If you have problems opening your data report in the app, we can send you a copy via email.

Just submit a request to: [email protected]

Karen is a life coach and she’s happy to help you through a few things in your life.

You interact with Karen through an app. When you begin, she asks you some questions about your outlook on the world to get an understanding of you. In fact, her questions are drawn from psychological profiling questionnaires. She – and the software – are profiling you and she gives you advice based on your answers.

Karen is available on the App Store and Google Play Store to download for free. Search for ‘Karen by Blast Theory’ to download the app.

You can view the privacy policy on our website here.

Your data is used purely to personalise your experience of the app and it will not be shared with any third parties.

We will also collate player data to build the Karen Data Report, which will contain statistics of how players measure on psychological scales from openness to neuroticism to emotional guilt and show how these factors were used in the story.

Data collated for this report is anonymised. You can download a personalised data report after you have finished playing – please see ‘How do I download my data?’.

We may also share generic aggregated information, not linked to any personal identification information regarding individual players, with our research partners, funding partners as part of presentations and to other players as part of the Data Report.

If you have any questions, you can email us at [email protected].

You can request a complete copy of your data from Karen by emailing us at: [email protected].

You can access your personalised Data Report at the end of your Karen experience.

Simply click on the ‘What does Karen know about you? Find out here’ link.

If you are returning to the app to access your report, when you re-open the app you should automatically land on the last page you were on. Here you will see the ‘What does Karen know about you? Find out here’ link and you will be able to access your report.

The report will be available to view from within the Karen app only so please don’t delete Karen from your phone.

The in-app purchase costs £2.99. If you are a Kickstarter backer, you will have received a code to download the report for free.

If you experience any problems, please email us at [email protected]

Unfortunately not, you will need to play through again to access your report.

Karen is a work by Blast Theory, developed in partnership with National Theatre Wales.

Co-commissioned by The Space and 539 Kickstarter backers, Karen has been developed with support from the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham and in collaboration with Dr Kelly Page.

We were keen to create a personal and intimate experience for smartphones in which you interact directly with the lead character. We wanted you to be challenged about how honest and open you might be and to experience the thrill of having your personality appraised.

We also became fascinated with big data, and particularly how governments and large companies such as Facebook are collecting data on us secretly and using it without our consent. We feel it’s our job as artists to pose questions about this new world where technology is ever more personalised and intrusive. We love having our services tailored to us and we’re scared of the price we’re paying for that personalisation.

Each session with Karen is a few minutes long and the full app experience takes 10 days to complete.

You can feedback on your experience with Karen in a number of ways:

1. Rate the app in the App Store at any point by clicking the Rate button at the end of each session.

2. Email any feedback to [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!

3. Join the Twitter conversations about Karen using #KarenIsMyLifeCoach or #KarenApp

4. Join the discussions on the National Theatre Wales Community board here: http://goo.gl/JHgaVz 

5. Start or join a conversation on Reddit

 

For iOS try quitting the app by double-tapping your home button and swiping Karen to close it. When you re-open the app it should begin the episode again.

For Android try quitting the app and re-opening.

If you’re still having problems email us at [email protected].

Try quitting the app by double-tapping your home button and swiping Karen to close it. When you re-open the app it should begin the episode again.

If you’re still having problems email us at [email protected].

You can’t replay individual episodes of Karen. However, If you’d like to restart an episode once you’ve begun, quit the app before the episode ends.

For iOS double-tap your home button and swipe Karen to close it.

For Android quit the app according to the instructions of your device.

When you re-open the app it should begin this episode again.

Please make sure the volume on your device is turned up. You may need to do this more than once if you insert or remove headphones. Please also ensure that the mute button on the side of your phone is turned off (so that the red flash is not visible). Please also note that the intro sequence has only quiet background noise.

Your personalised report will give an insight into how you measure on psychological scales from openness to neuroticism to emotional guilt, and shows how these factors were used in the story.

For iOS, Karen has been tested to run on an iPhone SE or newer with iOS11 or greater.
For Android, Karen has been tested to work with Android 6 or greater.

Although Karen was developed for iPhone, the app will also work on your iPad.

By default, when you open the App Store from your iPad, it will only show you iPad apps, so you won’t immediately be able to find Karen. You will need to change your App Store settings so you can view both iPhone and iPad apps. There are some instructions on how to do this here.

If you are experiencing problems, please contact us on [email protected].

If you are having any problems viewing your personalised Data Report, please contact us [email protected]

Karen for Android has been tested on devices with Android version 6 and above.

Karen has not been tested on Android tablets. Email [email protected] to let us know if you’re able to play and we can add your tablet to our list of supported devices.

Karen for Android downloads audio and video files for all of the episodes separately from the app. You only need to download assets once, before you begin. You’ll need a minimum of 350MB of free space on your device. Please make sure you have enough space.

You’ll need a minimum of 350MB of free space on your device to play Karen.

If you’re having problems with video playback on your phone, please get in touch at [email protected], giving details of your device make and model, and the version of Android you’re using (Settings > About Phone > Android Version)