Picnic on the screen

This particular project combines current interactive ludic interface work that Charlotte Gould has been developing, with Paul Sermon's long established practice and research into telepresent environments. Our collaborative partnership has resulted in an interactive ludic interface that has been site-specifically developed for the ‘Village Screen’ at Glastonbury 2009. This work explores the creative potential of the Glastonbury audience as performers that have the capacity to create improvised narrative sequence through the ‘Village Screen’ as a communications portal. This work is designed for large format public video screens and explores their creative and cultural potential. It offers an opportunity to be involved in the development of innovative ways of engaging with the pubic in a festival context using digital technology. Through the augmentation of the virtual and the real, users can explore alternative telepresent spaces and develop unique playful narrative events. ‘Picnic on the Screen’ explores social play and the way fun and enjoyment interact with and enhance new media content and technologies, through its design, creative development, everyday uses and discursive articulations. This is an area of research that has had little exploration; the interactions between technological developments and the pleasures described as 'fun', are few and far between. There are a number of permutations we have develop during the festival week, concerning placement of surfaces, objects, digital content and the location of public interaction, which are all possible under the theme of 'Picnic on the Screen'.