An Artistic Template for Audience Engagement

1. An Artistic Template for Audience Engagement • Boris Willis, Associate Professor • Computer Game Design • George Mason University bwillis3@gmu.edu • CEO, Black Russian Games • @boriswillis • boriswillismoves.com • blackrussiangames.com

2. Mark Morris Bill T Jones Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker Choreographers I like! Crystal Pite Camille Brown Kyle Abraham

3. I began with a question! •Why do some choreographer’s create consistently good work and other don’t?

4. Kyle Abraham- Abraham in Motion What makes a dance “good”…?

5. What makes any performance good? • Dance/Theater/Movie/Game

6. Pina Bausch What a choreographer does! Crafts movement performed by a dancer, usually for an audience. Designs experiences for an audience using movement, lighting, sound, costumes, props, sets, voice, text or multimedia.

7. Susan Rethorst Choreographic Thinking • “a kind of spatial emotional map of a situation, the emotional psychological reading of place, and of people in relation to that place and each other”

8. William Forsythe • “A choreographic object is not a substitute for the body, but rather an alternative site for the understanding of potential instigation and organization of action to reside. • Ideally, choreographic ideas in this form would draw an attentive, diverse readership that would eventually understand and, hopefully, champion the innumerable manifestations, old and new, of choreographic thinking.”

9. Bound Plastic Studios • Movement focused • Minimal narrative • Platforming

10. Natasha: A Game of Dance, Prototype  Story focused  Minimal challenge

11. The beginnings of most performances is accepted but what happens next can make or break the experience. Understanding what is happening helps the viewer get into the experience and stay engaged. Finding 1. Eyes have to adjust to the scene and movement, brain has to adjust to the questions you start to ask.

12. When the next thing works, it must transform. You create a movement language that speaks through abstract movements or narrative. Finding 2.

13. Repetition grounds the experience but it must transform over time. Repetition creates clarity and confidence for the viewer. Finding 3. The movement language creates understanding and comfort if it is not expanded too much or too fast.

14. • The unexpected must occur within the possibility space that was established in the beginning. • Lead the viewer to believe something is going to happen but it doesn’t • Do something the viewer doesn’t think of but is in the possibility space Finding 4.

15. How do choreographers create good work?

16. Affordance Clarity Feedback Understanding Familiarity Simplicity

17. • Unexpected but possible based on how you establish the world Surprise

18. • Player, story, world, gameplay must be different and altered in some way at the end of the game Transformation

19. Repetition 1 2 3 Establishing that what the player is seeing is intended Reminding the player of what they need to do by repeating it Reinforcing ideas so the player remembers them

20. William Forsythe Synchronous Objects http://synchronousobjects.osu.edu/

21. Dance Exchange Toolbox http://danceexchange.org/

22. Wayne McGregor http://waynemcgregor.com/learning/resources/ •Choreographic Thinking Tools

23. Thank You Boris Willis, Associate Professor Computer Game Design George Mason University bwillis3@gmu.edu CEO, Black Russian Games @boriswillis boriswillismoves.com blackrussiangames.com An Artistic Template for Audience Engagement