Russell Anderson

My research is a practice-based project in Drama, investigating potential methods of interactivity within the theatre, with the intent to develop a methodology of audience-controlled narratives in performance.

The twenty-first century is witnessing an exponential increase in interactivity: the increasing dominance of information and communication technologies is encouraging us to interact with the world around us in an ever-increasing manner, to the degree that interactivity and influence are often not only possible, but often expected. This project therefore aims to define and create a new form of theatrical performance for that modern audience perspective, one which is fundamentally based around interaction, choice and control. The Hypertextual Performance will be a multi-linear live theatrical event within which control of the narrative development is put in the hands of the audience.

As a practice-based project, my methodology involves producing performances to test and refine my theoretical research and development. The first of these productions is beginning in 2014: an immersive hyperdrama based on Georg Béchner’s Woyzeck, focussing on questions of framework and structure, developed from cybertextual structures including those postulated by Marie Laure-Ryan in Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion an Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (2001) and George Landow in Hypertext 3.0: Critical Theory and New Media in an era of Globalization (2006).

Theoretical research explores areas including: hypertext, cybertext and digital narratives; immersive theatre; digital theatre; virtual reality; media and remediation; presence and liveness; postmodernism; flow theory; liquid architecture; and ludology.