Riot! 1831: The design of a location based audio drama

This paper describes the process and lessons learned from the design of a location based audio drama. INTRODUCTION The use of mobile and pervasive technologies as a medium for entertainment is at a formative stage and just as in the early days of film it is not yet clear what it is good for, what people will value and what the new genres of interaction will be [1]. To explore these questions we commissioned two writers to write an interactive paly play caleed Riot! 1831 which was staged for public consumption in Queens Square, Bristol England for a period of three weeks in Spring 2004. During the trial period over 700 people tried out the experience and we have subsequently conducted detailed evaluation and analysis of the public reaction. Feedback from the experience was very positive with many people staying in the square for almost an hour. Based on 563 completed questionnaires responses to how much people enjoyed it, how much history came alive and how immersed they felt all scored highly with mean ratings of 74.5, 73.7 and 73.3 respectively on a scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 100 (very much). This paper focuses on the design stages and lessons of the experience rather than the evaluation methods and results of the analysis. OVERVIEW OF RIOT! 1831 The interactive play is based on the actual riots that occurred in Queens Square in 1831.Visitors could sign up and receive the loan of a small back-pack containing an iPAQ PDA, GPS receiver and headphones with which they strolled around the square triggering a variety of soundfiles, each one a short vignette based on real events that took place in the square. For instance they could hear the rioters’ voices as they plundered the surrounding buildings, the flames as buildings burn, the merchants as they flee for their lives and the Dragoon Guards as they saber-charge through the crowds cutting the rioters down. Visitors could choose to walk round the square individually or as a pair, physically linked by a headphone splitter. Thirty-four regions covered the 150m wide square and associated with each region was up to three different sound files. In general moving into a region would trigger one of the sound files to start playing and moving out of the region would cause it to stop. THE DESIGN PHASES Knowledge Sharing and Context Familiarisation The first phase of the collaboration was to work with the writers to ensure that they were aware of the capabilities and limitations of the computing platform that we would be using, particularly the facets of GPS and the authoring environment that we were developing. We had several workshops based both in the square and in the lab letting the writers try out different ideas and discuss possibilities. We knew from previous experience [3] that designing for context is essential and so it was important to actually try things out in the square. We chose Queens Square because of its physical setting, grandeur and wealth of history. It is an open pedestrian square recently returned to its eighteenth century magnificence. The square is relatively quiet but open, light and safe. We also wanted to develop an experience that was closely tied to the physical setting. The writers brief was therefore to work with us to develop an interactive soundscape that would be set in Queens Square. They researched the history of the square and suggested the riots of 1831 as a subject. We used these early workshops to see what kind of language and representations writers would want of the authoring tools. Several ideas and options were discussed and the evaluation of different ideas helped provide the writers with a better idea of what the computing platform would offer. Prototyping. The writers wanted to create a rich experience that would feel as if you were walking through a sea of voices, listening to the activities that took place in 1831. Early experimentation with the system led the writers to abandon the linear structure of a play and to write very short vignettes, that were as far as possible independent, but together could build up a picture of events that happened and some of the key players who were involved. The writers wrote and recorded several example vignettes that we tried out in the square before we left them to a period of solid writing. Writing. Writing began after a period of research into the historical accounts of the riots such as the transcripts of the subsequent trials of the rioters. To write the vignettes the