The Expanding Experience of Ana Carolina Estarita’s Creations

Among the many lessons the world learned from the pandemic was that entertainment is a key component of our mental health. Equally proven, the necessary restrictions of scenarios like Covid 19 require the creation of this entertainment to evolve. Immersive Media Expert Ana Carolina Estarita is on the cusp of these quickly evolving changes and the benefits that this type of approach offers.

What she has designed and manifested for eclectic productions in present times allows a glimpse of what will certainly be a common trend in the future. Quite simply put, it takes skill but it also takes vision. Implementation and conception are equal parts of the genius that is Ana’s standard mode and a major reason why so many progressive artists and productions in the entertainment mecca that is Los Angeles have enlisted her.

A prime example of a pivot that can be achieved in a pandemic situation through the talent of someone like Ana is “Starcast” by LA based Vibration Group. This Transmedia Immersive performance and Alternate Reality Sci Fi Opera reimagined itself when the Covid lockdown occurred. The message of Starcast could not have been more timely as it speculated on modes of cultural survival and preservation in an isolated dystopian future.

While she was part of the original design of the production (pre-pandemic), Ana was crucial in designing the alternative remote experience that maintained the participative elements of the original version. Key to empowering this were two elements; the development of a Virtual Reality Spa and the Intergalactic Open Source Library. For participants using VR, the story behind was that they were seeing a virtual reality spa that the crew of the ship would use to enjoy their imagined and enhanced AI version of the earth.

This gave the participants some insight into the ethos and interest of the crew. The Intergalactic Open Source Library is best described as a sandbox where participants could access the lore and backstory to what was happening in the Opera. Ana’s technical skill and vision allowed this production to endure throughout the lockdown during a time when all of Hollywood was searching for such a solution.

The diversity and challenges of working on each new project is an aspect which attracts Ana. One day she’s working with global brand Nike (with her design of an AR campaign titled “Nike Race the Pace”) and the next she’s helping Anna Luisa Petrisko create solutions for a small touring project titled “All Time Stop Now.” Conceived of by Ms. Petrisko when she was living in a Buddhist monastery in Myanmar during the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic, “All Time Stop Now” is a two-person performance of music and visuals interacting in real-time with the utilization of Microsoft Kinect which tracks their movements.

The content of the music and the visuals, as well as the performance of the dancers, is the channel used to transmit the themes of this experimental opera. The performance features Filipino music and dancing. As the lead Creative Technologist and Projection Mapping Artist of “All Time Stop Now”, it was Ana’s responsibility to create synergy between the live music and video components.

She describes, “The performers have a projection behind them and in front of them there’s a Microsoft Kinect that tracks their movement. The movement of the participants is then used to modify the real time video being projected behind them. The content of the music and the visuals, as well as the performance of the dancers is the channel we use to transmit the themes of the opera.” Ana’s contributions to the overall tone of “All Time Stop Now” are nothing short of remarkable as they allow those who attend to immerse themselves in a contemplative state of stillness, aware of their own relationship to impermanency and the expanse of space. This visual and sonic state is transformative.

Commissioned by Loyola Marymount University to create an interactive immersive installation paying tribute to the twentieth anniversary of their School of Film and Television Program, Ana designed “Epigraph of a Vision”, a piece ultimately presented in three different installments. Participants found themselves amid different projections which could at times reveal information based on their movements. Depending on the number of participants involved, the projection might react at different speeds.

The message of the installation was that the people are the true catalyst of the University’s program, and thus the component which effects and alters their interaction with the installation. A celebration of what academia can provide to the art of entertainment, “Epigraph of a Vision” is inspiring in both message and in exhibition. As designer of this marvelous installation, Ana fascinated audiences with her creation which juxtaposed different time spaces in an informative manners. She relates, “I wanted to create an exhibit in which the active participation of the visitor would be the trigger to see time pass, and to find ways of connecting past and future.”

Pushing the possibilities with vision as her guide, Ana Carolina Estarita hopes to inspire. She celebrates the dreamers with her own creative concepts. This idea has long been her Northstar as she recalls, “I’d say since I was a child I’d love full encompassing environments. Like all kids, I liked pillow forts and building my own structures. I think that that fascination for spaces in which the rules of reality work in a different way never left me. When I was eighteen-years-old in Colombia, I went to an immersive concert of a very famous piece called ‘Canto Ostinato’ by Simeon ten Holt.”

“The unique thing about this performance is that it was in a courtyard with projections all over the windows, and there were small devices all over the courtyard that could be used to ‘direct’ the piece. You could move something to the right to make it go faster. Or something up and down to make it change its pitch. And I remember being, not only absolutely awestruck with experience, but also I was so obsessed. I wanted to know how something like that was possible. Years later, I was able to join the immersive group that actually performed that piece and worked with them for many years. Kickstarting my career”

Ana Carolina Estarita has taken her part in the lineage of visionaries who inspire. Her creations lead us to be curious about ourselves and our world.

Writer: Calvin Hoone