The Justice Syndicate: A Practice as Research Project exploring immersion and agency in actorless technologically-enabled interactive performance, juror behaviour and reasonable doubt.

Abstract

The Justice Syndicate is a 90-minute performance featuring an audience of 12 who become jurors considering a difficult case. All of the content (video, documents, prompts to interact, invitations to vote) is delivered to the audience on iPads using a bespoke new software system, creating an original art form: technologically-enabled actorless interactive performance. It has been performed 80 times over 2 years to members of the public in theatres (including National Theatre of Scotland), law courts (Dublin High Court) and festivals (York Mediale). It was a collaboration between Drama researcher Dan Barnard, theatre maker Rachel Briscoe, computational artist Joe McAlister and neuroscientist Kris De Meyer. Our research questions were: Q1: Can an interactive performance without live actors facilitate in audience members a sense of immersion and a high level of agentive behaviour? Q2: Can different juries, given the same evidence in the same order, reach different decisions and if so why? We surveyed the (psychological, theatrical, legal) literature on immersion, juries and group decision-making before undertaking an iterative design process. The resulting performance is one of the first attempts to remove live actors from interactive performance, instead using digital platforms to stimulate interaction. Our results (elaborated upon in the two supplementary articles) offer new insights in the realms of interactive performance and jury studies: Q1: Creating interactive performance facilitated by machines can stimulate immersion by removing the fear of embarrassment, particularly by removing distinctions between “performers” and “audience.” It can also stimulate a high intensity of “agentive behaviour.” Q2: Different juries, presented with the same evidence, can reach a wide range of different decisions. This is caused by group dynamics and how discussions play out rather than demographic differences or differences in individual psychology. We propose teaching jurors the psychological dynamics of group discussions to avoid being unconsciously influenced by them. This portfolio contains: An article about the project, published in the Journal of Law and Humanities An article about the project, published in the International Journal of Performance and Digital Media Video documentation of the project A spreadsheet of the show structure Reviews and press coverage Evidence of performances