Narrative & Dynamic System_Day8

LARPs

● How do Permanence, Play Space Transformation, Spatial Layout, Light & Sound, Temperature and Visual Management manifest in your project?
Permanence: We'll ask people to stand up and come, since we can't leave the chairs or tables.
Play Space Transformation: I think we don't really need to transform the space but we'll use a projector.
Spatial Layout: We'll use the vertical long space in the restaurant.
Light & Sound, Temperature: We thought about using the light to show the time-stop stuff, but decided not to use it. And for the background sound, we'll use the music that fits to our story.

A guide to understanding the news and making good choices

● Choose a news topic and curate a set of links to articles you believe reflect a balanced, and real, portrayal of the story.
Topic: South Korea
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/06/the-k-pop-wannabes-a-photo-essay
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/04/us-dismisses-south-koreas-launch-of-world-first-5g-network-as-stunt
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/22/metoo-k-pop-music-industry-sexaul-assault-scandals-korean-cultural-life


The Religious Nature of Theatre, the Theatrical Nature of Religion

● React to this statement quote by author Madeline L’Engle, “when we lose our myths we lose our place in the universe... the only way we have to grope toward the infinite is through myth.”

We have to learn life through the myths. Otherwise, we won't learn how to live. For me, it's like history. It's true that myths and religion explain history and vise versa.

Ritual and the Quest for Meaning

● Why are rituals important?

Ritual is what we call the weird acts of strange people.
A ritual can be recognized by its similarity to and yet distinctive difference, and therefore strangeness, from common, everyday acts. Ronald Grimes has defined rituals as “sequences of ordinary action rendered special by virtue of their condensation, elevation, or stylization.”


● Name 5 rituals you practice and why you follow them

Ancestral rites, a visit to one's ancestral graves, New Year's bow... I don't think I did other rituals.

The reason why I follow these is that my family have done it since I was born. And I have educated to do it every year in my country. To be honest, I don't want to do it. We do it to gather all relatives and talk with them. But preparing the food for rituals is all taken by women and takes so long time.

Narrative & Dynamic System_Day7

Who will win the presidency?

● What are the ethical implication of sharing election predictions?
Citizens can get the data and compare it, so that they can check if the result is same as the prediction or if it's really different, someone can guess the reason.

How polling works

● How necessary is polling to the election process? What function does it serve?
A poll can measure the preferences of an entire country by talking to as few as 800 people and the math works if those 800 people are selected through a truly random process. Because public polling is generally done for publicity, so pollsters are incentivized to do good work in order to get more media coverage.

Interactive performance styles

●  Choose a theme for a theater experience
Romantic Exam

●  Using that theme, create a rubric to randomize selection of Scene Type, Audience Dynamics, Relationship of system to audience, Outcomes.
Scene Type
Impro and Roleplay
Audience Dynamics
Competetive – two or more audience members work against each other to succeed
Relationship of system to audience
Games – with audience members using skill, with outcomes depending on their success or failure
Outcomes
Causative – driving the onstage action down a pre-set or improvised path

●  What is the resulting show? 

Romantic Exam (Awaken): Classroom setting, teacher moderating while students try to cheat on test or pass notes to each other. Throwing stuff to audience? Musical chairs aspect? Person with the romantic note has to read it in front of anyone

Old-Fashioned Elevator Hypnosis: Little Bottles of tonic, optical illusion of people standing behind table (can’t see legs). Old fashioned hypnosis technique. Why elevator? Tight space, calustrophobia, people trapped in elevator and freaking out. Use the keypad to punch in the right code to get to where youre going. You think you’re going to an interactive theater experience but the elevator is the experience. Use the buttons as a timer? Hypnosis is really just a way to get people to do things they wouldn’t normally do. Multiple elevators? For a collaborative competition?

Voices of Deceit (Blank): Spy game? Unreliable narrator. Voice is coming from somewhere, disembodied voice? Devil vs. Angel on your shoulder

Mixed Up Ballroom Cook: Cook-off? Two competing teams have to cook a meal WHILE ballroom dancing. Someone is holding the cutting board and someone is cutting. Waitress gustures like holding tray and balancing. Teams have competing goals?

The Parallels Between Designing Immersive Theatre and User Experience

● Using the concept generated above describe the following stages of the audience journey: Orientation, Crisis, Escalation,, Discovery and Change

- Orientation: High school, 10th grade, History, Mrs. C
Mrs. C hands back grades

Nerd - A
Teacher’s Pet - A
Jock - C
Class Clown - F
Teacher’s Pet has a crush on the Jock Asks if Jock needs helpTalks to the audience
- freeze framePSST - signal to audience that we are talking to them

- Crisis
Nerd receives
Doesn’t need it
Jock receives
He replies, “yes, what’s the answer to #3”
Class clown receives
He asks for answer #1 - #5


- Escalation:
Love bonds are formed


- Discovery
The audience determines who actually ends up together


- Change

Crisis: Exam begins
Teachers pet passes the answer to whoever

The actors have to react within the new setting

Narrative & Dynamic System_Day6

How Big Data, Business Intelligence and Analytics Are Fueling Mobile Application Development

● What happens in the following stages of predictive modeling: collect data, clean data, identify patterns, make predictions?
In the collect data stage, it will get the data from its users depending on its form. Then it will clean(re-organize the data and remove the unnecessary part.) It has to identify the pattern to analyze the data. Then now it can make proper predictions.

● To what degree are accurate, real-time predictive analytics possible?
I think it has 30% accuracy at the moment but the possibility will be bigger gradually.

How Google and its algorithm work

● How do votes work in PageRank?
The PageRank goes up when it has more votes. Also, the related page has higher PageRank.

● To what degree does captured user data influence search results?
I think it influences a lot to search results, since all the results organized depend on the user data and re-collected.

Divination/Predictive system - Fortune Telling Plants

Fortune Telling Plants

1. Orientation
To begin with, tellers welcome their visitors, saying "Welcome to the Fortune Telling Plants World." The tellers explain how they will lead the visitors to the experience and brief background information. (Ancient belief from Asia) Then they tell what kind of information the visitors will be informed.

Script
Welcome to the fortune telling plant experience. Today, we will try to connect you with the ancient plant intelligence. The plant will help us to open up your deep characteristics, and also what you might want to change in the future. It comes from an ancient traditional belief from Asia.




2. Crisis
In the stage, the tellers start to link the visitor's spirit to the plants. To do this, they ask to write down the visitor's name on a name tag. After this process, the tellers analyze the visitor's name while explaining how it matches with the five elements below. 

• Fire：A、M、N、V、X
• Water：B、Q、S、U、W
• Metal：O、C、D、G、J、R、P
• Soil：E、F、T、Z
• Wood：I、H、K、L、Y

Script
Please write down your name on this tag. It can analyze how much energy do you have of five elements: Wood, Fire, Soil, Metal, and Water. Each english alphabet can represent one kind of elements based on the appearance of it. For example，"J" is Metal, because J looks like hook, which is made of metal. Your name can tell what kind of characteristics you are having or what issue you are experiencing  right now.


3. Escalation
In the Escalation, the tellers let visitor chose one of five cards that she/he is attracted. Each card has a photo of different plant. Then they compare the picked card with the paper with an analysis of the name.

Script
Please choose one plant card that you feel is speaking to you right now. Based on their growing environment and condition, as well as their appearance, we decide each plants have their own attribution towards the five elements.

Cards

4. Discovery
The tellers let the visitor put the name tag into a prepared pot that is filled with soil. Then they explain her/his personality based on the result of the analysis and the connections between them and the plant. Below is the list of the personalities and materials that are represented by each element.

• Soil / Earth - determination, strong mind, kind, generous, stone, dust, sand, gravity, ash, smoke
• Wood - peace, positive, high confidence, creativity, self-motivated, stubborn, envy, sound, mountain, paper
• Water - smart, concern, honest, pureness, transparent, sea, rain, time, shadow, snow, ice
• Fire - passion, bad-temper, hot blood, brave, friendship, light, soap, fruit, flower
• Metal - follow the rules, strict, pride, good at business, adaptability, talkative, adhere to the principle, (a little bit offensive), electricity, magnet, mirror, iron, thunder

Script
Then you need to put your name tag and the plant card into the soil together, in order to build a connection to your soul. Then, depending on the diagram of you and the plant you choose, it shows a lot of information about yourself. We'll help the plant to explain each revealing parts for you.


5. Change
In the end, the tellers give the visitor the diagram(analysis of the name) and the plant.

Script

In the end, you can get your own diagram and also your own plant, which can help to remind you what kind of person you wanted to be.

Feedback

1. Change the color of the cards. Some of them have similar colors and it can influence the visitor's decision.
2. Explain how the tellers analyze the visitor's name based on the five elements.
3. Make a clear closure. Think about how to end this experience to make it more memorable.
4. Point out the similarity or difference between the plants and the visitors.

Narrative & Dynamic System_Day5

Write about 3 potential divination/predictive system structures.

●  What do you want to predict? 
Recommend animals that don't exist actually to people.
● What are the categories?
Web or questionary
● How does the user interact with your model?
The model will collect the users' data and analyze it. Then recommend the animals.
● How is introspection prompted?
Researching about animals and human personalities.

How stuff works: Tarot
●  What are your thoughts regarding synchronicity, quantum mechanics and divination?

Synchronicity is a connecting principle that does not share that cause-and-effect relationship. And Quantum mechanics explains the relationships of particles and their random interconnectivity, with behaviors being probabilities rather than certainties. For me, these concepts are too vague and difficult to understand. I understand the quantum mechanics but don't really think there is a connection or relationship between it and tarot..

●  What is the role of intuition? For the reader? For the person being read? 

I think intuition is important for the reader since they have to find the meaning of the card immediately that is chosen by the person being read.

How stuff works: I Ching
● What are your thoughts on digital vs. analog versions of tarot? 

To be honest, this kind of things, like tarot, is always more interesting when it has an analog form with very analog materials! Because it seems more traditional and mysterious.

Narrative & Dynamic Systems_Day4

Changed Spine

1. Orientation
Someone kidnapped him. When he opened his eyes, he was in a secret room and his hands were tied with ropes.

2. Crisis

He tried to escape from the room. He thinks there are several different rooms in the building.

3. Escalation

The kidnapper roamed inside the building and found him trying to escape. Every time the kidnapper encounters him, he attacks him.

4. Discovery

Finally, he successfully escaped from the kidnapper.

5. Change

After escaping, he couldn't return to his normal life. Because he lost his left leg when he was chased by the kidnapper. Most of all, the criminal who kidnapped him has not been arrested yet.

Q. How important is the absence of reader/audience control to novels and traditional storytelling?

Too much control in storytelling will suppress the player's freedom. Fewer options for the player to choose from will make the game less fun. On the other hand, if there is too little control, the player faces a situation where she/he doesn't know what to do. Sometimes, this can make the players have more fun, but at the same time, they can completely lose interest.

Narrative & Dynamic Systems_Day3

Interactive documentary – What does it mean and why does it matter?

- Does an interactive documentary needs to be digital? Why or why not?

I think it doesn't have to be always digital. Because I saw a lot of interactive works that made with analog material such as a book and cards, etc. Depending on how creators make a story and set the rule to interact with their viewers, the material doesn't really matter.

- What alternate forms might an interactive documentary take?

As I wrote above, there are some materials that can alternate digital documentaries. So it can be a novel, book, and cards -as well as a card game- One day I thought about making an interactive poster. By making different types of posters, people have to follow the rule to get real information.

An introduction to usability

- How do Effectiveness, Efficiency, Engagingness, Error Tolerance, and Ease of Learning manifest in one of the resources below?



BEAR 71

Effectiveness
: It has good effectiveness since I could directly understand its goal. Also I could watch the video by simply clicking the moving dots. Easy and effective!

Efficiency
: Similar reason, it was efficient. Because there aren't many actions I need to do to use the website. It doesn't take a long time to get used to the website.

Engagingness
: It has a beautiful design and meaningful contents. They offer users to use VR and 360 view, and it causes more engagingness.

Error Tolerance
: There are some factors to help users to go back to the previous stage, such as close buttons. But it seems like they still need more elements for error tolerance.

Ease of Learning
: Everything was fairly clear and easy to understand. While I explored the website, it kept teaching me what to do. I think it really helps the user to learn how to use their website for the first time.

Narrative & Dynamic Systems_Day2

Due: Sketches

Should have a story in mind, at this point, for project 1.

Outline

A man is kidnapped on his way home in the evening. When he opens his eyes, his hands are tied with ropes in a locked room. The kidnapper is roaming inside the building he’s pent. He has to avoid kidnapper’s notice and successfully escape. He thinks there are other people who were also kidnapped like him in other rooms.

He tries to escape from the building. But the kidnapper can see him. After escaping, he returns to his normal life. But he continues to wonder why he was kidnapped and finally goes back to the abandoned building.

Mood board

Precedents

A Black Room Series

Writing

A Beginner’s Guide to Designing Smart Chatbots

- What is the best chatbot you’ve experienced? What made it good?




Taro Chat Ramama on Facebook.
It has a very simple way to talk with and has a clear goal (tell the result of taro) and conversation. So I didn't get lost in the middle when I first use it.

- Describe a use-case for a chatbot that you haven’t seen but you think would be effective.

I think if there's a chatbot to help decision making, I would definitely use it. The chatbot doesn't have to always provide useful information. It can only have a simple function, random pick-up. For example, there's a user who is wondering between two options. One is wearing a yellow shirt, another is wearing a blue shirt. The person who is like me, it is kind of hard to make a decision. (Especially, when it's not a really important decision.) So the user can input these two options into the chatbot and it can randomly choose one of them.

Narrative & Dynamic Systems_Day 1

Write/describe 3 ideas for an interactive narrative.

1. Time Machine
   There is a researcher who is working in a national institute that develops a time machine. Most humans in her world are dead because of a certain accident. One day, she was given a mission of going back a year before the accident to prevent it from happening. In this story, the player can think possible effects of our actions on future generations and take responsibility for that.
2. Room escape
   A man is kidnapped on his way home in the evening. When he opens his eyes, his hands are tied with ropes in a strange room. The kidnapper is roaming inside the building he’s pent. He has to avoid kidnapper’s notice and successfully escape. In this story, the players can feel the thrill of escaping from the rooms to avoid kidnappers.
3. Wizard Shop
   A player went to a magic shop run by a frog and broke a very expensive item. So she has to pay it back by working there for three years. In this story, the player can experience things that happen in the story by running a story or store about magic.

Designing Branching Narrative

• List 5 possible world state variables for each of your 3 story ideas.

1. Time/ Places/ Prior quests completed/ Credibility of the organization
2. Items/ Time limit/ Skills/ NPC abilities/ Places
3. Date/ Places/ Weather/ NPC Friendship/ Money

• Create a simple graph for each of your story ideas

1. Time Machine
   
   
2. Room Escape
   
   
3. Wizard Shop
   
   

Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story

• What promise do each of your story ideas make?
• What truth, from your experience, do each of your ideas express?

1. Time Machine Promise: If player resolve the cause in the past, she will make the world where the player from better. Truth: We need to think about the impact our actions can have on future generations and take responsibility. When I was a freshman in university, there was a room assigned to freshman in my major. We thought it was our own room, so we used it recklessly, threw away trash. The next year, a new freshmen should have cleaned up our trash. And we had to clean up the room that second graders had been spending all week. We also suffered from inconveniences because many objects were damaged by them.
2. Room Escape Promise: Player can live if you succeed to escape this building without being caught by kidnapper. Truth: You will be punished if you commit a crime. Every action has consequences.
3. Wizard Shop Promise: When player pays all her debts, she doesn’t have to work in the shop anymore. Truth: How relationships with people around us affect our lives. From my experience, a personal connection is important when we sell things. I once sold things at a high school festival and when one of my friend who’s very popular came to promote them, things were sold very quickly.

In-class Assignments

Spine

1. Orientation

Someone kidnapped him. When he opened his eyes, he was in a secret room and his hands were tied with ropes.

2. Crisis
He tried to escape from the room. He thinks there are other people who were also kidnapped like him in the building.

3. Escalation
The kidnapper roamed inside the building and found him trying to escape. 

4. Discovery
Finally, he successfully escaped from the kidnapper.

5. Change
After escaping, he returned to his normal life. But he continued to wonder why he was kidnapped and went back to the abandoned building.

Consensus Decks

38. How will this experience make the world a better place?
a. Offer at least one suggestion, preferably more than one

Players will have a chance to think about how to survive kidnapping.

55. Is this experience addictive?
a. Why or why not?

If someone likes escape, survive or thrill, it will be addictive.