Michael Morran

In the Fall of 2020, Michael Morran was a student in the New York University Lab and presented a concept for live performance using smart home devices. He attended early Jettison rehearsals and submitted a proposal to OnBoardXR: Below Deck to adapt his live stage show, Smart Home, for web-based virtual reality.

Smart Home

In Michael’s on-site staged production of Smart Home, RGB lights responded to his voice levels in a microphone using Internet of things and a raspberry pi. Michael wanted to explore if he could create the same effect in virtual reality where microphone input would influence the colored lighting of the 3d environment.

Michael worked with OnBoardXR community developers Roman Miletitch, Clemence Debaig and David Gochfeld for guidance on how to Dev With Us and the early cue system. Michael’s explorations revealed it was possible to spawn a differently colored light objects in the virtual Room far above or below the audience and use his microphone input to locomote the light object along the Y-axis, thus raising and lowering the light to simulate color changes. Michael also shared his 2D webcam feed in front of the audience so they could observe his real-world performance with the microphone. The audience observed Michael talking and breathing in the real world to influence the lighting in the virtual space.

Technical Direction

In October of 2021, Michael took over the role(s) of Technical Director and Stage Manager for OnBoardXR: Mythos & Monsters, OnBoardXR: Port of Registry and Non-Player Character seeking to expand and stablize the cue system and protocol for artists without a technical background to communicate and create custom theatrical cues in virtual reality.