Pinnacle - A One Act, Massively Participatory Opera

The participatory opera project is such an interesting effort it deserves a blog entry of its own. The convergence of several completely separate initiatives, three under my direct purview and one from another team, the project integrates these into one unifying initiative. Hence, over the past five years, in addition to my ongoing research at the intersection of the geomatics and rehabilitation sciences, on the one hand, and performance and media arts on the other, I have undertaken an ambitious writing effort as well as developed and brought to market two fashion collections based on my own designs.

The writing project consists of developing a "vast narrative" of some 2500 pages, involving hundreds of characters, planets, and habitats and more than 250 years of "future history) - about 65% of this project has been completed. The story is inspired by several of the Greek myths - the stories of Orestes and Elektra (immortalized in Euripedes' Orestia), of Orpheus and Eurydice, of Ulysses and Penelope, and of Jason, Medea and the Argonauts are the main narratives involved. The opera focusses on the first 100 pages of this story, essentially the youth of its central character, Oreph Sodenheim (based on both Orestes and Orpheus).

In addition to the scenario (from which the opera's libretto is derived), we propose to provide opportunities for large sectors of the public to participate both in the development of the opera and in its final delivery on stage, via an online web access we will create for the project. Opportunities to influence the scenario, the music, the choreography and parts of the staging will be provided. In addition, we are developing a smart garment that will incorporate movement sensors and which will serve as a specialized interface for the opera development - the garment will be provided to targeted audience members. The project involves several researcher-artists from Université Laval's Department of Music (Jocelyne Kiss, Serge Lacasse, Sophie Stévance) as well as collaborators from outside the university. An innovate project which will act as a showcase for innovation for related research at Laval University.

Research Nirvana?

Have I died and gone to researcher heaven? The set of projects on which I and my collaborators are currently working feels very much like that could be the case. Here is a brief overview :

1. The Winter Project : This project is the brain child of my colleague, Dr. Ernesto Morales. Essentially, we are working in collaboration with the city council for Quebec City and a range of organisations for people with disability, to redesign city policies, including snow removal practices, to make the city more "disability friendly" during winter conditions. Early results from the project include a redesign of pavement ramps to include a drainage system allowing snow to be melted and removed - pavement ramps are of key importance for people in wheelchairs and are often the site of an accumulation of snow and ice ; the development of a wheelchair-adapted snow-mobile device ; and discussions concerning changes to snow removal practices.

2. Pro(x)thèse : This project, under my oversight, seeks to create an interactive smart garment that is embedded within an active, immersive environment, to facilitate the exploration of self image in relation to sensuality and sexuality and disability. A prototype poncho has been developed which incorporates 12 pressure sensors, interface software has been completed, and photography of people with disability has been acquired. The project includes collaborators Dr. Frédérique Courtois, Dr. Ernesto Morales and Ms. Nancy Dubé.

3. Sex toys : Another collaborative project with Dr. Ernesto Morales, in this project we are designing aids that can be combined with existing sex toys, as well as developing new ones, that provide masturbation ability to people with disability who are often unable to use existing sex aids. The designs can be printed on a 3d printer, ensuring privacy and customizability.

4. ProBE : ProBE (Proximal Body Environments) seeks to develop a diagnostic tool for clinics to assess the presence of brain trauma, both mild and more severe, in patients. The project is predicated on the observation, tested across decades of research on obstacle avoidance strategies, that people who have even mild brain trauma move differently in space and in proximity to other objects (or people) than do healthy individuals. ProBE involves researchers from Quebec City (Drs Brad McFadyen, the leader of the project and Denis Laurendeau) and Toronto (Dr Karl Zabjek) as well as clinicians from both cities.

5. Participatory Opera : The crown of my ongoing research program, developing a massively participative one-act opera based on my own science fiction opus. The concept is to develop the opera itself in parallel with a range of tools that allow active participation by diverse publics in all stages of development as well as the final real-time performance of the opera - input concerning the music, the choreography and the story line itself. These tools include virtual and social environments and specially designed smart garments. The opera project, led by myself, involves musicians Jocelyn Kiss, Serge Lacasse and Sophie Stévance from the Department of Music at Laval University, Marie Louise Bourbeau, a lyrical singer in private practice, Dr Adel Elmaghraby, a computer scientist and dancer-researchers Erin Manning and Cora McLaren. Both myself and Dr. Manning are also fashion designers - we will also be developing the costumes for the opera.