RESEARCH AREA
Following an MSc in Business Systems Analysis (City University, London,
1993) and an MA (Conv.) in English Literature (Trinity College,
Cambridge, 1978), my work currently focuses on an examination of the
application of drama theory and practice in the construction of
interactive virtual environments. This is a development of ideas first
formulated in my MSc dissertation, "The Use of Systems Design Methods in
the Construction of Interactive Fiction".
The use of virtual environments is growing. In the last twelve months,
such diverse fields as architecture, geological and marine surveying,
telecommunications, medicine and financial dealing have all begun
developing the modelling power of VR for commercial use. At the same
time, hardware support for VR is improving, falling in price, becoming
more widely accessible.
However, VR design is still not sufficiently developed to provide
coherent interactive environments between humans. The drive is on to
develop coherent practice for the development of such environments;
applications and markets are foreseen in entertainment, training,
education and therapy.
Drama is a mechanism for examining the interactions between people,
theatre a "complex aesthetic machine, dedicated to the representation of
the imaginable through performance" (Hilton J., 1993). It seems entirely
practical that drama and theatre should be appropriate technologies for
the massively interactive environments that VR offers.
Translated from the Greek, drama is "the doing thing"; theatre
(theatron) is "the seeing place". The two are often confused,
but their distinction is crucial to an understanding of the place of
drama rather than theatre in human interaction environments, where
engagement is not fundamentally linear (as in a book, film or play -
though each of these differs in its "linearity"). but multi-threaded, as
in an improvisation, or a play rehearsal. Virtual reality might appear to
be the natural successor to the cinema, as cinema appeared to be the
successor to the theatre. But virtual reality offers a medium that does
not require or respond to the linear constraints or editing of the
cinema. Current interactive technologies, loosely described as
multi-media, and largely working on hypertext principles, provide only
limited dramatic interaction within a linear framework, relying on
branching selections of pre-recorded material and drawing on film editing
principles - the "interactive movie".
Theatre is itself a linear event, with limited direct interaction between
performers and audience - but purposeful improvised drama, as used in
schools, in rehearsal and in experimental theatre, provides a framework
for action in fictional virtual environments, where it is of importance
that the users (or players) are represented as in some way other than
themselves. Indeed, the word "represented" can be written as
"re-presented", emphasising the changed nature of self-presentation that
virtual environments encourage. The theatre itself offers a wealth of
theory, knowledge and experience of constructing dramas for presentation,
and though usually studied as an experience for an audience, the
experience of the performers is also pertinent to re-presentation in
virtual environments.
An ontology connecting drama and computer-based virtual environments has
been tentatively established, and three conference papers have been
written, placing ideas linking drama and virtual environments for
discussion in an academic arena. The acceptance of the first of these, "Envisonments - the Construction of Dramatic
Virtual Worlds", for VRST '94, Singapore, has gone some way to
establishing confidence in the work, receiving very encouraging feedback
from reviewers.
The paper was intentionally broad and covers these main themes:
- It further develops "first-person" interaction, based on Laurel and
current drama-in-education theory, and elaborated in terms of current
interactive computer applications and games (Laurel, 1986, 1991, Waldern,
1994, O'Toole, 1991, Bolton, 1979, 1984).
- It examines the potential dramatic components of an interactive
environment and places them in terms of "envisonments" (Rich & Knight,
1991 ).
- It develops the concept of a frame-based design for development
through object-oriented design. (Graham, 1990)
Dr. Peter Holland, Head of English at Trinity Hall College, Cambridge, is
acting as second supervisor, overseeing the drama and theatre elements
of research. Our relationship goes back over fifteen years, to when I was
an undergraduate at Trinity College,
Cambridge, heavily involved in university theatre.
Further lines of research are examining the following areas in closer
detail:
- The nature of imagination, fantasy and fiction - Walton (1990), Brook
(1966, 1987), Grotowski (1968), Gaskell (1972), Turner (1982)
- Child psychology, and the derivation of play - Piaget (1951), Singer
(1979)
- Interpersonal psychology and the work of Erving Goffman (also: Argyle)
- Object-oriented technology, particularly new works by Graham (1994),
Yourdon (1994) and Robinson & Berrisford (1994)
As can be seen, the subject area is situated at the overlap between a
number of disciplines, and I have no doubt that other as yet unexamined
themes must be drawn upon.
A continuing focus on the nature of computer-based dramatic interaction
seems appropriate, with further integration of theory and practice using:
- Non-Aristotelian drama, especially forms of twentieth-century
interactive drama such as:
- Character development (Chekov, 1952, Stanislavski, 1937, 1963, Moore,
1979)
- Improvisation skills and Drama-in-Education (Pfister, 1988, O'Toole,
1992, Bolton, 1979, 1984, Heathcote (in Wagner, 1976),
Jackson, 1993, Frost & Yarrow, 1990, Boal, 1974, 1992)
- Practical experimentation to examine simple interactive dramas using
the multi-user graphical game, Doom (id Software, 1994) which
allows both collaborative and competitive play on a small network of PCs,
and can be edited to alter graphic content (though not the behaviour of
its agents). It is of particular interest to find out more about the
psychology and physiology of the phenomenon known as "suspension of
disbelief" (Coleridge, 1817), and the application of status transactions
and transactional analysis techniques to interaction (see below).
- Envisionments - a design methodology for interactive environments -
requires a deeper level of understanding and more sophisticated examples
than those given in the paper. The publication of the 2nd edition of Ian
Graham's book Object Oriented Methods (1994) gives access to a
broadening of the SOMA design methodology and Edward Yourdon has also
extended his object-oriented analysis methodology (1994). An analysis,
deconstruction and development of Shakespeare's play Macbeth
will serve as the basis of a larger study of both the analysis and
the design of an envisionment.
- Status-based dramatic "transaction" in character (actor/agent)
development. This engages the use of acting techniques developed over the
last ten years from status-based improvisation (Keith Johnstone , 1981,
and others), transactional analysis (Berne, 1963, Harris, 1967, Klein,
1980, Steiner, 1990) and non-verbal communication (Birdwhistle, 1970,
Morris, 1978, Bull, 1983) with work on co-operative / collaborative /
competitive agents in distributed AI (Galliers, 1990, Castlefranchi,
1990). Already, work is under way examining how spatial awareness informs
non-verbal communication in VR at Nottingham University as part of the UK
CSCW initiative VIRTUOSI. There is also research investigating the
phenomena of embodiment in VR (Benford, 1994) and "presence" (Steed,
Slater & Usoh, Department of Computer Science, Queen Mary & Westfield
College, London).
There are no easily available models or products that can be used to
assess or evaluate dramatic virtual environments. Editable graphic games
offer only tightly limited interactions and little possibility of
altering their nature - Doom allows for only run, shoot,
pick up and die. On the other hand, commerci virtual
world-building software offers very limited behavioural functionality. It
remains to be seen if a suitable world builder emerges in time to provide
a practical, experimental basis for my conclusions.
- Argyle, Michael (1983),
- The Psychology of Interpersonal
Behaviour (4th Ed.), Penguin, UK
- Bates, J. (1992), "Virtual Reality, Art, and Entertainment"
in
- Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual
Environments 1(1), 133-138.
- Benford, S., Bowers J. & Fahlen L. (1994),
- "Managing Mutual
Awareness in Collaborative Environments"
given at the 1st UK VR-SIG Conference,
Nottingham, April 1994 and quoted in
"Computing" 12/5/94, p. 39 , VNU
Business Publications
- Berne, Eric (1964),
- Games People Play, Penguin, UK
- Birdwhistle, Ray.L. (1970),
- Kinesis and Contact,
University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, USA
- Boal, Augusto (1974),
- Theatre of the Oppressed, Pluto
Press, London UK
- Boal, Augusto (1992),
- Games For Actors and Non-Actors,
Routledge, London UK
- Bolton, Gavin (1979),
- Towards A Theory of Drama in
Education, Longman, Essex, UK
- Bolton, Gavin (1984),
- Drama As Education, Longman,
Essex, UK
- Brook, Peter (1966),
- The Empty Space, Penguin, UK
- Bull, Peter (1983),
- Body Movement and Interpersonal
Contact, John Wiley, Int.
- Castlfranchi, Cristiana (1990),
- "Social Power, A Point Missed in
Multi-Agent, DAI and HCI", in Decentralized AI, Demezeau, Yves &
Müller, Jean-Pierre (Eds.), Elsevier Science Publishers, North Holland
- Chekov, Michael (1952),
- To the Actor - On the Technique of
Acting, Harper & Row, New York, USA
- Cohen, S. & Taylor, L. (1992),
- Escape Attempts - The Theory
and Practice of
Resistance to Everyday Life (2nd Ed.)
Routledge, London, UK
- Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1817, This ed. 1975),
- Biographia
Literaria, J.M. Dent & Sons, London, UK
- Frost, A., & Yarrow, R. (1990),
- Improvisation in Drama,
MacMillan Press, UK
- Galliers, Julia R. (1990),
- "The Positive Role of Conflict in
Co-operative Multi-Agent Systems", in Decentralized AI,
Demezeau, Yves & Müller, Jean-Pierre (Eds.), Elsevier Science Publishers,
North Holland
- Gaskell, Ronald (1972),
- Drama & Reality - The European
Theatre since Ibsen,
Routledge & Kegan Paul, UK
- Goffman, Erving (1959),
- The Presentation of Self in Everyday
Life, Penguin, UK
- Goffman, Erving (1961, 1972),
- Encounters, Penguin, UK
- Goffman, Erving (1967, 1972),
- Interaction Ritual,
Penguin, UK
- Goffman, Erving (1974, 1975),
- Frame Analysis, Harper &
Row, New York, USA,
Peregrine Books, Middlesex, UK
- Graham, Ian (1991),
- Object-Oriented Methods, (1st Ed.)
Addison-Wesley, UK
- Graham, Ian (1994),
- Object-Oriented Methods, (2nd Ed.)
Addison-Wesley, UK
- Grotowski, Jerzy (1969),
- Towards A Poor Theatre, Eyre
Methuen, London, UK
- Harris, Thomas (1967),
- I'm OK, You're OK, Jonathan Cape,
London, UK
- Heathcote, Dorothy - See Wagner, Betty
- Hilton, Julian, Ed. (1993),
- New Directions in Theatre,
Macmillan Press, UK
- Jackson, Tony (1993),
- Learning Through Theatre - New
Perspectives on Theatre in Education,
Routledge, UK
- Johnstone, Keith (1981),
- Impro, Methuen, London, UK
- Klein, Mavis (1980),
- Lives People Live - A Textbook of
Transactional Analysis, MacMillan, UK
- Laurel, Brenda (1986),
- "Interface As Mimesis" In - See: Norman,
Donald A. & Draper, Stephen W. (Eds.) (1986)
- Laurel, Brenda (1991),
- Computers As Theatre
Addison-Wesley (USA)
- Morris, Desmond (1978),
- Manwatching, Traid Panther,
London, UK
- Moore, Sonia (1979),
- Training An Actor, (Penguin, UK)
- Norman, Donald A. & Draper, Stephen W. (Eds.) (1986)
- User
Centred System Design New Perspectives on Human-Computer
Interaction Lawrence Erlbaum Assocs. (USA)
- O'Toole, John (1992),
- The Process of Drama, Routledge,
London, UK
- Piaget, Jean (1951),
- Play, Dreams and Imitation in
Childhood, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, UK
- Pfister, Manfred (1988),
- The Theory and Analysis of
Drama, Cambridge University Press, UK
- Rich, E., & Knight, K. (1991),
- Artificial Intelligence,
McGraw-Hill, Int.
- Robinson & Berrisford (1994),
- Object-Oriented SSADM,
Prentice-Hall, UK
- Singer, J., & Sherrod, L. (1979) "The Development of Make Believe
Play"
in Sports, Games and Play, Lawrence
Erlbaum Assoc. New Jersey, USA
- Spolin, Viola (1963, 1983),
- Improvisation for the
Theatre, Northwestern University Press,
Evanston, Illinois, USA
- Stanislavski, Constantin (First UK translation, 1937),
- An
Actor Prepares, Methuen, London
- Stanislavski, Constantin (First UK translation, 1937),
- Building A Character, Methuen, London
- Stanislavski, Constantin (First UK translation, 1963),
- Creating A Role, Methuen, London
- Steiner, Claude (1990),
- Scripts People Live (2nd Ed.),
Grove Press, New York, USA
- Turner, Victor (1982),
- From Ritual to Theatre, The Human
Seriousness of Play,
PAJ Publications, New York, USA
- Wagner, Betty (1976),
- Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as a Learning
Medium,
National Educational Association, UK
- Waldern, J.D. (1994),
- "A Note on Software Design of Virtual
Team-mates and Virtual Opponents" in:
Proceedings of VR '94, The London Virtual Reality Expo, Meckler,
London, UK
- Walton, Kendall (1990),
- Mimesis As Make-believe - On the
Foundation of the Representational Arts,
First Harvard University Press, USA
- Yourdon, Edward (1994),
- Object-Oriented Systems Development:
An Integrated Approach, Prentice-Hall, UK
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HOMEPAGE
Last updated May 1997
Ivor Benjamin - i.d.benjamin@city.ac.uk
All material © Copyright 1995 Ivor Benjamin unless otherwise specified.