Making 360 Art Accessible for all and using tech in multi media experiences (Part 3)

Blog 3: Making 360 Art Accessible

When people hear about 360° video, they often imagine high-end VR headsets and gaming setups. That can feel intimidating, as though immersive art is only for those with the latest technology. But accessibility is at the heart of my practice. I want this work to be open to anyone — whether you’re a dancer with a phone, a listener with headphones, or a curious viewer with nothing more than a laptop.

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Beyond the Headset

Yes, VR headsets are incredible. They give you the sensation of standing inside a landscape, of turning your head and stepping into another world. But they’re not the only way:

📱 On your phone — YouTube and other platforms let you swipe and drag across 360° videos with a fingertip. Tilt your phone, and the view tilts with you.

💻 On a laptop or desktop — You can click and drag to explore, like holding a digital camera that looks around.

📺 On a flat 2D screen — Even without interactivity, 360° content can be framed in traditional video form, so you still experience the art, if not the full immersion.

The point is: no one is excluded.

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Layering the Experience

My dance sequences are filmed in 2D, which means they can be enjoyed on any screen. The 360° landscapes provide another layer — immersive for those who want to step inside, but not required.

Think of it like music: you can listen to a symphony on a concert stage, or you can play it on your headphones while walking to work. The music doesn’t lose its power — it simply adapts to the context.

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Why Accessibility Matters

Art should not be a gated garden. In dance, music, and immersive landscapes, accessibility isn’t just about devices — it’s about philosophy. It’s about keeping doors open, not closed.

By designing my practice for multiple platforms, I’m not diluting the work. I’m enriching it, creating multiple ways in. Each audience member chooses their own level of immersion:

• The full headset experience.

• The interactive phone or desktop version.

• The traditional 2D dance films.

All of them valid. All of them part of the art.

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What’s Next?

In my final post of this series, I’ll look ahead to the future of experimental fusion: how dance, music, and 360° landscapes might evolve as technology changes, and how limitations today could spark whole new art forms tomorrow.

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👉 This is Part 3 of my experimental art journey in 360. Read Part 1 https://www.iservalan.com/2025/08/dancing-with-landscapes-my-first-steps.html and Part 2 https://www.iservalan.com/2025/08/when-2d-dance-meets-360-landscapes-part.html. Stay tuned for Part 4: The Future of Fusion. https://www.iservalan.com/2025/08/the-future-of-fusion-where-multi-media.html

When 2D Dance Meets 360° Landscapes (Part 2)

Dance, Music, Visual, and Sound Fusion, Blog 2: When 2D Dance Meets 360° Landscapes

In my last post, I introduced my experimental journey into 360 art — a fusion of music, immersive landscapes, and dance. Today I want to dig into one of the key creative questions:

👉 How can a 2D dance performance live inside a 360° world?

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The Challenge of Two Dimensions in a Spherical World

When we watch a dance on stage or on film, we are used to a framed experience. The proscenium arch, the cinema screen, or even a YouTube window all tell us: this is the space of performance.

But in 360, there is no frame. The audience is surrounded, free to look wherever they like. This raises an intriguing puzzle:

• How do you present choreography that relies on focus and direction inside an environment where attention can wander?

• How do you place a 2D filmed dancer inside a 360° world without breaking the illusion?

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Creative Possibilities

Rather than seeing this as a problem, I’ve started to view it as a new stagecraft. Some possibilities include:

🎥 Overlay projection — placing a 2D dancer as if they are projected inside the spherical environment, much like a ghostly figure on a landscape.

📱 Dual-screen experience — one screen immerses you in the 360° environment, while another device shows the dance in 2D. You experience both simultaneously, almost like holding a choreography in your hands while standing inside its set.

🩰 Choreography as contrast — embracing the difference: the fixed rectangular frame of the dancer against the endless fluidity of the 360° world. Instead of hiding the seam, highlighting it.

🎶 Music as the bridge — sound unites the two worlds. My compositions can weave between the immersive environment and the 2D dance, so the audience feels continuity even when the visual space shifts.

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Lessons from Stage and Cinema

This isn’t entirely new. In theatre, directors have long experimented with staging that breaks the proscenium — actors appearing in aisles, or projections extending the set. In cinema, split screens and overlays play with perspective.

What 360 offers is the chance to take these ideas further, giving the audience agency to decide where to look, while the music and choreography guide their experience.

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Why Limitations Can Spark Creativity

If my dancers cannot yet exist in 360 space as volumetric figures, then the very tension between 2D and 360 becomes the art. Constraint is often the mother of invention.

Just as in ballet, where strict form produces beauty, or in music composition, where rules of harmony give structure, the limitations of 360 technology might lead to something original — a hybrid art form that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

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What’s Next?

In my next post, I’ll explore the question of accessibility: how people without VR headsets or multiple screens can still experience this work, and why keeping the door open to all audiences matters so deeply to me.

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👉 This is Part 2 of my experimental art journey in 360. Read Part 1 https://www.iservalan.com/2025/08/dancing-with-landscapes-my-first-steps.html and stay tuned for Part 3, where I’ll focus on accessibility and inclusivity in immersive art.

Part 3 https://www.iservalan.com/2025/08/making-360-art-accessible-for-all-and.html

Dancing with Landscapes: My First Steps into 360 Art (Part One)

Dancing with Landscapes: My First Steps into 360 Art

I’ve just taken my first classes with the Rambert Dance Company, exploring contemporary fusion, ballet, and even Bollywood movement. What surprised me most was how close this felt to my experience in music composition. Both disciplines start with structure, rhythm, and discipline — but it’s the moments of freedom, the unexpected improvisations, that create something alive.

Now I’m taking those ideas into a new experimental form: fusing dance, music, and immersive 360° landscapes.

Why 360?

Most people know 360 technology from gaming, VR headsets, or maybe museum tours. But at its heart, 360 isn’t about gadgets — it’s about perspective. Imagine standing inside a landscape rather than looking at it framed in a rectangle. You can turn your head and choose where to focus.

For me, this opens up new possibilities:

• My music can envelop the listener.

• My landscapes become immersive environments rather than backgrounds.

• My dance can be placed in dialogue with the space, sometimes framed in 2D, sometimes appearing inside the sphere.

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Dance and Music as Parallel Practices

When I practice cello or piano, I often begin with small, repetitive movements — scales, exercises, fragments. In dance, it is much the same: a plié, a turn, a shift of weight. These fragments grow into phrases, which grow into complete works.

Whether I’m composing music, learning a ballet sequence, or improvising in a 360 landscape, I’m engaging with the same process:

• Structure (form, discipline, rhythm)

• Expression (tone, gesture, dynamics)

• Exploration (what happens if…?)

It feels like one continuous practice, expressed through different mediums.

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Accessibility Matters

I don’t expect everyone to own a VR headset. That’s why my work will always have multiple entry points:

• On YouTube, you can explore 360 on your phone or computer by dragging the screen.

• The dance sequences will be presented in 2D as well, either as overlays or separate films.

• In future, I’m curious about two-screen experiences: imagine holding your phone for dance while being immersed in the 360 landscape on another device.

This way, the work remains open to all — a philosophy that feels important in a world where technology can sometimes exclude as much as it inspires.

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What’s Next?

This is just the beginning. In my next post, I’ll explore the challenge of combining 2D dance with 360° landscapes — and why limitations can actually spark creativity.

For now, I invite you to think of 360 not as a tech gimmick, but as a new stage, a new canvas, and a new kind of instrument. One where dance, music, and environment can finally move as one.

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👉 This is Part 1 of my experimental art journey in 360. Follow along for Part 2, where I’ll dive deeper into the fusion of 2D and immersive movement.

https://www.iservalan.com/2025/08/when-2d-dance-meets-360-landscapes-part.html

Part 3 https://www.iservalan.com/2025/08/making-360-art-accessible-for-all-and.html