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Information technology gives the modern storyteller many possibilities,
but also poses many questions. What happens when the reader
becomes the creator? How can we construct unpredictable stories
that are both fun and meaningful? Active Narratives
is our term for the new forms of stories that technology
is making possible.
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We are experimenting with a distributed version of the ChatterBox that is shared between the Narrativity and the PLAY studio at the Interactive Institute. The distributed ChatterBox feeds on texts collected at b
oth studios and generates new texts that are presented at the two locations simultaneously. One of the questions that this experiment address, is to what extent the ChatterBox can support the exchange of ideas and collaborative work between the two studio
s.
(Previous work on the ChatterBox include:
Redström, J., Ljungstrand, P. and Jaksetic, P. (2000). The ChatterBox: Using Text Manipulation in an Entertaining Information Display. To appear in: Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2000, Montréal, Canada. [Abstract]
Redström, J., Jaksetic, P. and Ljungstrand, P. (1999). The ChatterBox. Proc.
First International Symposium on Handheld and
Ubiquitous Computing (HUC) '99,
Springer Verlag, 1999. [PDF])
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How can we break the "point-and-click" paradigm that dominates
current interactive narrative products? In this project, video
and audio segments are accessed by the manipulation of
real, tangible objects, thus letting the user
construct the story herself from the available material
- both physical and electronic.
(This project was performed as part of the EU-sponsored
SAGAs Writing Interactive Fiction program.)
More information:
Dixon, S., Helander, M. and Holmquist, L.E.
Every Object Tells a Story - An Experiment
in Tangible Narrative.
[PDF]
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In Bamse-land, characters from the popular Swedish comic book
Bamse the Bear were modeled as autonomous agents in a
virtual world. The agents interacted with each other according
to their personalities and goals, which were derived from
their comic book counterparts.
Publications:
Bohlin, P., Nilsson, V. and Siverbo, M.
Bamse-land: A Virtual Theatre with Entertaining Agents
Based on Well-Known Characters.
In Extended Abstracts of CHI '98, ACM Press, 1998.
[PDF]
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When the reader or player takes active part in the creation of
a narrative, we need new ways to define storylines.
Loose scripts was an attempt to provide a model for scripting
stories that would allow for a mix of human players and
computer-controlled agents to shape the course of events.
Publications:
Holmquist, L.E.
Loose Scripts and the Influence Engine: A
Model for Controlling Multi-Actor Interactive Narratives.
In Proceedings of Writing and Computers 10, Brighton, UK, 1997.
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This project studied the ability to create robust
autonomous agents that have
informative conversations with humans. The Viktoria
agent used an associative web
structure of localised facts to answer users' questions
about the Viktoria
Institute using natural language.
Publications:
Björk, S. Making Guides Entertaining.
Workshop paper, ECAI Workshop on AI and Entertainment, Brighton, UK, 1998.
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