Gaming has a crucial influence on storytelling in the digital age. How “Playful Audience Participation in Interactive Performances“ has been done recently, presented Game Designer Jeremiah Diephus. Jeremiah is teaching at Interactive Media Program at the University of Hagenberg near Linz. He is also co-founder of the organization “Game Stage” platform for games producers, involved in game related theatre projects. “There is a lot going on at the moment”, he states. He presented various projects, amongst them “Lime light” were a laser tracking system was used for the first time, knowing that there were different types of audience members with different expectations. Different roles were given to them. “Pirates of the Deep Space” is a play were players become performers who have to find and destroy each other with a view from a webcam. The project „Press Staat for Revolution“ by Schauspiel Graz is a good example for altering space: Everybody is a player. “The conduit” by the Society of Cultural Optimism is a simulation of how we want our society to develop. You can create your own city of the future within a dynamic space, influence it and see how it develops.
Quoting from the book “The Art of Game Design. A Book of Lenses” by Jesse Schell, Jeremiah recommended to look on the dramaturgy of games through several lenses: Lense 1 is related to space. Usually you have seats for the audience, space for the actors. How can you alter and play with this? Putting the audience into the space, giving them roles and let them dynamicly interact? Lense 2 is related to scenario – setting, story. It provides constraints which are there to lessen the expectations to technology. Lense 3 is the lense of emergence. Click here to read Jeremiah’s presentation.
How can we integrate all of this into our creative work?
With so much highly professional input, day 2 of the OpenLab was dedicated to discussions and the development of the 3 creative projects under the umbrella of the European Theatre Lab.
Once again, it became clear: the wheel does not have to be reinvented, there is a lot going on out there. But how can we make use of all this information in a reasonable way? Gerfried Stocker, Creative Director of Ars Electronica, gave us another precious advice: “Make early decisions. The use of new technology needs a lot of testing. Don’t get stuck in the usual schedule of theatre productions but plan ahead with your technical partners. Be sure that you need much more time than you assume in the beginning.”
