Elena Pérez Rodríguez | Norwegian University of Science and Technology (original) (raw)

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Papers by Elena Pérez Rodríguez

Digital Creativity, 2013

This contribution offers an evocative conceptual framework to inspire thinking about game design ... more This contribution offers an evocative conceptual framework to inspire thinking about game design in an alternative way. If proceduralism focuses on crafting game systems, we advocate recovering the relevance of players' interactions by pulling digitally mediated games out from the screen into the physical world where gameplay and players can intersect and interact. We draw on certain performance strategies to illuminate some currently under-explored game design resources. We use several case studies that help us describe what we call ‘human-to-human interaction’ (H2HI) in game design in three different levels: first, having designers improvise according to players' actions real time; second, substituting computer game characters for human actors who perform according to players' suggestions; and third, looking outside the traditional computer game environment for a computer-mediated human playground. These cases help us raise some conjectures about the possibilities of recovering the physical and social essence of performance for digital-mediated games.

One of the theatre and performance conventions that has been challenged by the application of tec... more One of the theatre and performance conventions that has been challenged by the application of technology is that of space. Theatrical space has been “expanded” through the application of technology and its artefacts. However, it is not really clear what is meant by “expansion”, as it means different things according to different authors and these divergent meanings often lead to misunderstandings. In this article, I will demonstrate the need for a more nuanced understanding of what the expansion of theatrical space means and its impact on the concept of spectatorship.

The analysis will be based on three distinct forms of digital performance where spatial expansion has been an issue; these are three categories that also mark the heterogeneity and dynamism of the convergence of performance and technology: multimedia performance, telematic performance and pervasive performance. Through an analysis of specific cases across the categories, I aim to show how the expansion of space implies a more participatory stance in the role of the spectator.

The use of digital media has impacted both contemporary performance practices and performance doc... more The use of digital media has impacted both contemporary performance practices and performance documentation strategies. ‘Pervasive performance’ is an emergent genre born out of the convergence of the fields of ubiquitous computing, experimental game design and performance. This genre can be defined as mixed media
events that combine gameplay with performance and are used as a
platform for potential collaborative art-making in public spaces.

Pervasive performances engage audiences in massive participatory events that use the city as playground and its fabrics as material for play. This genre poses numerous challenges to performance documentation due to its participatory, mobile and
distributed nature. First, it forces the creation of alternative strategies for performance capture (collection of material) outside the theatre house of multiple and mobile subjects. Second, it implies a change of paradigm from documenting objects to documenting experiences.

My experience documenting the case study of Chain Reaction in 2011 to propose alternative solutions to these challenges is used to discuss the value of such collaborative archives. My hypothesis is that in a
situation where participants are increasingly documenting their own actions across platforms in the mediasphere, practitioners can foster the transformation of the participant into documenter as part of the cultural event through game design strategies. This way, the inclusion of the ordinary person in the archive brings us closer to democratic culture and an empowerment of the cultural agent.

This article describes the ways in which an academic method of research was combined with an arti... more This article describes the ways in which an academic method of research was combined with an artistic method in the production of Chain Reaction, a creative project developed by the author as part of her PhD program, using the methodology of practice-based research. The article describes the research design, and displays the negotiation between two different questions throughout the project-artistic and academic-by analysing two significant moments: devising artistic work with collaborators and working with theory. It is then argued that the cooperation between artistic practice and academic research enriches each field while simultaneously creating a strong form of cultural practice with both aesthetic and epistemological elements.

The following paper has been published as part of Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies ... more The following paper has been published as part of Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies 10 (2); a special issue based on a selection of papers and performances at Remote Encounters: Connecting bodies, collapsing spaces and temporal ubiquity in networked performance, a two-day international conference (11th -12th of April 2013) exploring the use of networks as a means to enhance or create a wide variety of performance arts.

This contribution offers an evocative conceptual framework to inspire thinking about game design ... more This contribution offers an evocative conceptual framework to inspire thinking about game design in an alternative way. If proceduralism focuses on crafting game systems, we advocate recovering the relevance of players' interactions by pulling digitally mediated games out from the screen into the physical world where gameplay and players can intersect and interact. We draw on certain performance strategies to illuminate some currently under-explored game design resources. We use several case studies that help us describe what we call 'human-to-human interaction' (H2HI) in game design in three different levels: first, having designers improvise according to players' actions real time; second, substituting computer game characters for human actors who perform according to players' suggestions; and third, looking outside the traditional computer game environment for a computer-mediated human playground. These cases help us raise some conjectures about the possibilities of recovering the physical and social essence of performance for digitalmediated games.

In this paper I present the challenges of combining game design with theatre conventions in relat... more In this paper I present the challenges of combining game design with theatre conventions in relation to the implementation of a hybrid form of pervasive game and interactive theatre, Chain Reaction (CR). I use game design as part of my research process in order to answer how games can be used to promote and develop theatre, more specifically how games can foster artistic creativity. My argument is that games´s competitiveness lure players into engaging in aesthetic activities e.i. Devising theatre and acting, while simultaneously allowing them to manipulate their engagement in the game and enjoy the thrilling experience of making theatre.

Thesis Chapters by Elena Pérez Rodríguez

This thesis investigates artworks born at the convergence of digital media and contemporary perfo... more This thesis investigates artworks born at the convergence of digital media and contemporary performance, and the ways in which technology impacts the field of performance. The term digital media refers to technology that produces digitised (as opposed to analogue) content such as text, audio, video, graphics and metadata. Contemporary performance refers to artworks that combine different artistic traditions—experimental theatre and dance, video art, visual art, music composition and performance art—in a single performance event. The convergence of these two fields has produced a significant body of technological works of art that challenge and reconfigure traditional conventions in contemporary performance. This thesis examines the impact of digital media on the ways performance is created, received and experienced, and the extent to which media open up new possibilities for creative expression and may generate new art forms.
I mapped the field by defining three large categories that mark the heterogeneous landscape of technologically enhanced performances today, namely multimedia theatre, telematic performance and pervasive performance. Methodologically, I combined hermeneutic methods of interpretation and reflection with academic forms of practical inquiry, combining textual analysis of relevant works from each of the three categories—such as Ghost Road (Murgia and Pauwels 2012), make-shift (Jamieson and Crutchlow 2010) and Rider Spoke (Blast Theory 2007)—with the practical development and analysis of a pervasive performance experiment titled Chain Reaction (Pérez 2009 and 2011). Theoretically, the project is interdisciplinary, bringing together performance theory, digital media studies, experimental game scholarship and experiential art documentation.
In discussing the ways in which digital media impact contemporary performance, I identify a number of traditional conventions in the field of theatre and performance that are currently being challenged. These are in the areas of audience participation, use of space, actor role, rehearsal and staging, and performance documentation. Central arguments in the thesis are, on the one hand, that researchers, critics and practitioners must look beyond the visionary expressions of aesthetic potential in order to grasp the real state of technologically enhanced art forms. On the on the other hand, it is only by considering both, the horizon-pushing high-tech along with the purpose-orientated low-tech, that a more grounded understanding of the present impact of developing technology on art culture can and should be reached.

Digital Creativity, 2013

This contribution offers an evocative conceptual framework to inspire thinking about game design ... more This contribution offers an evocative conceptual framework to inspire thinking about game design in an alternative way. If proceduralism focuses on crafting game systems, we advocate recovering the relevance of players' interactions by pulling digitally mediated games out from the screen into the physical world where gameplay and players can intersect and interact. We draw on certain performance strategies to illuminate some currently under-explored game design resources. We use several case studies that help us describe what we call 'human-to-human interaction' (H2HI) in game design in three different levels: first, having designers improvise according to players' actions real time; second, substituting computer game characters for human actors who perform according to players' suggestions; and third, looking outside the traditional computer game environment for a computer-mediated human playground. These cases help us raise some conjectures about the possibilities of recovering the physical and social essence of performance for digitalmediated games.