Storyteller-musician-journalist and creator of Radiolab and other podcasts
Instigators
The ultimate goal of the INSTIGATORS program: to infuse the rich but age-old art form with new thinking and perspectives.
The Instigators team includes:
Made Possible By
The Instigators’ artistry is one of our many Innovation Programs made possible, in part, by the Creative Edge Fund with major support from Carol and Dixon Doll, Peter Fenton and Kate Greer and Bob Ellis. Additional support provided by Susan & Philip Marineau.
Samantha Gorman
Instigator Spotlight
“Opera is an art form that tries to build towards this sublime,” says Samantha Gorman, a writer-director who works in immersive spaces and emerging media, including AR and VR. Gorman is one of six INSTIGATORS taking a deep dive into the world of opera – part of San Francisco Opera’s bold program to explore new directions for the art form, the field, and the community, as the company begins its next 100 years.
As co-director/founder of Tender Claws, an award-winning game, art, and tech studio, Gorman has developed a methodology for hybrid long-form VR and remote immersive theater games with live performers inhabiting the world. Her groundbreaking work includes The Under Presents (one of the first remote live VR theater experiences scaled to a large public audience, featuring a live, remote cast) and the recent, buzz-generating Tempest (live ticketed remote adaption in VR). Her projects make critical, creative interventions in form while also functioning as entertainment and R&D, including PRY (hybrid ios game/film/novella); Virtual Virtual Reality, winner of Google Play “Best VR Experience,” and Virtual Virtual Reality 2 (two VR narrative satire games), and Tendar (AR virtual tamagotchi pet fish that feeds on one’s emotion).
About the launch of INSTIGATORS, which will support one- or two-year inquiries in a lab-like framework, San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock comments: “There’s this willingness in the Bay Area to tread into unknown territory and see exciting things result, of pushing boundaries and being willing to do the unthinkable. I’ve long wished that we as a cultural organization could embody more of that sensibility. Because of where we are in the world, like, we should be able to tap into that mindset in a way that really nobody else can.”
“My work draws on a hybrid and interdisciplinary background in poetry, electronic music, theater, live art, fine arts and media production,” explains Gorman. “All of these disciplines converge in service of storytelling. I believe opera is a timeless form and there will be many opportunities for the medium to shape and then reshape itself in different genres of music, modes of spectatorship, and performance methods. I’d like to see the San Francisco Opera push the bounds of what opera is and can be. It’s a community of people devoted to innovation and artistry and I can’t wait to see what is produced in the future.”