BABEL is an interactive video installation for dynamic visualization of multi-author narratives. Different versions of a common script are created by multiple authors and stored in a database. The users of the installation retrieve the contributed content, explore it and recompose it, thus articulating a unique trajectory in the narrative space. The interaction occurs through an intuitive computer vision interface which employs the light of a torch.
Moreover, Babel questions the conventional role of the director (as in the cinema d’auteur) and proposes a more decentralized model of collective direction. In this model, the dynamic unfolding of the narrative is a result of a dialogue between the authors and the viewers, where every agent contributes to the semantics and aesthetics of the work, but no one can predetermine them.
The involvement of multiple agents in the articulation of the narrative provides multiple perspectives of the narrated events resulting in a panoramic view of these events. The narration of an event is influenced by parameters related to the narrator and the context of the narration. These parameters include the un/conscious influence of personal experiences, social background, ethics, desires and intentions towards the audience. The narration is also influenced by the media used to transmit the narration (the use of language, the tone & style, the aesthetics of video-narratives). The project aims to investigate these parameters. Towards this purpose, no restrictions were set to the authors regarding the context of the narrative, the semantics and aesthetics of the videos or the tools and media employed. This way, a wide variety of versions emerged.
The story was based on the text “Serially Killed” written by the writer and blogger Old Boy: http://old-boy.blogspot.com/. The story is about death, life and its circular character, chaos, numbers, and their secret interpretations, human decisions, obsessions, and repeated errors…
Exhibitions / Presentations:
- Ionian Academy of the Ionian University. Corfu, June 2018 (presentation).
- International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling ICIDS’17 (presentation). Portugal, November 2017
- Fournos Center for Digital Culture – ‘Experimental Narratives #2’ Exhibition. Athens, June 2011
- OFF Europes Festival. Barcelona, November 2010
- Golferichs Cultural Center. Barcelona, November 2010
- Fabra i Coats Art Factory – Group Exhibition of Resident Artists. Barcelona, May 2010
Publications:
- Antonopoulou C. (2017) An Interactive Installation for Dynamic Visualization of Multi-author Narratives. In: Nunes N., Oakley I., Nisi V. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10690. Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71027-3_21
- Antonopoulou C. “Co-authoring and user interaction in digital storytelling. A case study”. In Proceedings of the Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges Conference, Corfu, June 1-2, 2018.
Grands:
- Grand of visual arts, C.C. Golferichs [Barcelona 2009]
Credits:
The author would like to thank the writer Kostas Kostakos (Old Boy) for his permission to use his story Serially Killed, as well as all the artists that contributed their work to the project
Links:
Software:
OpenFrameworks(C++)
Hardware:
PS3 eye camera
User interaction scheme, from “Co-authoring and user interaction in digital storytelling. A case study”. In Proceedings of the Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges Conference
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