Twitch Puppetry: A Presentation

Introduction, Inspirations, and Predecessors

 As someone who plays a lot of video-games it's fair to say that I've encountered and played as hundreds of characters, however in terms of any philosophical conversation that ever crops up from video games the most common term I tend to get involved in is that of "Player Agency" in games and "Projected Autonomy". These terms refer to the idea of the level of control a player has over an in-game avatar and the level in which the player projects his/her own personality and habits via the character themselves. Now games are inherently limited, be it by game code, the size of the environment or the fact that game control is normally from buttons and keys therefore never allowing a full sense of freedom and expression.

 I mention this limitation, not as a statement to say that I can break it, but more as an accepted weakness, I say this now in hindsight of the criticism that the base actions of this piece are inherently simple, while this will be explained more later it needs to be said early on that the focus of this is not the idea of free control for the participants, but more the relationship between player and character.

 The idea of human control has been shown before in works by Stelarc, his consistent talks about the human body in relation to technology is fascinating, however with works like ping body, he often shows the ideas of humans both fully in control of technology, and technology in control of the human; it was this video here that, in particular caught my attention: 

 The idea of human control is, personally a fascinating one, however a single person controlling someone for the most part can tend to be restricted by a sense of consequence caused by identity, and morality which would cause someone to be more restrained in their decisions. The first step to eliminating this issue is by making them know a human is being controlled, but void it of its identity and responsibilities, so that this "shell" can have the participant project their wishes unto it. However for ease of use for all involved, the interface and the actions would have to be simple and understandable, which leads to the problem that simple actions with no particular goals is not perhaps something that a participant would find compelling, so an obstacle or challenge would need to be made to insight interest so that the goal that the viewer has made for themselves can become more engaging and, for the "puppet" more cathartic, this is where twitch plays pokemon comes in:

 Twitch plays pokemon was an experimental livestream that gave viewers full control of a game of pokemon by typing directions in a chat, the problem was that there were hundreds of them at once giving constantly  contradictory information to the game. It was cathartic, funny, and utterly captivating. The fact was that there were hours of random movement, the moment the chat were not unified on specific goals everything would reach a pointless standstill, but the game would just keep on playing regardless, the character would be a slave to the masses, so I decided to harness that idea with a simpler interface, but one without specific goals, and more importantly, one where the controlled subject was real, not digital...

Aim

 Twitch puppetry is an art piece that uses the simplified interface of "twitch plays pokemon" but in a small area that contains an assortment of items representing both responsibilities and distractions. This would then control a faceless human (in a morph suit) to do the actions of the chat by following a screen interface, this allows the chat that same sense of catharsis, but now representative of a real life human...

The Real Aim

 The actual aim of this piece is not necessarily for the chat, nor those watching, or contributing to the piece. It is a personal journey at the hands of a majority and, in a a way, a sense of willingness to submit. The wish of this piece is to personally lose my identity, sense of direction, and any real semblance of control, it is, by definition, masochistic. It's a curious idea that I want to personally experience due to the fact that, while one can complain about having no control in their lives, it's rather doubtful that they have actually experienced the sense of true submission, an experience of genuine masochism at the hands of an anonymous crowd. It's slightly embarrassing to admit but part of me has always been curious of that ideology and the feelings it maintains. A true sense of randomness and dictated movement that, while initially voluntary should quickly become second nature after the initial phase of getting used to the feeling. The journey is therefore not just about the journey of movement that will be creating, but more a personal psychological one, a journey into the world of sadomasochism outside of the sexuality that the term is often associated with.

The Process

Using an open source code from the "Twitch plays Pokemon" stream, it is possible to make certain comments in a twitch-stream chat correlate to keyboard presses, by using basic game software with a similar top down interface to Pokemon (RPGMAKER) a simple grid can be created and a character in the center can be controlled. This game is sent on screens surrounding the "puppet" who is on an identical grid with identical item placement and needs to replicate the on-screen characters movements exactly, a stream of him is what the audience sees and believes they are controlling. The twitch stream will be public and, while the main advertisement with links will be at the site of the performance, it is allowable (and in many ways beneficial) that anyone online can potentially tune in and join the system.

[Insert scans here]

What needs to be decided/Problems

-The room is still unknown, it needs to facilitate projectors (preferably 2), at least have a square of 7 metres (for a 7x7 grid minimum) with room for cameras, an internet connection, and hopefully some space for live viewing.

-The items need to be specifically decided, however on the work side the most likely things will be paper filing, cleaning equipments, and office supplies (such as paper shredders etc.); The play side will most likely contain musical instruments, childrens toys, and gadgets (such as stereos).

-Stream delay is inevitable, meaning actions may not seem instantaneous to the viewers, especially those at the event also using the twitch-stream as a control interface.

-The performance also needs a decided time to run, which will most likely be an afternoon time slot of a few hours.

Objective Timeline: (updated if objectives are completed)

-To have specific objects and functions decided, along with the grid layout within the next week.

-To have the room decided, a long with the corresponding safety forms dependent on the room; as well as the rpgmaker grid actually made withing 2 weeks.

-To have the chat engine fully functioning with the game for full twitch control within 3 weeks.

-The rest of the time is to iron out the kinks and prepare for the performance!