Sensing a live audience.

Psychophysiological measurement has the potential to play an important role in audience research. Currently, such research is still in its infancy and it usually involves collecting data in the laboratory, where during each experimental session one individual watches a video recording of a performance. We extend the experimental paradigm by simultaneously measuring Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) of a group of participants during a live performance. GSR data were synchronized with video footage of performers and audience. In conjunction with questionnaire data, this enabled us to identify a strongly correlated main group of participants, describe the nature of their theatre experience and map out a minute-by-minute unfolding of the performance in terms of psycho-physiological engagement. The benefits of our approach are twofold. It provides us a robust and accurate mechanism for assessing a performance. Moreover, our infrastructure can enable, in the future, real-time feedback from remote audiences for online performances. We are currently scaling up the system allowing for simultaneous GSR measurement of larger audiences

Necessidades dos usuários de espaços de performances imersivas mediatizadas

Over the last two decades performance artists have made use of videoconferencing systems for installations, joint performances and rehearsals; often negotiating costly and bespoke (custom-made) soft and hardware. More recently, pervasive and low-cost videoconferencing technology has successfully been applied in mediated installations, paving the way for the technology to be incorporated into the curriculum of performance colleges thereby creating a need for systematic user requirement research. We report on a study in which theatre and dance students collaborated across a videoconferencing connection. The results highlighted different requirements for distributed theatre and dance practitioners and these findings form an input into an EU Framework 7 research program focusing on how to better support the mediated performance space and enable audience feedback and interaction. We highlight theoretical perspectives relevant to telepresence in performance. Lastly we describe how insights into user requirements for immersive mediated performance spaces led to building a prototype consisting of two Computer Aided Virtual Environments (CAVEs) connected via the Internet.Nas duas últimas décadas artistas performáticos vêm fazendo uso desistemas de videoconferências para instalações, performances conjuntas e ensaios, frequentemente negociando por preço elevado tanto o software quanto o hardware “bespoke” (feito sob encomenda). Recentemente, tecnologia pervasiva de baixo-custo para videoconferência tem sido aplicada em instalações mediadas, abrindo o caminho para uma tecnologia a ser incorporada no currículo das escolas superiores de performance, criando assim a obrigação de uma investigação sistemática sobre as necessidades do usuário. Relatamos um estudo no qual estudantes de teatro e de dança compartilham experiência por meio de conexão de videoconferência. Os resultados ressaltam as diferentes exigências feitas aos difusores de práticas de teatro e dança e esses resultados contribuem para um programa de investigação da UE Framework 7, cujo enfoque é a melhor forma de apoiar o espaço de atuação mediada, e permitir resposta interativa do público. Ressaltamos perspectivas teóricas relevantes para a telepresença em performance. Por último, descrevemos como insights sobre as necessidades dos usuários de espaços de performances imersivas mediadas levaram à construção de um protótipo que consiste em duas cavernas (CAVEs – Ambientes virtuais em Computer Aided [CAD]), conectadas através da internet

Towards an extended festival viewing experience

Media coverage of large-scale live events is becoming increasingly complex, with technologies enabling the delivery of a broader range of content as well as complex viewing patterns across devices and services. This paper presents a study aimed at understanding the experience of people who have followed the broadcast coverage of a music festival. Our findings show that the experience takes a diversity of forms and bears a complex relationship with the actual experience of being at the festival. We conclude this analysis by proposing that novel services for coverage of this type of events should connect and interleave the diverse threads of experiences around large-scale live events and consider involving more diverse elements of the experience of “being there”

Towards an extended festival viewing experience

Media coverage of large-scale live events is becoming increasingly complex, with technologies enabling the delivery of a broader range of content as well as complex viewing patterns across devices and services. This paper presents a study aimed at understanding the experience of people who have followed the broadcast coverage of a music festival. Our findings show that the experience takes a diversity of forms and bears a complex relationship with the actual experience of being at the festival. We conclude this analysis by proposing that novel services for coverage of this type of events should connect and interleave the diverse threads of experiences around large-scale live events and consider involving more diverse elements of the experience of ``being there''

Situated Immersion: The Living Room of the Future

This paper presents the Living Room of the Future which explores new forms of immersive experience which utiliseObject Based Media to provision media that is personalised, adaptable, dynamic, and responsive. It builds upon previous research on Perceptive Media, Internet of Things Storytelling, and Experiential Futures which, in contrast to approaches that simply conflate immersion with increased visual fidelity, proposes subtle and nuanced ways to immerse audiences in a situated context. The room-sized prototype demonstrates this approach to immersion and includes connected devices that provide contextual data to personalise the media as well as physical elements that enhance the immersive experience

The Living Room of the Future

Emergent media services are turning towards the use of audience data to deliver more personalised and immersive experiences. We present the Living Room of the Future (LRoTF), an embodied design fiction built to both showcase future adaptive physically immersive media experiences exploiting the Internet of Things (IoT) and to probe the adoption challenges confronting their uptake in everyday life. Our results show that audiences have a predominantly positive response to the LRoTF but nevertheless entertain significant reservations about adopting adaptive physically immersive media experiences that exploit their personal data. We examine ‘user’ reasoning to elaborate a spectrum of adoption challenges that confront the uptake of adaptive physically immersive media experiences in everyday life. These challenges include data legibility, privacy concerns and potential dystopias, concerns over agency and control, the social need for customisation, value trade-off and lack of trust

Physical representational objects with digital memory and methods of manufacture and use thereof

A representational object contains a visual representation of a character and a memory tag comprising a digital memory adapted to be read from when inductively powered. The digital memory contains digital content relating to the character represented visually on the representational object. At least a part of the digital content relates to function of the character in a game carried out by a gaming application and comprises executable code for execution in connection With operation of the gaming application

Sensing Audience Response- Beyond One Way Streaming of Live Performances

During a live theatre performance, Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) of 15 audience members was measured simultaneously and synchronized with video footage of performers and audience. Questionnaires explored emotions evoked during the play. The research is part of an EU Framework 7 program to support remote and interactive performances