performance

14 July 2pm – 4pm

i-DAT have been developing a game/performance ‘Life’s a Game’ with Rosetta Life, Acorns Children’s Hospice and the West Bromwich Albion Foundation. Co designed with the Hospice powerchair football team the Unity 3D game is incorporated into the live powerchair performance at The Performance Hub – University of Wolverhampton.

Actions within the live performance trigger sensors located around the performance space to activate realtime interactions within the game world. The narrative, characters and behaviours were all design by children at the Acorns Hospice.

i-DAT collaborated with Rosetta Life and Acorns Children’s Hospice Walsall to deliver a project in collaboration with the West Bromwich Albion Foundation to offer a regional contribution to an international, children’s palliative care festival being organised by Rosetta life. Rosetta life have been working with young men living with Duchene Muscular Dystrophy attending Acorns Children’s Hospice for the past 18 months and during this time, through consultation with staff and the boys, a need for such a project had become evident. The project ‘Life is a Game’ has been designed with the young men around their passion – wheelchair football.

The project consisted of a Unity 3D game environment co-designed with the Acorns Children’s Hospice children. The game characters, narrative and game play were all developed by the children through 4 workshops and implemented by i-DAT. The game will be available for distribution for desktop and online gaming platforms.

The performance at the Performance Hub consisted of life wheelchair footballers activating the game play (projected above the performers) through sensors located around the stage. The digital game was activated through sensors (ultrasound and infrared switches) accompanied by a kinect/processing hack to generate realitme audio.

Project Team:

Lance Seecharran (coordinator)

Musaab Garghouti

Lee Nutbean

Ollie Jones

Luke Christison

Mike Phillips

Quotes from Partners:

“I was amazed by the progress of the gaming aspect of the project from the early workshops in February – and it all worked on the night! As you are aware, this project has been really hard to fund, and it was only your commitment and enthusiasm that made it happen. I am really grateful and know that it meant a lot to the young people that their dreams were realised. Thank you.”

Lucinda Jarrett. Director of Rosetta Life.

“Just a small note to say a MASSIVE thank you for today and for… traveling long distances, for co-coordinating the movements of others, for bringing bananas, for ironing T-shirts, for fixing last minute punctures and adding last minute subtitles, for capturing the day on film and for supporting all the young people in sharing their work with parents today! Thank you for the enthusiasm, patience and hard work. We’ll let you know when the game/film footage and pictures are available.”

Jennifer Sweeney, Project Coordinator.