Bakk Agnes

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Doctoral School, Graduate Student

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SUGGESTIONS FOR SUPPORTING PERFORMING ART CREATORS WHO ARE USING NEW TECHNOLOGY

Theatre performances that make use of new and interactive technologies have been getting more and... more Theatre performances that make use of new and interactive technologies have been getting more and

more common. At the same time, funding possibilities (especially European funding possibilities) are

also encouraging creators and cultural actors to incorporate into their works new technology tools as they

stress the importance of using these tools. However, this process has not been natural, and created a gap

between productions, those that can coherently use new and online technological tools and those that

cannot. Often, these creations make use of a particular expensive technology tool but lack reflection

from creators, merely signaling the use of the new technologies. On long term these productions neither

contribute to the development of the new theatre productions nor enhance their use of interactivity

enabled by technology. In the long term, this can also have an effect on the ways of engaging with new

audiences.

I will present the outcome of my research regarding an overview of the funding system of Western and

Central European countries, whether they are concerned to fund, and if they are, in what way these funds

support new type of theatre productions. As I conduct research interviews with creators from Central and

Western Europe, I also explore new ways of funding of productions that require new and expensive

technology tools for the realization of the productions, and I will map what kind of collaboration forms

enable the artists to create their work. I will also point out successful examples, where research or

educational institutions collaborated with performing art collectives (such as Blast Theory's cooperation

with Mixed Reality Lab from the University of Nottingham). Based on these examples, I develop a

possible general model of successful collaboration between these institutions and the funding bodies.

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New Technologies for a New Audience

New technologies, especially Internet technologies, have become more and more prevalent in our ha... more New technologies, especially Internet technologies, have become more and more prevalent in our habits of cultural consumption. We get news on our mobile devices, we look for further details on Facebook, and we buy tickets online. More and more advanced technological devices are transforming our lives. These devices are not only reshaping society's communication strategies at the individual level, but are also offering new types of cultural consumption habits and these new types of goods have their own respective audiences. These new types of audience, especially the younger people who make up what's called Generation Y, have to be handled differently. Moreover, based on their common consumption they form new types of communities. Lately, cultural institutions and performing art companies have been putting more emphasis on developing social media channels and trying to reach out to as many new types of audiences as possible. Museums have come a long way in this process.

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Papers by Bakk Agnes

Representing mental disorders with virtual reality applications: Designing for multimodality and complex participation

Frontiers in Virtual Reality

In this paper, I present various strategies adopted by creators of artistic interactive virtual r... more In this paper, I present various strategies adopted by creators of artistic interactive virtual reality (VR) experiences to represent mental health problems and their contexts. The strategies can foster dialogues about these problems, as they present their complexities by embedding them into various narrative and non-narrative elements. In discussing the representational complexity of these works, I emphasize design strategies that tackle stereotypes and their ethical representations and which create a specific type of suspense for the experiencer to bypass the representation of suffering that documentary VR works often use. These productions approach mental health issues as dynamic systems and represent them through linearity or non-linearity (see Stepney 2018). This approach offers limited agency to the interactor, in the sense that the user has a sense of embodiment (Kilteni et al., 2012) and is scripted as an interactor in specific cases (Murray 1997). In this paper, I argue tha...

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INDCOR white paper 4: Evaluation of Interactive Narrative Design For Complexity Representations

arXiv (Cornell University), Jun 16, 2023

While a strength of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN) is its support for multiperspectivity, t... more While a strength of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDN) is its support for multiperspectivity, this also poses a substantial challenge to its evaluation. Moreover, evaluation has to assess the system's ability to represent a complex reality as well as the user's understanding of that complex reality as a result of the experience of interacting with the system. This is needed to measure an IDN's efficiency and effectiveness in representing the chosen complex phenomenon. We here present some empirical methods employed by INDCOR members in their research including UX toolkits and scales. Particularly, we consider the impact of IDN on transformative learning and its evaluation through self-reporting and other alternatives. VISION: WG3 aims to gain a holistic and transdisciplinary understanding of the moment-to-moment, short term, and long-term outcomes of engagement with interactive narratives for complexity representation. MISSION: WG3 will evaluate the impact of IDN complexity representations in audiences, in a manner that productively informs the other work groups and different stakeholders. Specifically, we identify and establish key success indicators, collect and develop methods and frameworks to assess and evaluate interactive narratives, as well as analyze the impact of different aspects and manifestations of interactive narratives representing complex topics. DEFINITION: IDNs are narrative experiences that can be changed by an audience and which are created for the digital medium. What can be changed (for example outcome, progression, perspective) varies as does the particular form. Popular IDN forms include narrative-focused video games, interactive documentaries, hypertext fictions and VR/AR/MR experiences.

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Introduction : Total Cinema: Film and Design

Disegno, 2022

Disegno publishes original research papers, essays, and reviews on all aspects of design cultures... more Disegno publishes original research papers, essays, and reviews on all aspects of design cultures. We understand the notion of design culture as resolutely broad: our aim is to freely discuss the designed environment as mutually intertwined strands of sociocultural products, practices, and discourses. This attitude traverses the disciplinary boundaries between art, design, and visual culture and is therefore open to all themes related to sociocultural creativity and innovation. Our post-disciplinary endeavour welcomes intellectual contributions from all members of different design cultures. Besides providing a lively platform for debating issues of design culture, our specific aim is to consolidate and enhance the emerging field of design culture studies in the Central European academia by providing criticism of fundamental biases and misleading cultural imprinting with respect to the field of design. All research articles published in Disegno undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process. This journal does not charge APCs or submission charges.

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VR as a Narcissistic Medium

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies, Oct 1, 2019

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INDCOR White Paper 0: Interactive Digital Narratives (IDNs) -- A Solution to the Challenge of Representing Complex Issues

arXiv (Cornell University), Jun 30, 2023

INDCOR White Paper 0: IDNs representing complex issues Executive Overview Citizens everywhere hav... more INDCOR White Paper 0: IDNs representing complex issues Executive Overview Citizens everywhere have the right to be well-informed. Yet, with the high complexity of many contemporary issues, such as global warming and migration, our means of information need to mutually adapt. Narrative has always been at the core of information exchange-regardless of whether our ancestors sat around a fire and exchanged stories, or whether we read an article in a newspaper, or watched a TV news broadcast. Yet, the narrative formats of the newspaper article, the news broadcast, the documentary, and the textbook are severely limited when it comes to representing highly complex topics which may include several competing-and sometimes equally valid-perspectives. Such complexity contributes to a high level of uncertainty due to a multitude of factors affecting an outcome. Fortunately, with Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN), there is a novel media format which can address these challenges. IDNs can present several different perspectives in the same work, and give audiences the ability to explore them at will through decision-making. After experiencing the consequences of their decisions, the audience can replay to revisit and change these decisions in order to consider their alternatives. IDN works enable deep personalization and the inclusion of live data. These capabilities make IDN a 21 st century democratic medium, empowering citizens through the understanding of complex issues. In this white paper, we discuss the challenge of representing complexity, describe the advantages offered by IDNs, and point out opportunities and strategies for deployment. Four additional white papers, linked from this one, offer more detailed insights into design, conceptions, evaluation, and societal impact.

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INDCOR White Paper 2: Interactive Narrative Design for Representing Complexity

arXiv (Cornell University), May 3, 2023

This whitepaper has been produced by members of the COST Action 18230-Interactive Narrative Desig... more This whitepaper has been produced by members of the COST Action 18230-Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representation (INDCOR-https://indcor.eu) INDCOR White Paper 2: Interactive Narrative Design for Representing Complexity Executive Summary This white paper was written by the members of the Work Group focusing on design practices of the COST Action 18230-Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representation (INDCOR, WG1). It presents an overview of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDNs) design for complexity representations through IDN workflows and methodologies, IDN authoring tools and applications. It provides definitions of the central elements of the IDN alongside its best practices, designs and methods. Finally, it describes complexity as a feature of IDN, with related examples. In summary, this white paper serves as an orienting map for the field of IDN design, understanding where we are in the contemporary panorama while charting the grounds of their promising futures.

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An Ethics Framework for Interactive Digital Narrative Authoring

Human-computer interaction series, 2022

Epiphany Through Kinaesthetics. Unfolding Storyworlds in Immersive Analog Spaces

Színház és transmedia storytelling: szenzóriumok és a narrációs űr

An Ethics Framework for Interactive Digital Narrative Authoring

Human-computer interaction series, 2022

New Technologies for a New Audience?

Intellect Books, 2020

Immerzív színház analóg terekben – görbe tükrökkel

Theatron, 2022

Performativity and Worldmaking

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies, 2019

author and editor of several books and chapters related to the concept of intermediality, but lat... more author and editor of several books and chapters related to the concept of intermediality, but lately you also started to develop a special VR installation, Hamlet Encounters, together with Eric Joris and other professionals. Can you tell me a bit more about it and its context? The VR installation Hamlet Encounters is part of a larger project in which we try to find out what we can do with new technologies in live performances. In the case of Hamlet Encounters we are experimenting with virtual reality and motion capture. We try to combine these technologies, wondering what we can do with these and what these can do with us. In our practice as research project we primarily focus on the performative aspects of the media we use: how do media redefine our sense, play in the sense of affecting our senses, how can we make media also playful in the way we use them for building worlds, for staging, for self-referencing and self-reflecting? 1 This interview was made within the framework of the Exploratory Research Project Rethinking Intermediality in Contemporary Cinema: Changing Forms of In-Betweenness, PN-III-ID-PCE-2016-0418, funded by a grant of the UEFISCDI (Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation), Romania.

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Magic and Immersion in VR

The rise of the notion of “immersion”, thanks to interactive VR productions, provokes creators an... more The rise of the notion of “immersion”, thanks to interactive VR productions, provokes creators and experiencers to think of new design frameworks. The concept of immersion is frequently mentioned together with the notion of illusion. In this paper I will outline a way to think of the sense of immersion in VR that is based on the science of magic. Based on this particular view of immersion as a magical experiment I will present an outline of a possible parallel between experiencing immersion in VR and in a magic trick.

The Ethics of Virtual Reality Interactive Digital Narratives in Cultural Heritage

Interactive Storytelling, 2021

As IDNs are used to represent complex phenomena, we are bound to assess the ethical dimension of ... more As IDNs are used to represent complex phenomena, we are bound to assess the ethical dimension of these representations in order to help IDN mature as a practice and a discipline. In this paper, we consider ethical aspects arising from applications of IDN in VR for Cultural Heritage experiences. Using a discussion of ethical aspects of cultural heritage and virtual reality as a foundation, and considering a range of IDN VR cultural heritage experiences, we derive a set of ethical questions for IDN design in general and for cultural heritage specifically as the basis for the development of standard ethics guidelines and help start a conversation on the topic in the community.

Analogue and Digital Immersive Experiences: What should digital creators learn from live theatre makers?

In every century, there are different apparatuses that are redefining and refining the notion of ... more In every century, there are different apparatuses that are redefining and refining the notion of immersion. After experiencing panoramas, planetariums or even IMAX movies, we are now longing to see whether VR can really fulfil our expectations. We are ready to offer all our senses and to experience new situations and to be present somewhere else. But is the virtual reality's medium prepared for these expectations? Meanwhile the immersive theatre's genre is spreading and engaging the audience for couple of hours into their very peculiar environments. The aim of my research is to point out different features of live theatre that, when combined with or added to VRexperiences, can enhance the immersion and create more realistic illusions. My investigation is related to narratology and reception studies, and is based on recent findings related to VR. First I'm going to present through some examples how 360-degree fictional movies are exploring their specialties by transferring the narrative literally into the viewers head (e.g. Alteration by Jerome Blanquet, or Rhizomat VR by Mona el Gammal) as a way to capture the viewers empathy more. In immersive performances the audience is considered a participant with a given role. This way the narrative environment is constructed in such a way that allows the participants to unfold the story by directing their focus to carefully planned details. This does not make the participants the story's protagonist, but they can become the protagonist of the experience itself. They can have a variety of experiences that are directly addressing all of their senses creating more suspense. Based on different examples, I will point out various tactics that VR-movie creators can use to draft their own language and offer more inputs for their viewers. I will also point out how to create such environments for using the VR HMD that can dramatically be built into a viewing situation, without having the forced isolation feeling. My research is based on an audience survey made in June 2017 in Mannheim following a performance by SIGNA, on several interviews conducted with immersive theatre makers, and also on hermeneutical analysis of different VR creations. Virtual reality. 360-degree movie. Immersive theatre.

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How Interactivity Is Changing in Immersive Performances - An Approach of Understanding the Use of Interactive Technologies in Performance Art

New, immersive or transmedia storytelling tools or game design elements can engage new audiences ... more New, immersive or transmedia storytelling tools or game design elements can engage new audiences to watch performances. Companies which define themselves as performing art companies are creating immersive experiences that use various tactics in engaging their participants, including gamification mechanics and video game strategies, and also elements of interactive & transmedia storytelling, which increases the level of immersion as well. My research hypothesis is that new technology tools and immersive environments which incorporate video game mechanics used in performing arts context are changing the interactivity aspect of performances. To be able to scale or to define the level of interactivity in such productions it is necessary to perform an analysis using interactive storytelling, game studies and media archeology, but hermeneutical research and field studies (surveys and deep interviews) are also conducted. Phenomenological studies on the materiality of interaction design wil...

Violence | perception | video games: new directions in game research : young academics at the clash of realities 2017-2018

From 2016-2019, Curtis managed the Master's program in Game Development and Research at the Colog... more From 2016-2019, Curtis managed the Master's program in Game Development and Research at the Cologne Game Lab. His research interests include surveillance and interactivity, narratology and digital games, and the novellas of Thomas Mann and Heinrich von Kleist. His dissertation project examines flanerie in the context of open world gameplay trends and game design practices.

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