Augmented Role-Play
Augmented Role-Play is the result of a research-creation process inspired by devised theatre and game design practices. By interrogating tools and technologies, and by undertaking play-based experimentation with theatre performers and improvisers, two augmented installations were created. Above is a demonstration of the collaborative and generative potential of the augmented role-play technology stack.
Playtime for Punctum
The player takes the role of an imaginary friend, named Punctum, who has been made real again after being forgotten for years. Punctum and their friend, portrayed by a human performer, play games augmented by imagination as they rekindle the spark of friendship that brought them together.
Production of Playtime for Punctum was interrupted by the COVID-19 crisis. Below, cut together from test and rehearsal footage, is a walkthrough of the narrative of Playtime for Punctum when rehearsal was forced to stop.
Links
- Thesis Document A thesis presented to OCAD University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Design in Digital Futures.
- Script Performance script for the most recent version of Playtime for Punctum.
- GitHub Repository containing the code of Playtime for Punctum.
Description
M.Des Master's Thesis
2020
Augmented Role-Play is the term given to the unique type of technologically-augmented participatory performance located at the junction of theatre, games, and augmented reality.
A technology stack allows the player's body to interact with virtual elements overlaid on real-world architecture, allowing performances to interrogate the relationship between the player, the performer, the virtual, and the actual.
By allowing an improvisational flexibility in the performer's spoken words and the technological structure, the experience becomes one that is generous and generative, flexible and permeable, unique based on the participant's choices, both social and structural.