Welcome to Stories Incarnate: designing embodied, interactive experiences for live audiences
We worked with Cirque du Soleil to investigate the future of live entertainment.
The pandemic upended our original plan to work with these guys and perform here...
I ended up being the performer instead.
Using a research through design approach we held several design workshops, developed a proof of concept in my basement,
performed it for an 8-person audience who then provided feedback on the experience.
The trends in the entertainment industry suggest that audiences are seeking transformational experiences
i.e. experiences that provide a sense of communion
Agency
Embodiment
The related work suggests that interactive experiences for live audiences
either focus on the narrative without considering the technology.
or that they emphasize technology without considering narrative
We wanted to create a proof of concept where the technology and narrative are integrated
so that the audience’s embodied experience is directly related to the narrative
[ sound of wind howling]
[Jeanette Armstrong "Relationship as Land Ethic": We grew up loving the land..."]
["...we grew up loving each other on the land."]
["The relationship that we have with each other..."]
["...and how that relationship..."]
["...we have with each other..."]
["...impacts what we do to the land."]
[song plays: Christian Loffler's "A Forest" and Jeanette Armstrong speech continues in the background.]
"...and how we look at each other,
...how we interact with each other"
"is one of the reasons...
...things are happening to the land."
"We grew up loving the land"
"We grew up loving each other on the land"
"The relationship we have with each other..."
"...and how that relationship we have with each other..."
"...impacts what we do to the land."
Through our research through design process, the original narrative was about
a clown having a birthday party with his gnome and pet llama.
My previous work with an indigenous Bedouin scholar and activist
inspired me to change the story to something
more meaningful and socially relevant.
Indigenous research takes into account
positionality, relationality, relevance, respect, and reciprocity.
I wanted to use this creative research opportunity
to spread a message from Canadian indigenous
scholar and artist
Jeanette Armstrong.
Her phrase “my body is the land”
became the rationale behind the whole story and
it informed the model we used to design the audience’s gestures.
From the informal feedback session,
we generated some points to consider when designing these types of experiences.
Audience members discussed that our narrative worked well
because we chose a narrative where the audience was not a participant,
but an actual character in the story
and their participation was essential to driving the narrative forward.
Finally, a point on conducting research amid the pandemic:
I made use of the resources in my community.
My social bubble helped me film the project and acted as audience members
-- many of them are artists -- and their participation was helpful to me and to the project
helpful to them in terms of boosting morale at a time when their work had been halted.
This project follows the humanistic trend in HCI
and demonstrates the need for more feminist and indigenous methodologies,
ones where the researcher’s immediate environment
and the people in it
are valid sources of data and support
and where a more symbiotic relationship exists between them.
Thank you