We talk to Ian Forrester, a Senior Firestarter at BBC R&D, who has been developing innovative adaptive podcasting technology and working on its potential applications alongside artists and creative professionals from the Rabbit Holes Collective. Through their work, the collective aims to ‘constructively disrupt’ and reimagine possibilities for digital collaboration by developing ideas in immersive and sensorial tech.

Weronika

We have so much to talk about; adaptive podcasting and your work with the Rabbit Holes Collective, but before we begin, I wanted to ask you to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your journey into becoming a Senior Firestarter at BBC R&D. How did you get involved in the digital scene?

 Ian

I’ve always been interested in design and technology. My journey started when I was very young. I couldn’t afford an expensive computer, so I learnt how to make it. I built my own, and this is how it all started. I went to college in Bristol and did an MD in Computer Graphics and Graphic Design and then a BA in London in Interaction Design. Initially, I wanted to be an architect, but I realised that architecture was a seven-year course, where graphic design course was only six-years, so I thought that’d be better (laughter). 

When I first started working for the BBC, I became an XSLT developer, but it was clear that I wanted to do more than just development; I wanted to work on new cutting edge projects. Innovation is where my heart is.

Weronika

One of your work’s primary objectives with Rabbit Holes Collective is to enable young peoples’ access to object-based media technology and, through that, empower them in following their intuition and curiosity. I wanted to go back to the story you just told us – about how you got into working with tech – precisely because of your lack of access to it. Can you elaborate on that experience and how that way of approaching obstacles as opportunities has informed your work? Or maybe let’s start from the beginning. How did young Ian go about finding out how to build his computer? 

Ian

It was a long process! I begged my parents to get me a computer, and they did, but unfortunately, they bought a computer that couldn’t do much. It got me started, though, and that was important. From the very beginning, I always maximised the use of it. I used to leave it on for days and days, ray tracing 3D scenes because it was such a slow machine. When, at the time, PCs were becoming popular, it became clear that there was no way my parents could afford one, and it would be unfair for me to ask for one. I also always felt like many people didn’t make the most use of these tools or technologies around them. I do not like the wastage of technology, especially since I’ve often been in a position where I couldn’t afford it. 

To answer your second question about how that mindset informed my work, I think that having limited possibilities resulted in my desire to maximise the use of things that most people would buy and be satisfied with using 1% of its potential. For the same reasons, I gravitated towards the Open Source community. I could never afford Microsoft Office, so I found alternatives. Yes, I could pirate it, but I’m not going to do that when there’s a legitimate alternative that is as good or maybe even better. Learning to use those alternatives is something I felt was important and valuable to the next generation; it is a way of challenging our capitalist mindset and mindlessly going with the big brands. 

Weronika

One of the biggest obstacles when it comes to creative work with young people is encountering frustration that stems from a lack of funding, resources etc. It is fascinating because we see time and time again how many ideas find roots in managing those deficits and, subsequently, finding creative, innovative ways of working around them. I think what you’re proposing here is such a beautiful way of thinking about it –  not focusing on the lack of, but on what is available, constantly asking ourselves, “what’s in my toolbox?” 

Ian

And it isn’t just about your toolbox; it’s about your networks and communities. When I got involved in the Open Source movement, it opened countless doors for me. It allowed me to use software that other people had written and be an active participant in driving that software’s improvement. We would feedback bugs to each other, talk about possible new features. Everyone would help out in some way. I think that kind of collaborative, generous mindset is so important.

Weronika

Can you briefly explain Open Source and how it works? What’s its role in the current digital ecosystem?

Ian

Open Source, in short, allows you to apply open-source licences to software. This means you can share the application and its source code with other people. For example, I’m using this programme I love called Inkscape as an alternative to Adobe Illustrator. Because it is Open Source, I can install Inkscape and get the code for it, write in a new feature, or suggest one to the community. 

Being a part of a community comes with opportunities and responsibilities – this often gets missed out of the conversation about open source. Many people use the code or get the software and then forget about the community, but that’s where progress starts – it stems from that constant knowledge sharing and critical feedback. 

There is also a free software movement, and that is a bit different. It’s free software, but it’s got a different set of licences that requires you to return it or provide it to other people when you make a change. With Open Source, I can distribute it freely; the licence will let you do whatever you want with it. With free software, if you make a change, you must make whatever you do freely available to the next person. That’s quite a slight difference, but it’s an important one because, for example, if the BBC was to use some free software and then make a change, which allows it to interact with something that we do, then we have then to provide that back to everybody, including our competition. This is suitable for some software and not for others.

Weronika

Let’s get to adaptive podcasting and how that came about for you. How did you get involved with this? 

Ian

When I joined BBC R&D in Manchester, I was having countless discussions with the Head of R&D about audience interaction. I had lots of ideas for how I think people would want to interact with the content they are presented with, but he would always push back, saying that our listeners probably want to sit back and relax. “They probably had a long day; the last thing they want to do is interact and respond” he would say.

It is common to think about explicit interaction when hearing the term interaction, which means actively reacting to something and performing an action. We’ve never paid much attention to the implicit interaction; your location, time of the day, etc. BBC R&D were conducting some experiments with object-based media technology at that time and I was excited about the possibilities of all of it.

Weronika

Can you explain a bit of how adaptive podcasting technology works? 

 Ian

I’ll start with Object-based media, which allows the content to change according to the requirements of each audience member. The ‘objects’ refer to the different assets that are used to make a piece of content. These could be large objects: the audio track with narration – or small objects, like the sound of a bird we can hear in the background. By breaking down a piece of media into separate objects, attaching meaning or as we call it metadata to them, we can describe how they can be rearranged, changed, and placed to reflect an individual viewer’s context.

BBC R&D has been developing a set of JavaScript libraries and Storykit tools to enable people outside the company to experiment with this new technology. One of the key aspects of Object-Based Media is using implicit data sources to affect the media in some capacity. For example, the media can use information about a person’s location to influence the dialogue played or using their heart rate to slow/speed up the narrative in a show etc. There are countless opportunities for creative use of this technology. Individuals are encouraged to discover how they can use adaptive technologies to create podcasts unique to the listener and their context. 

This is what I called it perceptive media because it perceives your actions and then adapts to them. At that time, we did a few experiments with R&D, one of them being a IOT (Internet of Things) device ‘’Perceptive radio’’, a radio with a light sensor, proximity sensor, and a microphone. 

As time went on, it became clear that phones or smartphones are getting better and better, so there was no point in building an IoT device. So we created an app – the adaptive podcast app.  

I say an adaptive podcast, but what we will create is not necessarily a podcast; it can be a spoken word, or it could be a comedy play. There are limitless possibilities. This project is perfect for a community of practice, and this is why we started collaborating with creative professionals from the Rabbit Holes Collective who are working on using the technology in their projects. We are excited to take these ideas into a workshop setting with and co-design these with young people. 

Weronika

Can you tell us a bit about the Rabbit Holes Collective?

Ian

Sure! Rabbit Holes Collective, ​composed of artists and creative professionals, explores adaptive podcasting to create content and invite people to metaphorically ​’fall down a rabbit hole’​ to connect more deeply with nature. 

It consists of creative professionals and artists James Cook, Dr Penny Hay, Roxana Vilk, Manu Maunganidze, Joseff Harris, Dr Tommaso Jucker, Mitch Turnbull, Kathy Hinde, Katie Dunstan, Livia Filotico, Dr Ellie Chadwick and Olly Langdon. It is a wonderfully diverse group – artists, filmmakers, designers, landscape architects, musicians, actors, educators, philosophers, scientists, engineers, technologists, environmentalists, creative producers and community champions. 

The use of BBC R&D technologies supports artists from the Rabbit Holes Collective in new ways of sharing ideas via digital and emerging technologies, creating peer-to-peer connections and networks of learning and support. The open mobile platform will provide a highly responsive environment with easy-to-use tools enabling users to engage with the media and create their adaptive podcasts on an open web platform, providing access from existing android devices, reducing barriers of affordability, giving artists a chance to control their work.

There are fascinating projects that the Collective is working on already. ​Joseff Harris, sound artist and Dr Tommaso Jucker from the University of Bristol, will be looking at how we can represent the intelligence of underground forest communication networks using adaptive podcasting.  Gill Simmons from Brave Bold Drama will be thinking about ways in which we can empower young people to express the hyperlocal history of Hartcliffe and Withywood. Kathy Hinde will be creatively engaging with Bristol’s waterways through underwater sound recordings, bringing attention to the secret river Malago and Bristol’s unique tidal range . Those are just a few examples. There are many more!

Weronika

One may ask, how is this technology innovative if my phone can already use my location and change some features in my favourite applications based on it?

Ian

Your phone can change a bunch of things. The difference in what we’re doing is that anybody can get involved in it. What typically happens is that if you want to do something similar, you have to hire a developer, and they would have to write a custom application just for you. That’s great if you can afford to hire a developer but what we’ve done is that we’ve made a generic application so that anybody with a basic skill set can go and create his custom adaptive podcast, upload it to their site, and then download it to their podcast player. 

We’ve done that successfully but because we’re using open source code to do that, the program will always be in beta. It’s meant to be; it will never get finished because it will keep on growing.

Weronika

Does anybody else on the scene pursue similar projects?

Ian

I’m stunned that the likes of Google, Apple and Spotify haven’t done this. But I know why – it doesn’t fit with their business model. Their business model is to sell adverts, and even though that adaptive podcasting could do that very well, we’re using it for creative uses. We build it in a way that it’s decentralised. There are no callbacks to a central server. When you download the application, you download your podcast from the BBC, or wherever it is, you play it. one of that data that’s being used goes anywhere. Because we’re dealing with very personal data, the way we built the codebase means you couldn’t do that. There’s nothing to stop someone else from adding that in the future, though.

Weronika

What are the plans for distributing it or informing people about this app? 

Ian

The plan is to open source the codebase and release the application on the Google Play Store. Anyone with an Android phone will be able to install it. It will have several demos and, hopefully, some excellent stuff in there that will showcase the possibilities of the technology. Thanks to a funding bid we won with the European Broadcasting Union, we will also create a simplistic editor that will enable anyone to create their podcasts without the need to know how to code.  

We already have had many companies contact us interested in integrating this into their technology and other use cases, which have surprised and delighted us. Our biggest ambition is to put this technology in young people’s hands and see media made by young people for young people. It is also something European public service broadcasts are interested in. 

Weronika

How exciting. Thank you Ian, it was great to speak to you today. I can’t wait to see where the project is going.

Ian

Thank you. It was a pleasure.

To learn more about the project

Penny Hay, Ian Forrester & James Cook: Rabbit Holes! | Watershed | Pervasive Media Lunchtime Talk

Falling Down Rabbit Holes by Dr. Penny Hay: Bristol + Bath Creative R&D

Perceptive Media: Ian Forrester TEDxBristol

Falling into the Story(World) 

Don’t you love that moment when you fall into a storyworld? The magic of storytelling relies on the  power of words to create the world you visit through the act of reading or listening. Suspending your real world situation, time and space, and even your body, you transport yourself into another, virtual world. But do you really need to lose the connection with the space you are in and your own body in order to immerse yourself in a story? What about audio-guided locative narratives, where the virtual world and your physical space overlaps, permitting you to become a part of a story, or even one of its protagonists? Imagine a story that happens in your ‘here’ and ‘now’. Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a storyworld, with your headphones on, guided by the narration addressing you directly. You are there, able to see and hear everything and you can (and should) explore the narrated world. 

We fell in love with such stories; place-bound and walking-bound audio-stories that need to be walked-through step by step. From this fascination sprang the idea of an academic course for students of creative writing, film and media studies and cultural studies at the Institute of Contemporary Culture (University of Lodz, Poland) in the academic year 2019/2020. This course was designed as a laboratory to explore the field of such literary narration more deeply and we were all part of it in our different roles (as lecturer and students from different departments) and at some meetings we were accompanied by people from the IT industry. This experiment was based on the fusion of three perspectives; the artistic, the academic and the technological. Having started with initial academic research on the topic, we moved to practice-based research and then went on to look for the best technology to realise complex projects. Although we quickly agreed that hi-tech is not a prerequisite for achieving the goal of a fully immersive locative story, we decided to experiment with some accessible technology that could enhance our audio narrations. 

To accomplish this goal we used the Tropiciel App from Polish IT start-up, eDialog. This app was created in 2018 to bring urban gaming to the other dimension by enabling the tracking of a gamer’s location and facilitating implementation of audio-visual and playable elements. We decided to test its capabilities as a literary platform. But our goal wasn’t to think about this technology as an attractive additive, a gimmick, but as something that could really help us to create and tell a story. We dreamed about using it to enhance immersion created with the audio-narration. And then, with the Tropiciel App, we created two stories to be experienced while walking through the city of Łódź with a phone in your hand.

When A Story Becomes A Dream And When The Dream Comes True

The Story of One Bullet, created by Szymon Szul and Marta Dziedziela, the first of our  projects, was inspired by Andrzej Strug‘s book of the same title. It was designed to play intertextually with an original novel and with Agnieszka Holland’s movie based on it but  we weren’t interested in creating a classic adaptation. The latter we saw as contradictory to the idea of locative narrative itself and unconvincing as an audio-narration.

We decided to make some important changes. In our version of The Story …, the action takes place in the city of Łódź, but thanks to the visual materials, phone’s interface, and shifting the action time about twenty years ahead, the reader-listener can read his surroundings as retro-futuristic. In the Strug’s novel, the bullet traveled from one character to another and, thanks to this, the reader could get to know the point of view of various people involved in the revolution. But in our story the reader-listener becomes the main character. So, instead of passing the bullet from one person to another, as Strug did, we decided to forward the reader-listener from one character to another. The eponymous bullet is placed in the reader-listener’s hand (however, they don’t know that till the end of the story), and they are guided through the city (and the story) by the novel’s various protagonists. Every character who ‘intercepts’ the reader-listener has their own story to tell (and they use the recipient’s phone and headphones to do that).

The Story … also also uses visual materials and written fragments of text displayed on the screen of a phone. These  introduce the Unknown; a character writes to the recipient. Those written dialogues add an additional perspective to the story and offer a moment of pause for the reader-listener during their walk. They also always ‘happen’ in easy-to-access locations, so the reader-listener can always go back to them if they are lost. The Unknown also takes photos from the gallery and used the GPS location system to create a feeling that this character knows more about them than he does (finally, we only simulated that action; we explain the reasons for that later).

We wanted to direct the reader-listener’s attention, so we decided to balance the ‘clear’ transmission of additional information through the application interface (e.g. photos of the route and a map showing how to get to the next point) with ‘hacking’ the interface to make the reader-listener realise that someone is trying to either warn them (e.g. by encrypting the names of the locations to the reader-listener) or use them for their own purpose. This was possible as we could personalise the reply buttons (e.g. by changing ‘Yes, I am here’ button always used in Tropiciel).

“The Story of One Bullet” by Marta Dziedziela & Szymon Szul Screenshot from the Tropiciel showing a message from the Unknown mentioned in the article.

The second project we worked on was Vanishing Murals (created by Anna Bednarek, Remigiusz Jóźwiak, Karolina Misiarek and Anna Nowak); an audio locative narrative focusing on the famous murals from Łódź as kind of literary city guide. The murals have become an everyday element of our city’s landscape, but, as time passed, people started losing interest in them. Our aim was to create a highly playable narrative that prompts people to remember masterpieces and their histories. Some famous murals become protagonists in our narration, taking the role of reader-listener’s interlocutors and guides through the city (and the story).

The plot of Vanishing Murals is simple and it is based on the real story of one of the murals of our city (called Ballon); the one that has vanished. The murals ask the reader-listener to discover what happened to the missing one. They need to ask the reader-listener for help because, even though they can speak, they can’t move from where they have been painted.

Every mural in our story is different and has its own soul (as the real murals vary in character). Thus, while reading-playing one has the opportunity to listen to various figures from wall paintings: e.g. artistic soul, famous composer Rubenstein or the always busy Late Passenger. We tried to express murals’ personalities and capture the melody and character of their voices. The literary form of each monologue was also important (e.g. Primavera, a mural that as the protagonist of our story has artistic and dreamy character, speaks in verse while other characters use clear You-directed prose structures).

Our characters, even if willing to speak to the reader-player, often do not give away information for free. They like riddles and the reader-player frequently (but not in every location) has to complete some tasks if they want to move further in the story. The riddles and puzzles were also used to smuggle some information about Łódź (reader-listener has to look for some information to resolve the tasks) and to deepen the protagonists characteristics (tasks given by each protagonist fits they nature, e.g. puzzles linked to the poetry given by above-mentioned Primavera who always speaks in verse).

Some of our plans have changed due to the (limited) capabilities of Tropiciel app and the company policy.  That is, we were limited by the technology that we used. 

For example, in The Story … we had to give up our dreams of animating the text (which was inspired by works such as Semyon Polyakovskiy’s Maginary) or using reader’s personal data (like in Kate Pullinger’s Breathe), because Tropiciel did not offer such features. Although using photos from the reader-listener’s gallery or extracting data about the reader’s previous location(s) were possible, the app developers did not permit us to use such features, as they were afraid that consumers would perceive this trick as a violation of their privacy (so we only could simulate that, as marked before in case of The Unknown). 

In Vanishing Murals we had to change previously planned tasks for readers/players, adapting them to the size of the phone screen (playable parts of the story are displayed on the screen, accompanying the audio-narration). A good example here is a task given to the reader-listener by Primavera. She asked her listeners to arrange pieces of Julian Tuwim’s poem in the correct order. The original text had to be shortened because it did not fit the screen. 

“Vanishing Murals” by Anna Bednarek, Remigiusz Jóźwiak, Karolina Misiarek & Anna Nowak Photo (taken by Jakub Krychowiak) representing Primavera – mural which became one of the characters in our project.

We were aware that the technology we were using was not perfect and we tried to creatively use this imperfection. Due to potential errors out of our control (such as  issues with confirming locations near tall buildings) we decided that in The Story … the phone would be presented as an outdated technology that often acts up. This way, we minimised the risk of the reader/listener being taken out of the story because of technological problems. All those issues can be logically explained in the storyworld or even seen as the reader/listener’s fault.

Tips For Writers 

Based on our experiences during this project, we have some tips for writers  wanting to create a locative narrative using  audio-narration.

1. Don’t just start with a story. Plan your route, think about locations that you want to pass by, and start walking. Improvise and go where you feel you need to go. That way your story will start to write itself on its own and your characters will have to comment on the route you (un)consciously set for them.
2. Once you’ve crystallised your route, take a few walks to collect measurements. Invite your friends as they might draw your attention to something you haven’t noticed. And remember to take notes.
3. Don’t plan too long a route (you can also consider splitting it into parts, if it makes sense for the story). You want your reader-listener to finish the story, and not to give up because of being too tired or bored with walking.
4. Never forget about your reader-listener. You will know the route by heart, but they will be  experiencing it for the first time. Sometimes it is good to connect your story to more than one hint to a location as you cannot predict if some places will change. You also need to think about the reader’s safety. For example, make them aware that it’s not a good idea to cross at a red light, even if the narrator tells them to go straight on.
5. While writing, take into consideration any tensions between the real space and the virtual storyspace. They will inevitably intertwine in your readers/listeners’ individual experiences (e.g. the reader of  The Story … had to enter the cemetery, which wasn’t open all day). Bear in mind that not everything you imagined will happen in the real world the way you want it to. For example, can you book a rain for your story? Sometimes the unpredicted happens. 
6. Pay special attention to the audio must sound natural as our reader-listener has to believe that somebody is really speaking to them. Don’t be afraid to rely on amateur voice actors, but explain in detail what your expectations are (and get ready for some long sessions). 
7. Once recording, pay special attention to the sounds of the environment. It is a good idea to take a recorder with you while walking the route and collect background sounds and other noises. 
8. While writing, read your text aloud in a way you imagine it will be read as, for example, the rhythm of the text can dictate the pace of the reader-listener’s steps. These tests should help you measure how long each part of text will take. During recordings, you won’t stand behind the voice actor with a stopwatch in your hand, you have to check earlier if the recordings suit the planned route. Remember, rigid time frames will allow you to guide the reader in the right direction and draw his attention to the objects that play an important role in your world. 
9. Enjoy the benefits of the technology in moderation. Some features may be appealing but make sure that they serve the story. If you are told  that something is impossible, don’t believe it. It’s good to make compromises, but it’s also good to argue about what you think is important for your narrative. We have learnt that sometimes it can be fruitful to be stubborn.
10. Don’t hesitate to look for inspiration in all kinds of  narratives. Think about other media (e.g. film narration) or more traditional forms of literary narration (e.g. dramatic monologue, form of narration used in The Fall by Albert Camus).
11. Last, but not least,; don’t plan your narrative during a pandemic, unless every character wears a mask.

I have worked as a dramaturg and theatre maker for over 20 years, spending my life thinking about how to create stories for  audiences to lose themselves in. My professional toolbox is full of ways to develop the dramaturgy of an experience. Yet, in my new research project, I have had to put most of my previous experience and usual tools aside.

For 10 years, I witnessed my father’s experience with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and felt  the helplessness that comes with a condition with no known cure. I came across a chapter in a book which mentioned that mental imagery, and in particular motor imagery, was being explored as a tool to address common issues, such as freezing gait that people with PD experience. It happens when the brain’s messaging system to the body is disrupted and it leads to people grounding to a halt. Through engaging their mental motor imagery, patients can work around these disrupted neural connections and get their body moving again.  

At the time, I was working on a piece of immersive audio theatre called Reassembled Slightly Askew (RSA)[1] by Shannon Yee, which utilised binaural audio to place the audience within the body of Shannon as she falls ill with a rare brain infection, experiences the surgery and travels the long road to recovery with an acquired brain injury. My work as a dramaturg in this project was focused on how we helped our audiences create the right mental imagery for the story by combining text and sound design. The impact of the final production on its audience was powerful and very visceral and it sparked an idea for me in this new context.

The combination of the chapter on Parkinson’s and mental imagery and the experience of working with immersive audio made me feel that maybe I could contribute towards making my father’s life a bit better after all. I started to explore the possibility of a project using immersive audio for people like Dad. I wanted to create stories that transport them away from the lived reality of the illness, whilst engaging their motor imagery in the ways suggested by the research to keep the messaging routes open and active in their mind and bodies. 

Stephen Beggs as the nurse looking after audiences at Reassembled Slightly Askew UK tour 2017. Credit: Photo Michael Mutch, Northern Echo

Years later, this grew into my practice-based PhD project Worldbuilders and the research question: Can artistically developed immersive audio stories be a tool for engaging people, living with Parkinson’s disease, in developing their mental imagery skills whilst being transported by a story? Now, I am experimenting with different combinations of what we can learn from ongoing research using mental and motor imagery for therapy and rehabilitation, anecdotal evidence from people living with Parkinson’s and the extraordinary ways in which binaural sound communicates with our mind within immersive audio stories.

There are many aspects to consider when creating these experiences; audio techniques, immersive world-building, technologies and delivery and facilitation of the experience that fit within the arts and health field. However, in this article I will focus on some key learning points and avenues I am exploring from a writer’s perspective.

 Characters to narrator

The ‘stage space’ and the fictional world in immersive audio is inside the mind of the audience member who in turn is located at the centre of that world. One of the first major things to consider was mode of address. Who am I to the listener? How will the narrator address them? Where am I? Who are they in the imaginary world? What are the relationships between character, narrator and me as the writer? To make immersive audio fully effective, the audience needs to listen through headphones. The narrator’s voice is therefore placed snugly, and intimately, in the listeners ears. It required a change to my normal workflow, iteratively writing, recording and listening. I paid close attention to what kind of mental imagery the different mode of address created when heard through headphones. After several experiments exploring 1st person and 2nd person perspective, with some unfortunate accidents where I ended up with empty bodies moving around my stories with no subjective agency, I settled on 2nd person as the mode of address. In the headphones that felt right.  

The next step was to look at narrative distance and tense. I learnt it is incredibly easy to slip into the habits belonging to writing in 1st and 3rd person even when deliberately setting out to write 2nd person. I needed to anchor my listener/participant within the fictional immersive world in the here and now. I needed a very present sense of presence. However, I still needed to clarify who the ‘you’ is that is being addressed.

 Being yourself, vs being someone else

In Reassembled Slightly Askew, as in many other immersive experiences, stories and games, we were asking audience members to inhabit the body of someone else. In some immersive stories this could be either a fictional character or one based on someone’s experience. In RSA, our audience was in the body and experience of Shannon, and the sonic world was created from her perspective to share the particular sensory experience of what happened to Shannon. As an audience, you were not asked to do anything but perceive, listen, feel and imagine being Shannon.

However, that was not my task in hand. My task was to create bespoke audio stories for people whose motivation is primarily to see what the experience can do for them in the context of living with a progressive illness. It was clear that the main difference in Worldbuilders is that my audiences enter the experience as themselves. From the medical research into mental imagery for Parkinson’s, I knew that my audience had to imagine their own bodies within the story being physiologically active and reactive within the immersive world through all the senses, but most importantly proprioceptively and kinaesthetically.

Therefore, I needed to connect my audiences’ own motivations for participating in the experience, their physiological self as well as their own subjectively felt dramatic stakes: their illness. The stories needed 1st person pov (point of view) sensory and motor imagery detail and instructions to work in conjunction with the 2nd person pov narration. A crucial element to achieve this was to fold sensory and motor imagery and instruction into the stories but without losing pace and flow. I had to let go of my ways of working from theatre and create a new type of dramaturgy for Worldbuilders, which would facilitate the participant’s motivations, stakes and perspectives within the fictional, sonic world I was creating whilst giving them hidden tasks to do with their minds and bodies. I began exploring the dramaturgical requirements of co-creation. 

 Co-creation

To create a narrative for co-creation, I needed to provide story details such as a location, an action and a loosely set task, while leaving enough space for the listener to make their own decisions about what the task means to them. Addressing my listener as ‘you’ proved very helpful and I found that the listener needed more room to make decisions than in prose writing, but less so than in stage writing.

I ran into challenges all the time. Creating backstory without too much specific detail yet carrying emotional story impact was tricky. When working in an arts and health project, it is key to avoid inducing heightened adrenaline states. This wipes out 80% of what we know about dramatic stakes. 

Another hurdle was being able to create scenes where other characters are speaking to you – the listener/protagonist – without your feeling the need to answer.  If you record a voice that is representing your participant’s voice and thoughts, you immediately disrupt the hard-won subjective sense of self. The recorded voices’ accent, age, gender may get in the way for the participant in their task to maintain a sense of presence. I gave this function to the narrator which was an enjoyable experiment but quite limiting.

When mixing the audio, the key was to think through where within the sonic world to place certain sounds; the narrator versus any internal character noises or thoughts; where in the sonic space to place present tense emotions, any memories or thoughts? I am also experimenting with creating motor-focused sounds. With the aim to catalyse their feeling the space and their own movements within it through sounds rather than solely relying on words and the narrator.

A visual representation of the spatialization of different sounds within the sonic world.  Credit: created by Hanna Slattne in Miro using graphics by Andre from Noun Project.

The big question remains; can immersive audio stories transport the listener in the way that novels, plays and screen stories do while simultaneously asking them to work intensely with their mind/body connection within an immersive imaginary world? I am still not sure either way yet. However, I am learning a lot about audio story dramaturgy in the process and am trying things I would never have done had I not given myself this challenge. 

In the next part of my research, I am running consultations with people living with Parkinson’s disease to hear more about how to aid them in connecting their mind and body, how to tap into the memories of moving freely and to incorporate that into stories and experiences. In a way, I am asking them to co-create with themselves – with their minds, memories and imaginations. Is it possible to build up motor imagery skills from the comfort of your own armchair, without it feeling like a clinical exercise? Might working with your imagination in this way, genuinely enhance a sense of wellbeing? Most importantly, can we develop practical and usable tools to help them through the moments when freezing gait stops them in their track?  All while escaping from the world for a brief moment, through the magic of audio and story.

If you are interested in these questions and ideas, I would love to hear from you. Please contact hslattne01@qub.ac.uk 

[1] Reassembled Slightly Askew was written by Shannon Yee and created in collaboration with director Anna Newell, sound designer Paul Stapleton, Choreographer Stevie Prickett and dramaturg Hanna Slattne. For more information visit: http://reassembled.co.uk

The Writing Platform is looking to commission articles of approx 750 to 2,000 words on aspects of innovative audio storytelling, from podcasts and interactive storytelling using smart speakers, to binaural storyscapes and audio walks. We are interested in experimentation, personalisation and playfulness with form and content. The articles will be published on The Writing Platform website between January and March 2021.

Your proposed article might fit into one of the following categories; 

Resource: for example, a how-to guide on an aspect of audio storytelling.

Research: for example, an overview of a research project from an academic or practitioner perspective.

Experience: for example, an account of an audio experience that you have experienced or developed.

News: for example, highlighting a new project or opportunity in the field that our readers might not have heard of before.

Projects:  for example, a reflection on a project that you have developed or one that you have been inspired by. 

We are also looking for articles on digital storytelling in activism and social change, to be published on The Writing Platform between April and June 2021, and in virtual, augmented and mixed reality to be published between July and September 2021. 

We are looking for 750 – 2,000 word articles, including 2 to 3 images. We have a small commissioning fund for freelancers. 

To propose an article, email Amy Spencer (a.spencer@bathspa.ac.uk) with a 100 word overview of your idea and tell us which category or categories it would best fit into. 

We have a rolling deadline for submissions and would advise you getting in touch asap to discuss your proposed article.