18 > 19.11.2021 | Celtic Myths and Folklores in the English Speaking World seminar | Université de Toulon (Fr)

The conference will present the “Am Domhan” project by Gaëtan Le Coarer, currently carrying out his Pépinières MAP (Mobility in Art Process) 2021 residency at Transcultures. Participants and spectators wishing to do so will be able to test a virtual reality prototype immersing them in a Celtic myth. This experience will take place Thursday and Friday at the end of the day. The colloquium will end with a round table which will allow the various speakers to exchange their ideas and discuss new scientific perspectives of dissemination, creation, and innovation around Celtic myths and folklore, especially for the general public.

Other | World
In light of an adaptation of an Irish legend in virtual reality
Keynote Gaëtan Le Coarer & Noémie Beck

An Domhan is a device in creation research2 and a proven experience in virtual and augmented reality of the legend The tragic death of the Tuireann  children 3. In this legend, a character named Brian (deity from the Tuatha Dé Danann) kills the father of Lugh (major deity of the Tuatha Dé Danann). The latter then decides to take revenge and sends Brian on a quest for redemption for which he must bring back magical objects to Lugh in order to prepare him for future battles. In the legend, Lugh’s strategy is actually more Machiavellian. If the latter foresees the trials that Brian must face, he interferes throughout his quest in order to kill him or have him killed.

Respecting the plot, An Domhan  is primarily inspired by the narrative architecture proposed in the legend. We take up the different historical elements and the way they are treated, such as the quests or the manifestations and shenanigans of Lugh to which we add an interpretation and an artistic practice (drawing). The project is thus implemented through three major poles, the legend, the device, and the drawing. Using a research-creation methodology, we question our practice and we try to bring the various concepts developed (adaptation, the passage between fictional spaces, the depth of the narrative) into creation. For example, we will see in detail, beyond fiction, what is the place of the scenario and how it acts in the experience of the AN DOMHAN project.

As part of the colloquium on Celtic Myths and Folklores4, we will first present the script production process of the An Domhan project, and how we have adapted the story, the fabula in the project. The concept of the “Other-World” described in the appendix to the translation of the legend (and translated by Guyonvarc’h) is a central point on which we will rely. The Other World is a scriptwriting freedom put in place in the legend allowing the passage from space to space, from world to world. It is thus interesting to compare VR (virtual reality) and XR (mixed reality) by the questioning that it raises about the input and the interface. A world that can only be exploited by the narrative and spatial potential set up in the device. This (magical) world making an interface between the land of Ireland and foreign lands, between the characters, between fiction and script, is hidden in the text. We will try to highlight it through images from the project and concepts from the adaptation of the legend. This communication follows on from a previous article entitled The Proven Narration: Shedding Light on an Interference Model as a Narrative System5, written as part of the Art & Sensitive Cartographies colloquium. We will take up the idea that this light exposes events, that it can be worked in different ways and can even be interfered with.

In addition, we will draw on Anglo-Saxon references such as Yeats, or Beckett, authors of Irish origin, with whom we will try to evoke elements of analysis to be compared to the narration adapted from the legend as well as the system and the spaces. exposed through the drawings and the device itself.

AN DOMHAN is a device developed as part of an interdisciplinary project of the LLSETI laboratory of the University of Savoie Mont Blanc. Several actors are involved in this project. Noémie Beck, lecturer in British and Irish Civilization is the project sponsor, Ghislaine Chabert HDR lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences and Marc Veyrat HDR lecturer in Art Sciences supervise the project. Charlène Ibos, student in Digital Creation Master is in charge of modeling and design, and finally Gaëtan Le Coarer, doctoral student in Information and Communication Sciences and Art Sciences within the LLSETI Laboratory, is responsible for scripting, design and realization of the project.

1 Consonance à l’Outre-Noir by Pierre Soulages, and use of the term “Autre-Monde”, see Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc’h, Textes mythologiques irlandais (Rennes: Ogam-Celticum, 1980), p 138.
2 An Domhan is developed as part of Gaëtan Le Coarer’ academic research entitled Comic and Mixed Reality thesis towards new narrative spaces.
3 Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc’h,  Textes mythologiques irlandais(Rennes: Ogam-Celticum, 1980).
4 source LLSETI
5. Forthcoming.