An Audience Data-Driven Alternate Reality Storytelling Design

Abstract

This case study, @LAs, made audiences the authors of exhibits as a way to unite audiences and artworks through a method of collecting their data and using artificial intelligence to process it. Three types of audience data were shared with this prototype exhibit system—identity data, real-time interaction data, and real-time location data. Tagged by folksonomy, audience data became a novel element for the AI system to process to yield media content. Thus, the system selected and generated real-time multimedia content with audiences’ personal features and allowed real-time interaction between audiences and the system, which realized dynamic control in the alternate reality. Developed and built during the 2019 University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film and Television Future Storytelling Summer Institute program, @LAs contained three prototype exhibits for a multimedia alternate reality storytelling pavilion, created as a prototype for a hypothetical mixed reality pop-up installation run throughout Los Angeles during the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. The three exhibits—i.e., three different virtual interaction spaces—were thematically based on murals, foods, and public transportation development in Los Angeles. This paper 1) introduces the theoretical and practical bases of the case study for new forms of alternate reality, 2) describes the data processing method used and the audiences’ experiences, and 3) shares the prototype’s design lessons based on the questionnaire responses from designers.