Undefined B (2021)
<Undefined B> is an immersive dance theatre that creates interactive fiction, rewriting <Teacher B and Love Letter>, 1920’s Korean classic fiction,
with audiences in the real-time stage and VR.
Premiere: Dec 19, 2021.
Archival video and documentation will be uploaded on this page.
Sketch Video of the group exhibition <Undefined B>
Team <SigmaE>: Angie Hojung Kim, ESEO, Jihyun Jung, Minjee Woo
My role: Director, Art, and VR Technician
Sponsored by Hwaseong ICT Art&Culture Center
<Undefined B> (2021)
Immersive dance theatre
(Premiere: Dec 19, 2021)
Since the publication of the novel in 1925, ‘Teacher B’ has been widely read as a must-read for teenagers,
and has been engraved in the image of Koreans as an 'ugly and hysterical old virgin lady'.
We attempt to rewrite the standardized and fixed image of a ‘woman’ that has been reproduced in the literature that has enjoyed the status of a ‘classic’.
However, We are not satisfied with the existing one-way narrative strategy of rewriting.
We attempt a different approach using ‘narrative technology’ - interactive, immersive theater.
Contemporary audiences who meet at Mozilla Hub through Web VR and HMD actively intervene in the work process
and experience an immersive performance as a subversive experience that rewrites women's lives in the expansive field of creativity beyond the time.
and has been engraved in the image of Koreans as an 'ugly and hysterical old virgin lady'.
However, We are not satisfied with the existing one-way narrative strategy of rewriting.
We attempt a different approach using ‘narrative technology’ - interactive, immersive theater.
Contemporary audiences who meet at Mozilla Hub through Web VR and HMD actively intervene in the work process
and experience an immersive performance as a subversive experience that rewrites women's lives in the expansive field of creativity beyond the time.
Immersion in VR
Immersion in VR is divided into
1. Non-immersive; to experience virtual environment on a two-dimensional monitor while controlling with keyboard or mouse (Web VR..)
2. Semi-Immersive; to experience the virtual environment in real space through projection mapping, etc.
3. Full-Immersive; to put a VR HMD to experience a virtual environment in three dimensions.
In the performance
In the performance, participants in Web VR (Non-immersive),
the dancers and spectators on the stage (Semi),
and the spectators wearing HMDs (Full) meet together in the same virtual space at the same time.
1. Non-Immersive viewers
Participants who are not on-site access the virtual environment implemented on the web in their own space.
They choose a narrative and experience a new story, and arrive at B's room at the final ‘debate’ part.
2. Semi-Immersive viewers
The dancers on the stage and the audience watching them will be informed about the narrative in advance.
The audience can re-experience narrative B, rewritten from a modern perspective, in the form of dance and images, and embody a unique interpretation with a new sense that is different from reading a paper book.
In addition, audiences who watch the performance without knowing the narrative
3. Full-Immersive viewers
Finally, those who wear the HMD and participate in the final ending selection go through the process of deciding one ending route together with people in other space and time who are accessing the web in a space sensed in three dimensions.
They meet people who are participating in the performance right next to them, as well as people who are not next to them, but who exist together in the virtual space.
This is similar to the characteristic of the novel, in which the non-existent fictional character, Master B, is perceived in the form of an existing character.
Everyone
The three dimensions of the audience participate in the performance in different dimensions,
but their opinions, words, and actions are shared by all participants and make interaction.
This is similar to the process of being immersed into a ‘book’,
experiencing the narrative while interpreting the story according to the historical background, and re-narrating it in a contemporary dimension.
Us
Crossing the layers of immersion in a virtual environment,
we want to experiment with a sensuous and existential interpretation of the fictional character ‘B’, and to expand her narrative with a larger group of people.