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Final Presentation Day

We were the first group to present our final project to the lecturer. Our proposal for live concerts in the future was greatly appreciated. The concept was said to be practical and served an application in the current scenario as well. 

Through this project, I realised that the music industry has been severely affected by this pandemic and it needs better alternatives to recover the loss it has suffered. As a musician, this issue resonated with me the most and hence, I was able to provide sufficient inputs from a technical standpoint. All the members from my group had different perspectives and levels of understanding regarding the situation. With their help, we were able to visualise the concept better and provide a tangible product. 

I believe that we were truly able to provide a concept that was interdisciplinary in the true sense. It was an amalgamation of everyone’s ideas and views. It provided me an opportunity to collaborate with fields I wouldn't usually have to chance to interact with. 

[keshvideepak]

Day 5

Since we were done with the major part of our project, the stage layout we decided to move on to the interactive performance space. 

Since every venue can't hold a large amount of people, and the use of space is restricted because of the regulations, we decided to stream the live concert at alternative locations. The performance would be streamed in real time at multiple concert halls all across the globe. 

Our aesthetic reference for the streams was psychedelic. We used red, purple and blue for the theme of the venue, the tickets and other products.  Our aim was to convey audio-visual sensory experience in a visual format. To make it interactive, we introduced a scannable QR code on the wristbands and entry tickets which can be scanned to interact with the artists. The audience can use the QR to send in their reactions and requests songs from the setlist. 

[keshvideepak]

Day 4

Our goal for today was to finish the stage plan and present Gilles with the final idea for the review. 

For the stage layout, the obvious decision was to ensure that all instrumentalists were socially distanced and wearing masks. For the vocalists and backing vocals, since they can't wear masks, we used the acrylic sheets between the vocalists and the audience as they are soundproof and non reflective. I soon realised with my experience that the distance between the glass barrier and the monitors on stage needed to be perfect to avoid feedback. 

After we were satisfied with the layout and safety measure, we presented our idea to our lecturer. 

His feedback was very positive and he suggest a few things that he thought would help us enhance the project. He mentioned the concert that took place in England, which we already referenced. He also suggested the use of flybars for the barriers on stage. We tried to apply it into out project but felt like it was redundant, so we decided not to go ahead with it. 

[keshvideepak]

Day 3

Day 3

I did a lot of research on places that are back to a “normal” stage with the pandemic right now, and how they are managing live performances. 

I found an article about a concert that happened in England while adhering to the Covid regulations. They made cubicles using barricade frames and these cubicles were socially distanced.

I suggested my teammates that we do the same but with a transparent material so we can prevent the transfer of droplets. I decide to use Polycarbonate sheet, which is made with a variety of UV and other coatings making it very versatile. It is also is very light, doesn’t distort sound, is resistant to erosion and also, it is not very reflective so the lights on the stage would not hinder with the view. For the layout for the audience, we decided to cover the cubicle from 3 sides instead of enclosing it entirely. We decided to leave the front side open to ensure a satisfactory audio-visual experience. As the other sides were covered, there was no worry of unwanted transfer of droplets. 

Each cubicle can hold unto 5 people and is 1.5 meters away from other cubicles and 2 meters away from the stage. We just worked on finalising the layout for the audience. since we were also going to stream the live performance in a concert hall, we had to work on that as well. Since the concert hall would have seating there had to be seats left in between the Polycarbonate sheet cubicles. 

[keshvideepak]

Day 2

Before the session with our lecturer, my teammates and I decided to get together to continue our discussion from the previous day and come up with possible solutions. 

We talked about how online streamed performances don’t feel the same as live performances and discussed why that might be. The factors contributing the this unsatisfactory feeling, we thought were the lack of interaction between the band and the audience. Also the fact that we as people don’t have a really long attention span. We’d rather attend a 2 hour concert than stare into a screen for 20 minutes watching the same kind of content. Even from a performers point of view, it doesn’t feel right singing to devices and not people. 

Our possible solution is to make live performances happen while adhering to regulation that might still in be place in the future. 

While we were having this discussion, I realised that there is a lot that could be done with the stage layout and design as the biggest reason that live performances are not possible is the interaction amongst the band and audience and the interaction of the both. Also, the fact that most bands have vocalists who can’t wear masks while performing. After discussing various approaches and ways to incorporate all our disciplines, we decided to work on the stage layout and have an interactive aspect to the performance, which I suggested as I was inspired by the Keynote lecture with Mr Amitesh Grover. 

The initial solution was to set up individual booths for viewing a concert hall but we realised that it had already been done before and doesn’t solve our purpose of making the concert more interactive. 

We talked about every personnel involved to make a performance happen. From backstage crew to the security at the venue as they were also very affected by the pandemic. The lack of live shows lead to their sudden unemployment. One thing we decided from the get go was that all the crew members had to be tested for any sorts of virus to ensure a safe environment. Further, we also decided that there was still going to be an online stream of the performance but we wanted to enhance that experience. The audience would also have to go for speed testing when they arrive at the venue. Our next step was to figure out the stage layout which I worked on with my teammate Yingxing, as I needed insights from her as an interior designer. 

[keshvideepak]

Day 1

The first day of our Interdisciplinary project was a briefing about the topic, “How do we own our future?” I was looking forward to this week as we didn’t have group projects in year 1, I was eager to learn about different disciplines and contribute from my own.

The interdisciplinary week commenced with a Keynote from Amitesh Grover, an award-winning interdisciplinary performance artist. Mr. Grover spoke about his theatrical production of “The Last Poet” which falls into an emerging genre of theatre called Cyber theatre. He talked about how his piece of work is a multilayered art form with theatre, film, soul art, creative coding, digital scenography, and live performance. The project is permanently present online, but it operates in two modes. Visitors can visit the interface at any time in its dormant mode and navigate around the landscape - its media and architecture. Audiences can interact with the interface in its active mode by watching “live” broadcasts of concerts, films, and sonic art that are all interwoven. Within "The Last Poet," a specially constructed scenography blends live events with pre-recorded media and digital design. There are several different plot lines to choose from. They form a fiction that describes our current era when taken together. This lecture was very insightful as we got a chance to take a look into how interdisciplinary projects actually work.

For the briefing session, our lecturer, Massot Gilles, explained the topic to us in detail. He made us think what the ideal future would look like, and then asked us how we could help achieve it. He talked to us about the Covid-19 pandemic and how many fields of work were affected by it, and how we can work towards a possible situation. After going over the brief I realised that the ‘future’ is a very ambiguous term. With respect to the project, I wondered if we were considering the near future or the distant future. I expressed my concern as was told that it is open to interpretation, it depended on how we wanted to approach the topic.

The large group was then broken up into 4 smaller groups. My group had three other students (Barkha, Wei-Jeng, Yingxing) from Fashion, Design Communication, Interior Design respectively. We were placed in breakout rooms over Zoom to discuss our approach. We were quite confused as to what field/discipline to focus on. Our initial idea was to work with Virtual Reality but soon we realised that it had already been done and we didn’t feel that it would help us “own our future”. We decided to focus on the near future, keeping in mind the pandemic but weren’t too sure how to incorporate all of our practices. To have a better idea on how to come up with a solution, we discussed how our individual fields were affected by the pandemic. I was the first one to speak up about how the music industry was affected by the pandemic, especially the live performance aspect of things. After a brainstorming session and after listening to everyone’s ideas, we decided to focus on live performances and concerts. We still needed to narrow down and find a problem to consider and work on the possible solution.

When we presented our idea, our lecturer seemed content with the idea and suggested us to research more to find a positive solution. He approached me regarding questions about how the music industry was affected after live shows were put to a halt. Another question he raised was why online concerts don't serve the same purpose. He asked us to consider these things for our next discussion.

As a musician, who has been affected by the pandemic and who has seen people lose jobs, the topic felt very personal.

I researched and read about how the industry is being affected and how it is coping with the pandemic.