Site-Specific Performance, Narrative, and Social Presence in Multi-User Virtual Environments and the Urban Landscape

This chapter brings together the practice-based creative research of artists Charlotte Gould and Paul Sermon, culminating in collaborative interactive installations for urban screens that investigate new forms of social and/or political narratives in site-specific urban environments. The authors’ current creative practice looks specifically at the concepts of social presence and performance and attempts to bridge two remote locations either virtually (using online virtual environments such as Second Life) or in the physical space through mixed reality techniques and interfaces that allow the public to direct the narrative and creative outcomes of the artwork.