Invisible Belfast: Flat Ontologies and Remediations of the Post-Conflict City

Barrios-O'Neill, Danielle and Hook, Alan (2021) Invisible Belfast: Flat Ontologies and Remediations of the Post-Conflict City. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 27 (1). pp. 212-228. ISSN 1748-7382

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Abstract / Summary

[in]visible Belfast was a research-driven indie alternate reality game (ARG) that ran for 6 weeks during the spring of 2011 in Belfast and was subsequently adapted, 5 years later into a fictional documentary for BBC Radio 4. The ARG is a participatory and dispersed narrative, which the audience play through. The text expands outward across both physical and digital platforms to create a mystery for the players using everyday platforms. The ARG is a product of media convergence and at its heart transmedial, defined by its complexity and modes of participation. The fictional radio documentary which remediated the ARG into a more simple linear structure, but possibly a more complex narrative form, retells parts of the story for new audiences. The premise of [in]visible belfast – the game and later the documentary – is itself an adaptation of writer Ciaran Carson’s novel The Star Factory (1997): a postmodern adventure through the complex psychogeography of Belfast. A trail through the labyrinthine text, which paints the history of Belfast in poetic prose. This article will map the concept’s journey from novel to game to radio, contextualising its development within its political and urban landscape and charting the remediation of the narratives as they fold out across multiple media and complex story arches. The article will draw together ideas from previous publications on ARG, transmediality and complex textualities from the authors and reflect on the textual trajectories that the remediation of the narrative has taken from the original book, through the ARG, into the radio documentary. Building upon recent approaches from environmental philosopher Tim Morton and games theorist Ian Bogost, the authors argue that Belfast’s history propels medial adaptations of a particular kind, characterised by a ‘flat’ ontology of space and time and a sort of diffuse and dark urban experience for designers/producers and players/listeners.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1177/1354856519896174
ISSN:	1748-7382
Subjects:	Education Communication Creative Art & Design Computing & Data Science Computing & Data Science > Game Design Communication > Creative Writing Literature
Courses by Department:	Cornwall Business School
Depositing User:	Danielle Barrios-O'Neill
Date Deposited:	02 Mar 2020 10:03
Last Modified:	18 Nov 2024 15:01
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/3876

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