The Presence Project

Following an intensive period of work at the UCL CAVE between February and July 2007 at UCL we are now beginning the process of analysing the outcomes of the first of our two experiments in VR.

During this period, Gabriella Giannachi, Nick Kaye, Mel Slater, David Swapp, Marco Gillies, with performer Annie Hudson, developed a mixed reality scenario in CAVE to test hypotheses defined in response to the our series of Performing Presence practice/research workshops in Exeter during 2006.

Using sophisticated motion capture and software, and developed as an interactive performative scenario between avatar, performer and participant, the experiment provided us with a wealth of qualitative and quantitative outcomes, including interviews, questionnaires and data recording physiological responses to the experience.

The outcomes of this process will feed into key project publications as well as shaping our developing work within CAVE. More images and details of the experiment will be available on the Collaboratory at http://presence.stanford.edu:3455/Collaboratory/645

The documentation of the workshops on which this process draws, and interviews with many of the contributing artists, including Tim Etchells, Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes, Fiona Templeton, and Phillip Zarrilli, are now available on the Presence Project Collaboratory at http://presence.stanford.edu

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The world premiere of Blast Theory's Day of The Figurines opens on Thursday 28th September 2006.

The Board (photo: Blast Theory)

Gabriella Giannachi has been documenting the development of the work on the Collaboratory at http://presence.stanford.edu:3455/Collaboratory/627

In Berlin, Gabriella will extend this work by tracking her experience of the game at http://presence.stanford.edu:3455/Collaboratory/758 .

This documentation will continue to evolve over the following 24 days of play.

The Locarno (photo: Blast Theory)

Day Of The Figurines is the world's first MUD (Multi User Domain) for mobile phones. Blast Theory describe it as 'a mass participation artwork using mobile phones that is part board game and part secret society'. They write:

Set in a fictional English town that is littered, dark and underpinned with steady decay, the game unfolds over 24 days, each day representing an hour in the life of the town. Up to 1000 players place their plastic figurines onto the board. They are moved by hand in a meticulous performance throughout the duration of the exhibition

Players participate by sending text messages. They must help other players as they receive updates from the town, missions and dilemmas. They can also chat to players who are near them in the town using text messages as events unfold in the town: a gig by Scandinavian death metallists, an invasion by a Middle Eastern army, a summer fete.

Day Of The Figurines will be running from Thursday 28th September to 21st
October 2006 from 4 to 8pm at HEBBEL AM UFER HAU 2: Hallesches Ufer 32 / 10963 Berlin.

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Blast Theory are presenting a 3 day public test of Day of the Figurines at the Sonar International Festival of Advance Music and Multimedia – Barcelona, Spain, on the 15th,16th,17th June 2006.

Day Of The Figurines, 2005. Copyright Blast Theory. Photo: Nicola Dove.

Gabriella (Giannachi) has just returned from visiting a 3 day preparatory workshop with Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj of Blast Theory, Steve Benford and team members from the Mixed Reality Lab, Nottingham University, Irma Lindt of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, and Alain Becam of the Interactive Institute, Stockholm.

Day Of The Figurines, 2005. Copyright Blast Theory. Photo: Nicola Dove.

Day Of The Figurines has been developed as part of the European research project IPerG (Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming) in collaboration with the Mixed Reality Lab at University of Nottingham, Sony Net Services, University of Gotland, Interactive Institute and the Fraunhofer Institute.
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We will be following and documenting the evolution of Day of the Figurines as part of the Presence Project over the next 18 months.

Our documentation of these processes will soon be emerging at: http://presence.stanford.edu:3455/Collaboratory/627

Blast Theory write that:

Day of the Figurines is set in a fictional town that is littered, dark and underpinned with steady decay. The game unfolds over a total of 24 days, each day representing an hour in the life of the town that shifts from the mundane to the cataclysmic; the local vicar opens a summer fete, Scandinavian metallists play a gig at the Locarno that goes horribly wrong and a gunship of Middle Eastern troops appears on the High Street. How players respond to these events and to each other creates and sustains a community during the course of a single day in the town. From the Gasometer to Product Barn, the Canal to the Rat Research Institute, up to 1,000 players roam the streets, defining themselves through their interactions. The centrepiece of the game is a 3.5 x 5 meter model town – at the Centre de Cultura Comtemporània de Barcelona - created using pop up metal buildings, overlaid with computer graphics. Each of the 1,000 players is represented by a small plastic figurine which is moved by hand every hour for the duration of the game.

The full day 24 day version of Day Of The Figurines will be launched in Berlin in September, which we will be following closely.

At Sonar by Day - at the Centre de Cultura Comtemporània de Barcelona C/
Montalegre, 5 08001 Barcelona, on 15,16,17th June 12.00 – 22.00

For more details -

www.dayofthefigurines.co.uk

www.blasttheory.co.uk

www.sonar.es

www.pervasive-gaming.org

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Matt Adams of Blast Theory has accepted a four year University Fellowship here at Exeter.

During our collaboration Matt will be associated with the Centre for Intermedia http://www.ex.ac.uk/drama/research/intermedia/welcome.shtml

Led by Matt, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj, Blast Theory is renowned internationally as one of the most adventurous artists’ groups using interactive media, creating groundbreaking new forms of performance and interactive art that mixes audiences across the internet, live performance and digital broadcasting.

Day Of The Figurines, 2005. Copyright Blast Theory. Photo: Nicola Dove.

For the past four years Blast Theory has been exploring the convergence of online and mobile technologies in collaboration with the Mixed Reality Lab at University of Nottingham http://www.mrl.nott.ac.uk/

Day Of The Figurines is a major new project being developed with MRL alongside Sony Net Services and the Fraunhofer Institute as part of the European research project IPerG (Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming).

The piece was piloted in July-August 2005 and will be fully developed through 2006.

Mapping players’ real-time gaming via mobile phones from any location, through figurines occupying a model of a fictional city, Day Of The Figurines explores action, identity and interaction in reversals and exchanges between real and virtual social and political spaces.

Day Of The Figurines, 2005. Copyright Blast Theory. Photo: Nicola Dove.

Blast Theory describe the premise of the piece:

Day of The Figurines is set in a model of a fictional city that is littered, dark and underpinned with steady decay. From the Gasometer to Product Barn, the Canal to Rat Research Institute, up to 100 players roam the streets, defining themselves through their interactions. A gunship of Arabic troops appears on the High Street. Scandinavian metallists play a gig at the Locarno that goes horribly wrong. How players respond to these events and to each other creates and sustains a community during the course of a single day in the city.

The company has also been commissioned to create a major, new permanent installation for THEpUBLIC in West Bromwich UK, due to open in 2006.

Using Augmented Reality, Flypad will generate avatars from a 'data body' - information submitted by visitors on their entry to the gallery and as they progress through the space.

Flypad. Permanent commission for THEpUBLIC's new building, West Bromwich, to be launched in 2006. Copyright Blast Theory.

At the installation, up to twelve players will be able to fly their avatars through the gallery’s large central atrium, while attempting holds and forming moves with other avatars.

In its appearance, Flypad draws on Peking Opera, Mexican wrestling, facemasks, and skydiving.

Matt suggests that:

The whole work springs from the architectural location [….] What we're trying to do is make sure that the virtual representation and the real space which sits around it are as seamlessly interlinked as possible, that there's a very fluid relationship between the two [...] the sense of play that you will experience as you dart between real and virtual, and experience the frisson of this difference, is a very important part of the pleasure of it.

Blast Theory's complex and immersive game-structures distribute player-presence across multiple and incongruent sites and networks.

During Matt’s Fellowship we will be developing critical frameworks through which to engage with Blast Theory’s radical work.

As part of this, we will be documenting the development of work by the company through the Presence Project Collaboratory.

Blast Theory’s website is at http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/

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