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OPERA HACK 3.0 SCHEDULE

All Opera Hack events are only for accepted participants.​

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Schedule for Opera Hack 3.0 [Updated 2022-05-28]

  • May 20 - Official Launch 9am PDT (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • Opera Hack 3.0 officially launches! At this online event, we will:

    • Introduce this year’s Advisory Panel.

    • Announce this year’s Challenges.

    • Share the Rules of the Hack.

    • Share the Opera Hack Schedule of Events.

    • And more!

  • May 25 - Opera Hack Talk with Michael Bateman of Pixera - 8:00 am PDT (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • “Examining Pixera Advanced Use Cases in Live Event Contexts “

    •  Join the Pixera team as we discuss how the Pixera software can be integrated into your live event workflows. We will briefly look at DMX, Midi, and OSC connectivity through Pixera Control, 3D Projection Mapping, and Unreal Engine integration. We will show off the versatility of Pixera and can answer questions about how it could be used for your projects.

  • May 25 - Opera Hack Talk with Jennifer Williams & Hack/Social - 5:00pm PDT (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • “Amplifying Social Justice through Immersive Technologies: A New View from the Director’s Chair” 

    • How can opera bring together immersive art, video and XR technology, and how can artists advance social justice initiatives? Director and Fulbright Scholar Jennifer Williams discusses her work in site-specific settings; at opera companies internationally; and in cultural diplomacy as an Arts Envoy for the Department of State. She investigates how these unique practices promote global citizenry themes such as civil liberties, civic action and equality; serve as an instrument of creative placemaking; and open doors for alternative artistic voices. The discussion invites participants to reimagine the arts as a modality of public engagement and the artist as public servant.

  • June 1 - Priority Deadline to apply to participate in Opera Hack. [Deadline is extended to June 22.]

  • June 3 - Opera Hack Talk with Re:Naissance Opera & Open Channel - 5:00pm PDT (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • “Live From The Underworld: opera creation & real-time performance in virtual worlds”

    • After spearheading OrpheusVR, an interactive opera game in Virtual Reality, the creative team at re:Naissance Opera has ventured into live streaming for personal devices with Eurydice: Live from the underworld. These interactive episodes feature gaming worlds and mythological avatars brought to life by realtime motion capture technology & live opera singers. Join the creators of OrpheusVR & Live From The Underworld for a behind-the-scenes look at the tools, processes and design that makes this new brand of virtual production possible.  

  • June 8 - Sarah Ellis behind the scenes on RSC’s Dream & Hack/Social - 9:00am PDT  (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • From candlelight to Pepper’s ghost, the printing press to the internet, theatre has always used the newest technologies to tell and share its stories. The tools that have developed over the past 400 years have been critical to enabling Shakespeare’s plays to be performed, reimagined and reinterpreted for diverse audiences, keeping the form of presentation as perennially relevant as the content of his work. It’s in this spirit that the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has worked digitally over the past decade, expanding a theatre-making toolkit for their artists and audiences and achieving genuine creative innovation, global impact and value. This lecture will focus on the collaboration between creative practitioners, research organizations, and technology companies imagining the future of live performance through immersive technologies at the RSC. Director of Digital Development Sarah Ellis will share the process of research and development with this unique consortium, including how it pivoted in a pandemic to reimagine theatre with audiences in lockdown. 

    • Sarah Ellis is an award-winning producer currently working as Director of Digital Development for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to explore new artistic initiatives and partnerships. The latest partnership for the RSC is the Audience of the Future Live Performance Demonstrator funded by Innovate UK – a consortium consisting of arts organizations, research partners and technology companies to explore the future of performances and real-time immersive experiences. She is a regular speaker and commentator on digital arts practice, as well as an Industry Champion for the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, which helps inform academic research on the creative industries to lead to better policies for the sector. She has been appointed Chair of digital agency, The Space, established by Arts Council England and the BBC to help promote digital engagement across the arts.

  • June 17 -  Opera Hack Talk with Stephanie Riggs & Open Channel - 9:00am PDT  (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • “The End of Storytelling and the Future of Narrative in XR” 

    • Creative Director, Immersive Technologist, Entrepreneur and Author, Stephanie Riggs will explore her revolutionary theory of narrative for the immersive experience. Informed by over 25 years of integrating story and technology in theater, VR, AR, experiential and theme parks, this session will bring together theory with practice and provide a roadmap for interdisciplinary XR collaboration.

  • June 17 -  Opera Hack Talk with Sheiva Khalily - 5:00pm PDT (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • Opera Hack Talk: Sheiva Khalily on Virtual Production Technology

    • Sheiva Khalily presents the history of virtual production technology and practices and how the current circumstances have led to a rise in virtual production across the industry.

  • June 22 - Final Deadline to apply to participate in Opera Hack.

  • June 22 - Opera Hack with Industry Partner disguise & Hack/Social - 9:00am PDT  (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • disguise in Opera & Theatre

    • Shae Langley, Sales Manager for Fixed Installations and Immersive Experiences, and Cole Marcus, Technical Solutions Specialist at disguise, will be talking about how technical tools are used to drive stories in Theatre & Opera performances running on disguise. Cole will be operating a workflow demo of OmniCal integration with the disguise Projection Mapping workflows. This will include projector blending, warping, alignment, and much more. Shae will also discuss how disguise’s close partnership with Epic Games/Unreal Engine, is pushing the boundaries of what is possible for creatives in the theatre space through real-time content.

  • June 22 - Opera Hack Talk with Alex Coulombe & Hack/Social - 5:00pm PDT (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • “Up Close & Virtual: XR's Power to Attract New Audiences”

    • What would it be like to stand inches away from a world-class performer from the comfort of home? With the advent of cloud rendering, live shows are no longer limited to rarified in-person experiences or passive streaming iterations. Now we can interact, navigate freely, and, with a VR headset, feel like we’re there. Alex Coulombe walks you through his journey from butting up against the limits of live shows in social VR to his recent experiences bringing his new platform, Heavenue, to Actors Theatre of Louisville as well as the off-Broadway production of The Orchard.

  • June 29 - **NEW EVENT!** Opera Hack Talk with Dave Werner of Adobe - 9:00am PDT (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • “New Frontiers In Live Digital Storytelling”

    • Join Adobe designer Dave Werner as he walks through some of the products he's been using in live theatrical performances, from digital puppetry to timelapse illustrations. Using products like Adobe Character Animator, After Effects, and Fresco, he'll walk through several examples of ways to seamlessly merge computer creations with reality, whether it's a packed Comic Con Q&A with an animated character, or drawings coming to life in a recent production of Matilda the Musical.

    • Dave Werner is the Lead Designer for the Emmy award winning Character Animator team at Adobe in California. His past projects include the portfolio website Okaydave, indie video game Atmosphir, and Extraneous Lyrics video series. He posts regular cartoons, music videos, and tutorials to his Okay Samurai YouTube channel. Dave's work has been featured by Wired, The Verge, Entertainment Weekly, TechCrunch, Kotaku, College Humor, and Sesame Street.

  • June 29 - **NEW EVENT!** Opera Hack Talk with Sadah Espii Proctor of Espii Studios and Tuck Siver of Blinxel - 5:00pm PDT (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • Join Opera Hack and Sadah Espii Proctor and Tuck Siver of Blinxel for “Video Based Holography And Projection For Pre-Production, Live Performances And Marketing”

    • Video has changed a lot in the last few years, with new opportunities to engage audiences and improve pre-production and marketing that are only now being understood. Sadah Espii Proctor and Tuck Siver will be talking about the Blink platform and how low-cost volumetric video can be used to make auditions more efficient, create entire new dimensions of production and audience engagement, and bring marketing into the 21st century.

  • **UPDATE** NOW July 6 - Opera Hack Talk with Sadah Espii Proctor & Hack/Social - **CANCELLED**

  • **UPDATE** NOW July 6 - Opera Hack Talk with Anne Hiatt & Hack/Social - 5:00pm PDT (House will open 30 minutes before)

    • "Deepening Story and Scaling Community Impact Through Opera and Technology Integrations"

    • Anne Hiatt is the Co-Founder/ Executive & Artistic Director of the national organization Opera on Tap, which has the vision of making the drama, beauty, and exhilaration of opera truly accessible to new communities everywhere. In addition to overseeing operations of 25 Chapters of Opera on Tap across the nation and world, since 2016, she has been the Executive Producer of Opera on Tap’s Immersive Opera Project (IOP).  IOP marries opera and tech industry partners in the creation of new immersive works of opera utilizing a variety of technologies.  Through the lens of 4 of Opera on Tap’s current and recent past projects, discover more on how to leverage technology to further storytelling while at the same time deepen and scale community impact.

  • July 3 - Participant proposals due 11:59PM PDT

  • July 8 - Proposals Presented at Open Channel 

  • August 26 - Winners Presentation

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What is a Hack/Social?

  • Every Hack/Social will feature a presentation of Opera Hack Advisory Panelists or Opera Hack Partners on their work, with time allocated for Opera Hackers to socialize with each other.

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What is an Open Channel Event? 

  • This is dedicated open time for participants to meet with each other. They will be moderated by an Opera Hack Panelist or other team member.

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