To create methods for enabling / facilitating capability and self responsibility within citizens toward stewardship for the environment; using participatory/interactive performance techniques and contexts, to create immersive visceral experiences that transcend specific tools (VR/AR/MR/ER, wearable / haptic tech) and types of audiences / users to instigate transformative change and real action.
Methodology / Methods (to develop to start with & to develop as output)
Action Research and Iterative Design: This research will use a practice-based approach to develop methodological tools that can be released focussing on other urgent causes to extend the serious games and interactive performance mediums, to create a new work in a systematic reiterative way which allows for further development. This will involve performance "workshopping" methods and trial and error iteration for the development and design. We will develop a process-based design framework to enable novel approaches to humanitarian challenges. Using Action Research methodology with Iterative Design, the project will create methods for mixing participatory performance techniques and immersive theatre narrative approaches, using actor-guides, alongside mixed / extended reality (AR/VR/360 video) visual interfaces, haptic and tactile sensing and actuation embedded into custom reusable costumes. It will measure, respond and observe how participants respond and interact within the various experiential scenarios, and use that data with artificial intelligence to customise the experience for each participant. It will also study the psychology of activism and humanitarian leaders to uncover insights to incorporate into the narratives to facilitate citizen action and stewardship.
VR as a medium creates it's own kind of "inner space" and puts the viewer at the centre of the perceived world. Filming participants and their reactions will be fundamental to the research: as a study of the responses and experiences of the audience participants during experiential immersion, as well as by measuring biofeedback and through post-experience audience surveys to help refine the methods for developing the experiences, narrative environments and interfaces. The project team is committed to making the experience accessible.
To engage audiences in fully immersive and visceral mixed reality participatory performance experiences and thought-provoking scenarios, the project aims to share all development stages, including early scenario testing and workshopping of climate narratives distributed as modular offerings. The project development will be experimentally documented as VR films / 360 vignettes that explore various themes of living in climate sensitive areas and extreme weather or other climate damage, providing a macro view through vignettes of the experiences, distributed on Youtube 360 or via headsets (Google cardboard)to promote the research outcomes. These results and responses will be documented online, as a documentary, and to inform future creators of immersive audience experiences
The project will integrate a research team of outstanding creators and companies. Working with Chroma Space's Kate Genevieve Vega, Ravensbourne’s Learning Technology Research Centre (LTRC) directed by Carl Smith, and Maskomi's Lee Robinson, methods will be developed for audiences to experience extreme events around the planet – emotionally, viscerally, and physically – in simulated environments and scenarios.
Technological Research :