Matt Adams Cultural Landscapes Visit

Blast Theory (since 1991)

-new interactive art, game play, digital media
-started as a group of varied people who all worked in a cinema

--the moment you graduate is a moment of truth. the first 12 months in which you attempt to transition into professional practice is rough.

-put first shows into club/rave culture, as at the time it was at its pre-corporate peak. It was a good setting for new work.

Studied loss of control by offering audiences the chance to be kidnapped. People hand over control in most aspects of life to politicians, religion, schools--how do you handle having everything in your life controlled by someone else?

study permeable boundaries between real and virtual space.

studied soldiers who do most of their killing on computer screens and never have to really deal with the actual killing of a person.

studied divide between media coverage of individual killed US soldiers in Iraq versus the hundreds of thousands of nameless, faceless Iraqi civilians.

"Can you See me Now?" first mixed reality game. online/live tag.

"You Get Me?" creating a dialogue between artists and audiences is vital for participatory work.

charity status gets you donations. interns are free labor.

practice needs to be central to your focus or you'll get used to your paycheck. it is hard to take a pay cut on purpose.

funding may come in the shape of "we got a grant and we'll buy things with it that you can use." don't sneer. partner with groups already in receipt of funding. Industrial funding bodies, univerities, and scientific research bodies are valuable--but they will constrain creative input.

now that we have the internet we don't need tv stations to be the gatekeepers of broadcast.

some ventures may not lead to products but taking a year to learn and develop is valuable.

--see if there is a community out there that will support you that isn't just the arts. like Gamers.

--some development bodies have realized that if you let the artists you want to attract lead development, you will have the art you want in your technology.

Integrated Project on Pervasive Gaming--games as Culture, not just platforms, but pervasive forms: things which influence society and technology by Being Themselves.

Reaching an audience that doesn't go to the theatre is hard. Sometimes you have to make yourself unrecognizable as theatre--be seductive and engaging without being trashy.

Social networking sites are not just for marketing--they can help you figure out who your audience could be.

People like marketing to 14 year old boys. Why is this demographic so important?

The Anti-Climactic Experience: do people feel disappointed or frustrated because there's no 'boss level', which they have come to expect, in organized/led activity? Do we simply expect a narrative, or at least linear flow, because that's how most literature is arranged, or is this something innate? Even people who don't do theatre play video games and watch movies. We expect a boss level as a final challenge. That means we've won. That's the problem with endurance pieces. That's why many people find social networking "gaming" dissatisfying and even boring. Small Worlds, as a platform, is interesting enough, but it doesn't lead anywhere. Grand Theft Auto, without the scripted games, is just a grid of intangible space. We need an objective or it just feels like daily life minus touch, taste, or smell. Mere interaction with a platform is stagnation. Experience for experience's sake feels, if not empty, incomplete. Audiences need to win or lose in order to feel as though they've spent their time wisely. The maze is only over when you figure out the way out--and if someone helps you, you lose.

I think some open-platform games should have a self-destruct function. After you've won everything there is to win, they explode. When it's over, make it Over. Take it away conclusively, but only after it has achieved its objective and provided satisfaction.

Is Rider Spoke Cathartic or Experiential? Should audiences be trusted to make their own experiences? Is that why they're there? Are they audiences anymore?

Researchers don't get out much. Express interest in them, be honest and specific--even if you don't know what you're doing. They're the expert.

Remember that politically charged groups have agendas that probably don't align with yours.