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.

The Networked Condition

Kyle McDonald 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 Kyle McDonald.

Scapegoat

Return of the Cybergoat

The Cybergoat is back. And this time it's wearing a badge saying 'pingdemic'.

audience

What language please

What happens if you apply start-up logic to being an arts organisation? Turns out that looking at what you do through the lens of another sector shows up the baggage you're carrying.

comedy

Taking comedy seriously

I have a feeling that when you’re making comedy, it's harder to get people to take you seriously. Via Aristotle and Buster Keaton, here's my theory why...

process

Travelling without moving

Thinking about inward-looking islands, and what the last year has taught us about actively making space for international encounters.

The Networked Condition

Invisible Flock 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 Invisible Flock.

Carbon efficient

How we made our website use 50% less energy

An outline of the technical steps we took on our site – in case anyone else is thinking about tweaking theirs in the name of energy efficiency.

process

Making shows, taking care

Devising online has made us all think more about how we care for the folk we're working with... here's some stuff we've learned.

audience

6 things I learned from digital work and 6 things I learned from remote work

Reflections on transitioning from a theatre director in a theatre to a digital experience maker in my kitchen.

audience

Convenience culture and exclusive events

At a time when all kinds of performance are available at the click of a trackpad, it isn't 'liveness' that we should be talking about. It's event-y-ness.

digital entertainment

Queerness, video games, and escaping reality

Co-writing Fast Familiar's latest show got me digging into the stories of LGBTQIA+ gaming – as well as my own.

audience centric

Putting the play into theatre

What do we really mean when we talk about playable theatre, immersive theatre, interactive theatre and the like? And what do we hope to get from works in these categories?

audience

What kind of art do we want right now?

Sometimes we make art to prod the belly of corporate greed; sometimes we make art to frolic with elves at the North Pole. Both these things are fine – and necessary.

critics

13 things I’ve loved and loathed in online escape rooms

This year we've ended up spending countless hours locked into online puzzle games – and made our own. But what's so good about them? And what's... not?

A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

Is Aristotle proud of me?

How do you live a good life? What does flourishing mean? Is it dirty if work is part of it? Maybe the ancient Greeks know...

audience

Hello, you’ve reached tech support

Reflections on using bespoke homemade technology for a live online show.

Algorithms

A new villain: the Cybergoat 🐐

The past weeks have highlighted the disparity between the accountability of digital systems and that of their creators. Now is the time to educate each other and demand transparency, before algorithms become the ultimate scapegoat.