From time to time I write or present around my artistic practice. Collected here are excerpts from research, development, and grant project opportunities I’ve had along the way.
2022
Odyssey Works Experience Design Certificate Program
In a year-long program, I’ll be deepening my practice in experience design and creating projects to share. Stay tuned for the results!
2022
Arrowhead Regional Arts Council: Individual Artist Project Grant
I received funding to complete work on a stretch of the Mesabi Trail Experience running from Hibbing, Minnesota, to Virginia, Minnesota.
2021
Minnesota State Arts Board: Creative Support for Individuals
I received funds to continue work on the Mesabi Trail Experience, an audio experience traversing a 135-mile long paved bike trail on Minnesota’s Iron Range.
2020
Odyssey Works Experience Design Project Incubator
I was chosen for the inaugural class of Odyssey Works’s workshop for developing projects in experience design to work on the Mesabi Trail Experience. I worked alongside 12 other innovative designers in a 14-week program as we supported each other in exploration and development of our immersive projects.
2020
Metropolitan Regional Arts Council: Next Step Fund
I was chosen as a Next Step Fund grant recipient as part of an unusual year of grantmaking: MRAC awarded New Step grants to all semi-finalists, and removed reporting qualifications to allow artists to use the grants for any needed expenses during the pandemic. These funds went towards equipment and production costs for Instructions for a Habitat Inventory, an original piece released in August 2020.
2019-2020
Forecast Public Art: Early Career Research and Development Grant
I received funds to plan and develop Iron Range: an auditory exploration, an interactive piece for the Mesabi Trail, a 135-mile paved bike trail on Minnesota’s Iron Range. Read more at Forecast’s website.
December 2018
A/part: artist residency at the Center for the Performing Arts in Minneapolis
See the CFPA blog post here that shares reflection on the creative process during my residency.
June 2016
Playing the Play: Applications of Interactivity, presentation at the Minnesota Theatre Alliance State Theatre Conference
In collaboration with Tyler Olsen of Dangerous Productions, I presented an introductory how-to session for theatre-makers from across the state of Minnesota. Examples and discussion included both local productions and the wider landscape of immersive and interactive performance.
May 2015
Graduate practicum in interactive performance
(This short essay on immersive performance was written in 2015, as a summary of a graduate practicum semester.)
I spent two months in London researching immersive, interactive, and gamified theatre. This included working on a new production with Punchdrunk Enrichment, interviewing theatre practitioners, and seeing dozens of live performances. Distilled here are a few basic concepts helpful in understanding the development of this field.
Defining Terms
“Immersive” has become a popular buzzword thanks to the commercial and critical success of shows like Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More in New York. However, definitions of terms like “interactive” and “participatory” continue to elude both practitioners and audiences. Below, find working definitions and practical examples of various terms in roughly the order of contribution they require from their audience.
Immersive Theatre
Work that places audience members inside the world of the production. Audience members inhabit the same physical space as the performers. In addition to seeing and hearing the play, audience members experience it kinesthetically. They may have a defined role in the narrative world, or they may be effectively invisible to the characters.
Punchdrunk's The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable
This piece, based on fragments from Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, is performed throughout six floors of intricately created environments. Audience members wear masks and are free to roam throughout the space, choosing where to explore and what characters to follow. Each audience member will have a different experience depending on their choices, and no one audience member can experience the entirety of the show in a single viewing. Although the audience inhabits the same space as the characters, they are, for the most part, treated as invisible, and do not affect the course of the story.
Interactive Theatre
Work that asks the audience to contribute to the action, but in which the audience’s actions ultimately do not affect the outcome. In this kind of work, each performance will be roughly the same no matter the audience. This is sometimes described as a narrative “on rails:” it moves along a pre-determined track.
Punchdrunk Enrichment's Against Captain’s Orders
Many plays for children fall into the “interactive” category. In Against Captain’s Orders, children are asked to solve puzzles, answer questions, and perform tasks to move the narrative forward. The play cannot proceed without this contribution from the audience. However, the performers guide the audience to move forward along a predetermined path. Events proceed in the same order and have the same outcome for every audience.
Participatory Theatre
Work that requires the audience to contribute to the making of the piece. The events of the play depend on audience decisions, and the outcome changes based on actions of audience. In this kind of work, each performance will be different depending on the audience participants. The audience has a defined role within the world of the play, and often act as characters in their own right. Creators of this kind of work suggest that they contribute the artistic framework and mechanisms, while the participants create the content.
Coney's A Small Town Anywhere
In this work, audience members take on the role of citizens in a small town. There are no actors present; rather, stimuli (such as a letter arriving or a clock striking midnight) are applied at specific times in the experience, and the audience reacts to them in-character. The content and outcome of the piece are entirely determined by the audience participants.
DifferenceEngine's Heist
In this work, audiences take on the role of a gang of thieves working together to pull off the theft of a painting. Some performers are present as character to move the narrative forward, but the strategy for the heist itself (as well as its ultimate success or failure) are up to the audience participants.
Gamified Theatre
Work that provides a framework of play for audiences to determine the course of the performance. In this kind of work, rules are presented that allow the audience to make real contributions. Often, the audience members are not framed as characters or as inside the world of the performance, but as players.
Kolider's The Money
Audience members can attend this performance either as “silent witnesses” (who have no role in the game) or as “benefactors.” The total amount the benefactors have paid for admission is the pot for that night. The benefactors must come to a unanimous decision on what to do with the money. The only stipulation is that the use must be legal. If no unanimous decision can be reached, the money rolls over to the next night’s performance. There are no characters; the audience players act as themselves.
Coney's Codename: Remote
A performer begins a narrative about a character, Sally. Each audience member has a white card. They are asked to hold up a card to vote for choices. For example, “Hold up your card if Sally takes the bus, otherwise walk.” There is no way to avoid voting, as a failure to hold up your card is still a vote. Although audience members can make their own individual decisions, the will of the majority rules in determining the course of the show. Audience players are also asked to provide suggestions for the votes (e.g. “What does Sally wear to her job interview?”).
Conclusions
These categories challenge the traditional role of the audience and raise questions about the boundaries and definitions of theatre. The distinctions between categories can seem small, but make a big difference in audience expectations (as well as in marketing). In addition, defining categories of interactive theatre is an important step towards developing criteria for aesthetic analysis of these kinds of work.