… is a realto?
A realto (rē-ǎl-tō) redefines our concept of a “movie.”
A realto is a new form of hybrid, live + digital visual storytelling.
See a short example here.
… is a videosculpture?
A videosculpture redefines our concept of a “screen.”
It transforms projected video into 3-dimensional objects.
Learn more about my pavilion videosculpture series here.
… and their connection?
Let’s rethink time and space in the new world of hybrid video media!
- Live performance
- Interactive stories
- 3D projections
- Immersive worlds
Details …
In a realto a special camera system captures an actor or narrator (a “sayer”) performing live onstage. Then, in realtime, it inserts the actor as a “live character” into an interactive, pre-recorded visual story that is unfolding at the same time on one or more projected screens flanking the stage.
An audience can experience the combined realto “interactive movie” and stage event as a new kind of hybrid live theater. Or you can stream the experience to remote online viewers. What’s more, you can take the “live movie” you just recorded, re-play it, and layer in new live onstage characters to create a serialized story that continues to morph over time.
In short, a realto is a new form of “virtual reality theater,” or “VRT.” The realto VRT opens up whole new forms of highly visual, incremental, live-and-digital storytelling. No clunky VR glasses. No seasick audiences. VR in a new light.
Five physical components comprise the Realto VRT as it stands today: (1) an interactive digital green screen stage, augmented in some cases with AI-keying; (2) projectors and “screens;” (3) live video capture booms with multiple cameras and LED-rings for instant chroma-keying; (4) automatically & interactively triggered digital stage lighting; (5) a central computer control rig with software that executes a game-like, interactive story script.
… and the videosculpture connection?
I’ve recently (since 2023) been trying to re-think our notion of “screen.” Advances in 3-dimensional projection mapping, ultra short throw projectors and multi-projector sync’ing have opened up a new universe of immersive experiences.
See my 3D videosculpture pavilion series for some examples of projected imaginings I’m creating in my artworks.
Now fast forward.
Throw away the stomach-churning social isolation of VR headsets. Create, instead, life-sized, projected 3-dimensional experiences that you can walk around, walk into, touch. Projected 3D forms, large-scale “videosculptures” that we can inhabit, explore and interact with at will.
Combine this with Realto VRT interactive storytelling.
Live immersive storytelling. Exploratoriums. New kinds of live fictions and non-fictions.
Why not?
See Italian pioneer Mauro Frugiuele’s post “MMRK: the concept of live cinema” for his fascinating thoughts on the dawn of live cinema — all the way back in the ancient era of 2019 at the Rome Live Cinema Festival!