Postphenomenological performance in interactive narrative

This paper addresses the performance of bodies through a postphenomenological framework developed by Don Ihde. Through his theory, I will argue how performance is central to the stories of two recent interactive artworks: Dennis Del Favero’s Scenario (2011) and Blast Theory’s A Machine to See With (2010). Both artworks are distinct interactive narratives that utilize the human body in different ways. In each experience, it is essential for the user’s body to perform with a technology in order to move the story through a sequence of events. In doing so the user as a performing body co-authors the story by interfacing with a technology in a specific way. My readings of the artworks are based on interviews that I have conducted with each of the artists. I pair these accounts with Ihdeian analysis to explain how different types of technologies and different uses of a technology break down into different human-technology relationships. I use these relationships to show how the story in each artwork is mobilized through the body of the participant as a postphenomenological performance

The pervasive and the digital

This paper discusses two immersive story worlds between two distinct interactive artworks. Blast Theory’s A Machine to See With (2010) is a pervasive fictional experience that enables users, through the technology of their mobile phone, to become immersed within a fictional crime scenario across a real geographical setting. Dennis Del Favero’s art project, Scenario (2011), by contrast, is an interactive and immersive story that takes place in a 360-degree digital cinematic space called an AVIE (Advanced Visualization and Interaction Environment). This immersive world is a mixed reality environment, a meeting place where five real users and ten digital screen characters converge and interact through the technology of motion sensing. Participants are virtually wired into the immersive world through the performance of their movement. This paper will explore both of these artworks through original interviews the author has conducted with each of the artists