More Than a Show
Michael Warren Skirpan, Jacqueline Cameron, Tom Yeh · 2018
Devising strategies to engage the public in discussions around the design and development of technology is critical to building a future that works for everyone. This paper presents a novel case study, an immersive theater experience, "Quantified Self," that combines aspects of design fiction and user enactments to construct a public engagement opportunity about technology ethics. Our audience supplied their social data (Facebook, Twitter...) and received a personalized experience where they interacted with a narrative and technology exhibits. We used a design model targeting goals of engagement, education, and discussion. Here we overview the design and production of Quantified Self and report on the results (240 participants over 6 performances) and findings from audience surveys (n=179/240) and cast/crew interviews (n=15/22). We found our approach attracted a wide audience interested in different elements of the show. Affordances and challenges of our model are discussed in detail.