LARPnography: an embodied embedded cognition method to probe the future

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to propose LARPnography as a more holistic method to probe the emergence of plausible futures, drawing on embodied embedded cognition literature and the emerging consumer practice of live-action role-playing (LARP). Current research methods for probing the future of markets and society rely mainly on expert judgment (i.e. Delphi), imagery or simulation of possible futures (i.e. scenario and simulation) and perspective taking (i.e. role-playing). The predominant focus on cognitive abstraction limits the insights researchers can extract from more embodied, sensorial and experiential approaches. Design/methodology/approach LARPnography is a qualitative method seeking to immerse participants within a plausible future to better understand the social and market dynamics that may unfold therein. Through careful planning, design, casting and fieldwork, researchers create the preconditions to let participants experience what the future may be and gather critical insights from naturalistic observations and post-event interviews. Practical implications Owing to its interactive nature and processual focus, LARPnography is best suited to investigate the adoption and diffusion of innovation, market emergence phenomena and radical societal changes, including the rise of alternative societies. Originality/value Different from previous foresight methods, LARPnography creates immersive and perceptually stimulating replicas of plausible futures that research participants can inhabit. The creation of a fictional yet socio-material world ensures that socially constructed meaning is enriched by phenomenological and visceral insights.

Developing Improvisation Skills: The Influence of Individual Orientations

“…For example, a medieval LARP set in a real castle would have nobles dressed in fine robes and iron-clad mercenaries who hide in the dark corners of the main hall, plotting to gain power. In the words of one of our informants, LARP is “improvisational theater with a shared narrative framework.” The defining feature of LARP is that participants have the agency to negotiate and redefine the state of the fictional world through their actions and interactions (Montola, 2012; Orazi and Cruz, 2019). To this end, the game is facilitated by one or more storytellers (STs), who act both as “playwrights” and as supporting actors who provide some cues for the story to evolve.…”

“…LARP is set in fictional worlds described in a guidebook that players receive before the first live event, which details (1) a narrative framework presenting the fictional world and (2) rules to regulate interactions between characters. Moreover, players need to create their own character profiles (Orazi and Cruz, 2019). We present examples for all these structures in the Online Appendix (http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0001839220975697).…”

“…To this end, we conduct a longitudinal qualitative analysis of individual improvisation development in a context characterized by improvisational efforts that are both transparently observable and sustained over time: live action role-playing (LARP). A LARP game is an immersive narrative game in which players assume the roles of fictional characters in a story enacted within a phenomenological frame (Orazi and Cruz, 2019). During LARP, players develop their improvisation skills “on the task” while embedded in an interactive, interdependent, dynamic context.…”

Home culture consumption as ambivalent embodied experience

“…A renewed attention to embodied experience is rooted in the basic idea that processes of adapting to a changing world are inextricable from our embodied perceptions, orientations and dispositions to everyday activities and experiences of being-in-the-world (Dion et al, 2011;Orazi and Cruz, 2019). Here, embodied phenomenology forms the foundational, primary and immediate basis for perceiving, acting, knowing, imagining (Merleau-Ponty, 1962) and crafting sociocultural meaning (Shilling, 2003).…”

“…In this view, cultural meanings and identities do not only stem from abstracted discourses and ideologies, but are also rooted in the immediate, visceral, character of humans' being-in-the-world (Merleau-Ponty, 1962;Shilling, 2003). It is important to note, however, that the embodied perspective does not focus on the body at the expense of the social; rather, it is a socially embedded view of the body, which acknowledges a complex intersection between patterns of embodied practice and experience and socio-cultural discourses, which imbue these patterns with meaning (Orazi and Cruz, 2019;Scott and Uncles, 2018).…”