Matt Adams, Blast Theory

since 1991

new interactive art, game play, digital media.

Moment of graduation is a moment of truth: transition into professional practice is a rough 12 months.

Blast theory started with a diverse group of people working in a cinema. they realized that they had a niche to fill when club culture and raving were at their pre-corporate peak--it was a good setting for new work.

study giving up control: being kidnapped. observe how well people actually handle loss of control, when in so many instances we give it up freely (religion, politics, government)

Permeable boundaries between Real and Virtual space: mist screens, walk-through-able

What is virtual space? How do soldiers feel okay killing images on screens and not having to deal with feeling like they've actually killed people?

Can You See Me Now? First mixed-reality game.
Day of the Figurines: halfway through the game the town is invaded by Arabic-speaking soldiers
You Get Me? creating a dialogue between artist and audience is vital for participatory work

Logistics:
Charity status--Free money!
take on freelancers, assistants, and transient staff

Practice needs to be central or you'll get used to money. Very hard to make that pay cut willingly.

Touring, Arts Council, grants, and occasional "juicy ones" pay the bills--filled a very specific niche at a specific time. Be pragmatic about what AC wants, how you can prove that you fulfill their needs. Ask for advice from people who can give you things. Funding may come in the form of "We'll buy some equipment for ourselves and let you use it"-don't turn up your nose! partner with companies who are receiving funding. leech off of industrial Funding Bodies, universities, scientific researching bodies--but they will constrain creative input.

now that we have internet we don't need tv companies to act as the gate-keepers to broadcast.

no product may come out of some ventures but taking a year (and a grant) to learn can be valuable too.

Find a community that supports you--not just the arts. (gamers have money and love Blast Theory--useful) connect with research branches of big companies (not marketing, manufacturing, or sales--the research team at Nokia is filled with academics, not cell-phone salesmen)

-if companies let the artists lead research, art will happen in your technology. scientists and computer types generate the technology, artists figure out how to use it in cool ways.

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

Get involved with projects which may put you in touch with organizations that may take you on. be prepared to diversify. It is hard to reach an audience that doesn't go to the theatre. Blast Theory is not even recognized as theatre--but it is seductive and engaging without being trashy.

social networking sites are not just useful for marketing--they're good for figuring out who your audience could be.

(what is marketing's obsession with grabbing 14-year old boys? It's kinda creepy how much effort and money is put into nabbing children when they're young--you still have mommy's money and you'll pitch a fit if you don't get it...great. i f'ing hate kids. religions, political parties, patriotism, toys...get 'em while they're young. sick.)

In Rider Spoke, is there an anti-climactic experience? Do people feel disappointed or frustrated because there's no boss level which we have come to expect in organized, led activity? Do we simply expect a narrative, or at least some linear flow? IS this something that is innate? Even people who don't 'do' theatre play video games and watch movies. We expect a boss--a final challenge. That means we've WON. That's the problem with endurance pieces. That's why we find social networking gaming dissatisfying. Small worlds, as a platform, Grand Theft Auto as just an open world is boring. If there's no objective it just feels like daily life. Mere interaction with a platform is stagnation. Experience for experience's sake feels, if not empty, incomplete. Audiences need to win in order to feel as though they spent their time wisely. The maze is only over once you've figured your way out. If you must be led out, you've lost. Make it something you can interact with until a point, at which point it explodes. If it blows up, you win. When it's over, make it Over. Take it away conclusively, but only after it has achieved its objective, provided satisfaction.

Is Rider Spoke cathartic or experiential? Should audiences be trusted to make their own experiences? Are they audiences anymore? What is at stake for the creator? If nothing is risked, nothing is created.

Conferences aren't a bad thing. Learn how other people work, how they research.

Embedded video, virtual working tvs...magpie approach. pick and take others' technologies, research, staff, stuff.

Researchers don't get out much--express interest in them. offer to give them publicity. Talk to people you come across in your research, if they're alive. Be honest and specific: you don't have to know what you're doing. They're the experts.

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

be thinking about logistics of developing projects: how wold you, who would you, not a specific show. First steps of engagement. Figure out what practicalities might be. What is your concept? Here is my theoretical idea, what I'm excited about--what is my next practical step toward exploring that idea?