[pain]Byte VR Storytelling & Classical Ballet

This initial stage paper focuses on the Virtual Reality (VR) experience of the [pain]Byte ballet. The live and VR experience debut October 1st 2017, as part of the Brighton digital festival. Specifically, the development of the VR environment to compliment live performance by using the same choreography to create an option capture element of the VR story telling experience. Reviewing Virtual & Alternative reality gaming & storytelling works and the use of VR for chronic pain management (Chen, Win). Does the VR experience compare to that of the live theatre for the audience? The data visualisations and VR environment will be continuations of the Network Simulator, [data]Storm 2015. We are visualising and comparing the pain pathway system to that of a social network. Linking pain signals to viral/negative messaging for some of the visuals. The main purpose of the pieces links to how “we" present ourselves online, these better or veiled versions of ourselves. For chronic pain sufferers, this can be daily activity in the real world. The paper concludes by identifying some future directions for the research project. The Ballet: [pain]Byte is a data driven dance classical ballet performance and VR (virtual reality) experience. [pain]Byte, is about chronic pain and biomedical engineering, in particular the use of implanted technology - neuromodulation (Al-Kaisey et al). Using data as a medium for storytelling, what it means to be in chronic pain. The live augmented theatre and VR experience research focuses on how an audience’s exposure and understanding are impacted by the difference mediums used for [pain]byte

Dancing with pain::agency through pain worlds

This article examines a series of qualitative interviews with seven dance artists in the UK who make dance works with and about their own chronic pain. It integrates research from dance studies (on dance and agency) and health-based chronic pain research (on agency with pain) to focus on individual, interpersonal, and environmental dimensions of agency with chronic pain. The research addresses therefore how the dance artists have individually acted as agents by making change in their own self-identities and working lives. Further, it highlights the importance of peers and audiences alongside the environments of performance which enable agency for the artists. Finally, the article proposes that agency is created in performance through the ‘pain worlds’ shared by the dance artists, that give felt and sensorial pathways to understanding aspects of living with pain