BIG DATA
A LIVE ACTION GAME
‘Big Data’ is a theatrical work that seeks to physicalise and analogise the effect of digitalisation on our day-to-day existence, in particular: data collection, dopamine loops and the gig economy. The intention is to create a visceral understanding of their implications by leading the audience through a first-person exploration of these phenomena.
The idea is that the work is time-unconstrained, that it takes place over a large area of public space, and that the audience access it through a web-app on their own smartphone. They interact with the app and with performers embedded in the real world, completing tasks and using their initiative to progress through the journey. The time it takes to complete the experience is in the hands of the audience; working solo or together, they can move through it at their own pace, and even pause the experience
and restart it later.
The idea is that the work is time-unconstrained, that it takes place over a large area of public space, and that the audience access it through a web-app on their own smartphone. They interact with the app and with performers embedded in the real world, completing tasks and using their initiative to progress through the journey. The time it takes to complete the experience is in the hands of the audience; working solo or together, they can move through it at their own pace, and even pause the experience
and restart it later.
The mobile web-app
The app isn’t just a vehicle for content or a way to move the audience around; it’s an integral part of the exploration. Of all our digital experiences thus far, it gives the audience the most agency yet to become a player in the narrative, and as a result the most opportunity to become implicated in the action.
The app would use text, animations, and video content to frame the narrative and experience. The media content will satirise the casino-like structures embedded everywhere on our phones. This digital content leads the audience to curated spaces and characters, taking the audience on a journey through a parallel city within the city.
The app would use text, animations, and video content to frame the narrative and experience. The media content will satirise the casino-like structures embedded everywhere on our phones. This digital content leads the audience to curated spaces and characters, taking the audience on a journey through a parallel city within the city.
Wireframes for the web-app platform
Why this? Why now?
This work is timely for several interconnected reasons. Thematically we’re investigating questions that are urgent and accelerating in the current global climate, that is, how being constantly connected in an online sense is impacting our privacy, our mental health, how we work and how we live.
Our physical worlds are shrinking, but our digital worlds are expanding, and the implications of this have barely been glimpsed. We are barely even cognisant of the intended effects that these powerful computers in our pockets are having on our psychology, let alone the unintended ones. Now seems like a really good time to ask what this relentless march of digital technology means for society and for us as individuals. How much information is too much information? How does unfettered access to data affect our choices and sense of self in the world? Do we have any choice in the matter?
In terms of form, the way it is app-driven and puts the audience member in the role of protagonist is an exciting prospect from an experience point of view, but as a design element it can also help unpack the ideas of the work.
Our physical worlds are shrinking, but our digital worlds are expanding, and the implications of this have barely been glimpsed. We are barely even cognisant of the intended effects that these powerful computers in our pockets are having on our psychology, let alone the unintended ones. Now seems like a really good time to ask what this relentless march of digital technology means for society and for us as individuals. How much information is too much information? How does unfettered access to data affect our choices and sense of self in the world? Do we have any choice in the matter?
In terms of form, the way it is app-driven and puts the audience member in the role of protagonist is an exciting prospect from an experience point of view, but as a design element it can also help unpack the ideas of the work.
How we got here
The work is practical in its mode of delivery for a social distancing environment, the audience is theoretically unlimited, while still being spread out across a long amount of time and wide amount of space. It’s also a great project with regards to Binge Culture’s artistic trajectory, building on content and form explored in previous recent works, including an early development of this show, This Text Will Self-Destruct, presented in CubaDupa 2019.
The app-driven form builds on our experience with audio driven work, game inspired experimental works and in particular with Ancient Shrines and Half Truths, but solves many of the practical and dramaturgical problems we discovered over the four seasons of that work. For example, we can maintain a clear build by having a linear progression, but offer the audience more agency by making the work time-unconstrained.
All our work interrogates society in some way, but several recent projects such as Watch Party (developed as part of ATC’s Here and Now Programme) have been specifically investigating our relationship with technology at both a macro and micro level. 'Big Data' allows the company to deepen our exploration of that subject, continue to pursue new challenges in theatrical form, and ultimately create something that is genuinely pushing the limits of what performance can be.
The app-driven form builds on our experience with audio driven work, game inspired experimental works and in particular with Ancient Shrines and Half Truths, but solves many of the practical and dramaturgical problems we discovered over the four seasons of that work. For example, we can maintain a clear build by having a linear progression, but offer the audience more agency by making the work time-unconstrained.
All our work interrogates society in some way, but several recent projects such as Watch Party (developed as part of ATC’s Here and Now Programme) have been specifically investigating our relationship with technology at both a macro and micro level. 'Big Data' allows the company to deepen our exploration of that subject, continue to pursue new challenges in theatrical form, and ultimately create something that is genuinely pushing the limits of what performance can be.