Virtual Black Boxes: Building Theater Sets in Virtual Reality Mark Wardecker, Bretton White, Timothy Stonesifer, Colby College
Unlike literature or plastic arts, theater and performance are artistic forms that demand embodiment. In a recent Latin American Theater class, we introduced students to important 20th century Latin American theatrical texts and performance art in order to consider thematic and aesthetic components relating to a variety of issues. Further, we considered how the works we read have been performed, and how we might stage them ourselves, concluding with staging scenes in order to bring together our theoretical studies with embodied practice and enable students to engage corporeally with works that are oriented toward spectator/participant presence. In this interactive session, we will discuss how we used virtual reality as an accessible alternative to actual set construction.
"Americans in the Middle East in the Nineteenth Century" A Course and a Site Nina Safran, Dave Sandor, Kelsey Bell, Pennsylvania State University
A historian's interest in a murder case in Egypt involving an American defendant, prosecuted by an American jurist, before an American consul, developed into an undergraduate seminar on Americans in the Middle East in the Nineteenth Century. Her research into the context of the murder and its adjudication sparked the idea of creating a portrait (and biographical) gallery of the American community in Egypt. This led to the idea of an undergraduate seminar involving students in making history and creating a DH project. We will explain how the project team matched technologies and DH methods to meet the research and class needs. A student will share her experience of the course and contribution. We will conclude with discussion of plans for further development of the project.
Saturday October 12, 2019 3:45pm - 5:15pm EDT
Center Room
