XRevent Concert

XRevent.on is an interdisciplinary project by a collective of media artists, musicians, media technicians, and scientists. It strives to merge art, sound, and technology into coherent, interactive and immersive performances in a true hybrid environment. In its current iteration, musician Daniel Chagnon brings material and immaterial worlds together in an intimate live concert that can be experienced both on a physical stage and in an event metaverse.

The multi-perspective scenography not only enables the transfer from the physical stage to the virtual space, but also vice versa. Video streaming and the manipulation of light and sound sources are transmitted in near real-time. The performer is provided with a feedback monitor that shows the virtual space and allows them to interact with events in both worlds.

This allows a VR and AR layering as well as a fluid connection of physical and virtual audiences. A mobile app using augmented reality (AR) offers the audience of the physical event the opportunity to equip the scenography with 3D objects from the virtual space. The resulting dynamic scenario gives users the opportunity to interact with the scenography and thus bridge the gap between physical and virtual stages.

Technologically, the project is based on an open-source cross-reality toolkit developed at HAW Hamburg since 2020. Meanwhile, many visitors to conferences, trade fairs, festivals or theaters have come to know the advantages of hybrid performances and are still using them today. For event organizers, new target groups and a wider reach can be achieved.

According to estimates by event organizers, bookings for virtual and hybrid events will be higher than for physical events. In 2024, bookings for onsite events will increase by 103%, for hybrid events by 138% and for virtual events by 120% compared to 2019 (German Convention Bureau, 2022). In addition, such cross-reality formats can be an opportunity for more inclusive, diverse and participatory events.

We presented our workflow for concerts at the Operation Ton event (December 2023) in Hamburg to interested musicians.

Operation Ton started in 2006 as the first Music Future Convention in Germany, initially as the Hamburg Congress for Pop Music and Pop Culture. It was an event for music actors, artists, the music industry, and all those who invent, perform, develop, distribute, or simply love music. For them, topics were rethought, artistic, economic, (social) societal approaches, transformations, and innovations were conceived and discussed, theoretical discourses, exciting collective approaches, as well as musical experiments and codifications, were practiced.

At the ProLight & Sound 2023 in Frankfurt, we coincidentally met the musician Rune Morch Albrechtsen from Aarhus, Denmark, and streamed his live set from the fair to the XRevent platform. For this simple setup, all we needed was a mobile phone camera and OBS.

„Wena! J.A.M.E. – VR“ is a virtual platform seamlessly transitioning African and Afro-diasporic music and dance into virtual reality. It allows visitors, regardless of their location, to participate in engaging music and dance performances, experiencing a completely new form of interaction and immersion. The vision is to make this platform a space where more music and dance can be shared in the future, and even entire VR events can take place.

„Wena! J.A.M.E. – VR“ is more than just a stage show; it is a pioneering work that builds new bridges of culture and harnesses the power of digital technology to bring the world closer together and share artistic expression in a new, innovative way. We look forward to further developing and expanding the future developments and successes of this pilot project and laying the groundwork for intercontinental exchanges of African and Afro-diasporic music and dance culture.