Making invisible stories visible: exploring opportunities provided by the intersection of physical/digital space in creating embodied story experience

本博士将探索物理世界和数字世界的新交叉点所带来的机会，通过在公共空间设计和测试一系列实验性干预措施，将不可见的故事变为可见。我将用实践作为研究来理解新技术在创造叙事驱动体验方面的启示及其对观众的影响。让不可见的故事变得可见：Jason Farman指出，移动技术通过“让不可见的故事变得可见”（2015），具有潜在的政治力量，可以将一个地方的边缘叙事呈现在前台。我想开发沉浸式体验的方法，让那些被边缘化或看不见的故事的人在他们生活的城市里留下自己的印记。可玩性：Proto-Type（2009）的《Fortnight》尝试将用户作为自己故事体验的主角。这个持续的作品是通过使用短信、RFID和电子邮件指示参与者在几天内反映了“经验的戏剧”，导致观众和叙事之间的新关系（Petralia, 2012）。在我自己的早期工作中，我使用SMS创造了一款戏剧性的城市街道游戏，并帮助协调主要故事点，我发现在混合游戏设计中，戏剧性是通过给玩家一个任务来支撑的（2011年2.8小时后，《刺激》2012年）。这种交互性和可玩性的叙事将玩家角色塑造为主角，这是我大部分作品的核心组成部分，我发现玩家会对自己所选择的故事非常投入（游戏邦注：如《花园中的幽灵》、《骑士的危险》、《透过他人的眼睛》和《Running to Flight》）。随着新的AR和VR技术的出现，我想用它们来设计创造可玩体验的新方法。身临其境：由于定位技术和互动体验设计可以将物理和数字结合成一个无缝的体验，故事的身临其境现在成为可能。但是，当屏幕上的注意力会导致与现实脱节时，我们如何利用数字技术创造出化身的感觉呢？这一观点与相对较新的心理学范式“具身认知”产生了共鸣。这源于Lakoff的具身隐喻理论，该理论认为感觉和运动输入是我们认知过程中不可或缺的一部分。换句话说，我们的理性和理解与我们的身体经验是分不开的；事实上，它们不可逆转地交织在一起。所以，潜在地，身体上演绎一个故事并在其中走动，可以创造一种深刻的体验，这种体验在无意识层面上引人入胜。制定的叙事对记忆、感觉和享受的影响还有待研究，但毫无疑问，它是强大的，正如Blast Theory的《A Machine to See With》（2010）和Duncan Speakman的《Our Broken Voice》（2010）所证明的那样。最近的AR和VR技术使这些类型的体验的复杂性和多重线性发生了潜在的变化，例如游戏设计软件平台Unity可以实现定位和三维声音设计，微软的Hololens可以实现混合现实。它们具有巨大的尚未开发的潜力，可以创造新形式的具体化故事。自我、他人和地点的探索：我的概念项目“移情”探索了使用定位移动媒体来激发人类社会关系中的移情，使参与者能够体验角色的经历。该项目揭示了使用沉浸式技术的巨大潜力，这种技术可以增强现实世界，与“他人”建立更深层次的联系，并通过他人与自我建立联系。通过设计实验和完成的作品，我将寻求发展这项工作，并将上述想法作为这篇博士论文的实践部分。

This PhD will explore opportunities presented by the new intersections of physical and digital worlds, to make invisible stories visible through designing and testing a series of experimental interventions in public space. I will use practice as research to understand the affordances of new technologies in creating narrative driven experiences and their effect on audiences. Making Invisible Stories Visible: Jason Farman points out the potential political power that mobile technologies have for foregrounding marginal narratives in a place through "making visible the invisible stories" (2015). I would like to develop methods for immersive experiences to enable people with marginalised or invisible stories to leave their mark in the cities in which they live.Playability: "Fortnight" by Proto-Type (2009) experimented with using the audience as the central protagonist of their own story experience. This durational piece was enabled by the use of SMS, RFID and email instructions to participants over several days that reflected a "Dramaturgy of Experience" that resulted in a new relationship between audience and narrative (Petralia, 2012). In my own early work creating theatrical city wide street games using SMS to help orchestrate major story points, I found where game design was added to the mix the dramaturgy was underpinned by giving the players a mission (2.8 hours later 2011, Incitement 2012). This interactivity and playable nature of the narrative which enforces the audience role as protagonist is a central component in most of my work, where I've found audiences become very invested in the stories they make choices in (Ghosts in the Garden 2012, A Knight's Peril 2014, Through Another's Eyes 2014 and Running to Flight 2015). As new AR and VR technologies become available I'd like to experiment with them to devise new ways to make playable experiences.Embodiment and Presence: The embodiment of story is now possible due to location technology and interactive experience design that can combine physical and digital into one seamless experience. But when screen-attention can result in disconnection with reality how de we create feelings of embodiment using digital technology? The idea resonates with the relatively recent psychological paradigm of 'Embodied Cognition'. This has its roots in Lakoff's embodied metaphor theory, which contends that sensory and motor inputs are integral to our cognitive processes. In other words, our reason and understanding are not separate from our physical experience; indeed they are irrevocably intertwined. So potentially, physically enacting a story and walking around in it, can create a deeply felt experience that's engaging on an unconscious level. The impact on memory, feeling and enjoyment of enacted narratives is yet to be studied, but it is in no doubt powerful, as demonstrated by Blast Theory's "A Machine to See With" (2010) and Duncan Speakman's "Our Broken Voice" (2010). More recent AR and VR technologies enable a potential step-change in the sophistication and multi-linearity of these types of experience e.g. game design software platform Unity enables both located and three-dimensional sound design and Microsoft's Hololens allows a mixed reality. These have huge as yet untapped potential to create new forms of embodied stories.Explorations of Self, Other & Place: My concept project 'Empath' explores the use of locative mobile media to inspire empathy in human social relations, enabling participants to inhabit a character's experience. The project has uncovered significant potential for using immersive technologies that augment the real world in creating deeper connection to the 'other' - and through the other, to self. Through design experiments and finished pieces, I will be seeking to develop this work, and the ideas outlined above as the practice component of this PhD.