Agile Opera

Developing new operational models for performing arts organisations in Australia, especially those exploring experimental and niche artistic practice.

Anneli Bjorasen in 'Turbulence', 2013. Photo credit: Daisy Noyes

Chamber Made partnered with RMIT University in collaboration with the Australia Council for the Arts and Fed Square for this Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project (2015-2017), investigating methods of preserving the intimacy of performance in a digital age.

Titled Agile Opera, the project’s aim was to develop new operational models for performing arts organisations in Australia, especially those exploring experimental and niche artwork.

The overarching question the project addressed was how the distinctive forms of intimacy found in chamber opera could be transferred to 21st century digital formats and platforms. It interrogated the new spatial relationships with audiences being created by designers, performers, composers and theatre makers that are challenging dominant forms of contemporary communication.

The Agile Opera project team’s aim was to develop innovative and sustainable models for arts organisations by researching new production and audience paradigms for a digitally enabled society. The intention of the research was to support the creation of innovative performance works, enable the engagement of new audiences, and provide outcomes that promote the sustainability of arts organisations in the digital age.

The project was based at RMIT University’s state-of-the art Design Hub. www.sial.rmit.edu.au/portfolio/agile-opera/

Collated findings of the project, full project team credits and an online resource for arts organisations and researchers can be found here: www.agileopera.com