Eva Quantica 2020
Eva Quantica is a virtual reality dance piece created by artist Maf’j Alvarez about female identity in a lockdown bubble – a dreamlike, painterly open world to explore Eve and her multiple selves.
Created by Maf’j Alvarez. Commissioned by the National Gallery, London, as part of National Gallery X and Audience Labs at the Royal Opera House in March 2021 Supported by King’s College London Inspiration from Crivelli’s Gardens, by Paula Rego and using the motion capture data of Eve, choreographed by Kristen McNally
How to experience Eva Quantica VR
*** Turkey and Syria Fundraiser 11th Feb 2023***
Saturday 11th Feb 2-5pm
Brighton Unitarian Church steps
In this special shortened fundraising version of Eva Quantica,
Brighton based digital artist Maf’j Alvarez brings us a 5 minute virtual
reality experience of seeing activity unfolding as if in slow motion.
£10 Adult
£5 child
Make the donations directly to Ahbap, Red Cross or Oxfam and show a proof of donation to volunteers to access the VR experience.
Brighton Festival 22 Dates
- 20 May 2022 | Loading Bar | 4pm – 9:30pm | FREE – Drop in
- 21 & 22 May 2022 | The Riwaq | 12pm – 6pm | FREE – Drop in
- 21 & 22 May 2022 | Lighthouse | 11:30am – 5:30pm | £5 – booking required
- Sat 21 May 2022 | Friends Meeting House | 10:30am – 4:30pm | £5 – booking required
- Sun 22 May 2022 | Friends Meeting House | 14:30am – 5:30pm | £5 – booking required
- 21 & 22 May 2022, Brighton Festival | Lighthouse | 11:30am – 5:30pm | £5 – booking required
You can keep up to date with photos and videos on Instagram @eva_quantica
Past Events
- 29 October to 7th November 2021, Brighton Digital Festival
- Saturdays 22 May to The Rosehill, Brighton | Free
Download onto Oculus Quest
Currently only available for the Oculus Quest for free, you can sideload the app via Sidequest:
Download Eva Quantica for the Oculus Quest
About Eva Quantica
Press release:
Maf’j Alvarez imagines entering a surrealist painting using VR in her piece Eva Quantica, a dreamlike bubble of lockdown Brighton as an open world to explore the various simultaneous dancing selves of Eve. Hands for hills, a cupcake pavilion, platforms, statues, depictions of people and the glowing life-force surging through everything. Maf’j’s piece is about female power, patriarchy, immigration, tradition and obligation. She explores technology as an agent of power for women and its consequences and wants to challenge the rules that always apply.
The commission is experimental and explores embodiment with motion capture, she says “As a recently divorced mother of two teenage sons I am also transitioning with a new set of perspectives and tools as I question my own gender and sexuality. My ability to be creatively, financially and technologically independent is both liberating and frightening due to the obligation like Eve, to do something with it that is meaningful and impactful whilst nourishing and protecting myself and my family”
Mae (left), Shae(middle) and Prof(right) in the tech kitchen
Related links:
- Listen to an interview about Eva Quantica and Brighton Festival by Nikki Bedi on BBC World Service
- Read article about Eva Quantica by Kate Bowie in Latest
- Read a review of ‘Eva Quantica’ by Gabrielle de la Puente of The White Pube
- Read on Academia: Maf’j Alvarez – Female digital artists and their relationship with code
- Watch on Vimeo: Mafj Alvarez – Women digital artists, and their relationship with code
The Rules Do Not Apply | National Gallery
Credits
Eva Quantica is has been ideated, designed and technically produced by Maf’j Alvarez in Unity3d and Blender with rigging through Mixamo. Featuring music from Bunty and The Moulettes with additional sound design by Anna Bertmark at Attic Sounds.
Special thanks goes to Andy Baker and Paul Hayes for their technical support, training and patience with learning to be more logical and code better in C#. Thanks to Chris Chowen at The Fusebox for helping test out the mocap suit, and Laura Loonstein for her support and inspiration. I believe in sharing both assets and expertise so that licencing is not a barrier to learning or making – since there are already so many barriers to face. I try to use public domain and Creative Commons licenced assets as well as free and open source tools wherever possible and made a conscious choice to build for a VR hardware device that could be affordable (£300) and wireless so that more people and more organisations could afford to show this work in more diverse scenarios such as shopping centres, pubs, social centres, waiting rooms, schools as well as art galleries, museums, libraries, art and film festivals. If you would like to collaborate with me or want to show this work, please get in touch at mafj@rootinteractive.com
Music:
- ‘Way out’ by Bunty – courtesy of Rosehill Records
- ‘We are here’ by Bunty – courtesy of Rosehill Records
- ‘Attention pt.2 (A Cappella) featuring Falle Nioke – by Hannah Moule and The Moulettes – courtesy of the artist
- ‘Ideolect pt.4 (A Cappella) – by Hannah Moule and The Moulettes – courtesy of the artist
- ‘Words pt.1 (A Cappella) by Hannah Moule and The Moulettes – courtesy of the artist
- ‘Elastic Band pt 3 (Horns & Woodwind) by Hannah Moule and The Moulettes – courtesy of the artist
- ‘Snowfall’ by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au
- ‘An (Second)’ by So I’m An Islander – https://soimanislander.bandcamp.com | Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
Character models:
Eve
- Mae: based on female girl by Sabesh Kumar under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Prof: based on Professer Simms by Ric.Fuentez under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Shae: based on Shae from mixamo.com
Other dancers
- Sophie: based on Sophie from mixamo.com
- James: based on James from mixamo.com
- Remy statue: based on Remy from mixamo.com
- Sergio: based on Old angry shaved grandfather by GoldGryphon under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
Art assets
Sadly many assets have been downloaded from Google Poly which will be permanently shut down on 30th April 2021. Good news is that Andy Baker and a dedicated team of people are scooping out the assets into an open source archive of objects that will be available soon. I will upload my adapted versions of these assets below into a collection in Sketchfab like this one for Lina Belina
- Ground: The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch under Public Domain Licence
- Tech kitchen house: Adapted from My Kitchen by BJP Studio under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Tower block: Adapted from Stairailing_M12 by BJP Studio under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Bathtub: Bathtub by TileViz Studio under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Shower head: Shower head by Poly by Google under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Boat: Canoe by Poly by Google under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Cat in house: Adapted from Cat by Poly by Google under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Fish: Goldfish by Poly by Google under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Chair: The Director’s chair by Oded Falik under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Laptop: Laptop by Poly by Google under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Bookshelf: Bookshelf by Poly by Google under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Cardboard box: Cardboard Box by Agustin Honnun under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- VR headset: Adapted from VR Headset by Poly by Google under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- West pier ribcage: Adapted from Skeleton Rig by Creative Machine under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Park cup: Cup of coffee by Poly by Google under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Park Bench: Park bench by Samantha OwO under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Teal bench: Bench by Danny Bitman under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Computer mouse: Computer mouse by Poly by Google under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Cupcake Brighton Pavilion: Adapted from Cupcake by Greta.M
- Playground dancing legs: Adapted from Woman in heels by Nonny under CC-BY Create Commons Licence
- Well, Tree, maze and Fern plants: Adapted from Smartwell by Botond Bencsik under CC-BY Create Commons Licence