A great error in larp documentation is the assumption that mimetic representations of larps are authentic portrayals of what participants experience. During a larp a community can act as if the person they see before them is other than they are, or that the diegetic space that surrounds them is more tangible than the architecture that signifies its existence. A camera strips away the glamour that existed for participants at that time, leaving only images of people playing pretend.
I propose an ontological shift that draws from contemporary museum practices wherein an audience engages with material “as cultural participants, not passive consumers (Simon, 2010.)” Documentation here is an interactive-experience that considers physical, social, and personal contexts at play (Falk, Dierking, 2016) and uses the public presentation as “a dynamic reflection of the creative process and generative site for questioning and dialogue (Blythe 2013).”
