Interactive Storytelling

2007-03-20T22:19:00.001-07:00

I conducted this Interactive Storytelling Experiment in 2004 when I was a media studies graduate student at the New School. This project was for a class in Parson's Design & Technology Department called "Narrative and Dynamic Systems" taught by Nick Fortuno.

As a student of media studies, I had been examining ways in which storytelling as a means for learning about one’s culture and traditions might translate to virtual spaces, and how concepts common to games might work within that process. I attempted to create an online storytelling environment, which would test these ideas and examine how systems related to storytelling. The experience proved to be one of emergent storytelling where content was created through the process of engagement.

The Interactive Storytelling experiment consisted of six participants working together to build a new story on a daily basis over the course of one week. The participants used a blog to build their story and were provided with a number of rules to follow during the experiment. The environment placed the participants in the role of both reader and author. It also suggested an interactive way to practice methods of cut up storytelling, as each participant was forced to build on a story element that was, in effect, spontaneous.

The participants consisted of three men and two women ranging in age from 24 to 45. Two were located in New York City, one was located in San Francisco and two were located in Seattle. All of the participants were familiar with the technology and had access to a computer either at home or at work or at both locations. A follow up survey with participants found that they generally enjoyed the experience but wish they had more time to allow their stories to develop.

Participants were asked to work within a number of rules as follows:

You may add to the story at least one time each day.
Upon your first entry, please create a character, noting your character's name, gender, age, family status and job.
You may contribute up to three times a day.
You may enter between one and ten sentences each time you participate.
As a group, attempt to solve the task before the end of the day.

All communication occurred via email and participants were contacted before the start of the experiment and then once a day while the experiment was happening. Specifically, participants were contacted every morning of the active experiment to inform them of their assignment of the day. Those assignments were as follows:

Day 1
Task: Save your city from evil
Location: A Bollywood-esque town in India, real or imagined

Day 2
Task: Cast a spell
Location: A small village in the Amazon

Day 3
Task: Acquire something of worth
Location: A country in the midst of revolution

Day 4
Task: Rescue something helpless
Location: A royal court during the Renaissance

Day 5
Task: Invent something
Location: The fjords of Scandinavia

The stories follow in the posts below.

2004-04-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

April 23, 2:46 PM

Ole spent night and day toiling in his father's tool shed building his battlebot. After 3 long weeks, Asgard, the ultimate battlebot, was born. Asgard was sleek and metallic, made from old tools found in the shed. His job was to kill Mr. Thor's Hammer. Asgard's primary weapon was a diamond-edged 12" circular saw. An old CD player built into Asgard's body played Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" over and over -- this would surely cause Finn to wet his black leather pants at the semi-finals.

2004-04-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

April 23, 1:14pm PST

Ole Leif Garrett, 18, teenage wunderkid with curly golden locks

Ole just couldn't get it together this morning. Nothing was going his way. He spilled his cafe au lait all over his utilikilt. He couldn't find his "Nelson" CD. His girlfriend, Olga Krogstad, had been acting cold and distant and listening to way too much death metal on her headsets, in Ole's opinion. He sensed that they were growing apart. He was looking forward to the weekend, when he and his buddies were going to travel across the fjord to the battlebots semi-finals. He jumped into his Yugo and slowly sped towards Olga's house. Upon arriving in her parent's driveway, he spotted a black van he had seen before. Only Finn Olsborg drove a black van with Obituary and Vicitms of Internal Decay stickers on the back window. Suddenly it all became clear to Ole. He through his pathetic little Yugo into reverse. On his way back across town, he began plotting against Finn. He decided that he would build a battlebot that would put an end to Mr. Thor's Hammer once and for all.

2004-04-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

Day 5 Invent something / The fjords of Scandinavia

2004-04-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

thomas, 42, servant of and secretly in love with peter

thomas knew how much lady hapless loved arthur, and peter.
he also knew that peter loved lady hapless and getting her out of
the way was the first thing he thought about in the morning and
the last before sleep. so when he heard arthur was loose in the royal chamber he was elated... if arthur was caught, he would be killed and lady hapless would be so devestated she would almost certainly be locked away with meloncholy, if he saved the day, thomas would certainly fall for him and his bravery.. the latter seemed better..so he krept into the
royal chamber to find arthur.."here boy!" he called and arthur scampered
across the floor away from him, he dove to catch him and missed hitting the ground with a thud...just then the door opened
behind him, and in rushed the gaurds...as they grabbed him, he saw arthur sneak accross the room and out the door....

2004-04-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

arthur was a jack russel terrier. terriibly cute, but always getting into trouble. all of a sudden a torch went off in peter's head and he saw that this was his chance: by taking a risk and saving the dog from his deadly fate he could prove to lady happless that his love is just as strong now than it's ever been.

now all he needs is a plan.

2004-04-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

April 22, 7:45 am

Peter, 67, secret lover of Lady Hapless and fellow dog lover

The dog reminded Peter of a dog he once owned as a younger man. He had called him "Arthur" to the chagrin of the King. Long ago, Peter had come to work for the King to be closer to Lady Hapless when they were denied marraige by her parents.

Although her parents had been dead for many years, Peter and Lady Hapless never realized their love for each other. Each had tried to forget about the other, yet neither one ever did. As Peter thought back on his life and looked forward to the last few years he had left, he wondered if Lady Hapless still felt the same way. He decided then that he needed to act, to do somthing that would please her.

2004-04-22T07:13:00.000-07:00

April 22, 7:15 am

"O dear, O my...whatever shall we do? The dog is in the royal chamber and will most certainly be beheaded for trespassing if caught," stuttered, Lady Hapless, the old nurse-in-waiting. Lady Hapless had served in the roayl court for almost 50 years, she had come as a young women of 14 looking for suitable royal suiter. She found one - too soon, too young, and too impulsively said her parents. She must wait until royal approval was given...and it never had been.

2004-04-22T05:40:00.000-07:00

Day 4 - rescue something helpless / a royal court during the Renaissance

2004-04-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

george, at age 22, has seen more of the ugliness in humanity than most. he's also seen beauty that perhaps couldn't be appreciated without knowing its polar oposite. he had just gotten off the phone with his mother, giving her hopeful - if not a little premature - news from the front. as he put down the receiver a bullet buzzed past his left ear and he deftly ducked into the nearest building. something caught his eye in the corner of the room and tentatively went to explore...

2004-04-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

Seattle, a restless young woman with wild eyes and an incurable curiousity

Seattle picked at the seeds under her nails. Her fingers were stained red from the berries she had been picking all morning. She still had several more baskets to fill before she would have enough for the preserves. The sun emerged from behind a cloud and the heat on her back reminded her that June was only the beginning of many hot summer months that lay ahead. Just as quickly, the breeze returned, carrying with it the sound of a dog barking and of her mother calling out, "We've gotton word from George! He says the time has almost come to sign declaration!"

2004-04-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

CHARACTER:

Jean a 16-year-old boy, orphaned

STORY:

As a child, Jean resented his small stature. He hated being made fun of and left out of the rowdy games other boys played. Now, as he sat, huddled in a doorway, begging for food and money, he was grateful for his tiny frame. Girls' clothes were far too small for most boys his age, and, without the dress and tiny shoes Jean wore, he would be off fighting with the rest of his friends. Not that he was too scared to fight, that wasn't it at all, but he had promised his mother that he would maintain the disguise and do "whatever it takes" to survive the Revolution. When he made the promise, Jean didn't think much about it. Only after his mother was dragged away by the troops for protesting, did Jean grasp the full meaning of the Revolution and the importance of his mother's insistence that Jean "live and make a new beginning for our family and for our nation."

2004-04-21T04:17:00.000-07:00

Day 3 acquire something of worth / a country in the midst of revolution

2004-04-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

character:

ivo, a young daughter of a shaman

ivo knew that her father would die if she could not find the final
and essential element of the ceremony sometime in the next hour. frantic, she ran through the forest
toward the village, "where am i going to find an elder butterfly?" she thought. just then a massive branch
of a tree fell to the forest floor in front of her knocking her back on to the ground. as she opened her eyes and recovered from the shock, she looked up to see the largest butterfly she had ever seen....she had learned not ever to question things like this.. she heard the sound of footsteps behind her..."please don't scare her off she thought...please...."

2004-04-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

The approaching monsoon was more than just a little rain... it was the biggest storm ever seen. The wind lifted trees out of the ground and flung them through the air like toothpicks. The rain turned roads into rivers and villages into lakes. By the time the storm was over, several people were missing...

2004-04-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

Pepe - shaman, father of Ivo, on his deathbed

Pepe strained to reach for some water. His mouth was parched and his arms wobbled like a spiderweb after a storm. He wondered if Ivo would be able to help him. He and Ivo had taken care each other ever since her mother died when she was nine years old. Now, he had to hope that she would be able to gather all of the things needed for the ceremony that was necessary to save him.

2004-04-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

CHARACTER:

Itu

30-year-old butterfly, by all accounts, the oldest butterfly south of the Equator. If cats are lucky enough to possess nine lives, Itu was blessed with well over a hundred. She has escaped death more times than she can count and has one of the most impressive collections of authentic adventure stories of anyone, butterfly or not.

STORY:

Visitors to the Amazon never cease to be amazed by the great forest. Should they be given tours from the bristled back of Itu, rather than from the mud and light-blocking foliage of the forest floor, tourists might never leave. Soaring above the treetops, her flight pattern crisscrossing the mighty river below, Itu's stomach flip-flopped. The winds circled around her, the soft, orange velvet of her wings felt dangerously close to ripping. She had ventured out too soon, the fierce weather of the previous day's monsoon had not fully subsided. Itu was foolish to be traveling, but she was concerned about an old friend of hers and couldn't wait to find out if she had made it through the storm.

Arriving at the town of Talu, Itu's worst fears were realized. Her friend, Kola, and the rest of the villagers were nowhere to be found and the small enchanted hut where Kola resided as the area's chief priestess was all but destroyed. Itu panicked, her muscles burning, she strained against the winds and took off once again in search of her friend.

2004-04-20T05:46:00.000-07:00

Day 2 - cast a magic spell / small village in the Amazon

2004-04-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

name:Keertana shah
gender:female
occupation:beggar,mystic,singer,pickpocket
age:23
sister of sujan shah

keertana awoke to the sound of a kettle whistle.
"oh god she thought, i didn't..." she got up and
tried to creep her way past the kitchen to the bathroom.
"good morning, my princess! i'm making dosa with mangoes
for breakfast!" she put on her best fake smile and tried to
giggle, even across the room she could smell his breath.
as she sat on the unstable toilet she plotted on how she
would get out of the house without having to touch him
again. "every goddamn time i go out with ela, i end up with
some guy who's nastier then my hangover..." she thought.
she threw some water on her face and looked herself over in
the small mirrior she heard music coming from the other room
"oh god she thought...he's NOT singing" as she emerged from the
bathroom she knew she had to act fast, she walked though the
bedroom and grabbed her purse. looking through it she found
500 rupess and a small chunk of hash. "i'm better then i thought
she said to herself". as she made her way out the window, she
saw that the sky was cloudy and it looked like a monsoon was on it's way.

2004-04-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

Dal Maharani, named for their favorite dish by his parents, loved his new job in Bombay. Dal had just turned 24 and moved back to India after graduating from U of I, that's the University of Idaho. His parents moved there when Dal was only 5 for the skiiing. Dal was now working as a grip -- the person that operates lights and camera cranes on a movie set. His job required a lot of time, but that was good since Dal was newly single. It was on the set of a new movie where he met Kali Tandoori, the sexy Bollywood actress with a penchant for the dark arts.

2004-04-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful but troubled 22-year old untouchable Indian women named Priya who yearned to leave her home town of Ghandi. Unlike most untouchables, she was very well educated in both Eastern and Western literature. She taught Tamil to foreign diplomats and very much liked her job.

2004-04-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

name: lurene
gender: f
age: 35
family: single mother
occupation: circus performer

it seemed like any other day.

i awoke with a yawn and gave my body a sleepy stretch before getting out of bed. it wasn't quite light out, and i heard sounds of my daughter molly already out of bed. you would think a 6-year required more sleep. i put on my iridescent green sequined leotard -- i have to go to work -- and went out to the kitchen to join her.

molly had her bright orange sari tied around herself like a toga. the fabric was radiant against the charcoal of cumulo-nimbus clouds that made the morning so dark. it is monsoon season after all.

2004-04-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

Growing up as a little girl in Mumbai, I always loved to read. Now, thirty-two years later, I am a librarian at the Mumbai Public Library. I'm really happy to see all of the kids who can't get enough of the Harry Potter books, but less and less adults have been coming in to the library lately. I'm becoming concerned that people are just staying home and watching reality TV shows and dintegrating their minds. Due to decreased use of the library, the budget is in danger of being cut and the staff will lose their jobs. I figiured that by telling this story, maybe it would help to bring people back to reading and maybe we could change things. Who knows, maybe Bollywood will make it into a movie someday.

2004-04-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

CHARACTER:

Sujan Shah

45-year-old heir to a large farm fortune. When his father died, Sujan sold his family's farming company, uprooted his mother and three young sisters and moved them all to Bombay. He had long dreamed of leaving his rural roots to pursue his dream of becoming a star in Bollywood. Sujan resented his familial obligations and was determined to make a name for himself in the glamorous film world. His mother and young sisters, who had never been away from home before, were terrified, but Sujan had very little interest in anyone/anything that stood in the way of his plans.

Using the profits from the sale of the farm, Sujan was able to buy his way into the Bollywood scene. His new apartment, with its ostentacious décor, soon became a prime spot for both social and business meetings among the elite. Before long, Sujan was the Chairman of Shah Films, financing nearly half the new blockbuster movies, with an affinity for those with a particularly sexy flair.

STORY:

“Fuck. Fucking Idiots. Who the fuck decides this bullshit anyway?” Rising from his desk, Sujan Shah, hurled the latest edition of BollyNews across the room, narrowly missing his assistant Shama’s head. The girl flinched, she had worked for Sujan just over four months, but had not yet gotten used to his tantrums.
“What? Are you deaf?”
“I…I don’t…”
“I want you to get on the phone and decide what moron decided to put Kushal Patel on the cover of that magazine. Anyone who thinks he deserves the title of ‘Most Powerful Man in Bollywood’ over me should be shot. My box office sales are miles beyond his. Every blockbuster in the past 6 months has had my name attached to it not his. You ask any goddamn person with half a fucking brain and they’ll tell you that my cock is the one to suck if you want something to happen in this town.”

Shama retreated from the office, she had to agree with her boss, Kushal Patel certainly produced more quality films, but no one in Bollywood commanded more power or created more fear among people in the industry than Sujan.

Back inside the lavish Chairman’s office, Sujan got on the phone himself. He would not be humiliated, something had to be to redeem his name. There was a special project that Sujan had in mind that would remind the people of Bombay who the reigning King of Bollywood was.

“Roshan, I want to move forward on the Sinjay Project.”
“What?”
“The Project is a go. Whatever needs to happen, make it happen. Now.”
“Sujan, that’s impossible, there’s no way we’ll get the city’s permission.”
“You’re not listening. This has to happen. Where there’s money, there’s a way. I will spend whatever it takes. I want to hear back on your progress by 6 p.m.” Sujan hung up the phone on Roshan’s protests. With a few clicks of his mouse, Sujan brought up the plans for the Sinjay Project on his computer.

Roshan was right, The Sinjay Project would be nearly impossible to pull off. Sujan had planned to complete it years from now as his crown achievement, but given the assault he had just suffered, plans would have to move along more quickly.

The Project called for the erection of an enormous “movie house” in the center of Bombay on a piece of land now occupied by an old temple. Religious services were no longer held at the temple, but it was a historic site and attracted many visitors. Getting permission to level the temple was the first of many difficult steps in order to make The Project a reality. Sujan hoped that with a little monetary incentive, one of the city engineers could be persuaded to condemn the old building.

In contrast to the religious services once held in the area, Sinjay would cater to a much different side of humanity. Inside the enormous building would exist a world of sin, an oasis for those interested in the immoral. Staffed by gorgeous young people willing to accommodate guests’ every need, Sujan was certain it would be wildly popular – and profitable. Best of all, the complex would be wired with thousands of cameras, enabling visitors to direct and star in their own movies.

2004-04-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

Test post.