![]() Contra Productions is thrilled to announce that we've been longlisted for Arts Council England's 2025 Digital Culture Awards in the Digital Inclusion category for A Spectacle of Herself! From the outset, we aimed to make A Spectacle of Herself accessible to d/Deaf and neurodivergent audiences by creatively integrating access elements that also enhanced the aesthetic and concept of the work. Our research began during a Jerwood circus residency at the National Centre for Circus Arts in 2022, where we collaborated with video artist Mark Morreaux and Deaf access consultant Max Sutherland. We were keen to explore how video projection could enable us to work on a much larger scale than before, taking the solo performance format and exploding it, to physically take up more space. Mark's technical expertise allowed us to experiment with layering live performance and video, and we quickly realised the creative and technical advantages of using Hologauze, a fully silvered projection gauze developed by Stuart Warren Hill of Holotronica. This material enabled us to seamlessly integrate projection into live performance, allowing imagery and captions to float in space. We discovered that Hologauze could transform the stage into a multidimensional filmic, collaged environment, which resonated with us having used film to conduct early research into the show. Max Sutherland's contributions on creative captioning were invaluable. They introduced us to techniques for animating text to reflect the energy or mood of a scene. We also explored representing music visually, much like the animated scores in Disney's Fantasia. These early explorations helped us understand how to balance creativity with clarity to ensure accessibility without compromising artistic integrity. For the final production, we collaborated with Deaf video designer Ben Glover, who led on the captions and video design. The possibilities for creative captioning, with different fonts, animations, and aesthetic choices, were endless—but together we focused on creating a cohesive visual language that served the work's concept and provided visual detail for Deaf audiences. Ben also developed visual animations to visually score the music, which we layered with live onstage performances. When staging the show, Max and Ben gave essential perspective on the experience of the show for Deaf audiences, including sight-lines, text positioning, pacing, legibility, and how the video and captioning design supported the overall work. Lighting designer Jenny Roxburgh faced the creative challenge of lighting on stage action while allowing projections and captions to shine without light spill on the gauze. Her beautiful design created a seamless dialogue between the live body and the projected visuals, enhancing the collage effect, holding the energy of the scenes and ensuring that the hologauze could work its magic, floating captions and animations in space without visual interference. Last but not least, Filmmaker Holly Black played an integral role, filming and editing all the video content for the production which grew from a research film we created together in 2021. Holly has a real talent for capturing and presenting autobiography, environment and text and creating playful connections. This early film allowed us to explore the juxtaposition between the micro and macro: the human body and its messy experiences set against footage of outer space—a motif carried through both the spoken narrative and visuals of the live show. We're so proud that this inclusive, interdisciplinary approach has been recognised. Special thanks to all the brilliant collaborators who made this possible! If you work in the creative and cultural sector, check out the Digital Culture Network for free digital support. Find out more or contact them at [email protected] to book a digital Diagnostic. X (Twitter) - @ace_dcn // @ace_national
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