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IMAGINE Network Syposium March 23, 2006, BANFF

IMAGINE Network Syposium March 23, 2006, BANFF. Hacking Interactive Storyworlds Out of Linear Plotlines. aka “From Integrated Performance Media to Interactive Storyworlds”. LORI SHYBA and J.R. PARKER Digital Media Laboratory, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program,

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IMAGINE Network Syposium March 23, 2006, BANFF

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  1. IMAGINE Network SyposiumMarch 23, 2006, BANFF Hacking Interactive Storyworlds Out of Linear Plotlines aka “From Integrated Performance Media to Interactive Storyworlds” LORI SHYBA and J.R. PARKER Digital Media Laboratory,Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada http://www.sundialmedia.com

  2. Overview What is this PhD research about? Q: “How can interactive theatre in computational environments lead us to better understand urgent social and political issues?” What is the process by which improvisational and activist theatre might be combined with computer technologies to create innovative interactive theatre art and games? What’s “art” got to do with it? …Can it open us to possibilities of connections with our community, glimmers of meaning or truth, and maybe even hope for a better world? Follow the energy …

  3. Urgent Issue #1 … Follow the Energy in … THE ALBERTA OIL SANDS For a mere $120 billion investment (and rising)1.6 TRILLION BARRELS of Bitumen could be recovered from the Oilsands. There’s a paradox …

  4. THE WORLD AT OUR DOOR What is the paradox? It has to do with ECONOMIC RISK! Will the future price of oil remain high enough for oilsands development to remain profitable? What if alternative fuel development takes the price below $20-30 US per barrel? or What if citizens of the world get smart and lower their levels of consumerism? WHAT THEN? Keep following the energy …

  5. Follow the energy of subversive humour … SPIES IN THE OILSANDS An Interactive Performance Media Cabaret Set in Japan, Finland, Northern B.C., and a Fort McMurray detox spa, Spies in the Oilsands is the story of Terra Incognita, an amateur idealist who steals half-baked alternative energy secrets from oil company “fossil fools” in order to save the world. These fossil fools want to keep their secrets suppressed until they can exploit the Alberta Oilsands, so they conspire to kill her ... but she kills them first. Her guilt-ridden soul is tormented by the burden of their brutal assassinations, she confesses to her detox nurses, and is dealt a series of public retributions from global courts. What’s an Interactive Performance Media Cabaret? As I define it, IPM is a technology-mediated, hybrid art form that combines live theatre, complete with story narrative, and singing and dancing, (and martinis?), screen-delivered cinema and sound design along with audience interaction. This IPM script is a “historybook” of much more innovative storyworld building, you’ll see. It just takes some hacking up.

  6. The “Role Players” — Spies vs Spies The Diversity Generators vs The Conformity Enforcing Fossil Fools The Diversity Generators (Protagonists) Terra Incognita20s, owner/operator of Terra Fuels Inc. Terra wants to save the world and prove herself as a major player in the global energy game. Dr. Amen Ra40s, detox Doctor, Egyptian Sun God, Deus ex Machina. The Nurses Three detox nurses/confession receivers and set changers. The Fossil Fools (Collective Antagonists) Larry + TarzanaOilpatch security scouts secretly developing the energy of hot sex (wind energy). Shacho-san + Mariko Work for a Japanese SAG-D bitumen extraction research lab that is secretly developing gas hydrate methane fuel. Boris Goofinoff is a Russian blackmarket-trained entrepreneur who wheels and deals in nuclear power, and runs Russky Financial service. He secretly develops hemp-oil biodiesel products.

  7. EXPLORATION #1: In what ways is the Spies “Integrated Performance Media” (IPM) script “hack-able” i.e. how does the inherent temporal fragmentation of this story structure suggest the possibility of aleatory storyworlds? Watch for the green dots and yellow diamonds on the linear escalation -- this is where the glue is weakest Then imagine pulling on both ends of the line until it blows apart. Follow the Energy …because anyone can write a “play” but it takes guts to trust audiences with games of chance interventions.

  8. Escalating Action Chart From Integrated Performance Media …hack away

  9. Interactive Roadmap To an Interactive Storyworld creation …What a hack job. What Energy!

  10. EXPLORATION #2 What kind of play spaces emerge from this hack job and how might they amplify our concerns about our world’s energy resources to an audience who are active player/participants? The criteria for these storyworlds • Have the possibility of a self-contained “story” in them — a player-initiated chance interventions that sometimes builds to a climax in the form of a game. • Provide a dynamic symmetry of experience between audience/players and the “author”; emparting a cyclical process of intertextual interpretation for both allowing a player to put their own “stamp” on the experience. • Embed a serious message of depletion/replacement of our world’s natural energy resources – a support structure for eco-activism. • Provide a model for qualitative research data collection, verification, and validation through discussion and interpretive discourse.

  11. Behind Door # 1: Role Playing Game The leveling up process of gameplay would be much the same as escalating action for characters of the Spies IPM script — set a goal, encounter the dangers/risks, procure the objects of desire, slay the enemy, and proceed to the next level. Benefit: Can use existing script plan because of the inherent interactivity and “stereotypical” nature of the characters. Downside: Hugely expensive. (Did I mention this isn’t Lord of the Rings?)

  12. Behind Door # 2: Stereoscopic VR Games VR plot nodule scenarios are an exciting prospect for Spies as a gameplay space. Scenarios, complete with their designated stereoscopic games, could be produced for a specific VR “cave,” such as Calgary’s CCIT iCentre, then bundled and sent around the world as a Spies International tour — new venues for a new form of performance game experience. VR productions offering visual arts-aligned installation or “toys” are plentiful but those that interactively unravel stories in a time-based temporality or “game” are rare.

  13. Door # 3: Stand-Alone Computer Games Games that are entrenched in the IPM narrative: • The “Pipeline Pinball Energy Thrill Ride Game,” you’ll see the demo of this game tomorrow. • “The Methane Crystal PakuPaku Game, modeled after a PacMan computer game meets Karaoke extracted from the action of, “The Japanese hot spring SAGD research lab.” • A Global Positioning game, modeled after a Duck Shoot computer game — extracted from the action of “The Russian Oil Tanker Spill.”

  14. Storyworlds of Act One Oil Rig Northern Canada Japanese Hotspring Spa Russian Oil Tanker Any one of these storyworlds has the possibility of a self-contained “story” in them — a player-initiated narrative that builds to a climax in the form of a game.

  15. A “serious” game? Maybe a “guerrilla” game! Is it Education or Art? The Pipeline Pinball Energy Thrill Ride Game

  16. There’s energy in these particular storyworlds on several levels Socio-economic: That we can’t afford to ignore alternative energy development while we exploit existing world hydrocarbon resources, such as the Alberta Oilsands, to their inevitable depletion. Art + Science/Technology: That theatre can make a significant contribution to guerrilla (activist/political) game design by implementing experiential/temporal creative processing. Methodological:That through design analysis, relationships may be found in these storyworlds between theatre art, computer-technology and engineering, and interactive games. Can this evolve artifacts and events towards the expression of original theories? I think so.

  17. WANT TO READ OUR SCHOLARLY PAPER …From which this was hacked? Complete with Bibliography! Check out the ACM Digital Library http://portal.acm.org/affiliated/citation.cfm?id=1109180.1109207&coll=ACM&dl=acm&type=series&idx=1109180&part=Proceedings&WantType=Proceedings&title=ACM%20International%20Conference%20Proceeding%20Series&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618 Or easier still www.sundialmedia.com/papers/ie2005.pdf

  18. Thanks to Foreign Affairs Canada, Research and Conference Fund; The Alberta Foundation for the Arts; The University of Lethbridge; The University of Calgary, Special Project Grant Committee; The University of Calgary, CCIT iCentre; The Petroleum History Society; The University of Technology, Sydney; and EMMEDIA Production Society. Thanks for supporting the energy …

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