Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley: YOUR PRESENCE ALONE CHANGES HOW OTHERS BREATHE

YOUR PRESENCE ALONE CHANGES HOW OTHERS BREATHE was an interactive murder mystery and live playtesting event produced by Serpentine Arts Technologies and R&D Platform in collaboration with artist and game-designer Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley. The programme livestreamed on Serpentine’s Twitch on 24 May 2022. It invited audience members to play detective, participating and steering the event directly through their interactions and questions which triggered clues, progress and conversation.

Danielle’s six-month R&D journey with Arts Technologies at Serpentine included prototyping two unique tools for engagement utilising eye-tracking and facial scanning, which were developed together with Unity producer, Rob Prouse. The event was developed as the second playtesting session after a six-month period of research and development supported by Serpentine Arts Technologies.

YOUR PRESENCE ALONE CHANGES HOW OTHERS BREATHE continues Brathwaite-Shirley’s ongoing mission to explore the untapped civic and activist potential of gaming, archiving and supporting Black Trans lives, using new forms of player interaction to create a community of players who are aware of and responsible for their actions.

Credits: Hosted by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley & Tamar Clarke-Brown (Curator, Serpentine Arts Technologies)

Curated and produced by Tamar Clarke-Brown, Alex Boyes, Eva Jäger & Serpentine Arts Technologies

Interaction by Twitch

Audience Moderation by Alexander Boyes

Unity Production by Rob Prouse

Livestream production by Ralph Pritchard

Design by Roxy Zeiher

Captioning by Joanne Petre & Stage Text

All featured footage courtesy the artist