Random Access Narrative (RAN)
An interactive experience of storytelling
I always like to imagine if there is a storybook, instead of having one written story, everyone can read different stories from this book. It would be like a magical mirror described in a fairy tale, which talks to people responding to their desires. I have a feeling that this is not only a fairy tale but somehow realisable through design practice.
Storytelling is an essential part of human communication. As we are now living in the era of an information society, our communicating experience has been broadened with varieties of interactive media. It is time to break the rigid conventional storybook format and to embrace interactive experiences of storytelling. This project is to research and design a storybook (or a portable device) with no predetermined sequence, also to illustrate the story using personal drawing skills providing a visual narrative to the design work. The aim of this project is to demonstrate to the reader/ user a non-predetermined reading experience of random possibilities.
For my final design work of RAN, as shown in the images below, I drew a set of thirty-six iconic images representing generic characters, objects and symbols. They function as two categories, “character/ object” and “connector”. Many of these functions may be interchangeable depending on the reader’s point of view. There are six iconic images on each cube, therefore thirty-six icons for six cubes. Because when placing a set of six cubes on a playing platform, for instance a table or a desk, there is always one side of the cube facing downward, plus a disadvantage of the limited interaction between images on the same cube, I provide seventy-two icons in total on two sets of six cubes. I also invert the silhouette and its negative space of the thirty-six images on one cubic set, for a distinction opposite to the other set, and to create greater imagery combinations.
☛ How to play RAN
☛ Stories generated by RAN
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平面設計碩士畢業製作:
隨機故事 (RAN)
試想若有一本神奇的故事書, 每一個讀者看到的故事內容都不同. 好似童話中的魔鏡, 與隱藏人們內心的慾望對話. 而我預感這個想法可以實現.
人類是說故事的動物. 資訊時代的今日, 互動式媒體已大幅擴展我們的溝通經驗. 如今正是打破傳統書本刻板形式, 擁抱互動式說故事經驗的最佳時機. 此企劃案的主旨是要研究及設計一本結合我個人圖畫技巧, 不含既定敘事順序的故事書 (或為可攜帶的物件), 提供隨機故事經驗的證明.
