Communities and Artistic Participation in Hybrid Environment

Project Information

CAPHE

Grant agreement ID: 101086391

DOI

10.3030/101086391

EC signature date 3 October 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 1 449 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI
Poland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CAPHE (Communities and Artistic Participation in Hybrid Environment)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The CAPHE project is aimed towards fostering artistic collaboration and community engagement across various global locales, with a dedicated push on notion of hybrid environment as milieu of the action.


What fuels the CAPHE project?


C is for Community of communication
We believe that new communication channels and platforms, emerging on basis of VR and AR technologies, can contribute to better, more inclusive and sustainable society.

A is for Social Art
Art is not just a neutral term. Art can be a tool of empowerment for excluded minorities. Art can change our communities for good.

P is for Participation through process-based approach
We start from basics. Always work with communities, for communities.

H is for Hybrid experiences (AR, VR, MX)
Extended Reality technologies create a totally new aspect of experiencing.

E is for Environment and Education
We investigate area of Extended Reality as environment of interaction. We educate to better use this technology for benefit of future generations.

CAPHE joins Partners with different cultural backgrounds, who cooperate creatively in construing and structuring Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality environments that serve as welcoming platforms for participation, community, creativity, critical reflection, education, and art. These environments are hybrid, that is they combine physical, and virtual layers. The project team researches on interactions between communities, art creation and distribution, and education taking place in these environments. We also realize art exhibitions and performances in physical and VR spaces.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Works and main achievements during first two years of the CAPHE project:

- HELLO AVATARS workshops series. The workshops were held in Kenya, Greece and in between mobilities, including participation of, both, CAPHE consortium members and external communities. The series of workshops taking place in Academia Electronica facility located on Spatial.io platform and other environments created by CAPHE participants, ease and explain first steps needed to participate in immersive, hybrid environments for arts, education and communities

- NEW COORDINATES FOR CREATIVE HYBRID SPACE-EXPERIENCES. The international symposium held at Kenyatta University, Nairobi 16-17 of February 2023. The symposium gathered participants from Europe and Africa and provided fruitful debate on futures of hybrid (physical & digital) spaces of experiencing

- VR OPERA EXPERIENCE ROOM. The revolutionary series of hybrid operas (was developed exclusively within the project, and performed In Nairobi, Naxos, Athens and Florence. The operas are performed both in physical and digital environments and thanks to the specially designed, digital scenography and use of VR headsets, offers possibility of deep, immersive experience for audience

- VR and AR CREATION workshops. Series of workshops and trainings for both, CAPHE consortium members and outside communities, held by CAPHE designers, architects, sculptors, drawers and other experts in Kenya, Greece, Italy and Portugal, in quest to provide accessible tools for daily VR and AR content creation and professional artistic activity. The workshops blend use of technologies promotion with social and gender awareness

- AI IN ART research. Seminars, conference and publication series on artificial intelligence and artistic participation (2023-2024)

- XR FESTIVAL during the mobility period in italy, Florence, (June, 2024)) a Hybrid platform for the multidisciplinary dialogue among communities, carried out for one month long with workshops and lectures, culminating in the participatory and collaborative design and creation of 3 prototypes of XR artistic case studies, XR Art Exhibitions and Video Immersive Event

- CONFERENCE ON ART: Enhancing Artistic Experience in Hybrid Environments A series of conferences and workshops dedicated to exploring innovative approaches to artistic creation and performance in hybrid and immersive environments. La Spezia 15-17 May 2024

- XR TOURS for tangible art objects, during which CAPHE team developed an unique AR Hunts toolkit, which includes an Augmented Reality open-source technological framework, technical graphic design guidelines for AR markers, city-mapping methodology, and methodologies for measuring user engagement, both qualitative and quantitative. This toolkit aims to present tangible art objects in the real world by using AR technology to blend digital and physical materialities

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

CAPHE aims to go beyond the state of the art by targeting community and artistic participation in hybrid environments – an area little researched in the rapid development of these technologies. 4 Key Exploitable Results are expceted and partialy obtained.


KER 1. VR Opera Experience Room. An experimental space for experiencing opera performances through use of XR technologies. The space can be further developed in partnership with stakeholders from area of XR immersive technologies (companies developing holograms and real time avatars programing) and academic sector (music conservatories, opera halls). The prototypes were succesfully tested in May 2024 in La Spezia, Italy.

KER 2. XR tour for tangible art objects. The tour, as a XR experience to be used by wide audience can be further developed in partnership with stakeholders from area of XR immersive technologies and art galleries and museums and touristic sector. Two AR hunts events were already performed (one in Florence, Italy June 20204, and one in Lisbon, Portugal, October. 2024). Also a a couple of VR exhibitons were realized within the project. The dedicated VR tour is planned for the second part of the project.

KER 3. Interactive Tracks Library. The interactive library of GPS tracks and media material recorded during research on immersion modes in art creation and reception in various forms: live, online (screen), virtual. The ITL can be used as a basis for development of immersive applications and immersive environments by stakeholders from sectors of education, telecommunication, VR technologies, cultural industry and tourism. Planned for the second part of the project.

KER 4. Collection of online classes, workshops and other experimental forms of teaching through XR technologies. The developed teaching modules can be adapted to full time teaching programs at all levels, in cooperation with stakeholders from academic sector. Planned for the second parto of the project and beyond the project timeframe.

AR hunt pilot testing and evaluating, Portugal, Oct 2024

Workshops with communities, Kenya, Feb 2023

Workshops on materiality and use of XR tools, Kenya, Feb 2023

XR opera, Florence, Italy, June 2024

XR workshops and trainings Greece, Oct 2023

CAPHE project team at Kenyatta Univeristy, Nairobi, Feb 2023

Maping spaces for digital storytelling, Greece, Sep 2023

VR opera, La Spezia, Italy, May 2024