Using live motion capture within an interactive digital environment, Shapeshifter seamlessly blends storytelling and free-play.
Guided by the shapeshifting nature-sprite Púca, the audience explore aspects of the natural world that are normally hidden to the human eye.
Shapeshifter research and development
Co-creative Director Maggie Bain on Shapeshifter and Queerness
“Growing up I would walk for hours around urban landscapes wondering what the hell was wrong with me. Queerness was always on the periphery of these spaces, something dangerous and outside the realm of “normal”.
Walking in nature as an adult is healing because I’m surrounded by manifestations of sexual and gender queerness seamlessly integrated into the ecosystem, affirming the beauty of my identity. I view my queerness not as a problem, but as a creative offering from the natural world, a purposeful evolution that warrants exploration beyond society’s obsession with whether we have any right to exist.”
— Maggie Bain, Co-Creative Director / Actor
Imagine delving into the mysteries of nature in a way you never thought possible, venturing inside a tiny seed pod or traversing the intricate veins of an ancient tree.
In Shapeshifter, Pùca—a liminal shapeshifting nature sprite from Celtic folklore—bridges the gap between the natural world and that of the human world, immersing the audience in the new ways of seeing.
This 40-minute location-based experience leverages live motion capture and VR headsets for up to 12 participants at a time.
Led by non-binary actor and motion capture expert Maggie Bain as Pùca, the audience is guided through five diverse environments, showcasing nature's evolution beyond sexual and gender binaries. To realise Pùca’s abilities Shapeshifter's creative team use avatars that hack face-tracking rigs, allowing Pùca to 'shape-shift' emotionally and expressively. The audience will interact within each environment, from traversing the veins of a decomposing leaf to exploring micro-macro aspects of nature.
By weaving storytelling with immersive technology, the project aims to highlight the often-overlooked diversity and fluidity of the natural world and how it can help us understand ourselves and our place within it. Shapeshifter serves as a personal exploration of queerness in nature, and also as an invitation to reawaken our connection to the mystical power of nature, through a captivating and transformative experience.
Currently in development supported by the BFI, XR Stories, Screen Industries Growth Network, and Arts Council England.
Shapeshifter is supported by University of Nottingham's Virtual and Immersive Production Studio, as one of six practice-as-research residency projects focusing on the critical and aesthetic potential of popular and emergent immersive technologies.
