Volumetric Performance Toolbox

How can artists create new live performances during a global pandemic? Volumetric Performance Toolbox empowers creators to perform from their own living spaces for a virtual audience. Movement Artist Valencia James debuted the Toolbox on September 24, 2020 in the Mozilla Hubs virtual social space. The project is a collaboration between Valencia, Creative Technologist Sorob Louie, and Glowbox as part of Eyebeam’s Rapid Response for a Better Digital Future fellowship.

During a live-stream of Valencia’s performance, she dances amidst a 3D depiction of the ruins of the Annaburg Plantation Sugar Mill in the U.S. Virgin Islands— a site she chose for its connection to her Barbadian heritage. The audience could inhabit and move about the space as avatars, engaging in a virtual realm from their web browsers without the need for costly equipment. After the performance, we invited the audience avatars to gather around a feed from Valencia’s webcam to discuss the work with her.

Glowbox worked closely with Valencia and Sorob to create the technology that enabled this performance. Valencia performed in front of an Azure Kinect depth camera in her living room to stream volumetric video to a customized Mozilla Hubs environment, where the audience virtually gathered to view.

Volumetric Performance Toolbox is an ongoing effort to give artists access to tools that allow them to express themselves in live, virtual space. As the future of large social gatherings remain uncertain, the collaborators continue to research lower-cost capture equipment and more user-friendly interfaces to reduce the economic and technological barriers to creating live virtual art events.