Improvising Consciousness is an experimental work of intermedia performance: a cognitive science fiction which addresses questions of situated consciousness, pre- & post-human identity, and creativity. The core of the Improvising Consciousness project is a performative lecture on the history and future of the human mind. The lecture is typically accompanied by participatory activities, these have included: work-shopping of alter-egos; improvisation in a multiple personality melodrama; an interactive visual short story; play sessions with a mixed-reality alien intelligence; and a physical game dealing with pre-historic cognition. The creative team include researchers in interactive drama, virtual and mixed reality, visual novels, AI, robotics and performance. They are members of a group which has a track record of producing innovative syntheses of computer-based technology and live performance.

Improvising Consciousness: The Davian Turn is an experimental work of intermedia performance: a cognitive science fiction which addresses questions of situated consciousness, pre- & post-human identity, and creativity. The core of Improvising Consciousness: The Davian Turn project is a performative lecture by Jennifer Årnstay, Professor of Material and Analogical Eco-Cognition visiting from an unspecified time and place. The lecture purports to be a scholarly account of the history and future of the human mind. With incredible technical sophistry, Professor Årnstay and her team have fabricated a habitat for a real life extraterrestrial alien intelligence. After the lecture and questions, attendees are invited to plumb the depths of this alien mind by playing the mysterious Davian Bead Game. The creative team are members of The Intermedia Performance Studio which has a track record of producing innovative syntheses of computer-based technology and live performance.

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In this paper, we describe a CAVE VR application, The Thing Growing, which is designed to engage the user in an emotional relationship with a computer-controlled character in the context of a fictional narrative. We discuss the process of building an interactor-centered virtual drama and assess The Thing Growing.

This paper describes "The Thing Growing", a work of interactive fiction implemented in virtual reality, in which the user is the main protagonist and interacts with computer controlled characters. This work of fiction depends on the user's emotional investment in the story and on her relationship to a central character, the Thing.

The paper discusses a virtual mail system. V-mail is designed to be used in the CAVE virtual environment. The participants' mail messages and the ongoing modifications of the VE are maintained by a central server. V-mail's user interface is embodied in a virtual friend or pet that follows the participant as he/she interacts with the VE.