Overview
Intrapology is a series of interactive theatre works, streamed live to an online audience, and thematically concerned with exploring how people make worlds together. By taking actions such as voting on dialogue options, the audience guides what the protagonist says, does, and thinks.
Intrapology is also developing and sharing their software that enables the online interactive component of performances, and wants to improve the environmental sustainability of their solution. Currently it runs off Google Firebase, with the video component streamed through Youtube.
Low-impact software development
We are reducing the carbon impact of theatre by creating digital-native online interactive performances, with custom-built software that runs on recycled computers. The proposed project would allow us to carry out upgrades to our software and a programme of activities with other artists in the sector. We aim to:
- Carry out research to better understand the environmental impact of streaming and video call theatre
- Move services to green servers where possible
- Support other artists to create work using our software, with:
- clear documentation
- an open-source repository
- a hackathon / game jam for rapid prototyping of new works
This page describes the scope of work for a freelance researcher focused on the topic of green servers.
Research Project Outline
The primary research question is whether open-source streaming and video hosting alternatives – such as Owncast and Peertuve are a suitable platform for the Intrapology project that would enhance the project’s environmental sustainability. Under what conditions would a self-hosted stream produce lower GHG emissions (e.g. from choosing to host in a renewable powered data centre) for the Intrapology project, and at what sort of cost, both financial and technical? Latency and reliability are concerns given the live nature of the stream. An additional consideration is the portability of theatre audiences across platforms, with little existing attachment to specific platforms.
The budget for the task is £2100, with a completion deadline of 31st January 2025. The work is expected to take approximately 4-5 days and involve mainly desk research around green hosting options, and the production of 2-3 models of possible implementations to compare to the existing base case.
Email us: contact at intrapology.com