Adapting “The Captive” With a Handheld DeviceMatthew Lewis' monodrama “The Captive” was performed by Harriett Litchfield on Covert Garden’s stage in 1803, and was considered “an unqualified disaster, but for all the right reasons.”
At the center of his short play Lewis places a woman, a young mother, who is forcefully “committed to a madhouse by her husband even though she was in fact perfectly sane.” As the plot progresses, the audience witness her losing grasp of reality, and in fact going mad, due to the physical and mental conditions she endures. Litchfield’s embodiment of Lewis’ character was so very powerful that the audience couldn’t bare the young woman’s sense of hopelessness. The clash of betrayal (by her own husband), depression (torn apart from her baby), and isolation (becoming a captive against her will) aroused strong reaction of terror from the audience, that even Lewis’ wrote of it: It proved much too terrible for representation, and two people went into hysterics during the performance, and two more after the curtain dropped.... In fact, the subject (which was merely a picture of madness) was so uniformly distressing to the feelings, that at last I felt my own a little painful; and as to Mrs. Litchfield, she almost fainted away. As I was reading Lewis’ text, I felt as if it was punching me in the gut. As a young mother myself, I couldn't ignore the message of Lewis' play and I decided to bring it to life again--together with Gracie Kreth. We decided that the best way to recreate the terror of the text is to treat it in a similar way we record videos for entertainment: using our handheld devices. We hired an actress, rehearsed the text and created the appropriate settings to capture Lewis’ captive from our own point of view. Later on, we learned how to edit our clips and add background music that highlights specific key points of the story. |
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Objectifying AustenJane Austen often take her novels’ readers on a journey by making her characters travel between different physical places and spaces. In a similar way, the different physical objects that Austen embeds in her novels carry significance and signify her readers of the importance that should be attributed to them. In this project, I chose to provide the appropriate space (both metaphorical and physical) to Austen’s objects. As I was reading Austen’s novels, I chose specific objects that I believed carry importance; objects such as horses and carriages from Northanger Abby, the love of books presented in Emma, and the discussion of womanly manners and appropriateness (playing the piano and wearing the right muslin) in Pride and Prejudice. In order to keep the representation of the objects as authentic as possible, I tried to find a physical model of them that would be accurate to Austen’s descriptions. After a long search that was mostly unsuccessful, I decided to make my own models of the objects I couldn’t find. I was able to make 3D sketches for the remaining objects, and printed them in UVA’s Maker-Space in the Scholar’s Lab. After I had all the objects in hand, I created a cluster of them all and used charcoal and charcoal pencils to draw it over 18x24 inches paper. By the very end, this project is a work of art that integrates 3D printed objects and provoke somewhat unexpected reactions from Austen’s readers. |
Transnational Literature in Virtual Reality using MindShow
My literary research was focused on Contemporary Drama, and specifically in Immersive Theater, which I believe redefines the way people think of theater performances. I believe that immersive theater performances are so powerful due to significant technological advancements and the tools developed by DH-ers. Keeping this in mind, I decided to create an immersive experience that stretches the boundaries of reality – I created a VR clip. First, I learned about a variety of Virtual Reality programs - such as of Mindshow, Unity, and Tavori, and chose to use Mindshow (I think I was a little overwhelmed by the other programs). I wrote a screenplay for a short conversation that discusses Transnational literature – a genre I experimented with – and “played” it into Mindshow. Mindshow allows recording of its scenes, but since I was working alone on this project, I had to play both characters and record the same scenes many times as I was speaking the lines of a different character each time. In the end, I edited all the recordings so that the viewer watches a flowing conversation.
This project allowed me to re-frame narratives and facilitate story-telling in a new way, thinking of audiences differently and diving into a unique experience. |
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A Picnic created in Virtual Reality using 3DS-MaxThanks to a tuition fellowship from UVA’s Scholar’s Lab, I was able to participate in Digital Humanities Summer Institution (DHSI) of 2019. The annual conference takes place at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada and serves as an amazing opportunity to deepen one's understanding of the DH field.
I participated in Zoe Schubert and Jan G. Wieners’ class Modeling. Virtual. Realities. A Practical Introduction to Virtual (and Augmented) Reality, and even learned how to code (something I never thought I could do). We started the class with the creation of our own individual web-pages--using HTML and CSS tools. This activity was fun and easy-going as it allowed us to introduce ourselves to our peers while using relevant tools and performing basic coding. This activity paved the way to the creation of our VR scenes, which were based on edited HTML files. We learned to write code that translates to adding, designing, moving, and even animating objects in VR using 3Ds Max. Together with Gianna May Sanchez -from University of Michigan - and Marcia McIntosh - from University of Texas - I created a VR Picnic scene. The scene included blue sky, green grass and trees, basket, tea set, a cookie, and animated butterfly and a lady bug. You can take a look at the final scene using VR headset. |