Seduction and Demise in East Berlin – Digital Prototype for an Immersive Opera: The International Conference on the Arts in Society, 22-24 July 2015, Imperial College London, UK

Abstract

Seduction and Demise in East Berlin – a digital prototype for an immersive opera’ is a reflective case study of how digital technologies can be successfully applied to facilitate dynamic mediated partnerships and collaborations resulting in innovative industry standard outcomes in the fields of design, performance and digital media. The ongoing use of online interaction throughout the development of the prototype facilitated a grammar of participation, collaboration and output between third year tertiary design students from Deakin University and independent Opera Company the Beggars Opera Co-Operative (BegOpCoOp), resulting in the achievement of positive professional outcomes for both project partners. Through this process, students at Deakin University Visual Communication Design department developed a normative working model that enabled a swift engagement with and response to the creative and strategic challenges that come with applying contemporary design practice in a current industry context.  BegOpCop, as the industry partner, were able to use the digital collaborative process as a springboard to interrogate and innovate their own practice as producers of contemporary operatic repertoire and to develop exciting new digital and design-savvy creative collateral with which to seek further production partners, taking them to the next professional level as a growing arts organisation.