Interview with Blast Theory – narrative, interaction and performance

Interview with Blast Theory, Wellington Road, Brighton, January 2012

Blast Theory is renowned internationally as one of the most adventurous artists’ groups using interactive media.

In this interview Blast Theory – Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj – discuss a selection of projects created over the last twenty years including, Fixing Point (2011), Machine to See With (2010), Ivy4Evr (2010), Ulrike and Eamon Compliant (2009), I Like Frank (2004), Uncle Roy All Around You (2003), Desert Rain (1999) and Stampede (1994). Relationships between narrative, interaction and performance, dialogue as a structuring device, game design and methods of development are considered.

Funded by The Teaching & Learning Directorate, Plymouth University (2011-12) www.expandednarrative.org

ICIDS2015 The Lost Index: NATMUS, National Museum of Denmark & Dieselhouse Museum, Copenhagen

The locative narrative The Lost Index: NATMUS was featured at 8th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling in Copenhagen.

The Lost Index: NATMUS, photo James Brocklehurst

Audio guides and games have long been staple modes of interpretation in museums. The medium of locative narrative, defined here as participatory site-specific story experiences that are heard on headphones, offers alternative modes of engagement with archives and collections where the visitor becomes a participant in an unfolding drama. The confluence of the existent world and narrative representations is an often-reported feature of “mixed reality” [1] experiences [2] [3] [4].

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The Lost Index: No.2 – The Turning, App Launch 18 October

The Lost Index: No.2 – The Turning

Download from the iTunes store

A museum has been infiltrated by secret enemy forces. A complete index has disappeared. Many objects can no longer be identified or verified. Stability has been disrupted. There are serious consequences that extend beyond the museum. Time is running out. Can you avoid danger and help intelligence forces stop ‘The Turning’, before it is too late?

Using iBeacon technology, this app asks one or multiple players to navigate through the museum against the clock and restore the index whilst avoiding enemy agents.

The Turning uses binaural sound and techniques from hypnotic induction in conjunction with real-world artefacts to create imaginary experiences.

This is the second in a series of The Lost Index smartphone games created by Trulyimagined for Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery that utilise perceptual illusions to create playable imaginative story-worlds.

Come and play at the app launch on 18th October 2014 at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery 10.00 -5.30pm

trulyimagined

Bespoke immersive storyworlds that are experienced in real-world locations using a mobile phone and your imagination.

Trulyimagined create immersive storyworlds that participants can step inside. These bespoke virtual locations are experienced within public buildings or outside in gardens, parks and urban spaces, using participants’ own smartphones to affect perceptual illusions and stimulate the imagination.

narrative to create immersive experiences
game mechanisms to produce engaging interaction
spatial sound to create illusions and simulate virtual locations

Trulyimagined work with heritage sites, museums and commercial enterprises to develop new ways to engage audiences, creating immersive narrative experiences that inspire and inform. We welcome commissions from historical sites, museums, theatres, public spaces and the commercial sector. We also develop academic research projects.

Contact:

Emma Whittaker: emma.whittaker [at] plymouth.ac.uk

James Brocklehurst: james.brocklehurst [at] plymouth.ac.uk

www.trulyimagined.org

Seth Kriebel ‘The Unbuilt Room: Scratch Quartet – Part 1’

The Unbuilt Room: Scratch Quartet – Part 1

At the Battersea Arts Centre, Friday 5th Sept, 9pm, pay what you can.

“Small groups of players wander through rooms real and imagined in a collaborative act of memory to create imagined, immersive theatre. ”

And at The British Library new edition of the Unbuilt Room, written to accompany the BL’s World War One exhibition Enduring War: Grief, Grit and Humour.

The British Library, Tuesday 16 Sept from 6pm.

“The Unbuilt Room is a performance-game exploring histories and memories of World War One. Written to accompany the invaluable digital resource created from the Europeana 1914-1918 project and the exhibition Enduring War: Grief, Grit and Humour at the Folio Society Gallery of the British Library, players experience objects from the collection in a new way, navigating poetry, patriotism and doomed youth in a verbal maze. Inspired by early text-adventure computer games and Alan Turing’s famous test, The Unbuilt Room combines theatre and choose-your-own-adventure stories to form a live game of interactive fiction. Small groups of players work together to explore an imagined landscape… without leaving their seats.”

More info at www.unbuiltroom.com/news

Video: http://www.unbuiltroom.com/video

Fascinate Conference, Call for Submissions

FASCINATE 2014

27-31 August : Falmouth – Cornwall – England

Call for Submissions Deadline 19 May 2014

FASCINATE is an interdisciplinary conference investigating the current and future applications of ubiquitous computing technologies in visual and performance arts, games, architecture, craft, design and interactive media.

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Research Assistant Post: Augmenting Impact with Social Media

£21,383 to £24,766 per annum

Fixed-term for 13 months, 35 hours a week

Falmouth University is seeking a Research Assistant to support delivery of the European Social Fund (ESF) Research project, Augmenting Impact with Social Media, which aims to explore and develop a social media platform to effectively understand, document and develop the long-term impact of performance work that takes place outside the traditional context and conventions of the theatre space. The project will explore and develop this platform in partnership with ‘Wildworks Theatre’, renowned for their work in found landscapes and for performances made with host communities from which they draw their meaning.

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PhD Studentships in Participative Mixed Reality Gaming

Prestigious Marie Curie CogNovo Studentships

Project No.9 Participative mixed reality gaming

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Discount for Publish! New adventures in innovation

Discount for Publish! New adventures in innovation
Tuesday 24 September 2013 at St Brides, London

Media Futures offers you a 20% discount on early booking tickets for its Publish! New adventures in innovation a day of discussion and demonstration that showcases cutting edge prototypes in a changing book publishing industry. Publish! offers you a chance to take part in a significant debate, interact with the creators of some the latest experiments in the field, and meet potential collaborators.

Speakers include: Diana Stepner, Head of Future Technologies, Pearson; Fionnuala Duggan, Managing Director for International, CourseSmart; James Huggins, Chief Executive, Me Books; Bill Thompson, Head of Partnership Development, BBC Archives; George Walkley, Head of Digital, Hachette UK; and Clare Reddington, REACT Hub and director of iShed and The Pervasive Media Studio.

Early booking ends when tickets are sold out, or by Wednesday 18 September, and go up from £75 to £100 (individual) and £125 to £175 (corporate).

Use this discount code by Sunday 15 September: PublishDisc20

For further information and to book, please visit: http://www.mediafutures.org.uk/2013/

The Expanded Narrative Symposium 2013, 1-3 November

Date of Symposium:

2 November 2013

Additional Symposium Events and Performances:

1 – 2 November

Description:

The Expanded Narrative Symposium explores the multidisciplinary field of interactive narrative that reconfigures the form and expands the experience of storytelling. The reader, relocated, becomes a player, co-author or participant. How can we design, develop and experience locative sound, participatory theatre, pervasive and mobile games, flash fiction and works yet to be defined? Through the consideration of these questions, the symposium aims to promote knowledge exchange and collaboration between practitioners from the arts, academia and the creative industries.

The symposium’s interconnected themes of story, sound, performance, games and space reflect the interdisciplinary nature of Expanded Narrative, examined by leading names.

Find out more on the symposium webpage

Book Here

The symposium is supported by the EU project VIVID in conjunction with the School of Art & Design Southampton Solent University, LiteratureWorks, Peninsula Arts, Plymouth University Faculty of Arts Teaching & Learning, The School of Art and Media, MADr and The School of Humanities and Performing Arts.

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