Telepresence

 

What is telepresence?

Telepresence is realtime performance or connectionsusing the internet to link two or more remote spaces, allowing participants to
collaboratively play, interact, and communicate at a distance. It is like video conferencing but using the full body.

Telepresence is a key area for young people living and working in the 21st century connecting daily through the use of online chat, skype, video conferencing and other virtual interfaces. People can now transmit, receive and respond through gesture communication, and they can play, dance and chat with friends and colleagues who are thousands of miles away, using these full body/voice interfaces.


body>data>space expertise

The  international research and development of performance telematics work that body>data>space have completed over the past 15 years includes over 30 projects – with 2-3 way transmissions between UK, Germany, Japan, China and US in various combinations from clubs, theatres, arts centres, festivals and conference centres.

body>data>space has built up extensive experience of live linked performances in spaces which can be miles apart, connecting cultures and people across the world. Its potentials for extending realtime understanding and knowledge transfer are huge and, as broadband speeds increase, so do the uses for telematics in everyday use.

Our Creative Director, Ghislaine Boddington is an artist researcher, dramturg, curator and thought leader specialising in body responsive technologies, recognised as an international pioneer in full body telepresence since the 90’s,

Telepresence can be utilised to enhance and extend future work and play environments and allow the physical live body to be engaged simultaneously with another body at a distance. We can now create immersive local to local connectivity spaces 24/7.


Our offer

body>data>space works on the development of immersive experiences bringing together the convergence of telepresence, virtual worlds and motion capture, placing the body at the centre of the digital interaction.

Best recent example is the development of ‘me and my shadow‘ by body>data>space associate artist Jo Hyde with Phill Tew and Ghislaine Boddington. A deeply immersive experience consisting of separate portals me and my shadow is an international telepresence event-telematics_2experience that connects participants through a shared online environment.  Participants are represented as live digital shadows and can communicate with each other in the real-time digital environment. ‘me and my shadow’ premiered at the National Theatre in June 2012.

We can also create fun, visually immersive environments revolutionising people connectivity and knowledge exchange, extending understanding of the use of the body in virtual space. Tele-presence, tele-intuition by linking people, in all different kinds of time spaces and through time zones is exciting! Through a tried and tested series of enjoyable, dynamic exercises and workshop techniques we can take any group, young to old, into a physical orientation environment to learn to navigate their way through the telematic space.

We can also we can deliver bespokeworkshops lasting a few hours to half a day, or more extensive telematic workshop experiences.

Download Ghislaine Boddington’s essay on Telepresence published as part of The World as Virtual Environment by TMA Hellerau