1. Making a “sense event”
Derek Woodgate

2. “For a num
ber of yea
wanted to rs I've
become an
designer r experience
ather than
just a
musician…”
‐ Peter Gabriel

3. What is the Sense Event?
A unique, intense, interacAve, cuBng
edge experience through augmented
ambience, amplified mulA‐sensory
engagement and immersive
technologies, where sensa(on
embraces, but surpasses meaning.

4. The Sense Event
“The only reality in life is sensaAon. The only reality in
art is consciousness of that sensaAon” – Pesoa
“SensaAon is in the encounter, in the immediacy, in
the imaginaAon, both in terms of the affect and
emoAonal intelligence.
Neither merely mental, nor merely physical, this
sensaAon or experience is the interacAon between
the Self and the World, creaAng one’s personal
ambience ” – Derek Woodgate, Future Flow

5. From experience to ambience
“Ambience is what we let in”

6. From ambience to sensaAon
 SensaAon = Body, mind, culture and environment
harmonized and engaged with meaningful intensity

7. Understanding sensaAon

8. Building sensaAon into experiences: The Need
 Full immersion
 A sense of belongingness
 Seamless, mulA‐sensory engagement and immersion
 Ability to share and collaborate
 Opportunity to create and contribute
 Desire to explore and grow
 AestheAc infusion
 Instant graAficaAon or fulfillment or excitement

9. Building sensaAon into experiences: Context
 Context‐sensiAve experience
 New Harmony ‐ sensory energy and engagement
 Deeper understanding through emoAonal and cogniAve
interfaces
 Sense of well‐being and enhanced personal potenAal
 Expressing humanness

10. CreaAng a ‘sense event’
“It was a near life experience” – Fight Club
Refocus “life” and “live”

11. CreaAng a “sense event”
 SensaAon, affect and
emoAonal intelligence
 Future‐focused –
expressing a feel‐good
factor about the future
 Design a framework of
integrated experiences
around a theme that
captures these elements
Mul7ple avenues of expression

12. Visualizing the theme

13. VisualizaAon & Rendering
• AestheAc / look
• Feeling generated
• DescripAon
• Color cues
Main auditorium

14. The Future of Play Logo

15. Venue

16. Venue layout

17. Four potenAal performance spaces
 The Experiment: Sound Play (Music and performances)
 Immersion Chamber: Social Play (community and communicaAon)
 The InteracAve Playground: AcAon Play (new games and sports, etc.)
 The Hanging Garden: Mental Play (exploraAon, adventure and
imaginaAon)
Play as transforma7ve

18. Pre‐planning
 PotenAal content and arAst list
 Create iniAal collateral, including video
 Projected Financials
 Tech specs
 InstallaAon building costs and transportaAon
 Keynotes
 Sponsors as parAcipants in the event – adding content value
 ProducAon plan, catering, sustainability / recycling plan
 Project Launch party
 Collaborate: UniversiAes: MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, UT

19. Outline of potenAal content
 World‐class performers
 Experimental electronica Unique, world
 Augmented and fluid environments firsts
 3D audio visual show
 Robots and AI games
 InteracAve toys and training tools
 InteracAve visuals

20. PotenAal content
• Simulated and imagined
spaces
• 3D holographic worlds
• Performance and
interacAve art
• CreaAve machines
• Augmented and fluid
environments
• Extended bodies and
interfaces

21. PotenAal performers, etc.

22. Additional focus on
behavioral identities and
customized delivery of
optimized programming

23. MulA‐sensory / cogniAve dynamics
 Bio-mapping and emotion modeling
 Reading and distributed interactive video arrays for
enhanced situational and interactive awareness
 Affective and cognitive perception, feedback and awareness
 Social interfacing and feedback
 Ubiquitous sensing and multi-agent tracking

25. Preparing the event
 Book arAsts and configure event
 Prepare technical aspects of the event
 Create fluid, adapAve environments:
‐ Image processing sofware
‐ Gaming video engines
‐ NarraAve building sofware
‐ Dynamic spaAal interfaces
• Build installaAons
• Create project plan, etc.
• Ramp up volunteers (around 70)

26. Make the sense event
designed to be
adaptive to personal
aesthetics,
imagination, moods
and emotions

27. The event

30. • Adaptive projection
maps
• Holographic overlays
• Hybrid and imaginary
spaces
• Simulated worlds
• Programmed
atmospheres

31. • DatamaAcs
 Seamless fusion
between entertainment
and communicaAon
 Seamless movement
between real and virtual

32. Reconfigurable and Hybrid
performances

33. “Creating
audience
interaction is
about hooking
in to every
format of
memory we have
thought about
and then
thinking about
how we can
describe the
experience.”
‐ DJ Spooky

35. Psychomanteum
Fully immersive,
interacAve
installaAon.
The audience will
be the scary ghost

36. The power of imaginaAon
A mind knows no difference
between an event we experience
and an event we imagine and
visualize, so our body reacts the
same way!
(Antz Chasse, Vicente, 2004)

37. By 2020, imagina7on sensa7on
entertainment will be as
popular as in‐the‐flesh events!