Audience as co-writers: Using conversational AI to deliver audience agency in a participatory drama

Lander, Rik

Abstract

Lander offers a glimpse of the elusive holy grail for participatory dramatists; a way to offer audience members a role within the narrative and to give them genuine agency over events and even the outcome.
He describes the use of a “conversational artificial intelligence” as both a character in, and the co-writer with the audience of, a live theatrical drama, I am Echoborg. This approach represents a novel and powerful means of delivering to audience members both narrative agency and the ability to take on a role in the drama. It also demonstrates how, in the right conditions, an AI can be a plausible and compelling dramatic character. He explores some of the psychological mechanisms exploited in the creation of this immersive event such as breaching environments and projection of theory of mind. He looks at how some of the affordances of the technology can be exploited for dramatic purposes such as redirection. He discusses some of the particular issues faced by makers of participatory narratives and methods to overcome them. He traces the development of the show and looks at some examples of other artworks that rely on user generated content and how they deal with quality control. Finally, he looks at the importance of structure as a means of balancing authorial voice and audience agency.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 1, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2021
• Publication Date: Oct 31, 2021
• Deposit Date: Nov 23, 2023
• Journal: International Journal of Creative Media Research
• Publisher: Bath Spa University
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Issue: 7
• Edition: Immersive Media as Research Practice
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.33008/IJCMR.2021.37
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11459046
• Publisher URL: https://cwilson333.wixsite.com/website-2/post/audience-as-co-writer-conversational-ai-as-audience-agency-in-a-participatory-drama