Beneficiaries include: VR/AR/MR/ER media researchers, interaction and game designers, live/participatoryperformance and theatre artists, wearable technology and haptic specialists, disability and assistive technologists, and textile designers. The project will demonstrate innovation for the games and VR industry, as well for wearables designersfor entertainment, art, design, and performance use.We will adapt and develop a hardware/software system to measure physiological data and responses to external stimulifrom participants. This system and supporting individual measurement wearable tools, such as the HTC Vive, EEG, ECG,Udoo, and biometric sensors will inform the actual final performance. Parts of this if not everything will be shared with the Open Source community.

Scientists, artists, technologists, and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) experts will have the opportunity to learn from ournovel interaction techniques and strategies, and the new forms of expressivity, and narrative approaches we employ fromthe project. The concept taps into the exponentially growing areas of VR/AR/360 film, wearable technology/haptics, real-time data integration- contributing to all of these areas, while trying to address very real global issues.

The project engages its audiences to become part of the narrative environment that stimulates their other senses otherthan sight and sound, using haptic, tactile and physiological senses, triggering the emotional, empathic and survivalresponses, instigating a sense of social responsibility and facilitating or demonstrating methods of personal action. This project moves VR and mixed reality performance beyond the domains of art versus science towards an informed, boldculture of creative action, ideally activating its audiences to action in their own lives and communities. More thaneducational but motivational.

The aim for this project is to give performers more exposure to new immersive experience performance techniques usingVR/ mixed reality and haptic sensing technologies, to empower them to create their own VR/ mixed reality/ hapticperformance work. Embolden them to become creators of their own similar immersive narrative/interactive systems andtechniques, while exploring new performance approaches developed during the project. Performers themselves will benefitfrom both the workshops themselves and the conclusions drawn from them for their own work.

Performance research and VR/Mixed Reality/Games researchers will benefit from both the workshops, the performances,the bespoke wearables designed for the project. and the conclusions drawn from the research. Those situated in thecomputer sciences will benefit from a different approach to VR/Mixed Reality and haptic/ wearable technology development and our audience 'user testing', to further their own research and development.

The various stakeholders - including interaction designers, tech developers, computer games designers, wearable & hapticinteraction developers - will benefit, even if indirectly, from having new developments in the arena to further the designapproaches to VR/Mixed Reality/Games, providing a different perspective from critical and artistic voices and research tothe field.

The haptic and wearable technology stakeholders will also benefit from the performance dimension, in terms of sensing ofthe body in full immersion and the different types of body expression that can be witnessed using the bespoke hapticdevices, as well from the a different perspective on VR & wearable tech development and research, garnered from theworkshops and participatory performances, again adding more critical voices to the mix.

VR/Mixed Reality/Games Manufacturers will benefit from this research by seeing novel methods used to develop narrativeand immersive interaction, through performance techniques for a widening user/consumer base.

This project aims to connect with the general public and to hard to reach audiences by presenting the workshops andperformances in public venues and outdoor locations.

Online dissemination of the full documentation (including videos, images, texts, etc) and updated information about theproject progress will be more available via the project website.

A showcase of the workshops and performances will also be available via social media, such as Facebook, Twitter,Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Vimeo, and Youtube.A broad promotional strategy to ensure publicity via targeted mainstream media, such as, Wired, BBC Arts andEntertainment, BBC Click, BBC World Service, or Sky Arts will also be considered.

Research and narrative development will be done by the PI and co-PI, partner development consultations with performance professionals/VR designers/companies/experts, storyboarding for showcase presentation, prototype film footage capture, performers salaries for rehearsal and rehearsal space for performance of prototype for showcase presentation, prototype development/360 film and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/theatrical) design.