Scenario

To create 'buzz' around the concept that this particular event ( The joseph Arthur performance) includes an online component setup to share the audience experiences. Images/artifacts can be emailed for inclusion into the database. Going into the field for our trial runs, we observed how an audience "accesses" a performance using still and video cameras, or phones with these features built in. Since the technology of the latter is only now being introduced into the marketplace, we will be setting up our scenarios to allow for the use of regular cameras, and build in the aspects of transmission ourselves. Additionally we wish to observe what users would like to do with their images/ artifacts once they have them. Are they inclined to share them amongst the collective audience? Can the context of the show be extended beyond the boundaries of time and space?

The Tag - "joearthurshow" is created and saturates the event via business card handouts and word of mouth. An email address; joearthurshow@gmail.com, is used as a locus for sending/receiving artifacts. The email becomes the point of contact with the users. All users who submit artifacts will receive a special invitation to the website launch and access to the mp3 recording of the show.
• metadata: "joearthurshow" - to be used in third party tools, (flickr) as an organizing tag.
The scenario was tested at the March 17 show, which was intended to gather collected media artifacts from audience members, but lacked sufficient response to draw any arguable conclusions.
A prototype page was setup to give those that did send an email something to respond to and possibly motivate them to follow up with a submission of their own.
http://www.sfu.ca/%7Ejtoal/research/joearthur.htm

There were several factors that could have impeded the success of our initial trial. Although there were many audience members with an image recording device of some kind, lighting conditions at the event were such that the quality of even high quality cameras using a flash turned out to be rather dark. Also, the direct approach could have been mistaken for some kind of marketing ploy as opposed to an invitation for a community event. Of the three respondents we had, all were looking for an established collection of artifacts as opposed to willingly sharing their own objects.

Contact

Please send email to joearthurshow "at" gmail.com.