Technology
This project uses a sophisticated technology, AR, to assist the audience member's creative process in making order out of chaos and involve the audience member's body in a gesture-based artwork. This use of AR technology is unusual. Currently the bulk of AR and VR creative projects are developed primarily to highlight technology's capabilities while the story or artistic expression is only a means to achieve that end. In this study, I am reversing those priorities. I have a story I want to tell, and I have found appropriate AR technology to enhance the telling of the story.
In traditional AR creations, the technology often plays the starring role, and any live actors involved cannot help but be mercilessly overshadowed. Also, technology usually plays a central role in the story, which then inevitably falls into a science fiction or fantasy genre. In these works the story cannot hope to compete with the marvel of the new technology. The story is reduced to a gadget, or worse, a futuristic parlor trick. The emotional core of the story has been stifled by putting the technology first. In their recent IEEE Spectrum article, Jay David Bolter and Blair MacIntyre elaborate on possible future applications for AR, imagining only educational, gaming, cultural history, industry, and scientific uses for the technology. My study shows this does not have to be the case. While it isn't often done, there is no real reason why AR can't be used in the service of artistic and expressive storytelling. Jacqueline Moire notes: There is of course no reason a VE [virtual environment] can't simply tell a story. [...] Most importantly, it is impossible to say that all concepts of virtual worlds have been explored already. The majority of VEs currently in existence concentrate on training, virtual tourism, or healing. (2) While there is a significant amount work on AR technologies and mixed reality experiences, a great deal remains uncharted territory yet to be explored. Woyzeck will build on existing work in the areas of performance, media studies, and AR theory and practice while seeking to innovate beyond existing conventions.
Another element that sets this project apart is that in the field of AR and VR a large portion of projects are funded by the Department of Defense for training or recruitment software applications. To date there have been no publicly documented drama-based AR or VR projects funded by the military. Woyzeck marks a significant departure. In this project an anti-military theme is explored using AR technology funded by universities. The sobering portrayal of the military in Woyzeck could make it the anti-America's Army.
Nevertheless, a critical commentary on military culture is relevant today, considering that the story of Woyzeck is tragically played out as a familiar aftermath of war. As the New York Times reported in the summer of 2002, "Three veterans of the war in Afghanistan and a fourth soldier have killed their wives in the Fort Bragg area in the last six weeks. Two Fort Bragg soldiers killed their wives in murder-suicides, and two others have been charged with murdering their wives" ("Rash"). It is painfully clear that Woyzeck is still with us today. Büchner himself based the original play on a contemporary newspaper story covering the account of an impoverished soldier executed for stabbing his girlfriend to death.
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