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Augmented Reality (AR)- Augmented reality has been present in technology for the last few years, the most popular and first instance was in the game pokemon go, in the game it was used to bring the pokemon into our worlds so we could see them in our living rooms or in the park. What was great about this was that they used AR as a marketing tool and it helped many businesses as it encouraged people to be outside more so they could see their favourite pokemons in real time, one of the features within the game was something called poke stops which was essentially a place you can go to and get free rewards, many stores would then purchase "lures" which was an ingame item that would attrack pokemon to that stop which would bring in players. "One Brooklyn based pizza restaurant did this, and according to reports, noticed a 75% increase in revenue for the period the lures were active.". (BannerFlow, 2016)

This was in 2016 since then AR has been incorporated into many other gaming apps and also things like IKEA so you could bring furniture into your home to see how it would look, what started as a popular piece of technology in children's game, has grown into a valuable piece of tech that is used by other age groups too.

Virtual Reality (VR)- Virtual Reality in its contemporary form is mostly used for gaming, MetaQuest is the most popular gaming VR company that has many different models that continue evolving with new features to make games feel more immersive. Its also been used for medical purposes through the company Acesight which has created a VR headset to help people with visual impairments, it has features such as magnification, adjustable zooming, a controller that saves settings etc.

In theatre it was used in a play called Smile, people would have to purchase their own headset but then through BoxOfficeVR you would be able to watch the performance for just £5. "their specially-filmed VR version of Smile is a 180-degree experience, so the person viewing it doesn’t need to turn their head around or move about to get the full experience." (Pollock, 2023)

Artificial Intelligence (AI)- Artificial intelligence is taking the tech world by storm at the moment, its most popular form is ChatGPT which is a AI powered search engine that can be used for practically anything. Its seen in websites as 24/7 chat bots that provide assistance to customers, its even seen in social media, Snapchat has created an AI for anyone to use as well.

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Briar and Rose- A Norwegian play called "Briar and Rose" is one of the first plays to integrate AR technology into live performance alongside the actors, This performance was made possible because of two companies, GlitchStudios and ARShow. This particular show uses something called Far throw AR, this allows the virtual characters which are created through 3D animation to interact with the live actors.

Their first performance was made at a smaller scale but after its successful tour that went through 50 venues they plan to tour again in 2025 with a larger audience with an unknown date.

Childish Gambino Pharos- Donald Glover otherwise known as Childish Gambino is a popular musician and actor who used AR as a marketing tool, he created an app called Pharos that released alongside his album "Awaken, my love!" it transported his fans into a 12 minute experience where they were front row at one of his performances, while the first half of the experience was a 360 video of his live performance that had animated characted floating around in the air, the second half then took you to an imaginary fantasy world where he continued performing his songs surrounded by cartoon animations whose movement was recorded by donald glover himself, he had recorded and animated his body into this experience

Here is one of the songs performed in the first half of the Pharos experience: https://youtu.be/V1XXFOYKTdY?si=MrXENAS1URjAI1go

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VR, AR and AI- As we have already seen through some of my examples AR has already began to be integrated with theatre, Briar and Rose being one of the most prominent examples of AR and Smile being one for VR.

I believe that as AR and VR continues to evolve we will begin to see more performances that showcase this emering technology. While there are many pros and cons to this technology, I think that it is inevitable, as we saw within the modern world technology continues to grow and will eventually take over, we saw this happen with AI as when it was first created it wasn't as used compared to now how its one of the most prominent things online, there are multiple apps that have their own AI such as X having Grok and Snapchat having Snapchat AI.

In terms of musical theatre I think there are many contemporary shows that would benefit from this technology but I also think its dependant on genre, fictional shows such as Aladdin, Frozen, Lion king and others what feature fantasy worlds would benefit more from this, I believe it would be easier to create special effects that can elevate the way the audience would experience the show.

Many people would argue that it would create less jobs as things would all be computerised, but if contemporary musical theatre shows were to take the same approach as Briar and Rose, it would still require live actors and the people who create the animations we would see through headsets. I also believe that this approach to creating musicals would bring in different audience members, people from the gaming communities where VR and AR technology is more commonly used might feel encourage to come watch these shows as they are familiar with the equipment used.

Using this animation technology would also lead to bigger concepts, as there are fewer limits to what you can show since most of it would be digitalised. With a normal staged performance set has its limits due to budget or space available, if you were to digitalise this creative element then you would have a lot more creative freedom.

As for AI, it can be used for the creation of musicals, as AI collects data from preexisting products, if you were for example creating a character but hit a block in its development, AI could search its database and find you key elements in character creation such as the way they speak, any traits they have etc. It can even be used to create images which could be useful for concepts of costumes or set design.

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Pros- While the possibilities that AR and VR have are continuously growing, in the modern day it has been used for many great things for example there is a clinical trial called BEARS that is aiming to help children with bilateral cochlear implants to hear better through VR and games, the biggest complaint from younger people with these implants is difficulty with understanding where audio comes from so this trial helps train their brains through VR games to battle this issue. There is also the company I previously mentioned Acesight which is helping those with visual impairments through VR, Already this technology is helping with the medical industry.

In terms of theatre, AR and VR is becoming an integral part in immersive theatre, this technology reaches new audiences as I mentioned before such as those from the gaming community.

Its an amazing piece of equipment for those with accessibility issues, not everyone can go out to a theatre to watch a show, whether that's due to a physical issue or otherwise. Being able to continue being part of the theatre community from the comfort of your home also helps with bringing in newer audiences. There could be people in the older generation who are now unable to travel to the theatre, and so being able to purchase a headset and watch from home is an easier solution. While headsets are expensive, it is also a one time purchase, which makes it cost-effective for frequent theatre goers as planning a day out to watch a show can be expensive due to food and travel.

Cons- The biggest issues with this emerging technology is financially it requires a lot both for the manufacturing and for the customers who wish to use it, one of the shows I mentioned called Smile requires you to buy your own headset on top of the performance itself, while you can find cheap headset at second handed price they would be lacking in quality.

Manufacturing headsets is also expensive, for reference a meta quest 3 which is amazing in quality costs roughly £450 to make, the smallest theatre on the west end can hold up to 350 people so if you were to put on a VR show in that theatre it would cost £157,500 to make a headset for each viewer, on top of that the application required to show the performance would cost money to make and to hire workers to create. The materials to make these headsets in good quality would also be expensive, altogether it would be a big financial risk as the technology could potentially glitch or falter. Not to mention that this would affect the prices of tickets for the customers so they can continue making these types of shows and given the current economic state its not something we would see very soon.

One of the main concerns with AI is the effect it has on environment, AI requires a lot of electricity which then increases the carbon dioxide emissions. AI data centers also require lots of water to make and to cool the electrical units, its said that globally AI data centers will soon be using more than 6 times the amount of water that Denmark uses, keep in mind Denmark has a population of around 6 million people

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BannerFlow, (2016). How Pokemon GO and Augmented Reality are changing marketing. [blog] https://www.bannerflow.com/blog/pokemon-go-augmented-reality-changing-marketing [Accessed 16 April 2025]

Pollow D, (2023) Now you can see Dundee Rep’s Smile as a virtual reality experience. The Courier, 10 February Available from https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/entertainment/4127947/smile-dundee-rep/ [Accessed 16 April 2025]

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How Pokemon GO and Augmented Reality are changing marketing | Bannerflow

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Pokemon GO and Augmented Reality are influencing the marketing industry in a many ways, read this article and find out how.