Moving masks and mobile monkeys: the technodramaturgy of Augmented Reality puppets
Anchuli Felicia King · Theatre & Performance Design · 2018
The theatrical success of digital puppets hangs on the interplay between traditional theatrical dramaturgies and technical optimization. This essay examines digital puppets rendered through recent Augmented Reality (AR) technologies in two productions – NTU-IERC’s Everyman: The Ultimate Commodity (2007) and The Builders Association’s Elements of Oz (2015). Borrowing terminologies from traditional puppet theory, this essay will examine key dramaturgical questions for AR puppet makers, and how the optimization of puppet distance, ratio and breakaways can produce AR puppets that both sustain interest and provide vital theatrical meaning.