Improvising consciousness

Abstract

Improvising Consciousness is an experimental work of intermedia performance: a cognitive science fiction which addresses questions of situated consciousness, pre- & post-human identity, and creativity. The core of the Improvising Consciousness project is a performative lecture on the history and future of the human mind. The lecture is typically accompanied by participatory activities, these have included: work-shopping of alter-egos; improvisation in a multiple personality melodrama; an interactive visual short story; play sessions with a mixed-reality alien intelligence; and a physical game dealing with pre-historic cognition. The creative team include researchers in interactive drama, virtual and mixed reality, visual novels, AI, robotics and performance. They are members of a group which has a track record of producing innovative syntheses of computer-based technology and live performance.