Uncomfortable User Experience
Breathless and Bucking Bronco Adaptive Ride Experiment No.1 feature in this award winning article in the Communications of Association for Computing Machinery. My colleagues and I discuss why interaction needn't be a pleasurable experience to be a rewarding experience.
Adventure Film Festival
I had the pleasure of interviewing an international bevvy of Thrill Seekers at the Adventure Film Festival as part of the festival's collaboration with our Nissan JUKE Built to Thrill campaign (see here). My interview technique? First: ask my interviewees to complete a psychometric test, to assess where the lay on the spectrum of sensation seeking, experience seeking, risk...
Nissan JUKE Built To Thrill
Thrill Laboratory worked with TBWA/London and Nissan Europe to develop a brand activation campaign supported by the work of Thrill Laboratory. Visitors to our Nissan website discover their very own Thrill Test Score, and enter a competition to participate in one of a series of thrilling experiments featuring the JUKE. A series of short video documentaries follow the Thrill Engineer,...
The Experiment
"For one night only, Thrill Laboratory present an experiment like no other: real scientists, amateur paranormal investigators, and the live exploration of a haunted building. University researchers have developed cutting-edge medical technology to monitor the effect of paranormal beliefs on the bodies and minds of those susceptible. Dr Brendan Dare brings to you the unpredictable results of their scientific...
Breathless
Breathless is an interactive experience inspired by Fragonard's Swing. It combines elements of voyeurism, abandonment and breath control to power a ride. Breathless features a motorised swing controlled by breathing data collected from specially developed WiFi gas mask respirators. Audience members progress through the roles of Spectator, Rider, and Controller. They may be forced to watch the pleasure of...
Thrill Laboratory develop new WiFi Gas Mask
The mask monitors and transmits rider's breathing rate in real-time. A set of the masks will be at the heart of new performances this autumn including a motorised swing that manipulates pleasure and fear, and a series of hyperventilating Halloween experiments. Development supported by Horizon and Arts Council England.
FEAR, Part2, How to embrace it
Bucking Bronco Adaptive Ride Experiment No.1, along with an extensive interview with me featured in Eureaka magazine - a major colour supplement series from The Times, which explored science and culture. I also provided extensive notes to help the journalist write 'Part1, How to forget it'. These notes are now archived at Thrill Laboratory as The Taxonomy of Fear,...
Self Examination
Self Examination is an interactive experiment designed to reveal selected audience members' extreme reactions to watching a horror film. Self Examination premiered at Broadway Cinema's Mayhem Horror Film Festival in Nottingham in 2009. Psycho-physiological signals, such as heart rate, sweat response and facial expressions, were captured and projected real-time outside the auditorium to reveal what lies within. https://www.youtube.com/embed?listType=playlist&list=PL4slOqun1hZpRX25GYNrvsuYm6BuJudbO&layout=gallery Patients were invited...
Bang Goes The Theory
I'm back from meeting Dallas Campbell at Thorpe Park, where we conducted one of Thrill Laboratory's signature thrill ride experiments, which was filmed for Bang Goes The Theory. We finished the day back at BGTT HQ, hooking up with Jem to test my secret thrill ride research and development unit Bucking Bronco: Adaptive Ride Experiment No.1 At Thorpe Park,...
Bucking Bronco: Adaptive Ride Experiment No.1
Could you control a rider's experience based purely on their physiological data? 'Experiment No.1' featured 3 bankers, each with different attitudes to thrill seeking and risk taking (this work was created at the time of the 2008 financial crisis). Members of the audience were invited to choose a banker who they had to "please, scare, and then excite" by controlling...