Autonomy of experience: time, space, path and place as blended artistic methodology in MAP, an online, interactive poetry experience

ABSTRACT

This article will discuss M A P, an interactive poetic experience facilitated on the popular media sharing application Instagram, which was developed as a research-based, cross-course collaboration. The artistic methodology applied during M A P was developed during the global pandemic of COVID-19 and was created with, and inspired by the use of blended learning approaches. Acknowledging and addressing the social disconnect and technological hyper-connect during the pandemic, M A P can be understood as a practice-as-research experimentation that investigates how digital technologies might be repurposed in blended artistic practice to allow for a more reflective and embodied experience of ourselves and others in time and place. The makers of M A P advocate the facilitation of autonomous choice-making, particularly in relation to the use of time, space, path and pace, as well as the application of slow technology and slow design considerations to develop abstract story-telling and relational sense-making through the merging of online and real-world activities. M A P can be accessed via Instagram on @map_game_start or via https://www.themapexperience.com.

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory performance
• Instagram
• blended creative experiences
• interdisciplinary art
• research
• slow design

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caroline Mueller

Caroline Mueller is a freelance performance practitioner, researcher and scholar. She founded her company boXd productions in 2004 and has produced a diverse range of internationally shown performance work on film, for the stage and for gallery and installation spaces. Her work is interdisciplinary and often combines live art, movement, text, multimedia and participation. Alongside her work with boXd productions she is programme leader of the BA Performing Arts at the University of East London and coartistic director of Project on a Bus, a Newham based arts organisation, which supports young artist in the creation of original performance work via professional development and mentorship residencies.