How Interactivity Is Changing in Immersive Performances

Abstract

New, immersive or transmedia storytelling tools or game design elements can engage new audiences to watch performances. Companies which define themselves as performing art companies are creating immersive experiences that use various tactics in engaging their participants, including gamification mechanics and video game strategies, and also elements of interactive & transmedia storytelling, which increases the level of immersion as well. My research hypothesis is that new technology tools and immersive environments which incorporate video game mechanics used in performing arts context are changing the interactivity aspect of performances. To be able to scale or to define the level of interactivity in such productions it is necessary to perform an analysis using interactive storytelling, game studies and media archeology, but hermeneutical research and field studies (surveys and deep interviews) are also conducted. Phenomenological studies on the materiality of interaction design will also be used in defining the interactivity and the level of participation. In the current state of the work I’m focusing on “analogue” type of immersive performances (e.g. Danish company SIGNA) that can be analyzed with the help of a game studies approach, but I also focus on how these immersive performances create narrative environments. Parallel to this, I have conducted an audience survey which focused on whether the participants have the same interaction feeling as in video games or VR-environments.