{"id":2627,"date":"2015-04-10T17:23:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T17:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memetechnology.org\/?p=3273"},"modified":"2015-04-10T17:23:04","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T17:23:04","slug":"get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2015\/04\/10\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\/","title":{"rendered":"Get ready for Karen #KarenIsMyLifeCoach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I finished playtesting <a title=\"BT's website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.blasttheory.co.uk\/\">Blast Theory&#8217;s<\/a> soon to be released app, Karen. I don&#8217;t want to say too much about it, because I don&#8217;t want to spoil any surprises for you, and it&#8217;ll shortly\u00a0(hopefully next week, pending approval, and assuming is ran as well for other playtesters as it did on my device)\u00a0be free to download for iOS from the App Store. So you&#8217;ll be able to try it for youself,\u00a0Android users will also get their turn, but not quite as soon. Its a culmination of the work on profiling that Blast Theory have been exploring <a title=\"The Invisible Hand \u2013 Blast Theory\" href=\"http:\/\/memetechnology.org\/2014\/02\/27\/the-invisible-hand-blast-theory\/\">over the last<\/a> couple of years.<\/p>\n<p>Its a great piece of interactive art. I&#8217;ll go so far as to say the best interactive story I&#8217;ve played. If only because it manages to create a sublime sense of real interaction. I&#8217;m not making decisions for an avatar, like <a title=\"The Narrative Structure of Red Dead Redemption (my first Prezi)\" href=\"http:\/\/memetechnology.org\/2013\/08\/22\/2870\/\">John Martsen in <em>Red Dead Redemption<\/em><\/a>, but for myself. I&#8217;m telling Karen about me, not about what, for example,\u00a0<a title=\"Versu\" href=\"http:\/\/memetechnology.org\/2015\/02\/19\/versu\/\">Marcus in <em>Blood and Laurels<\/em><\/a>, might do. I can tell the truth or I can lie (in fact I shuffled uneasily between the two) but that choice is mine.<\/p>\n<p>Do I change Karen&#8217;s story through my decisions? To be honest, I don&#8217;t know, I&#8217;ve only had time to play through once. But the illusion of true interaction was surprisingly effective.<\/p>\n<p>I especially like the use of Lickert sliders\u00a0to answer some questions, which allowed me to be more &#8220;true to myself&#8221; than the multiple choice answers available for the other questions. Karen&#8217;s in a nuanced story, and sometimes I wanted, but was unable, to give a nuanced reply.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s great fun, get it. Its free after all. Maybe don&#8217;t play it in front of the kids, Karen can turn the conversation on a dime to subjects you might not want them to listen to. And\u00a0decide now what you are going to tell your significant other about playing it, because Karen will be asking about them too&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Oh and my name is in the credits, look:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/memetechnology.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/04\/img_5803.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3274\" src=\"https:\/\/memetechnology.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/04\/img_5803.png?w=300&#038;h=169\" alt=\"IMG_5803\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I made this! (Or rather, I bunged them a tenner on <a title=\"Kickstarter\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1320191398\/karen-an-app-that-psychologically-profiles-you-as\">Kickstarter<\/a> a while back). Oh, and hey, they are <a title=\"New York Times\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/04\/05\/arts\/karen-an-app-that-knows-you-all-too-well.html?_r=0\">in the news<\/a> already!<\/p><br \/>  <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gocomments\/memetechnology.wordpress.com\/3273\/\"><img alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/comments\/memetechnology.wordpress.com\/3273\/\" \/><\/a> <img alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=memetechnology.org&#038;blog=43249545&amp;%23038;post=3273&amp;%23038;subd=memetechnology&amp;%23038;ref=&amp;%23038;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I finished playtesting Blast Theory&rsquo;s soon to be released app, Karen. I don&rsquo;t want to say too much about it, because I don&rsquo;t want to spoil any surprises for you, and it&rsquo;ll shortly&nbsp;(hopefully next week, pending approval, and assuming &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/memetechnology.org\/2015\/04\/10\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\/\">Continue reading <span>&rarr;<\/span><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=memetechnology.org&amp;blog=43249545&amp;post=3273&amp;subd=memetechnology&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[271,353,539],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-digital-economy","tag-games","tag-mobile-applications","column","threecol"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Get ready for Karen #KarenIsMyLifeCoach - Archaeology Blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2015\/04\/10\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Get ready for Karen #KarenIsMyLifeCoach - Archaeology Blogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday I finished playtesting Blast Theory&rsquo;s soon to be released app, Karen. I don&rsquo;t want to say too much about it, because I don&rsquo;t want to spoil any surprises for you, and it&rsquo;ll shortly&nbsp;(hopefully next week, pending approval, and assuming &hellip; Continue reading &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2015\/04\/10\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Archaeology Blogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-10T17:23:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/memetechnology.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/04\/img_5803.png?w=300&#038;h=169\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Tyler-Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Tyler-Jones\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2015\\\/04\\\/10\\\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2015\\\/04\\\/10\\\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matthew Tyler-Jones\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a61d3a83f159c463727cd087c1ce643e\"},\"headline\":\"Get ready for Karen #KarenIsMyLifeCoach\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-10T17:23:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2015\\\/04\\\/10\\\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":385,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2015\\\/04\\\/10\\\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/memetechnology.files.wordpress.com\\\/2015\\\/04\\\/img_5803.png?w=300&#038;h=169\",\"keywords\":[\"Digital economy\",\"Games\",\"Mobile applications\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2015\\\/04\\\/10\\\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\\\/\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/2015\\\/04\\\/10\\\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\\\/\",\"name\":\"Get ready for Karen #KarenIsMyLifeCoach - 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In my free time, I volunteered as a costumed interpreter at Kentwell Hall and, with re-enactment societies, at various medieval sites around the UK and France. When, one evening, a few of us said \u201cwe could make a business out of this\u201d I left my job at the bank to go to college, first to get an Art Foundation and then to Manchester Polytechnic to join an innovative course called Design for Communications Media. I specialised in Educational Media Design, with the intention of applying what I was learning to cultural heritage. During my vacations and upon graduation I worked for the nascent company my friends had started, Past Pleasures, creating immersive living history festivals at Lancaster and Tunbridge Wells, as well as projects including: an exhibition for the centenary of the Commonwealth Institute; a design for a metafictional Sherlock Holmes exhibition in Croydon; and, a game that combined real-time investment advice from 300 year-old characters at the Bank of England Museum with a digital simulation, tracking the players\u2019 investment portfolio from the founding of the bank to its tercentenary. In 1996 I helped found JMD&amp;Co, and for two years I also lectured on Heritage Tourism and Visitor Management and Interpretation modules for a Portsmouth University validated HND\\\/degree course at Farnborough Technical College. Subsequently, I enrolled in the new Distance Learning delivered Masters\u2019 degree in Museum Studies at Leicester University, where I became interested in the social use of space, particularly Bill Hillier\u2019s \u201cspace syntax,\u201d and the increasing futility of cultural heritage sites trying to tell doggedly linear stories in three-dimensional spaces. Although my dissertation explored models for mapping interpretation, and particularly learning styles, onto spaces, a satisfactory reconciliation of linear story and three-dimensional space eluded me. After graduation, I decided my time in the \u201csmall business\u201d end of cultural heritage was over for a while, and I left JMD&amp;Co to join a cultural institution, the National Trust, as a Regional Community, Learning and Volunteering Manager. I brought the first National Trust iPad into use at Batemans, where, combined with a wax cylinder record player, and the help of renowned folk singer, Jon Boden, we\u2019ve returned Rudyard Kipling\u2019s voice back into his old home. However, one of the innovations which I am most proud of is the National Trust\u2019s virtual tours. Working with a small company, and a range of disabled stakeholders, we created a touch-screen based human computer interface that could also, if required, be controlled with other input devices, and allowed visitors with a variety of disabilities to fully enjoy the virtual tour. The teams\u2019 achievement was recognised with a Jodi Award for Excellence in accessible digital media in 2008.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/memetechnology.wordpress.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\\\/archaeology\\\/author\\\/matthew-tyler-jones\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Get ready for Karen #KarenIsMyLifeCoach - Archaeology Blogs","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/2015\/04\/10\/get-ready-for-karen-karenismylifecoach\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Get ready for Karen #KarenIsMyLifeCoach - Archaeology Blogs","og_description":"Yesterday I finished playtesting Blast Theory&rsquo;s soon to be released app, Karen. 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In my free time, I volunteered as a costumed interpreter at Kentwell Hall and, with re-enactment societies, at various medieval sites around the UK and France. When, one evening, a few of us said \u201cwe could make a business out of this\u201d I left my job at the bank to go to college, first to get an Art Foundation and then to Manchester Polytechnic to join an innovative course called Design for Communications Media. I specialised in Educational Media Design, with the intention of applying what I was learning to cultural heritage. During my vacations and upon graduation I worked for the nascent company my friends had started, Past Pleasures, creating immersive living history festivals at Lancaster and Tunbridge Wells, as well as projects including: an exhibition for the centenary of the Commonwealth Institute; a design for a metafictional Sherlock Holmes exhibition in Croydon; and, a game that combined real-time investment advice from 300 year-old characters at the Bank of England Museum with a digital simulation, tracking the players\u2019 investment portfolio from the founding of the bank to its tercentenary. In 1996 I helped found JMD&amp;Co, and for two years I also lectured on Heritage Tourism and Visitor Management and Interpretation modules for a Portsmouth University validated HND\/degree course at Farnborough Technical College. Subsequently, I enrolled in the new Distance Learning delivered Masters\u2019 degree in Museum Studies at Leicester University, where I became interested in the social use of space, particularly Bill Hillier\u2019s \u201cspace syntax,\u201d and the increasing futility of cultural heritage sites trying to tell doggedly linear stories in three-dimensional spaces. Although my dissertation explored models for mapping interpretation, and particularly learning styles, onto spaces, a satisfactory reconciliation of linear story and three-dimensional space eluded me. After graduation, I decided my time in the \u201csmall business\u201d end of cultural heritage was over for a while, and I left JMD&amp;Co to join a cultural institution, the National Trust, as a Regional Community, Learning and Volunteering Manager. I brought the first National Trust iPad into use at Batemans, where, combined with a wax cylinder record player, and the help of renowned folk singer, Jon Boden, we\u2019ve returned Rudyard Kipling\u2019s voice back into his old home. However, one of the innovations which I am most proud of is the National Trust\u2019s virtual tours. Working with a small company, and a range of disabled stakeholders, we created a touch-screen based human computer interface that could also, if required, be controlled with other input devices, and allowed visitors with a variety of disabilities to fully enjoy the virtual tour. The teams\u2019 achievement was recognised with a Jodi Award for Excellence in accessible digital media in 2008.","sameAs":["http:\/\/memetechnology.wordpress.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/author\/matthew-tyler-jones\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/archaeology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}