The Question goes live

After a week of setting up, Extant's 'The Question' is now live, with performances running throughout the week. This project has been in the pipeline for several years so it's pretty satisfying to finally see the fruits of all the work and late nights.

My contribution to this project was the design of a unique navigation system that would assist people in finding their way around the pitch black installation. Below is an image of some 'haptic lotus' devices, waiting to be fitted to particpants entering the installation. These devices are one half of the navigation system that I designed, with Daivd McGoran and Paul O'Dowd, for this project.

I don't want to give away too much information on the project until the end of the week (i.e. I don't want to ruin it for any of the participants), so expect more details on the technology then.

Open University Front Page News

Extant's, 'The Question' and the Haptic Lotus have both been featured on the main news page of the Open University.

Go to news item

Front page articles only stay on the front page for a few days and I was a bit late picking this up. You can now read the full article in the news repository.

The project goes live on Monday 14th June 2010.

The Question Interview Video

I neglected to mention that recently the website for the haptic theatre project went live. Renamed 'The Question' this project is something rather unique I've been working on with Extant, a visually impaired theatre company based in London. The project aims to create an immersive theatre experience set in a pitch black environment. More details are available on the site.

A video is being made as part of the project and during the last steering meeting most of the team was interviewed. Here I am talking about the technical side of the project and this unique application of haptic navigation technology.

The Question - Team Interviews from Alex Eisenberg on Vimeo.

As Maria says we've all been working quite independantly up until recently and things are really starting to get interesting now. However the final deadline approaches and there is still lots to be done. Watch this space!

Haptic Theatre Update

An online update of the collaborative project I'm working on with Extant (Britain's only professional performing arts company of visually impaired people), has appeared on the News Flash section of the Extant website.

The project involves "creating an immersive dramatic environment that invited audience members will explore using a specially designed hand held Haptic device. Currently the team of project partners, artists and engineers are working on areas of script development, sound and set design, and technical construction of the device and its support system, along with sensory trigger mechanisms to connect different elements of the installation".
For more details please visit http://www.extant.org.uk/question.html