Priming, sense-making and help: Analysis of player behaviour in an immersive theatrical experience

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Reid, Josephine, Hull, Richard, Clayton, Ben, Porter, Gary and Stenton, Phil (2010) Priming, sense-making and help: Analysis of player behaviour in an immersive theatrical experience. Pervasive and Mobile Computing, 6 (5). pp. 499-511. ISSN 15741192

Abstract / Summary

This paper describes research on narratives delivered through instrumented spaces. Two promenade theatre-style productions were produced. The first: a pilot experiment in collaboration with Punchdrunk took the form a sensor-driven narrative in a Victorian room: The Sensory Symptom (2008) http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/project/the-sensory-symptom The second, The Last Will, was a larger 6 room experience ‘performed’ for a public audience from Oct 25th-November 2nd 2009 at Brick Lane. The narrative was more complex. A collaboration with Punchdrunk, Hide & Seek and Seeper, it explored not only the interactions with digitally augmented physical objects (as in Sensory Symptom) but also interactions across virtual and real representations of the setting.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: 10.1016/j.pmcj.2009.07.012
Additional Information: My team’s role in both experiments was the co-design of the experiences, production and evaluation of the instrumented spaces and audience reaction analysis. My role covered all these aspects but the technology build. Descriptions of the work can be found at: http://www.pmstudio.co.uk/news/2008/11/13/last-will-and-testament-a-prototype-mite, http://hideandseek.net/projects/last-will/. The work explores the role and design of instrumented spaces for theatre, examining the design considerations that facilitate the mental models audience members must construct to engage with narratives and the expectations implicit in sensor-driven spaces. A US patent (Stenton et al US 8025573) was granted in 2011 covering one aspect of the interaction across virtual and physical worlds. (See "Physical representational objects with digital memory and methods of manufacture and use thereof"). The patent describes a means for supporting a two-way off-line interactions between physical objects and virtual worlds. The patent pre-dates Disney’s ‘Infinity’ and Activision’s ‘Skylanders’ products that introduce only one-way relationships between characters and digital worlds.
ISSN: 15741192
Depositing User: Phil Stenton
Date Deposited: 06 Dec 2013 14:20
Last Modified: 13 Oct 2017 16:03
URI: https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/352
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