Interactive Storytelling

In the previous lecture we looked at the history of augmented reality and some recent examples.

Today we'll talk about the different forms of storytelling employed by interactive media and the challenges and affordances provided by new platforms.

Types of storytelling

Storytelling broadly refers to various techniques of revealing narrative or information to a listener or viewer.

In the AR projects we have looked at so far, the storytelling technique tends to fall into two main types. The first, adding information, is seen in many commercial contexts. The second, which is harder to describe, but I'll generally call "magic," is adding a fictional layer on top of the real world.

New platforms

One of the challenges of using a new platform is creating works of art that make sense in the platform and move beyond the feeling of a "tech demo."

This happens when it's obvious that a creator chose the platform before they chose the content.

Context

Creating a storytelling framing or context around a new media experience can help enhance the quality of the project by making it feel natural or embedded in an environment.

The "Pip Boy" in-game UI device is a good example of "diegetic UI", or creating an interface within the game environment to add to the immersion of the game world.

Pokemon Go is successful in part because it taps into an already existing fictional universe that is familiar to players and the actions required by the game fit into that narrative naturally.

Commercial experiences, like the Ikea furniture app, don't need narrative context because the commercial context is obvious.

Race a Gold Medalist by the New York Times is a good example of an AR project that uses data to add a layer of context to an experience, making a clear case for the affordance of augmented reality.

Narrative framing can be incredibly simple. The game Ghost 'N Guns is successful because it allows the user to see ghosts in the real world. Just the name is enough to connect to the platform.

It's also interesting to contrast with Pokemon Go. Both are single player experiences, but Pokemon Go creates mass gatherings, while Ghosts 'N Guns is played alone. AR projects have to consider the physical context of the user.

The PS5 project Wonderbook is a bit less successful considering the physical context of the user, requiring the user to open a book in direct vision of a camera and then view the animation on a screen above the book.

Wallace and Gromit in the Big Fix Up is an augmented reality game that uses real world data to add a narrative into physical space. This is a more natural expression of the platform, but it highly limits the experience to a handful of cities.

Interactive storytelling

Augmented reality is by it's nature interactive, even without UI buttons, using augmented reality typically gives the viewer more control of their experience, both in terms of time and space.

Interactive stories use the juxtaposition on content through changing space and time to add a dimension of context to a narrative.

The Kuleshow effect demonstrates how viewers derive meaning from the sequencing and context of visual information.

Interactive comics like the collaborative PoCom show how the spatial organization of interactive media adds new information, context and possibility to interactive storytelling.