process

Interdisciplinary collaboration and good partnership working - reflections on going Wild with Manchester Museum

In the first half of 2024, FF worked with Manchester Museum on a digital interactive for their new exhibition, Wild. The process was smooth - and more importantly, fun and interesting. Here we dig into what makes a good collaboration... and what we learned.

process

Looking for ‘Looking for Love’

It’s time we all stopped pretending we make perfect work that turns out just as we planned. This is an honest documentation of a process which taught us a lot.

evaluation

Measuring up: storytelling, evaluation and what if we admitted that it isn’t working part 2/2

The money, the assumptions and a plea for something different...

evaluation

Measuring up: storytelling, evaluation and what if we admitted that it isn’t working part 1/2

The metrics of measurement, the power of stories and the lines they paint on the ground in hospital car parks.

environmental sustainability

The Strategy Room 3/3: 5 things we learned

From May 2022 to March 2023, Fast Familiar’s main focus was a climate action public engagement project called The Strategy Room. This blog documents the five big lessons we're taking away from the project.

environmental sustainability

The Strategy Room 2/3: delivery

From May 2022 to March 2023, Fast Familiar’s main focus was a climate action public engagement project called The Strategy Room. This blog documents its structure and delivery context.

environmental sustainability

The Strategy Room 1/3: creating a design brief

From May 2022 to March 2023, Fast Familiar’s main focus was a climate action public engagement project called The Strategy Room. This blog documents the principles underlying the experience we created.

environmental sustainability

London to Copenhagen: an experiment in slow travel

In November 2022, as an experiment in environmental touring, we travelled to Copenhagen and back by train. Here's the benefits and trickier aspects of travelling a LONG way by train.

The Networked Condition

Memo Akten interview: The Networked Condition

'The Networked Condition: Environmental Impacts of Digital Cultural Production' is a collaborative research project exploring digital arts through an environmental lens. Here we chat to Memo Akten.

Making interactive theatre

The ‘D’ Word - what is dramaturgy?

What does this term even mean, and -if that weren’t complicated enough, what is audience-centric dramaturgy?

Making interactive theatre

Theatre without actors: alternative audience interfaces in interactive theatre

How to communicate with audiences in different ways - here are some practical exercises to start thinking about alternative sensory channels.

Making interactive theatre

Do’s and Don’ts of making audience-centric theatre

Here’s some pointers on how to devise theatre and look after the audience while you’re putting them at the centre of what you’re creating.

Making interactive theatre

Creating theatre: 10 principles of devising

For anyone who’s devising theatre, here’s some principles to make your life easier and your work better.

Making interactive theatre

How to make immersive theatre: the 7 big questions to ask yourself

Distilled from years of thinking about different types of theatre and how to make them, here are the seven questions that underpin our process.

the ethics of interactive theatre

Risk in theatre: self-discovery, not a form to fill in when people go up ladders

If you’re asking audiences to take risks in your artworks, building care into your interactive experiences as a creative consideration makes the work better.

the ethics of interactive theatre

What is the responsibility of the artist? Audience-centric theatre outside its comfort zone

A ‘literature review’ of audience-centric work that sits outside the comfort zone, including artworks by Davis Freeman and Jamal Harewood that are some of the most powerful experiences I’ve had in theatres.

the ethics of interactive theatre

Preparing for the worst: the Chaos list (what to do when theatre goes wrong)

The Chaos List is a way of preparing for theatre going wrong - and having a plan for when it does. Like every scout knows, the key is to Be Prepared.

the ethics of interactive theatre

With great power comes great responsibility: the ethics of interactive theatre

How should we care for audiences, what are theatre companies responsible for, and what do we discover when we start asking questions about the ethics of interactive theatre?

Role of the audience

The future of immersive theatre: 2022 and beyond

Commercialisation, neoliberalism and immersive technologies, what will immersive theatre look like in 20 years?

Role of the audience

What is immersion? Beyond the buzzword…

Here we draw on perspectives from games and psychology to ask ‘what is immersion, and how do we achieve it?’

Role of the audience

The power to choose: adventures with interactive audiences

In traditional theatre, the audience’s main job is to watch. But when you’re making experiences for interactive audiences, there’s a whole lot more to consider.

interactive theatre and technology

Hello, you’ve reached tech support - or 10 things we learnt about digital theatre and access online

Moving digital theatre piece The Evidence Chamber online entailed a lot of thinking about access online and how to work with online audiences.

interactive theatre and technology

It's a kind of magic: multimedia theatre and digital performance

The how and why of multimedia theatre - and a few tips on what we’ve learned while making digital performance (face-to-face and online).

immersive theatre

The Ultimate Guide to Immersive Theatre: nearly everything you need to know

This ultimate guide covers the important aspects of immersive theatre for audience members and aspiring theatre-makers. Get curious in a deep dive with Fast Familiar.

collaborator interview

Collaborator interview: Clemence Debaig

In the first of our collaborator profiles/ interviews, Joe and I caught up with artist Clemence Debaig, who we worked with on The Curse of the Burial Dagger.