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UCL and partners: bringing opera to new audiences with augmented reality
A collaboration between UCL, the English National Opera and creative studio Holition is helping new audiences imagine what it’s like to be a character on stage.
5 November 2021
All great storytellers can make audiences empathise with their characters and inhabit their worlds. Technologies such as augmented reality (AR) can take this an exciting step further, by overlaying dynamic digital content onto a real-time view of the world.
AR has long been an area of interest for Yvonne Rogers, Professor of Interaction Design and Director of the UCL Interaction Centre.
“I’m very interested in how we can use technology to extend and augment what people do, whether that’s in the arts or education or in the workplace setting,” she says.
Following an introduction to the English National Opera (ENO), Yvonne saw an opportunity for a collaboration, inspired by the ENO’s production of Akhnaten, at the London Coliseum. They also brought in creative innovation studio Holition, a company with long-standing links to UCL. The collaboration was facilitated by UCL Innovation & Enterprise, who also provided knowledge exchange funding.
What ultimately came about was a project called Stepping into Character. Led by a final year UCL Computer Science student Delia Gander, it involved the development of an iPad app called MagicFace.
Using the front-facing selfie camera as a ‘mirror’, the app superimposes on the user elements of the style and makeup of the two lead characters in the production, Akhnaten and Nefertiti. The app was used by members of the cast and production team, as well as visitors including school groups, to virtually try on the two characters’ makeup and ‘step into character’.
The Stepping into Character project is just one facet of wider cooperation and collaboration between UCL and the ENO.
Read the full story on the UCL Innovation & Enterprise website.
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- Credit: Prof Yvonne Rogers.