Invisible Belfast:Flat ontologies and remediation of the post-conflict city

[in]visible Belfast was a research-driven indie alternate reality game (ARG) that ran for 6 weeks during the spring of 2011 in Belfast and was subsequently adapted, 5 years later into a fictional documentary for BBC Radio 4. The ARG is a participatory and dispersed narrative, which the audience play through. The text expands outward across both physical and digital platforms to create a mystery for the players using everyday platforms. The ARG is a product of media convergence and at its heart transmedial, defined by its complexity and modes of participation. The fictional radio documentary which remediated the ARG into a more simple linear structure, but possibly a more complex narrative form, retells parts of the story for new audiences. The premise of [in]visible belfast – the game and later the documentary – is itself an adaptation of writer Ciaran Carson’s novel The Star Factory (1997): a postmodern adventure through the complex psychogeography of Belfast. A trail through the labyrinthine text, which paints the history of Belfast in poetic prose. This article will map the concept’s journey from novel to game to radio, contextualising its development within its political and urban landscape and charting the remediation of the narratives as they fold out across multiple media and complex story arches. The article will draw together ideas from previous publications on ARG, transmediality and complex textualities from the authors and reflect on the textual trajectories that the remediation of the narrative has taken from the original book, through the ARG, into the radio documentary. Building upon recent approaches from environmental philosopher Tim Morton and games theorist Ian Bogost, the authors argue that Belfast’s history propels medial adaptations of a particular kind, characterised by a ‘flat’ ontology of space and time and a sort of diffuse and dark urban experience for designers/producers and players/listeners

Volume 03

Introduction from Dean Dr. Charles Ross Little Shop of Horrors by Longwood Theater Department Who Has the Hottest Hotsauce in Farmville: A Quantitative Comparison of Sauces from Local Restaurants by Cheryl Peck and Charles Hoever Precipitation Effects on the Growth of White Oaks and Virginia Pines on the Mt. Vernon Plantation by Brittany Anderson Design and Synthesis of Novel Ion Binding Molecules for Self-Assembly and Sensing Applications by J. Ervin Sheldon A Statistical Analysis of Algorithms for Playing SameGame by Richard Hayden Intersecting Cylinders at Arbitrary Angles by Yuri Calustro Putting a Foot in the Revolving Door: Strategies for Reducing Teacher Attrition by Candice Fleming and Rebecca Franklin The Effect of Presentation on Spanish Vocabulary Recall by Ashley Yocum How Attractive Are You? Individuals Sensitivity to Number of Sexual Partners by Danielle M. Jagoda and Cristina M. Valdivieso Culturally Relevant Practices for Teaching Code-Switching to African-American Students in Kindergarten Classrooms by Jameka Jones Two Poems – “Dust” and “Check Out Girls” by Amy Ellis Three Poems – “Rosewood Massacre, 1923”, “Jarring” and “Reverence” by Ashley Maser Three Poems – “Dirty Thunderstorm”, “Summer Hide \u27N Seek Car Tag” and “Bliss” by Erikk Shupp Analysis of the Wilton Diptych by Jamie Yurasits “Nod”, “Corriline” “Flying” “Familiar” by Alexander Leonhart Papermaking by Kenny Wolfe and Sally Meadows “Plant” by J. Haley, Amy Jackson, and Morgan Howard “Dare to Dart” by Amy Jackson, Adrienne Heinbaugh and Melissa Dorton Untitled Photographs by Hopson “Lockets” by Morgan Howard Graphic Designs and Untitled Photographs by Ciarra Stalker Selections from a Senior Recital by Joshua Davi