The Justice Syndicate: A Practice as Research Project exploring immersion and agency in actorless technologically-enabled interactive performance, juror behaviour and reasonable doubt.

Portfolio

Barnard, D. (2020). The Justice Syndicate: A Practice as Research Project exploring immersion and agency in actorless technologically-enabled interactive performance, juror behaviour and reasonable doubt. London South Bank University. https://doi.org/10.18744/lsbu.89060

Portfolio items

Portfolio items

The Justice Syndicate: how interactive theatre provides a window into jury decision making and the public understanding of law
Barnard, D. and Meyer, K.D. (2020). The Justice Syndicate: how interactive theatre provides a window into jury decision making and the public understanding of law. Law and Humanities. 14 (2), pp. 212-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521483.2020.1801137
The Justice Syndicate: Using iPads to increase the intensity of participation, conduct agency and encourage flow in live interactive performance
Barnard, D. (2020). The Justice Syndicate: Using iPads to increase the intensity of participation, conduct agency and encourage flow in live interactive performance. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. 16 (1), pp. 68-87. https://doi.org/10.1080/14794713.2020.1722916
Video Documentation of The Justice Syndicate
Barnard, D. (2018). Video Documentation of The Justice Syndicate. Youtube
The Justice Syndicate show structure
Barnard, D. (2020). The Justice Syndicate show structure.
Reviews and press coverage of The Justice Syndicate
Barnard, D. (2020). Reviews and press coverage of The Justice Syndicate.
The Justice Syndicate: evidence of performances
Barnard, D. (2020). The Justice Syndicate: evidence of performances.
CreatorsBarnard, D.
ContributorsBarnard, D., Dr Kris De Meyer, Rachel Briscoe (Author of screenplay), Barnard, D. (Director), Joe McAlister (Programmer) and Meyer, K.D.
Meyer, K.D.
Description

The Justice Syndicate is a 90-minute performance featuring an audience of 12 who become jurors considering a difficult case. All of the content (video, documents, prompts to interact, invitations to vote) is delivered to the audience on iPads using a bespoke new software system, creating an original art form: technologically-enabled actorless interactive performance.

It has been performed 80 times over 2 years to members of the public in theatres (including National Theatre of Scotland), law courts (Dublin High Court) and festivals (York Mediale).

It was a collaboration between Drama researcher Dan Barnard, theatre maker Rachel Briscoe, computational artist Joe McAlister and neuroscientist Kris De Meyer.

Our research questions were:

Q1: Can an interactive performance without live actors facilitate in audience members a sense of immersion and a high level of agentive behaviour?

Q2: Can different juries, given the same evidence in the same order, reach different decisions and if so why?

We surveyed the (psychological, theatrical, legal) literature on immersion, juries and group decision-making before undertaking an iterative design process. The resulting performance is one of the first attempts to remove live actors from interactive performance, instead using digital platforms to stimulate interaction.

Our results (elaborated upon in the two supplementary articles) offer new insights in the realms of interactive performance and jury studies:

Q1: Creating interactive performance facilitated by machines can stimulate immersion by removing the fear of embarrassment, particularly by removing distinctions between “performers” and “audience.” It can also stimulate a high intensity of “agentive behaviour.”

Q2: Different juries, presented with the same evidence, can reach a wide range of different decisions. This is caused by group dynamics and how discussions play out rather than demographic differences or differences in individual psychology. We propose teaching jurors the psychological dynamics of group discussions to avoid being unconsciously influenced by them.

This portfolio contains:

An article about the project, published in the Journal of Law and Humanities

An article about the project, published in the International Journal of Performance and Digital Media

Video documentation of the project

A spreadsheet of the show structure

Reviews and press coverage

Evidence of performances

Keywordsinteractive performance, digital performance, immersive performance, jury studies, reasonable doubt
Year2020
PublisherLondon South Bank University
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.18744/lsbu.89060
Portfolio item
Portfolio item description

This article, published in the Journal of Law and Humanities, addresses Q2: Can different juries, given the same evidence in the same order, reach different decisions and if so why?

Portfolio item
Portfolio item description

This article, published in the International Journal of Performance and Digital Media, addresses Q1:Can an interactive performance without live actors facilitate in audience members a sense of immersion and a high level of agentive behaviour?

Portfolio item
Portfolio item description

This 11 minute film is a documentation of The Justice Syndicate, including footage of audience members experiencing the show and interviews with audience members and the researchers and artists involved.

Portfolio item
Portfolio item description

This spreadsheet outlines the structure of the piece, showing its procedural design.

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Portfolio item description

This document contains press coverage and reviews of The Justice Syndicate, including a 2 page spread in the Observer and multiple 4 and 5 star reviews.

Portfolio item
Portfolio item description

This PDF contains evidence of performances of The Justice Syndicate at venues including National Theatre of Sctoland, Dublin Fringe, York Mediale, BAC and Edinburgh Science Festival.

Publication process dates
Deposited05 Mar 2021
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https://openresearch.lsbu.ac.uk/item/89060

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