Let me understand the poetry: embedding interactive storytelling within panoramic virtual environments (original) (raw)
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Cultural memory of local artists and poets is typically cultivated through festivals devoted to these people usually by way of commemorations on the anniversaries of their deaths, and are held in places in which they lived and worked. These methods, however, are intangible and if not passed to next generations may be lost or forgotten. What is more, they do not help to protect from oblivion the environment which once surrounded an artist and was a source of inspiration for their work. This paper uses a case study of Charles Causley, a Cornish poet, to propose a new method for preserving his memory, as well as his hometown of Launceston where he spent most of his life. As poems written by Causley were loco-descriptive (topographical) and described various objects and places in Launceston, the approach proposed in this research relies on this paradigm. Loco-descriptive poems provide a basis for the spatial exploration of the town with interactive narratives based on traversing multiple trajectories. Causley's inspirational environment was recreated by 360° images taken in his home and in various locations in the town and also 360° videos were recorded between these locations to allow movement along paths which the poet walked on a daily basis. The approach adopted in this project borrows the concept of traversing from surveying and applies it to the movement between different locations in loco-descriptive narrative that has its roots in polychronic narrative and uses Kinoautomat paradigm when presented in the panoramic immersive environment (360° screen). The project described in this paper was presented on multiple screens for a large audience and is also available on-line for a single user (panoramic virtual environment).
Embedding Interactive Storytelling Within Still and Video Panoramas for Cultural Heritage Sites
2009 15th International Conference on …, 2009
Still and video panoramas provide exciting opportunities for individual users to take virtual journeys through a wide range of environments. The opportunity they provide for the basis of interactive storytelling has not been substantially investigated. A combination of computer graphics and 3D modelling enriches the educational aspects of narratives created using a spherical video camera by illustrating objects that are hidden, not only physically but also due to the passage of time. Video panoramas created using a spherical video camera and within 3D modelling software are discussed in this paper employing the example of two heritage sites: Charles Church in Plymouth, UK and the town of Launceston, UK. Objects and artefacts created through the process of laser scanning and QTVR object movies can be placed within panoramic environments using XML and Flash based panoramic viewers enriching the experience of the audience by merging educational components with entertainment.
Interactive Digital Narrative - What's the story?
For over 25 years, new and experimental forms of narrative have been evolving from the intersection of digital technologies and literary and artistic vision. From hypertext novels, to massive multi-player online role-playing games to immersive virtual reality installations, each instance involves storytelling machines – human or otherwise – that reveal as much about ourselves as the tales they tell. This collection of essays Interactive Digital Narrative: History, Theory and Practice, edited by Hartmut Koenitz et al., gathers a highly diverse range of activities and experiences in the field of interactive digital narrative (IDN) that describe its different facets and also reveal dramatic tensions within this research area....
2016 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communication (ISCC), 2016
Within social media we find many stories that tell us the world that is around us. Unfortunately, we tend to forget what happened in the past and the young generations are losing a cultural heritage passed down for generations. In the attempt of preserving memories and of intercepting the attention of the new generations, in this paper we propose PlayTheCityRE, a location-based storytelling system that merges private film memories shot from 1940 to 1989 (e.g., 8mm, super8mm) with modern communication technologies to tell the story of our past while walking in city streets. The system is provided with a mobile application that allows people to explore an unusual city through the eyes of amateur film sequences (now historic) and to select different routes that will bring them in the same city places where they were filmed. By merging film memories with modern technologies, our system engages different audiences in specific ways and on multiple levels, allowing them to walk through history. Therefore, our storytelling system may help fostering historical consciousness within our society.
Animation of Mapped Photo Collections for Storytelling
IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, 2008
Our research goal is to facilitate the sharing of stories with digital photographs. Some map websites now collect stories associated with peoples' relationships to places. Users map collections of places and include their intangible emotional associations with each location along with photographs, videos, etc. Though this framework of mapping stories is important, it is not sufficiently expressive to communicate stories in a narrative fashion. For example, when the number of the mapped collections of places is particularly large, it is neither easy for viewers to interpret the map nor is it easyr the creator to express a story as a series of events in the real world. This is because each narrative, in the form of a sequence of textual narratives, a sequence of photographs, a movie, or audio is mapped to just one point. As a result, it is up to the viewer to decide which points on the map must be read, and in what order. The conventional framework is fairly suitable for mapping and expressing fragments or snapshots of a whole story and not for conveying the whole story as a narrative using the entire map as the setting. We therefore propose a new framework, Spatial Slideshow, for mapping personal photo collections and representing them as stories such as route guidances, sightseeing guidances, historical topics, fieldwork records, personal diaries, and so on. It is a fusion of personal photo mapping and photo storytelling. Each story is conveyed through a sequence of mapped photographs, presented as a synchronized animation of a map and an enhanced photo slideshow. The main technical novelty of this paper is a method for creating three-dimensional animations of photographs that induce the visual effect of motion from photo to photo. We believe that the proposed framework may have considerable significance in facilitating the grassroots development of spatial content driven by visual communication concerning real-world locations or events.
Hopstory: An Interactive, Location-Based Narrative Distributed in Space and Time
2004
As computing and communications technologies evolve, there is the potential for new forms of digitally orchestrated interactive narratives to emerge. In this process, balanced attention has to be paid to audience experience, creative constraints, and presence and role of the enabling technology. This paper describes the implementation of HopStory, an interactive, location-based narrative distributed in space and time, which was designed with this balance in mind. In HopStory, cinematic media is housed within wireless sculptures distributed throughout a building. The audience, through physical contact with a sculpture, collects scenes for later viewing. Inspired by the history of the installation space the narrative relates a day in the life of four characters. By binding the story to local time and space and inviting the audience to wander, we amplify the meaning and impact of the HopStory content and introduce an innovative approach to a day-in-the-life story structure.
Samuel Beckett in Virtual Reality: Exploring Narrative Using Free Viewpoint Video
Leonardo (just accepted), 2019
Building on a poster presentation at Siggraph 2018[1], this article describes an investigation of interactive narrative in virtual reality (VR) through Samuel Beckett’s theatrical text Play. Actors are captured in a green screen environment using free-viewpoint video (FVV). Built in a game engine, the scene is complete with binaural spatial audio and six degrees of freedom of movement. The project explores how ludic qualities in the original text elicit the conversational and interactive specificities of the digital medium. The work affirms potential for interactive narrative in VR, opens new experiences of the text, and highlights the reorganisation of the author–audience dynamic.