Stories of identity and histories that connect countries, cultures and centuries are among the performances selected for the 080808 UpStage Festival, which takes place on 8 August 2008.

The festival features 14 live online performances by artists from 12 countries, and will be accessible to anyone with a standard internet connection and browser.

The Wellington 'real life' performance by audiovisual duo Anaesthesia Associates (Dan Untitled and Paul Bradley) will be at the Engine Room gallery in Wellington at 10.30pm. 'I Miss You, Great to See You Again 2.0' will be a live audiovisual mashup of popular love songs and Hollywood romantic comedy films.

Stories of identity and histories that connect countries, cultures and centuries are among the performances selected for the 080808 UpStage Festival, which takes place on 8 August 2008.

The festival features 14 live online performances by artists from 12 countries, and will be accessible to anyone with a standard internet connection and browser.

The Wellington 'real life' performance by audiovisual duo Anaesthesia Associates (Dan Untitled and Paul Bradley) will be at the Engine Room gallery in Wellington at 10.30pm. 'I Miss You, Great to See You Again 2.0' will be a live audiovisual mashup of popular love songs and Hollywood romantic comedy films.

The last time the Anaesthesia Associates performed this open heart surgery operation, they did so from opposite sides of the planet (Dan was at Goldsmiths University in London, UK, and Paul was in an internet cafe in Taupo, NZ). The two anaesthetists have now been reunited in real life.

Last year's festival, 070707, featured thirteen performances and was screened at the New Zealand Film Archive as well as online. This year most shows will be performed twice, and there will be 'real life' access nodes in London, Munich, Oslo and Wellington.

The artists involved range from experienced cyberformance practitioners such as The Plaintext Players and activelayers, to children: the youngest performers are six years old. In Belgrade, children will attend a workshop before the festival to create their own show.

A story of bridges unites the cities New York and Munich, while another performance brings together the every-day lives of women 100 years ago in Turkey, Canada and a Portuguese immigrant to the USA. Other performances feature a digital ego, a miniature biome based on climate-warming data from the internet, live audio-visual mash-ups, the celebration of the birthday of Mexican revolutionary Emiliana Zapata, and much more.

One performance has already begun: "Calling Home" by activelayers introduces four characters who are trying to find their way home. As well as the 080808 festival performance, a build up of performances and appearances in UpStage and other online environments is taking place. For more information, visit www.activelayers.net.

UpStage is software that allows audiences from anywhere in the world to participate in live online performances, created in real time by remote players. Audiences need only an internet connection and web browser and can interact through a text chat tool while the players use images to create visual scenes, and operate "avatars" - graphical characters that speak aloud and move.

More information

The full list of performances, artists, performance times and RL access nodes is on the UpStage web site. Live links to the stages will be accessible from the UpStage web site on August 8; online audiences just need to click!

Cyberformance

About UpStage

UpStage is a web-based venue for online performance; it is an open source server application. UpStage V2 is currently in development with funding from the Community Partnership Fund of the New Zealand government's Digital Strategy.

The UpStage project team members have been experimenting with various forms of online theatre since 1999, and since 2002 they have worked together as the globally dispersed performance troupe Avatar Body Collision. The idea for UpStage was born from their experiments with using a variety of online chat technologies.

In most of Avatar Body Collision's work, three actors perform online, live, in real time, while one actor performs in the proximal space of the hosting venue. The remote performers appear projected on a screen, using web cameras and avatar world technologies.

As the performances were delivered via several different mediums, it was not been practical for audiences to follow the show online. UpStage has changed all that. The software combines the various elements of virtual performance into a single web page. The audience simply points their browser to the UpStage web site at the appointed time, to watch and participate.

UpStage is a live interactive medium, so the best way to experience it is to attend a performance or join one of open walk-throughs, which are held on the first Wednesday of the month (dates and times are announced on the site). UpStage is available free to anyone who would like to use it.

UpStage is supported by CityLink, MediaLab and Auckland University of Technology.

For further information, contact: Helen Varley Jamieson
helen@upstage.org.nz
www.upstage.org.nz

31/07/08