The Story Board

A DIY touchscreen for storytelling

The StoryBoard was created as an experiment in storytelling. What we created was a DIY touch screen that gave users a platform to play with symbols to tell stories, and a feedback system that turned the symbols into written word.

Using this device, we set up two situations:

1. With two collaborators, one would only use the symbols, and the other would only use the written word. The first user would send a series of symbols to the second user, who would translate the symbols, and send back an interpretation. The device was connected to an interface on a remote device. The user with the symbols would enter them into the system, and send them to the other user, who would receive the message as the digital version of the symbols. The remote user would interpret the symbols and write back a message to the first, where the symbols were displayed as text. We tested this scenario with siblings, old and young, who could use the StoryBoard to collaborate and play with one another.

2. Users were told that the computer itself, and not another human was interpreting the symbols to write the story. They were using the 'algorithm' to generate stories. Some were fooled, some were not. 

Collaborators:

Adam Quinn & Surya Mattu