tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/interactive-art-11600/articlesInteractive art – The Conversation2023-08-21T04:09:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2114302023-08-21T04:09:47Z2023-08-21T04:09:47ZThe interactive art of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: psychic resonance, surveillance and a murmuration of lights<p>“They stole my face,” shouts a ten-year-old boy into a microphone, before stomping away. </p>
<p>We are in the Rafael Lozano-Hemmer exhibition Atmospheric Memory at the Powerhouse in Sydney. The boy’s photograph was taken as soon as he entered the exhibition and then publicly projected onto his shadow. </p>
<p>Like the social media it replicates, the exhibition content is a product of its users – which can feel like theft.</p>
<p>The main exhibition room, Atmospheres, contains a number of different works including a water-spray wall. The mist coming from the wall is a response to changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over time. It forms cloud-like visual texts whenever audience members speak into a microphone. </p>
<p>On the walls and floor of the main exhibition room, there are projected outsize images – a moving feast of text and data. These images and data represent the chaos of the digital world and the ubiquity of digital tracking technologies in urban environments. </p>
<p>All this digital imagery and scrambled text is a bit manic and unsettling. </p>
<p>Some of these elements from the Mexican-Canadian artist Lozano-Hemmer have been separately exhibited in Australia and internationally before. But brought together, the frenetic activity of so many competing elements in one room compromises their individual effect, especially as some recording components were not working on the day.</p>
<h2>Themes of surveillance</h2>
<p>The main work in the exhibition is called Zoom Pavilion. A tower supports 24 robotic cameras, which track visitors as we enter the space and report our appearance to the projectors, throwing our images onto the floor and the walls around us. </p>
<p>This work is a collaboration between Lozano-Hemmer and the pioneering Polish projection artist <a href="https://www.krzysztofwodiczko.com/about">Krzysztof Wodiczko</a>, and presents Wodiczko’s well-known theme of surveillance. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-big-brother-but-close-a-surveillance-expert-explains-some-of-the-ways-were-all-being-watched-all-the-time-194917">Not Big Brother, but close: a surveillance expert explains some of the ways we’re all being watched, all the time</a>
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<p>This type of art is what Lozano-Hemmer calls “<a href="https://dam.org/museum/artists_ui/artists/lozano-hemmer-rafael/relational-architecture/">relational architecture</a>”, invoking the ideas of engagement and social experimentation (the “relational”) and the built environment.</p>
<p>He has also described these works as “platforms for public participation” and “technological theatre”: artworks that try to augment public space with gigantic interactive projections designed to bring people together in a playful way.</p>
<p>In another room, Field Atmosphonia is a dynamic light display accompanied by 3,000 different sound channels, including field recordings of insects and hundreds of types of birds. It is the complexity of the natural world transposed into the digital. </p>
<p>Imagine a murmuration of lights accompanied by sounds. Visitors walk in confused patterns, in sync with the pulses of light. Several toddlers, enchanted by the sounds and lights, run frantically away from their parents and back again.</p>
<h2>Lost connections</h2>
<p>This Sydney version of the show incorporates an eccentric variety of objects from the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences’ collection.</p>
<p>These objects include a boomerang, two terrariums with plants and rocks, three glass-blown bush-plum shapes by artist Yhonnie Scarce and, in the foyer, a slow-moving photographic panorama of late-19th-century misty Blue Mountains from the collection of Charles Kerry. </p>
<p>The connections between these collection items and Lozano-Hemmer’s work are hard to understand, except that they all connect to the atmosphere in various ways … at a stretch. The inclusion of the boomerang and glass shapes smacks of First Nations tokenism. </p>
<h2>Recreated, reformed and re-presented</h2>
<p>The overarching idea for Atmospheric Memory is that voice activation and image recording can be stored then endlessly recreated, reformed and re-presented to the audience. </p>
<p>Lozano-Hemmer attributes the origins of this idea to British 19th-century engineer and inventor Charles Babbage, who <a href="https://www.victorianweb.org/science/science_texts/bridgewater/intro.htm">claimed</a> perfect recollection is a calculation of the movement of all air molecules and could be rewound to reveal hidden voices.</p>
<p>Lozano-Hemmer has repositioned Babbage’s interest in psychic resonance and spirit reflection alongside his technological forecasting. </p>
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<p>It is arguable that Babbage’s ideas really were the precursor to the digital interconnection and uncanny surveillance tactics of the 21st century, as suggested by this exhibition. But Babbage also fell for the late-19th-century mystic allure of <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2022.894078/full">life-death illusionism</a>, replayed here as the virtual/real dichotomy. </p>
<p>Both elements (illusionism and technology) are in play in the exhibition, but are not resolved. </p>
<p>Still, the rooms were packed with families enjoying the interactive elements. Even the kids who were worried about their stolen faces seemed to be having a fun time. </p>
<p>After pointing out the central problem of the show, the same boy returned to the mic to shout “Bye!” as he scurried off after his mother.</p>
<p><em>Atmospheric Memory is at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, until November 5.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This new show at the Powerhouse Museum reflects the chaos of the digital world and the ubiquity of digital tracking.Prudence Gibson, Author and Research Fellow, UNSW SydneyEdward Scheer, Professor of Performance and Visual Culture, Head of School of Art and Design, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1910862022-09-28T01:38:17Z2022-09-28T01:38:17ZWhen the World Turns is a profoundly moving theatrical experience for children with complex disabilities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486963/original/file-20220928-24-l51mvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C1%2C994%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When the World Turns by Polyglot Theatre and Oily Cart. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Theresa Harrison</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: When the World Turns, by Polyglot Theatre and Oily Cart</em></p>
<p>When the World Turns is a beautiful new work designed for children with complex disabilities and their families. </p>
<p>Australian children’s theatre company Polyglot are renowned for their approach to child-centred arts experiences. Their work has a reputation for fostering the creative agency of children as audience and artists. </p>
<p>UK company Oily Cart creates shows for all children regardless of age and perceived ability. </p>
<p>Their new theatre work, When the World Turns, emerges from this combined artistic creation philosophy. At its heart is an inclusive, child-led approach.</p>
<p>When the World Turns begins in the foyer. Performers emerge dressed in safari suits like explorers, with torches and maps at the ready. </p>
<p>Each family group is greeted by one of these performers; they become the guide for the family throughout the experience. </p>
<p>The invitation is to help explore and discover things in a new wondrous, breathing, rustling world. </p>
<p>As the performer engages with us in the foyer, they introduce a scrunched-up paper ball made from a heavy, brown paper and invite us to unfold the ball to see what mysteries it reveals: the words “when you are still, you can feel the earth moving”. </p>
<p>The performer animates and puppeteers the map, encouraging a sensory exploration with the sounds and tactile experience of the paper. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-so-fringe-interactive-childrens-theatre-takes-centre-stage-47362">Not so Fringe: interactive children's theatre takes centre stage</a>
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<h2>A gentle introduction</h2>
<p>We are then guided into the performance, a beautifully lit world held by a gentle soundscape and a scenic design consisting of hundreds of plants creating pathways throughout the space. </p>
<p>Each family group is led to a “pod” enveloped by plants, which acts as a home base throughout the experience. </p>
<p>Audience members can leave and explore, but they can always return to their family in this slightly protected zone throughout the performance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486958/original/file-20220928-22-330mwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C995%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of adults and children around a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486958/original/file-20220928-22-330mwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C995%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486958/original/file-20220928-22-330mwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486958/original/file-20220928-22-330mwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486958/original/file-20220928-22-330mwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486958/original/file-20220928-22-330mwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486958/original/file-20220928-22-330mwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486958/original/file-20220928-22-330mwo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Audience members can always return to their family.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Theresa Harrison</span></span>
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<p>The performers slowly introduce sensory and story elements to this pod and interact with us. By introducing sensory elements to the audience in small direct ways, they are demystified and made familiar. The artists are then able to expand and develop the sensory possibilities of the performance as it progresses. </p>
<p>A large paper snake (made out of the same material as the map introduced earlier) winds its way in and around our pod, landing on shoulders and sliding over knees, before it is handed to us to animate ourselves. </p>
<p>A pine-cone and a mandarin are revealed as wondrous objects by the performer. We are invited to explore each item by smell and touch.</p>
<p>Throughout, the sound design is building slowly, with repeated motifs and intimate sonic elements gradually layering to soothe, relax and familiarise. </p>
<p>The performers appear in costume and with puppets to become animal-like creatures that visit the pods and engage with the audience. </p>
<p>The bush-like world we are in comes completely alive. A parade of creatures is formed behind a performer carrying a large glowing orb, and merrily weaves its way around the space. In the show I saw, two audience members gleefully join the parade with their own torches, at times leading the procession and at times following. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-radical-form-of-accessibility-is-pushing-the-boundaries-of-theatre-performance-125797">How a radical form of accessibility is pushing the boundaries of theatre performance</a>
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<h2>Led by the children</h2>
<p>A very large sheet of paper, again the same type of paper as the map from the foyer, is placed over our pod and we shelter as the sky darkens and the sound of rain begins. Scratching and dropping noises can be heard on the material over our heads. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486961/original/file-20220928-26-szjwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman stands over a tent made from brown paper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486961/original/file-20220928-26-szjwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486961/original/file-20220928-26-szjwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486961/original/file-20220928-26-szjwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486961/original/file-20220928-26-szjwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486961/original/file-20220928-26-szjwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486961/original/file-20220928-26-szjwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486961/original/file-20220928-26-szjwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">We shelter as the sky darkens and the sound of rain begins.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Theresa Harrison</span></span>
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<p>The canopy is removed and the space all around us begins to transform, as plants are rearranged by performers to break apart the pods and open up the central performance area to the audience. </p>
<p>Some performers remove shoes, some lie down or lean on the plants around them. Slowly, as audience members start to call out and vocalise, the performers echo and repeat the sounds in a call and response sonic landscape. While the vocal tics of children with disabilities are often experienced as disruptive and a cause for anxiety and concern for family members, here they are celebrated and folded into the work.</p>
<p>Eventually, the child audience members realise they are leading the performance. The performers are responding to their noises and sounds; these are creating the shape and experience of the performance. </p>
<p>The performance has been handed over to the children with complex disabilities. There is an exquisite sense of joy and play permeating the room. </p>
<p>With that, we are told the performance has ended. A final ball of crumpled paper is unwound to reveal the words, “now this world is listening to you”.</p>
<h2>Profoundly moving</h2>
<p>It is hard to describe the profoundly moving experience of watching audience members arrive at the Arts Centre Melbourne and viscerally sensing the mix of excitement and uncertainty of coming to see a show, even one billed as inclusive and specifically designed for their families. </p>
<p>During the show, the children, earlier vocal and restless, are suddenly silent and still. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486962/original/file-20220928-14-5dze8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C995%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young girl stands behind reeds." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486962/original/file-20220928-14-5dze8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C995%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486962/original/file-20220928-14-5dze8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486962/original/file-20220928-14-5dze8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486962/original/file-20220928-14-5dze8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486962/original/file-20220928-14-5dze8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486962/original/file-20220928-14-5dze8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486962/original/file-20220928-14-5dze8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The work has been designed for these children to interact.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: Theresa Harrison</span></span>
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<p>Families visibly relax as they realise the work has been designed to specifically accommodate the way their children will interact with the performance. </p>
<p>When the World Turns reveals new possibilities for child-led approaches in sensory and participatory performance and this might expand our understanding of the transformative potential of theatre. </p>
<p><em>When the World Turns played at Arts Centre Melbourne for Alter State. Season closed.</em></p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/soothing-to-an-almost-unexpected-degree-new-online-art-project-glow-is-rethinking-mindfulness-for-new-parents-189884">'Soothing to an almost unexpected degree': new online art project Glow is rethinking mindfulness for new parents</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Austin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A collaboration between Polyglot Theatre and the UK’s Oily Cart puts an inclusive, child-led approach at its heart.Sarah Austin, Lecturer in Theatre, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1643582022-01-19T18:59:03Z2022-01-19T18:59:03ZFrom fear to connection, dynamic MENTAL exhibition explores a colourful spectrum of experiences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411792/original/file-20210719-27-a03fea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C3%2C2381%2C1585&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wheel by Hiromi Tango and Dr Emma Burrows (2021)</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: <a href="https://melbourne.sciencegallery.com/mental">MENTAL: Head Inside</a>, curated by Tilly Boleyn.</em></p>
<p>After three false starts due to lockdown, the Science Gallery’s inaugural exhibition, MENTAL: Head Inside, is opening at its new space in Carlton. </p>
<p>The gallery is one node in a global network of youth-focused spaces that playfully kicks down the walls between art and science.</p>
<p>Previous Science Gallery exhibitions — BLOOD, PERFECTION and DISPOSABLE — were held in different temporary locations. Curated by and for young people, MENTAL is both a homecoming and a housewarming in an airy, purpose-built space.</p>
<h2>Confronting and comforting</h2>
<p>Two years in the making, MENTAL was curated in defiance of the pandemic by a team of professional curators, an advisory group of young people and experts. The works on display are the fruits of an international open call on the expansive topic of the human mind. They invite engagement and interaction rather than chin-in-hand appraisal.</p>
<p>Although the exhibition explores the mind’s many dimensions, it tilts toward timely issues of mental health. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="young person looks into mirrored chamber" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411791/original/file-20210719-23-1makdpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Isolation Chamber by Rory Randall and Indigo Daya (2021).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span>
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<p>The most confronting is Rory Randall and Indigo Daya’s Isolation Chamber, a recreation of a seclusion room for involuntarily detained psychiatric patients. The practice is due for elimination following the Royal Commission into Victoria’s mental health system. </p>
<p>Visitors can enter and experience the pinned helplessness of being surveilled from many angles by those outside. Like many other exhibits, visitors can also record their reactions.</p>
<p>Emily Fitzsimons’ Cushions, knitted in the form of assorted pills, reflect on the role of medication in mental health treatment.</p>
<p>Relief of another sort is offered by Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara artist Rosie Kalina’s Respite Space, a sanctuary where the mental health of First Nations people is front and centre.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-pop-psychology-can-it-make-your-life-better-or-is-it-all-snake-oil-158709">The rise of pop-psychology: can it make your life better, or is it all snake-oil?</a>
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<h2>Fear and influence</h2>
<p>Selfcare4eva has Mary Angley and Caithlin O'Loghlen inhabit an in-gallery bedroom in their quest to become famous wellness influencers. A frenzy of wellness-related video and image content creation is promised, to which visitors can add when the artists surrender the room to the public.</p>
<p>The richness of human emotion presented extends beyond wellness, of course. Zhou Xiaohu’s mesmerising Even in Fear has a weather balloon inflate menacingly within a pink, vaguely ribcage-like enclosure. Some may find the suspense frightening, others thrilling.</p>
<p>Fear and nightmares also animate some of Indigenous artist Josh Muir’s sumptuous visual designs and soundscapes in Go Mental. The dreamlike feel of his work leads into the visual and auditory distortions and trippiness of Nwando Ebizie’s Distorted Constellations. Like several of the exhibits, hers is <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/there-is-no-normal">partnered</a> with an ongoing research project.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411793/original/file-20210719-17-1l6oon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Dark red room with projected eye ball on wall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411793/original/file-20210719-17-1l6oon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411793/original/file-20210719-17-1l6oon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411793/original/file-20210719-17-1l6oon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411793/original/file-20210719-17-1l6oon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411793/original/file-20210719-17-1l6oon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411793/original/file-20210719-17-1l6oon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411793/original/file-20210719-17-1l6oon4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail from ECHO by Georgie Pinn (2021).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gut feelings</h2>
<p>Music is also central to Sophia Charuhas’ Microbial Mood. A live experiment tests whether different kinds of music differently influence the growth of gut bacteria, collected in petri dishes above a set of speakers. The artist speculates future music could be used to enhance health by fine-tuning the gut-brain connection.</p>
<p>Emanuel Gollob’s beautiful sea-sponge-like robot in Doing Nothing with AI is also responsive, moving slowly and sinuously to relax the viewer. A headset transmits the brainwaves of observers as they admire the strange seaborg.</p>
<p>Nina Rajcic’s remarkable Mirror Ritual generates a personalised poem based on the visitor’s facial expressions, read as they front a mirror. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman reads poem in mirror" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411794/original/file-20210719-15775-1h73gew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mirror ritual by Nina Rajcic and Seansilab (2021).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/personalities-that-thrive-in-isolation-and-what-we-can-all-learn-from-time-alone-135307">Personalities that thrive in isolation and what we can all learn from time alone</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Meeting of minds</h2>
<p>Mental life happens inside our heads, but several exhibits recognise the importance of interactions between minds. Hiromi Tango and Emma Burrows’ Wheel invites visitors to try out a rainbow-striped hamster wheel, exploring how social rewards promote exercise.</p>
<p>Georgie Pinn’s Echo uncannily dramatises the experience of empathy. The visitor listens to another person’s story while looking at their face. Gradually their own face appears to take over the narrator’s.</p>
<p>The opposite phenomenon is presented in Your Face is Muted, by computer scientists Tilman Dingler, Zhanna Sarsenbayeva, Eylül Ertay, Hao Huang and Melanie Huang. The difficulty of maintaining online video conversations when faces become hard to read is illustrated dramatically in this interactive exhibit. Anyone who has experienced a patchy video conversation will relate.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="old green rotary phone on pedestal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411795/original/file-20210719-17-o6yt3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is there anybody there? Rachel Hanlon’s Hi Machine – Hello Human (2021).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Science Gallery/Alan Weedon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/child-mental-health-how-acting-out-during-covid-can-be-a-coping-mechanism-and-what-parents-can-do-to-help-158083">Child mental health: how acting out during COVID can be a coping mechanism, and what parents can do to help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Rachel Hanlon’s charming Hello Machine, Hello Human allows visitors to initiate a spontaneous phone call with another person … or does it? Hanlon’s work is an artistic rendition of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/">Alan Turing’s famous test</a> of whether a machine can pass as human.</p>
<h2>Colour and movement</h2>
<p>Overall, the exhibition has a sense of lightness and dynamism. There are gobs of colour everywhere, darker nooks to explore, and high ceilings and abundant natural light. </p>
<p>At a time when the importance of STEM education is almost universally acknowledged, if not adequately funded, STEM needs to show itself as welcoming, open and attractive. If we want young people to engage with science and technology, they must be able to see these fields not as obscure bodies of knowledge and mechanical methods but as pathways to creative discovery.</p>
<p>By showcasing the works of diverse young artists and scientists who collaborate to explore the issues of the day, MENTAL delivers a powerful message on the value and creative possibilities of science. It is an exemplary exhibition that deserves a visit, whether you are 15, 25 or 85.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://melbourne.sciencegallery.com/mental">MENTAL: Head Inside</a> runs until June 18 at Science Gallery Melbourne.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Haslam works for the University of Melbourne, with which Science Gallery Melbourne is affiliated, and has in the past consulted on an unpaid basis with the gallery.</span></em></p>A youth-focussed exhibition about experiences of mental health is interactive and expansive, kicking down the barriers between science and art.Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/948322018-04-24T14:26:51Z2018-04-24T14:26:51ZNew research shows how brain-computer interaction is changing cinema<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216092/original/file-20180424-94160-1118ibz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/illustration-thought-processes-brain-340384811?irgwc=1&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Hans%20Braxmeier%20und%20Simon%20Steinberger%20GbR&utm_source=44814&utm_term=">Shutterstock/TatianaShepeleva</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past few years, we have seen the extraordinary development of neural prosthetic technologies that can replace or enhance functions of our central nervous system. For example, devices like Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) allow the direct communication of the brain with a computer. The most common technique applied in these devices, is <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/electroencephalogram/">Electroencephalography (EEG)</a> – a recording of the electrical activity along the scalp.</p>
<p>These technologies are mainly used in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/28/neuroprosthetic-tetraplegic-man-control-hand-with-thought-bill-kochevar">health</a>, but <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.00191/">our new research</a> shows how they are changing the future of cinema too.</p>
<p>This is no coincidence. Artists have been among the pioneers in the use of these technologies, developing creative applications since their first emergence in the 1960s. Early examples include <a href="http://ubu.com/film/aether_lucier.html">Music For Solo Performer (1965)</a> by Alvin Lucier, which is considered the first performance using EEG technology. Interactive artworks, like the <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7qrl0">Brainwave Drawings (1972)</a> by Nina Sobell and installations like Alpha Garden (1973) by Jaqueline Humbert also illustrate how the art world paved the way. </p>
<h2>Interactive filmmaking</h2>
<p>During the same period, the first interactive film was presented. The comedy <a href="http://www.kinoautomat.cz/index.htm?lang=gbr">Kinoautomat (1967)</a>, which was created in Czechoslovakia, allowed the audience to vote on what should happen next by pressing buttons. Since then, acclaimed filmmakers, such as Peter Greenaway, have been advocating the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6yC41ZxqYs">new possibilities</a> of interactive technologies in cinema.</p>
<p>More recently, the film industry is showing interest in emerging technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR). A milestone in this direction was the special award presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board in 2017 to <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6212516/">Carne y Arena</a> directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Carne y Arena is a VR installation which was said to be opening <a href="http://www.oscars.org/news/academys-board-governors-awards-oscarr-alejandro-g-inarritus-carne-y-arena-virtual-reality">“new doors of cinematic perception”</a>. This follows on from the work of an increasing number of festivals (like <a href="https://www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html">Berlinale</a> and the <a href="http://www.labiennale.org/en/news/films-venice-virtual-reality-section">Venice Film Festival</a>), filmmakers and researchers who are investigating the potential of using new interactive technologies in cinema.</p>
<p>Among the most recent innovations are new wireless Brain-Computer Interfaces, which are now available in the market as low cost headsets. They are already used in computer games and the arts, but more recently they have been applied in interactive filmmaking as well. For example, Hollywood studios, like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=al7lswMe9t4">Universal</a> and 20th Century Fox have released interactive versions of their films, where the spectator can control key moments of the plot with the use of a BCI headset.</p>
<h2>Multi-brain interaction</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.00191/">Our research</a> sheds new light on how our brains can control a film or live cinema event, not just for home entertainment but also in a cinema theatre. And it shows how this can be used to bring to the audience a new, engaging and collective experience. </p>
<p>More specifically, we developed a new system that allows multiple brains to interact. This system was used in a new live cinema event that we created for this purpose <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14626268.2016.1260593">and presented</a> at the CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215800/original/file-20180421-75123-1dlamws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215800/original/file-20180421-75123-1dlamws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215800/original/file-20180421-75123-1dlamws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215800/original/file-20180421-75123-1dlamws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215800/original/file-20180421-75123-1dlamws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215800/original/file-20180421-75123-1dlamws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215800/original/file-20180421-75123-1dlamws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustrative example: The passive multi-brain EEG-based BCI system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zioga et al. 2016 (Images of human heads originally designed by Freepik).</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the first time, the technology enabled one performer and two members of the audience to interact simultaneously. Using their passive brain-activity – separately or jointly – they were able to control aspects of the live projected film. Their transition from relaxed to more alert cognitive states was visualised as a shift from colder to warmer tints. This created the constantly changing colour of the live projections and set the overall atmosphere of the narrative.</p>
<p>The event was also a <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.00191">neuroscience experiment in a real-life environment</a> with the presence of public audience. This allowed us to obtain data from the participants, which have provided us with important results. They showed they were able to understand which parts of the event were controlled by their brain-activity and how. These particular scenes made a special impression on them. And at the same time, their attention and emotional engagement were also increased, while having the feeling of being “connected”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215801/original/file-20180421-75114-1qq67yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215801/original/file-20180421-75114-1qq67yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215801/original/file-20180421-75114-1qq67yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215801/original/file-20180421-75114-1qq67yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215801/original/file-20180421-75114-1qq67yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215801/original/file-20180421-75114-1qq67yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/215801/original/file-20180421-75114-1qq67yb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Enheduanna―A Manifesto of Falling’ Live Brain-Computer Cinema Performance at CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Polina Zioga/Catherine M. Weir.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cinema’s new horizon</h2>
<p>Our experiment provides new tools and methods for creating interactive films with the use of the brain-activity of the spectators. It proves how the use of brain-computer interaction in cinema can enhance the audience’s perception and engagement. And even more, it opens a new horizon of possibilities. Audiences in the future will be empowered to immerse themselves and collectively control a film through their combined brain-activity.</p>
<p>Together with studies looking at the effect of films on the spectators’ brain-activity (<a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/projections/2/1/proj020102.xml">neurocinematics</a>), these new possibilities will push further the motion picture arts and sciences. They will also advance our understanding of how we collectively engage, collaborate and compete in emotive environments and situations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was supported by the Glasgow School of Art under the Global Excellence Initiative Fund. The project was funded with the NEON Organization 2014–2015 Grant for Performance Production and was supported by MyndPlay.</span></em></p>Interactive cinema and the arts are at the forefront of research into brain-computer interaction.Polina Zioga, Director of Interactive Filmmaking Lab, Staffordshire UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/784652017-05-30T02:10:05Z2017-05-30T02:10:05ZAustralia’s videogames are inventive, acclaimed and world-class, so where’s the government support?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171380/original/file-20170530-25201-6l3pzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6016%2C4016&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, the CEO of the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association Ron Curry penned a clearly frustrated <a href="http://www.mcvpacific.com/news/read/special-feature-an-open-letter-to-minister-for-communications-and-the-arts-senator-the-hon-mitch-fifield/0182835">open letter</a> to the Minister for Communications and the Arts, Mitch Fifield, about his government’s stubborn persistence in ignoring the Australian videogame industry.</p>
<p>The letter was a direct response to the minister not mentioning videogames during a keynote address at the recent <a href="http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/About/Events/Australian-content-conversation">Australian content conversation</a> held by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and other government bodies. But the frustration underpinning it is much deeper. It’s a response to years of struggle as the burgeoning local industry fights to be recognised as a significant creative force.</p>
<p>Indeed, the few times the current coalition government has recognised the existence of an Australian videogame industry have been nothing short of catastrophic. Videogames were one of the many victims of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s brutal first budget in 2014, when the half-completed <a href="https://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/05/government-pulls-funding-for-aussie-video-games-industry-in-federal-budget/">Australian Interactive Games Fund was stripped of its remaining A$10 million without any industry consultation</a>. This left many small studios who were preparing for the next round of funding in the lurch.</p>
<p>Then, in 2015, when then-Arts Minister George Brandis proposed the National Program for Artistic Excellence (since rebranded as the Catalyst Fund) to replace existing Arts Council funding, <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-country-for-new-videogames-brandis-and-abbott-are-playing-with-our-creative-future-44309">“interactive games” were explicitly excluded</a>.</p>
<p>Four hundred days ago, a <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Video_game_industry">senate inquiry</a> handed down its findings on the future of Australia’s videogame industry, recommending that there be a funding body for games. Compared to its previous actions, it is almost a relief that the government’s response to this has been one of deafening silence. </p>
<h2>Videogames by numbers</h2>
<p>It remains baffling that a government whose rhetorical posturing is all about <a href="https://www.innovation.gov.au/page/agenda">innovation, the future, and exports</a>, is so reluctant to support a local videogame development industry. </p>
<p>The numbers have been cited to death: globally the videogame industry is approaching a <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/15/digital-games-market-to-see-sales-worth-100-billion-this-year-research.html">value of A$100 billion</a>. In Australia alone <a href="http://www.igea.net/2016/03/australian-video-game-industry-strides-towards-3-billion/">the industry is worth nearly A$3 billion</a>, except this number is primarily made up of overseas games sold in Australia, not games made here. </p>
<p>Obtaining an exact dollar value of the local development industry is more difficult (and, surely, less impressive sounding), but it probably employs <a href="https://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/04/how-many-people-work-in-the-australian-games-industry-more-than-we-thought/">nearly a thousand people</a>, and with the right support could employ many more. Videogames also drive innovation in a range of sectors, and stand ready to take advantage of virtual and augmented reality. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xk69qfTRIgY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">L.A. Noire was one of the last blockbuster games developed in Australia by Team Bondi.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More importantly, about 70% of Australians play videogames, on computers, on TVs, on mobile phones - you probably have a few on the device you’re reading this on right now. Clearly a market exists for homegrown content. </p>
<p>Just citing the numbers, however, risks narrowing the much broader cultural significance of videogames to a simple dollar value. Videogames aren’t just products. They are creative works. </p>
<p>Videogames are a significant aspect of Australian culture and identity, and local practitioners should receive just as much support from arts funding bodies as artists working in any other medium. If nothing else, they shouldn’t be excluded simply for working with the medium of videogames.</p>
<h2>Not just a boys’ club</h2>
<p>What the lack of support really comes down to is an image problem. There is still a popular perception of videogames as just silly throwaway toys for teenage boys, despite the fact that <a href="http://www.igea.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Digital-Australia-2016-DA16-Final.pdf">players are on average 30-years-old and as likely to be women as men</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171374/original/file-20170530-25198-yq7iyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171374/original/file-20170530-25198-yq7iyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171374/original/file-20170530-25198-yq7iyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171374/original/file-20170530-25198-yq7iyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171374/original/file-20170530-25198-yq7iyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171374/original/file-20170530-25198-yq7iyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171374/original/file-20170530-25198-yq7iyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171374/original/file-20170530-25198-yq7iyl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crossy Road is a popular mobile game made by a small team of Melbourne developers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.crossyroad.com/press/assets/screenshots/1536x2048/screenshot1-en.png">Hipster Whale</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In part, this is the global videogame industry’s own fault. Through the latter decades of the 20th century, male teenagers were the dominant target audience. The most visible videogames were all schlocky action, racing cars and army soldiers.</p>
<p>But videogames are a form as diverse and eclectic as television. While massive blockbuster action games for teenage boys still exist, so do small mobile games for a more general audience, educational games for training and the classroom, and little personal games made by individuals more concerned with expressing an idea than making a huge profit.</p>
<p>Indeed, it’s the latter that the current Australian videogame development industry is excelling at. Government support or not, it is building a small and sustainable ecosystem in this area.</p>
<p>Australia has been a powerhouse of mobile videogame development for years, responsible for early international successes like Flight Control, where you play as an air traffic controller, and Fruit Ninja, where you slice fruit with a blade.</p>
<p>More recent successes include Crossy Road (the player has to dodge traffic), Framed (you have to rearrange comic book panels to avoid the police), and Jelly Juggle (a kind of circular ping-pong involving where a fish acts as the paddle, and the jelly is the ball). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171375/original/file-20170530-25241-qz3u6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171375/original/file-20170530-25241-qz3u6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171375/original/file-20170530-25241-qz3u6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171375/original/file-20170530-25241-qz3u6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171375/original/file-20170530-25241-qz3u6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171375/original/file-20170530-25241-qz3u6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171375/original/file-20170530-25241-qz3u6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171375/original/file-20170530-25241-qz3u6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fruit Ninja was developed in Brisbane and has managed to become an international success.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fruitninja.com/">Halfbrick</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia is also home to a vibrant scene where individual and part-time developers have created small games that receive international acclaim. House House’s <a href="https://pmpygame.com/">Push Me Pull You</a> sees you, as a two-headed person with a stretchy body, facing off against another two-headed foe to take control of the ball. Ian MacLarty’s <a href="https://ianmaclarty.itch.io/catacombs-of-solaris">Catacombs of Solaris</a> is a psychedelic, never-ending labyrinth. Flat Earth Games’ <a href="http://objectsgame.com/">Objects in Space</a> is a space trading game where you must silently plot against space pirates and corrupt governments. </p>
<p>Sorath’s <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/422970/Devil_Daggers/">Devil Daggers</a> is a twitchy love letter to late 1990s first-person shooters such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_(video_game)">Quake</a>. Grace Bruxner’s <a href="https://fisho.itch.io/alien">Alien Caseno</a> is pun-filled alien casino. And Marbenx’s <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/359050/Shower_With_Your_Dad_Simulator_2015_Do_You_Still_Shower_With_Your_Dad/">Shower With Your Dad Simulator</a> is as bizarre as it sounds.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ztmbNJETkbw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Push Me Pull You is a self described cooperative game about friendship and wrestling.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Each of these small Australian games have received international attention through the press or overseas exhibitions, yet their creators have access to precious few avenues of funding or support.</p>
<h2>Supporting creators</h2>
<p>Boasting about these successes risks sounding as though government support isn’t required, like things are already fine. But it’s no coincidence that the majority of these developers are located in Melbourne, where the state screen funding body, <a href="https://www.film.vic.gov.au/funding/games-funding/">Film Victoria</a>, has been actively funding and supporting game development for years. </p>
<p>The majority of these developers also do not currently make videogames full time. As Australia no longer has large videogame publishers, without government funding, few can afford to take the risk to leap into full-time videogame development.</p>
<p>During the senate inquiry, the games industry stated that over 5,000 students enrol in tertiary courses to study videogame development each year, while there are, at most, 1,000 people employed as “active participants” in the industry. </p>
<p>Some will no doubt join existing studios, and others will try to start their own. But without government support for videogames as either an industry or a creative form, many of these graduates will slip sideways into other industries, or join the countless other Australian developers that have moved to Europe or Canada to find greener pastures.</p>
<p>The government seems willing to be left behind in the last century, stubbornly looking to the past rather than the future, and not doing its part to support Australian creators.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Keogh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s videogame industry has called for an end to the government’s silence around funding. And with local games competing on the world stage, it’s time for the cultural medium to be recognised alongside TV and film.Brendan Keogh, PhD Candidate, Game Studies, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/767722017-05-04T13:46:08Z2017-05-04T13:46:08ZThe future is in interactive storytelling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167754/original/file-20170503-21637-btv8ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Seeking to make stories that surround us.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.noahwf.com/screen/">'Screen,' by Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Robert Coover, Shawn Greenlee, Andrew McClain, and Ben "Sascha" Shine</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Marvel’s new blockbuster, “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2,” carries audiences through a narrative carefully curated by the film’s creators. That’s also what Telltale’s Guardians-themed game did when it was released in April. Early reviews suggest the game is <a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/04/19/telltale-guardians-of-the-galaxy-review-pc/">just another form of guided progress through a predetermined story</a>, not a player-driven experience in the world of the movie and its characters. Some game critics lament this, and suggest game designers <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/video-games-stories/524148/">let traditional media tell the linear stories</a>.</p>
<p>What is out there for the player who wants to explore on his or her own in rich universes like the ones created by Marvel? Not much. Not yet. But the future of media is coming.</p>
<p>As longtime experimenters and scholars in interactive narrative who are now building <a href="https://mediasystems.soe.ucsc.edu/report">a new academic discipline we call “computational media,”</a> we are working to create new forms of interactive storytelling, strongly shaped by the choices of the audience. People want to explore, through play, themes like those in Marvel’s stories, about creating family, valuing diversity and living responsibly.</p>
<p>These experiences will need compelling computer-generated characters, not the husks that now speak to us from smartphones and home assistants. And they’ll need virtual environments that are more than just simulated space – environments that feel alive, responsive and emotionally meaningful.</p>
<p>This next generation of media – which will be a foundation for art, learning, self-expression and even health maintenance – requires a deeply interdisciplinary approach. Instead of engineer-built tools wielded by artists, we must merge art and science, storytelling and software, to create groundbreaking, technology-enabled experiences deeply connected to human culture.</p>
<h2>In search of interactivity</h2>
<p>One of the first interactive character experiences involved “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/365153.365168">Eliza</a>,” a language and software system developed in the 1960s. It <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48834-0">seemed like a very complex entity</a> that could engage compellingly with a user. But the more people interacted with it, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/second-self">the more they noticed formulaic responses</a> that signaled it was a relatively simple computer program.</p>
<p>In contrast, programs like “<a href="https://www.cs.utah.edu/nlp/papers/talespin-ijcai77.pdf">Tale-Spin</a>” have <a href="https://grandtextauto.soe.ucsc.edu/2006/09/13/the-story-of-meehans-tale-spin/">elaborate technical processes behind the scenes</a> that audiences never see. The audience sees only the effects, like selfish characters telling lies. The result is the opposite of the “Eliza” effect: Rather than simple processes that the audience initially assumes are complex, we get complex processes that the audience experiences as simple.</p>
<p>An exemplary <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/expressive-processing">alternative to both types of hidden processes</a> is “<a href="http://www.simcity.com">SimCity</a>,” the seminal game by Will Wright. It contains a complex but ultimately transparent model of how cities work, including housing locations influencing transportation needs and industrial activity creating pollution that bothers nearby residents. It is designed to lead users, through play, to an <a href="http://www.gamestudies.org/0102/pearce/">understanding of this underlying model</a> as they build their own cities and watch how they grow. This type of exploration and response is the <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/expressive-processing">best way to support long-term player engagement</a>.</p>
<h2>Connecting technology with meaning</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167218/original/file-20170428-13007-id03lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167218/original/file-20170428-13007-id03lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167218/original/file-20170428-13007-id03lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167218/original/file-20170428-13007-id03lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167218/original/file-20170428-13007-id03lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167218/original/file-20170428-13007-id03lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167218/original/file-20170428-13007-id03lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167218/original/file-20170428-13007-id03lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Creating biased histories can be uncomfortable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://terminaltime.com/ttweb.jpg">'Terminal Time,' by Steffi Domike, Michael Mateas and Paul Vanouse.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>No one discipline has all the answers for building meaningfully interactive experiences about topics more subtle than city planning – such as what we believe, whom we love and how we live in the world. Engineering can’t teach us how to come up with a meaningful story, nor understand if it connects with audiences. But the arts don’t have methods for developing the new technologies needed to create a rich experience.</p>
<p>Today’s most prominent examples of interactive storytelling tend to lean toward one approach or the other. Despite being visually compelling, with powerful soundtracks, neither indie titles like “<a href="http://www.firewatchgame.com/">Firewatch</a>” nor blockbusters such as “<a href="https://www.masseffect.com/">Mass Effect: Andromeda</a>” have many significant ways for a player to actually influence their worlds.</p>
<p>Both independently and together, we’ve been developing deeper interactive storytelling experiences for nearly two decades. “<a href="http://www.terminaltime.com/">Terminal Time</a>,” an interactive documentary generator first shown in 1999, asks the audience several questions about their views of historical issues. Based on the responses (measured as the volume of clapping for each choice), it <a href="https://users.soe.ucsc.edu/%7Emichaelm/publications/mateas-aisb-1999.pdf">custom-creates a story of the last millennium</a> that matches, and increasingly exaggerates, those particular ideas. </p>
<p>For example, to an audience who supported anti-religious rationalism, it might begin presenting distant events that match their biases – such as the Catholic Church’s 17th-century execution of philosopher Giordano Bruno. But later it might show more recent, less comfortable events – like the Chinese communist (rationalist) invasion and occupation of (religious) Tibet in the 1950s.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/terminal-time-project-trailer">The results are thought-provoking</a>, because the team creating it – including one of us (Michael), documentarian Steffi Domike and media artist Paul Vanouse – combined deep technical knowledge with clear artistic goals and an understanding of the ways events are selected, connected and portrayed in ideologically biased documentaries.</p>
<h2>Digging into narrative</h2>
<p>“<a href="http://interactivestory.net/">Façade</a>,” released in 2005 by Michael and fellow artist-technologist Andrew Stern, represented a further extension: the first fully realized interactive drama. A person playing the experience visits the apartment of a couple whose marriage is on the verge of collapse. A player can say whatever she wants to the characters, move around the apartment freely, and even hug and kiss either or both of the hosts. It provides an opportunity to improvise along with the characters, and take the conversation in many possible directions, ranging from angry breakups to attempts at resolution.</p>
<p>“Façade” also lets players interact creatively with the experience as a whole, choosing, for example, to play by asking questions a therapist might use – or by saying only lines Darth Vader says in the “Star Wars” movies. Many people have played as different characters and shared videos of the results of their collaboration with the interactive experience. Some of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=CAM%253D&q=facade+game">these videos have been viewed millions of times.</a></p>
<p>As with “Terminal Time,” “Façade” had to combine technical research – about topics like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/mis.2002.1024751">coordinating between virtual characters</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27797-2_2">understanding natural language</a> used by the player – with a specific artistic vision and knowledge about narrative. In order to allow for a wide range of audience influence, while still retaining a meaningful story shape, the software is <a href="https://users.soe.ucsc.edu/%7Emichaelm/publications/mateas-aiide2005.pdf">built to work in terms of concepts from theater and screenwriting</a>, such as dramatic “beats” and tension rising toward a climax. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmuLV9eMTkg">This allows the drama to progress</a> even as different players learn different information, drive the conversation in different directions and draw closer to one or the other member of the couple.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167219/original/file-20170428-12999-1e203kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167219/original/file-20170428-12999-1e203kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167219/original/file-20170428-12999-1e203kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167219/original/file-20170428-12999-1e203kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167219/original/file-20170428-12999-1e203kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167219/original/file-20170428-12999-1e203kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167219/original/file-20170428-12999-1e203kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167219/original/file-20170428-12999-1e203kp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Engaging with a couple on the rocks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.interactivestory.net/screenshot4.html">'Façade,' by Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Bringing art and engineering together</h2>
<p>A decade ago, our work uniting storytelling, artificial intelligence, game design, human-computer interaction, media studies and many other arts, humanities and sciences gave rise to the <a href="https://games.soe.ucsc.edu/eis">Expressive Intelligence Studio</a>, a technical and cultural research lab at the <a href="https://www.soe.ucsc.edu/">Baskin School of Engineering</a> at <a href="https://www.ucsc.edu/">UC Santa Cruz</a>, where we both work. In 2014 we created the country’s <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/a-new-department-marks-the-rise-of-a-discipline-computational-media/54883">first academic department</a> of <a href="https://www.soe.ucsc.edu/departments/computational-media">computational media</a>. </p>
<p>Today, we work with colleagues across campus to offer undergrad degrees in games and playable media with <a href="http://games.arts.ucsc.edu/">arts</a> and <a href="https://www.soe.ucsc.edu/departments/computational-media/bs-computer-game-design">engineering</a> emphases, as well as graduate education for developing <a href="https://gpm.soe.ucsc.edu/">games</a> and <a href="https://www.soe.ucsc.edu/departments/computational-media/ms-phd-computational-media">interactive experiences</a>.</p>
<p>With four of our graduate students (Josh McCoy, Mike Treanor, Ben Samuel and Aaron A. Reed), we recently took inspiration from <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/61106/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life-by-erving-goffman/9780385094023/">sociology and theater</a> to devise a system that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/TCIAIG.2014.2304692">simulates relationships and social interactions</a>. The first result was the game “<a href="https://promweek.soe.ucsc.edu/">Prom Week</a>,” in which the audience is able to <a href="https://vimeo.com/40616813">shape the social interactions of a group of teenagers</a> in the week leading up to a high school prom. </p>
<p>We found that its players feel <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8c30/91dcc96037e0b2e6c4ea97dc68d0c2e69851.pdf">much more responsibility for what happens</a> than in pre-scripted games. It can be disquieting. As <a href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/16/impressions-prom-week/">game reviewer Craig Pearson put it</a> – after destroying the romantic relationship of his perceived rival, then attempting to peel away his remaining friendships, only to realize this wasn’t necessary – “Next time I’ll be looking at more upbeat solutions, because the alternative, frankly, is hating myself.”</p>
<p>That social interaction system is also a base for other experiences. Some address serious topics like <a href="http://sirenproject.eu/">cross-cultural bullying</a> or <a href="http://www.darpa.mil/program/strategic-social-interaction-modules">teaching conflict deescalation to soldiers</a>. Others are more entertaining, like a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/2282338.2282374">murder mystery game</a> – and a still-secret collaboration with Microsoft Studios. We’re now getting ready for an open-source release of the underlying technology, which we’re calling the <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/94b7/e4a02b33740d8d589ec726c6dd28219c65f7.pdf">Ensemble Engine</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167237/original/file-20170428-13007-17sumss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167237/original/file-20170428-13007-17sumss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167237/original/file-20170428-13007-17sumss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167237/original/file-20170428-13007-17sumss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167237/original/file-20170428-13007-17sumss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167237/original/file-20170428-13007-17sumss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167237/original/file-20170428-13007-17sumss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167237/original/file-20170428-13007-17sumss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Making friends in ‘Prom Week.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/13/electric-dreams-part-3-alien-ideas-for-player-expectations/">Prom Week</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pushing the boundaries</h2>
<p>Our students are also expanding the types of experiences interactive narratives can offer. Two of them, Aaron A. Reed and Jacob Garbe, created “<a href="http://www.ice-bound.com/">The Ice-Bound Concordance</a>,” which lets players <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Ice-Bound-Combining-richly-realized-story-with-Reed-Garbe/5241089e35053bf1252a25c9f9fae0d811a89278">explore a vast number of possible combinations of events and themes</a> to complete <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5sIwaFfbaM">a mysterious novel</a>.</p>
<p>Three other students, James Ryan, Ben Samuel and Adam Summerville, created “<a href="https://www.badnewsgame.com/">Bad News</a>,” which generates a new small midwestern town for each player – including developing the town, the businesses, the families in residence, their interactions and even the inherited physical traits of townspeople – and then kills one character. The player must notify the dead character’s next of kin. In this experience, the player <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48279-8_10">communicates with a human actor trained in improvisation</a>, exploring possibilities beyond the capabilities of today’s software dialogue systems.</p>
<p>Kate Compton, another student, created “<a href="http://www.brightspiral.com/">Tracery</a>,” a system that makes storytelling frameworks <a href="https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/INT/INT7/paper/viewFile/9266/9216">easy to create</a>. Authors can fill in blanks in structure, detail, plot development and character traits. Professionals have used the system: Award-winning developer Dietrich Squinkifer made the uncomfortable one-button conversation game “<a href="http://squinky.me/interruption/">Interruption Junction</a>.” “Tracery” has let newcomers get involved, too, as with the “<a href="http://cheapbotsdonequick.com/">Cheap Bots Done Quick!</a>” platform. It is the system behind around 4,000 bots active on Twitter, including ones relating <a href="https://twitter.com/losttesla">the adventures of a lost self-driving Tesla</a>, parodying <a href="https://twitter.com/thinkpiecebot">the headlines of “Boomersplaining thinkpieces,”</a> offering <a href="https://twitter.com/tinycarebot">self-care reminders</a> and generating <a href="https://twitter.com/softlandscapes">pastel landscapes</a>.</p>
<p>Many more projects are just beginning. For instance, we’re starting to develop an artificial intelligence system that can understand things usually only humans can – like the <a href="https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/AIIDE/AIIDE16/paper/view/14061/13612">meanings underlying a game’s rules</a> and what a game feels like when played. This will allow us to more easily explore what the audience will think and feel in new interactive experiences.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167254/original/file-20170429-3525-9v4f9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167254/original/file-20170429-3525-9v4f9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167254/original/file-20170429-3525-9v4f9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167254/original/file-20170429-3525-9v4f9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167254/original/file-20170429-3525-9v4f9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167254/original/file-20170429-3525-9v4f9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167254/original/file-20170429-3525-9v4f9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167254/original/file-20170429-3525-9v4f9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Bad News’ is played in physical space. In the installation at Big Pictures in Los Angeles (for the Slamdance DIG exhibition), the player and actor were on one side of a wall (right) and the ‘wizard,’ who combs the lives of the generated characters for interesting story potential, was on the other (left).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.badnewsgame.com/">James Ryan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s much more to do, as we and others work to invent the next generation of computational media. But as in a Marvel movie, we’d bet on those who are facing the challenges, rather than the skeptics who assume the challenges can’t be overcome.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noah Wardrip-Fruin currently receives funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). He has received past funding from a range of government agencies, companies, and other institutions. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Mateas currently receives funding from the National Science Foundation. He has received past funding from a range of government agencies, companies, and other institutions. He is a co-founder of Playabl, a company dedicated to creating AI-driven, first-person, interactive characters and stories. </span></em></p>People want video games and interactive experiences that help them explore deep and meaningful themes, such as creating family, valuing diversity and living responsibly.Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Professor of Computational Media, University of California, Santa CruzMichael Mateas, Professor of Computational Media, University of California, Santa CruzLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/473622015-09-14T20:16:13Z2015-09-14T20:16:13ZNot so Fringe: interactive children’s theatre takes centre stage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94625/original/image-20150914-1250-t0vk8m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Interactive children's theatre engages childrens' innate creative impulses and encourages them to be curious and playful. Image by Kristian Laemmie-Ruff</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arena Theatra</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A highlight of this year’s <a href="https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/">Melbourne Fringe Festiv</a>al, which begins tomorrow, is an expanded program of performances for children and families. What’s interesting about many of these shows is that they invite audiences not to sit quietly in darkened auditoriums and watch, but instead to join in – and help create the show. </p>
<p>That might be done through <a href="https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/program/event/view/b02e513c-3284-473a-a0e8-51e28d113b51">dancing</a>, <a href="https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/program/event/view/0377d171-4c50-4a0f-b4e8-7ae6fadf917a">suggesting material for a play</a> or even being <a href="https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/program/event/view/f35e7cfd-a243-4bed-aed3-b357951eb08e">separated</a> into groups to experience different theatrical journeys. </p>
<p>While “interactive” theatre isn’t new, the Fringe’s line-up reflects a wider trend in theatre for both children and adults.</p>
<p>What’s so great about this kind of theatre? Well, when done properly, it harnesses kids’ innate creative abilities and encourages them to be curious, playful, and engage in complex abstract thought – something most kids really love to do. </p>
<h2>Interactive theatre</h2>
<p>“Interactive”, or “participatory”, theatre involves audiences as co-creators of the work. They may be offered ways to directly influence the action, in <a href="http://www.windmill.org.au/show/escape-from-peligro-island">choose your own adventure</a> formats, or through active collaboration with artists, as in <a href="http://www.borninataxi.com.au/family-shows/item/39-curious-game/">Born in a Taxi’s</a> play inspired works. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z45U3OvFZic?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Born in a Taxi.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interactive theatre’s near relative, “immersive” theatre, plunges audiences into the physical world of the show. For example, [Punch Drunk’s blockbuster <a href="http://www.sleepnomore.com/#share">Sleep No More</a> takes place in a custom-built environment that the audience wanders through at will. </p>
<p>While there is considerable variation between such productions, they usually involve improvisation, exciting sound and visual designs, and occur in places other than on traditional theatre stages. Arena Theatre’s recent work, <a href="http://www.arenatheatre.com.au/show/the-sleepover">The Sleepover</a>, was in the Victorian Arts Centre but it invited families to explore and play in the building’s back rooms and secret passages. </p>
<h2>What is driving the trend?</h2>
<p>The growth in interactive children’s theatre is probably fuelled by a combination of factors. Article 31 of the <a href="http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf">UN Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> asserts children’s right to participate in play, recreation, culture and the arts. It is increasingly being interpreted across the <a href="http://nma.gov.au/research/understanding-museums/BPiscitelli_2011.html">cultural sector</a> as the right for children to participate as creators as well as audiences.</p>
<p>This view implies a welcome belief and confidence in children’s creative abilities. </p>
<p>Technology constantly forces us to reconsider relationships between art, artists and audiences. Gaming culture offers players a range of interactive experiences, and technology is used by millions of people to create and share art easily and cheaply. Social media allows everyone to contribute to public debate and knowledge. </p>
<p>The more adults take for granted the right to have their say in forums such as the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/join-the-discussion.htm">live Twitter feed on ABC TV’s Q&A program</a>, the more it is reasonable to expect they will consider it natural to extend similar rights to children. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94608/original/image-20150914-1219-mots3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94608/original/image-20150914-1219-mots3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94608/original/image-20150914-1219-mots3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94608/original/image-20150914-1219-mots3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94608/original/image-20150914-1219-mots3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94608/original/image-20150914-1219-mots3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94608/original/image-20150914-1219-mots3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94608/original/image-20150914-1219-mots3d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arena Theatre company’s Sleepover, image by Kristian Laemmie-Ruff.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arena Theatre Company</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, there is a growing understanding by artists of the complex ways that children make sense of the world. Early childhood practitioners have long championed the sensory, physical, creative and emotional needs of young children, for whom spoken language is but one of <a href="https://www.reggioaustralia.org.au/categoryblog/89-1-what-is-the-educational-project-of-reggio-emilia">many ways</a> they explore and make meaning of their environment.</p>
<p>It’s important to note that many of the interactive theatre techniques being used now were explored by previous generations of artists, including pioneers of the Theatre in Education movement, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBzSYEY9eQs">Dorothy Heathcote</a>. Their work used drama to encourage children to actively and independently explore real-life issues. </p>
<p>Theatre for the very young, and theatre for children with special needs by companies such as <a href="http://www.oilycart.org.uk/">Oily Cart</a>, also have a long tradition of using interactive and sensory elements.</p>
<h2>The appeal for artists</h2>
<p>Children are capable of complex abstract thought, are open to unusual theatrical modes and have a finely-tuned sense of the ridiculous. That makes them an ideal audience for artists who want to play with new forms of narrative and staging. Artists are communicators and most actors relish the live interplay between themselves and audiences. Actor <a href="http://www.theatrelovett.com/">Louis Lovett</a> says that his performances are “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/the-girl-who-forgot-to-sing-badly/5648994">just great banter between myself and the audience</a>”.</p>
<p>Children’s willingness to give themselves over to a theatrical experience is a gift to artists who enjoy live, unpredictable interactions with audiences. </p>
<p>But before we consign conventional staging and text-based drama to the scrapheap of theatre history, we should be wary of assuming that the best way for children to experience theatre is always through overt physical or verbal interaction. Not every child enjoys direct participation and they should always be given a choice to be involved in this way or not. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dmPmPlZYwRs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Patch Theatre’s The Moon’s a Balloon.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not every artistic vision is best served by an interactive format, either. There is nothing worse than token, forced audience participation driven by a belief that children can’t sit still for 45 minutes. They can, and silence from children usually indicates deep engagement. In the foyer of the theatre where <a href="http://www.patchtheatre.org.au/">Patch Theatre</a> recently performed <a href="http://www.patchtheatre.org.au/moon.html">The Moon’s a Balloon</a>, a child had written on the comments board that they’d felt “hypnotised” by the performance. </p>
<p>In celebrating new developments in children’s theatre we should not forget the transformative wonder and delight of receiving another person’s artistic vision. </p>
<p>Likewise, the successful use of non-verbal modes of communication should not make us suspicious of spoken language. Productions of plays for children by writers such as <a href="http://finegankruckemeyer.com/">Finegan Kruckemeyer</a> show that well-crafted text and exciting staging are not mutually exclusive. </p>
<p>In the end, distinctions between <a href="http://artfacts.australiacouncil.gov.au/overview/participation-14/">“receptive” and “creative” participation</a> are somewhat artificial and we might be better off thinking about theatre as simply being good or bad. But if artists are motivated to make adventurous theatre for young people and are celebrating children’s creative abilities at the same time, this is good news for audiences and for the artform itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47362/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Andersen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expanded program of interactive performances for children at this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival harnesses their audience’s innate creative abilities and invites them to both watch and join in.Jennifer Andersen, PhD Candidate, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/283822014-08-04T20:41:09Z2014-08-04T20:41:09ZCreative relaxation: the healing potential of interactive art<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55132/original/6kcv3h2c-1406607540.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The BrightHearts app showing heart rate visualisation. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sensorium Health Pty Ltd</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s a growing body of medical research into the use of multimedia and gaming technologies for such tasks as <a href="http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/11/1/108">stroke rehabilitation</a> and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20691523">pain management</a>. </p>
<p>I believe that aesthetics play an important but often unacknowledged role in this work. Beyond just making things look pretty, the look, sound, and behaviour of these interactive designs can have a significant impact on what and how we feel.</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brighthearts/id843014240?mt=8">BrightHearts</a> is a creative relaxation training app developed by <a href="http://www.sensoriumhealth.com/">Sensorium Health</a> – the company I founded with fellow Sydney-based interaction designer Jason McDermott. It’s designed to help people observe and regulate stress and relaxation responses. </p>
<p>The app measures and translates changes in heart rate into a colourful and calming interactive art experience. It was originally designed as part of a research project with Dr Angie Morrow, a staff specialist in brain injury at Sydney’s Children’s Hospital at Westmead.</p>
<h2>From art gallery to app store</h2>
<p>Biofeedback training is a way of teaching people to regulate aspects of their bodily functions by providing a real time representation of the function being measured. By observing this sensor-driven display, subjects can learn to sense and eventually influence the signal being measured. </p>
<p>I started working with biofeedback in 2002, excited about the possibilities for a new way of experiencing and interacting with our bodies. This work combined the “objectivity” of bio-medical sensing technologies with the meditative sensibilities of eastern body-mind practices and the evocative power of live electronic art and music. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/54518/original/x6f4crrt-1406003746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/54518/original/x6f4crrt-1406003746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/54518/original/x6f4crrt-1406003746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54518/original/x6f4crrt-1406003746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54518/original/x6f4crrt-1406003746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54518/original/x6f4crrt-1406003746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54518/original/x6f4crrt-1406003746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/54518/original/x6f4crrt-1406003746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Heart Library Project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">George Khut</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2009, I piloted one of these works in a waiting area at St. Vincent’s Public Hospital Darlinghurst in a project called the <a href="http://georgekhut.com/heartlibrary/#1">Heart Library Project</a>. Visitors to this immersive, interactive exhibit explored connections between their breath, emotions and heart rate via a video image of themselves. This image was overlaid with colors and textures that changed according to subtle shifts in heart rate. After this they illustrated their experience using a body-map template to document the sensations, emotions and images they experienced during their interaction. </p>
<p>Since then I’ve continued my research into applications for interactive art in hospitals. </p>
<p>In 2011, I began the aforementioned collaboration with Dr Angie Morrow. We designed an interactive experience for children undergoing painful recurrent procedures such as injections, blood collection and central line changes. Anticipatory anxiety can be a serious problem for many children that can lead to significant distress, difficult behaviour and delays to clinic schedules.</p>
<p>The BrightHearts research project aims to evaluate the efficacy of our app for managing the pain and anxiety experienced by children during these procedures. The project will compare the reports from children using the BrightHearts biofeedback app compared to existing iPad-based distraction methods.</p>
<h2>How the app works</h2>
<p>The BrightHearts app rewards decreases in the user’s heart rate with colourful animated visuals and sound effects. It provides users with a tangible experience of connections between their mind and body and their capacity to regulate these interactions with their breathing and relaxation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
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<span class="caption">Screenshots from BrightHearts app showing visualisation for slower heart rates (blue) and faster heart rates (red). The goal of the interaction is to voluntarily influence the diameter of the rings, and the colour of the background - moving from red to organge, yellow, green and blue (slowest).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sensorium Health Pty Ltd.</span></span>
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<p>BrightHearts combines the principles of biofeedback interaction that have been in use since the 1970s with an “immersive” multimedia aesthetic that I’ve been working with for the past 12 years. </p>
<p>This approach takes a softer, more contemplative approach to visualisation than is usually associated with mobile games and information graphics. It’s about designing for a more relaxed way of looking - seeing but and feeling - but not necessarily “reading” or counting.</p>
<p>The past decade has seen growing interest in the application of art and design in health and medical research - and the important role that emotions, motivation and aesthetics play in human learning and recovery. </p>
<p>The best is definitely yet to come, but it is important to stress that this type of work will only become a reality in actual clinical practice - when there is a sufficient body of evidence-based research to confirm the effectiveness and viability of these approaches in clinic. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Poonkhin Khut works for and owns shares in Sensorium Health Pty Ltd, the company that has produced the BrightHearts app. The BrightHearts research project has been supported by the Australian Network for Art & Technology - Synapse Residency Program, the James N. Kirby Foundation, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.</span></em></p>There’s a growing body of medical research into the use of multimedia and gaming technologies for such tasks as stroke rehabilitation and pain management. I believe that aesthetics play an important but…George Poonkhin Khut, Lecturer, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.