Dr Richard Kearns

Profile

Biography

I lecture in cinematography and visual effects and am particularly interested in the relationship between audio-visual elements, meaning and narrative.

 My research explores user experience within new media environments and considers contexts from several disciplines, including creativity, engineering, and psychology. In my creative practice, I explore how new media technologies can be combined with embodied experience in multi-sensory environments to create intense psychosomatic experiences. I am particularly interested in how these are appropriated, adapted or interpreted by users emotionally.

Publications

Selected publications

Thesis - Interpreting Cultures of Participations: Production, Distribution and Globalisation

My PhD thesis investigates methods that maximise audience engagement with interactive installation environments. It analyses the systems that motivate participation, breaks them into core principles, and links them to behaviour models that emerge in audiences during periods of activity. The research draws from a number of disciplines including Complexity Science, Economics, Engineering, Art, and Video Game Theory, among others. In turn, this potentially makes the findings relevant to a number of research fields that engage with participative audiences.