Participants 2023
The Performance Corporation’s Collaborative Artists Residency
in Paris 24 June - 3 July.
The Performance Corporation is very excited to bring The SPACE Programme 2023 to Paris and to the Centre Culturel Irlandais.
The SPACE Programme is a professional development residency for artists and creative technologists with a focus on collaboration across form and medium. This highly successful residency has been delivered by The Performance Corporation in Ireland since 2008. Artists are given the opportunity to explore, re-examine and extend working practices, processes, ideas, partnerships and collaborations without pressure to create 'product' within a fixed time frame.
Since 2018, The SPACE Programmes has had a specific focus on augmented, mixed and virtual reality technologies, as well as binaural sound exploration, Motion Capture and more; allowing the artists involved to develop skills in storytelling and immersive interaction in these new and exciting media.
As well as hands-on work with the technology on offer, guest facilitators, artists and cultural leaders from France and further afield will guide the professional development and inter-disciplinary collaborations. Participants will engage with local artists, programmers and cultural leaders, with the aim of engaging with different cultural and artistic contexts, thus opening up new creative horizons and allowing for new connections and collaborations.
The residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, will connect participants with guest facilitators, local artists and cultural leaders from France and further afield. Paris offers a different cultural and artistic context that will guide the professional development and the hands-on interdisciplinary collaborations using the technology on offer. The SPACE Programme 2023 aims to offer new creative horizons and lasting cross cultural connections and collaborations.
Background
Since 2008 The Performance Corporation has created an opportunity for artists of all disciplines to come together for an intensive residency of collaborative, creative experimentation. The residency gives participants space to connect and collaborate with a wide range of creatives from different backgrounds, challenge and develop their personal artistic practice, experiment with new ideas and forms, explore the potential of new technology in artistic creation. SPACE is an opportunity to explore what happens when artists have space to experiment without the expectation of delivery.
This opportunity is being offered at a time when immersive tech is revolutionising human connection, the imagination, and how we express ourselves. As corporate interests actively seek dominance of the VR world, there is an urgent need for artists and creatives to carve out a distinctive virtual space where individual creativity can flourish unmediated by the big names of the tech world. SPACE seeks to foster a spirit of independent artistic exploration in this rapidly developing field.
The residency for artists working in the realm of immersive technology is the closest thing in the arts to a tech ‘Hackathon’. It will be designed and led by The Performance Corporation director Jo Mangan, dramaturg and facilitator Hanna Slättne, VR Producer Camille Donegan, and Technical Facilitator Guillaume Auvray.
Over the past 14 years over 80 artists from all over the world have benefitted from the SPACE programme. Each year’s outcome has been vastly different due to the hugely varied alignments of artforms, artists and interrogations involved.
The consistent takeaway for participants has been that they have gained new expertise and understanding of the different ecologies we are all part of, a deeper knowledge of different work practices as well as new connections. Participants leave with stronger starting points from which to initiate and facilitate collaboration, innovation and new idea generation.
What previous participants on The SPACE Programme are saying…
- Ciara Tamay [UX Designer - Virtual Reality / Virtual Experiences]
“Aaaaaaaaaghhhh such a great experience to connect people from very different disciplines at the intersections between our work. Like bashing atoms together in a super collider, to create weird and otherwise improbable new things.”
Isa Juchniewicz [ Visual Artist - New Media/Performance Art ]
“The SPACE Programme was absolutely one of the best experiences I have had as a new media artist. With technology changing so fast it is very easy to feel overwhelmed. Having a space to just play and explore without any pressure is an immensely important opportunity for artists. I wish there were more residencies like that.” -
- Hugh Farrell [Writer, producer, dramaturg - immersive experiences / live events]
Access to mixed reality technology is prohibitively expensive for independent artists. This programme created a structured collaborative environment with state-of-the-art equipment backed up by technical experts, removing a huge barrier for entry into creative applications for VR/AR and kickstarting a whole series of artistic collaborations.
- James Riordan [Writer & Theatre Maker]
As a collaborative theatre maker who strives to create live immersive experiences, the chance to spend time learning and upskilling in the most up to date immersive technology, to experiment and play has been so inspiring. The networks and connections I've made both nationally and internationally are brilliant, along with feeling much more confident about where my practice can and will meet the digital world.”
