Mapping the Soul VR is a practice-as-research project that will consist of designing an interactive virtual reality operatic play based on Lucy Gough’s radioplay Mapping the Soul (2001). The project will be an investigation into the dramaturgical and ludic affordances of remediating a radio play through the medium of VR. By bringing together discourses from theatre and performance studies, game theory and neuroscience the inquiry will focus on some of the defining features of the VR medium and their potential to enhance and structure interactive theatrical experiences.
Mapping the Soul’s main topic is the search for the existence of the human soul. It is a multi-layered narrative structured around a 17th century brain dissection, and the protagonist’s journey through his subconscious in search of his soul. The project will ‘remediate’ the play by interactively engaging the participants with its story world and with the philosophical and scientific discourses surrounding it. Since much of the specificity of the VR medium and its affordances for participant engagement is attributed to interoceptive aesthetics, which comprise of propriosensory and viceroceptive sensations, virtual embodiment, body transfer illusions and body/movement mapping, we contend that these features (and others) have dramaturgical import and can be investigated through our project, leading to insights into how this medium can be used for dramatic and narrative purposes. We also contend that our investigation will lead to insights about the relationship between the virtual self and corporeal reality from a cultural, philosophical, neuroscientific and cognitive perspective.
Credits:
Written and directed by: Lucy Gough
Art direction, design, programming and music composed by: Piotr Woycicki