I found this particular piece very interesting, as it was one of the more technology heavy pieces i’d encountered.

“The city is an arena where the unfamiliar flourishes, where the disjointed and the disrupted are constantly threatening to overwhelm us. It is also a zone of possibility; new encounters. Building on Can You See Me Now? the game investigates some of the social changes brought about by ubiquitous mobile devices, persistent access to a network and location aware technologies.” (Blasttheory.co.uk, 2015)

This is the opening paragraph of the description of the piece ‘Uncle Roy All Around You’ by Blastheory as found on their website.

Audience members are given a handheld device which has a unique code entered into it. These devices are then taken onto the streets, and they use a map to navigate around the city in order to meet up with ‘Uncle Roy’. Using audio and online technologies, players can communicate with one another. Every experience is completely different due to different players and different cities. At the end of the experience you are asked to make a commitment to a complete stranger, as your address is given to them via a postcard. It seems to me that the piece is about connecting people and using technology to explore the city. (Blasttheory.co.uk, 2015)

I feel however the piece could very easily come into some trouble if the technology failed, if the handheld device was lost, the player would be left wandering the city with no knowledge of where they were. Another issue is the level of trust it demands of the participants. The participants are required to walk into areas of the city which may be dangerous, and enter building and a car that they have no idea is safe. The only reason participants are willing to do this is because Blast Theory are a ‘famous’ and well known group in the art and theatre community and people trust in that. If our group for example asked people to get into strange cars, I wonder if it would be so well recieved. We have found that audience members avoid interaction at all costs so how do you encourage audience members to interact? This is something we need to find out

 

 

Work cited

Blasttheory.co.uk, (2015). Uncle Roy All Around You | Blast Theory. [online] Available at: https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/uncle-roy-all-around-you/ [Accessed 23 Apr. 2015].