Category Archives: commentary

Player Character Bios in Participatory Media

Posted on February 7, 2019 by dustinfreeman

Originally published in Escape Character’s Newsletter. Question: What’s the best way to hack someone who’s never LARP’d[1] before to get into character? Our goal here is to have the player buy into the stakes of the show before they cross … Continue reading →

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Telepresence Immersive Theatre with Mice instead of Voice

Posted on January 16, 2019 by dustinfreeman

This past year at Escape Character has been quiet, but very busy. Me + several collaborators have been iterating on telepresence interactive theatre. We have written and debuted three scenarios and are in the middle of writing our fourth. We’ve … Continue reading →

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POV Edit: Star War’s Obi-Wan Kenobi

Posted on March 3, 2018 by dustinfreeman

I’ve taken Star Wars I-VI and cut out every scene that Obi-Wan Kenobi didn’t directly witness. I wasn’t trying to make a movie, and the end result has some bumpy transitions, but in the spirit of this upcoming standalone film, … Continue reading →

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Studying Narratives in Small Spaces, Part 3: Conversations

Posted on January 2, 2018 by dustinfreeman

At the Augmented & Virtual Reality roundtables at GDC 2015, there was consensus that moving a player through space made them uneasy. While in the future, I’m sure we’ll discover interesting tricks to ease the transition, what if we aren’t … Continue reading →

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Wonderful Projects I Did With Microsoft’s Kinect

Posted on October 25, 2017 by dustinfreeman

RIP the Kinect. Literally changed the direction of my research/career/life/art. Gave it more DEPTH. — Dustin Freeman🚁LAX (@dustinfreeman) October 25, 2017 Microsoft has ceased manufacturing the Kinect. Here’s some projects, art and research, academic and industrial, that I could only … Continue reading →

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Immersive Theatre Roundup: D&D Yoga

Posted on July 12, 2017 by dustinfreeman

Yesterday, I saw/experienced the show “D&D Yoga”, in the Toronto Fringe Festival. This is a literal combination these two things, which worked in some surprising ways, didn’t work in some surprising ways. It is a yoga class, run by a … Continue reading →

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State of Virtual Reality Venues in Toronto

Posted on April 27, 2017 by dustinfreeman

For the last few years, I’ve been a “VR tech professional”, which means I have, on my desk, various pieces of Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality equipment. These will get cheaper, but at the moment are dubious buys for the average person. Despite … Continue reading →

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Questions to Ask after an Underwhelming Art Experience

Posted on February 21, 2017 by dustinfreeman

Is this at 90% of being amazing and needs to be pushed/polished just a little or is it actually at 20% and there’s a ton more work? If it’s a long way from being good, is the path to success … Continue reading →

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NYC Immersive Theatre Review

Posted on January 23, 2017 by dustinfreeman

I finally set aside time over New Year’s to see all the immersive theatre in New York City that people have been bugging me to see. Here’s a terse listing of them all. NOTE: all of those shows are great … Continue reading →

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IRL Deviations from Snow Crash and The Diamond Age

Posted on November 8, 2016 by dustinfreeman

ADDED POST-US-ELECTION UPDATE AT BOTTOM I first read Neal Stephenson’s duology of future cyber/* punk novels Snow Crash and The Diamond Age a decade ago. As my personal aspirations increasingly resemble some of the elements in the novel, I’ve given … Continue reading →

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