Mixing realities: reflections on presence and embodiment in intermedial performance design of Blue Hour VR

ABSTRACT Created for the 2019 Prague Quadrennial’s 36Q°, Blue Hour VR was a site-responsive mixed reality performative installation that placed the spectator, as experiencer, within a hybrid landscape of real-time three-dimensional computer graphics and 360-degree video. This article describes the design process, staging and experience of Blue Hour VR from the vantage point of its creators. Using a phenomenological perspective, the article discusses how Blue Hour VR staged presence and embodiment within an intermedial haptic experience. Blue Hour VR demonstrates how virtual reality technology can be harnessed by a mixed reality performance design, which includes both the material and virtual environment, creating a complex stratigraphy of intermedial textures and visual dramaturgies that co-exist inside, outside and in between perceptual realities. In doing so, the article aims to contribute to the limited body of work on mixed and virtual reality in the context of theatre and performance design.