UNSCENE
An interactive installation that explores a future of storytelling where technology enables narratives without being obtrusive.
Completed at Royal College of Art
Physical computing, Responsive system design, Projection mapping,
Visual communication, Set design
In collaboration with: Shankho Chaudhuri
The Future of Storytelling?
What is the future of storytelling? How will we experience narratives in a future built around virtual reality? What form does this take for an audience that is increasingly demanding of stories that are personal and immersive?
UNSCENE takes storytelling into a more natural, more human direction. One that is free of the headset, yet still augmented. A world built around a character, rather than a tech demo. It is a space in which you become an agent of the narrative, as your fingerprints reveal the thoughts and memories of the room. It’s a vision for a future in which the technology never interrupts the magic of the story.
Tech-driven Storytelling?
As Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies are rapidly changing the way we consume media and stories, we wanted to explore what the future of storytelling might look like without an isolating, clunky headset.
Designing immersive Storytelling
We designed, built, painted and curated a full scale set so that we could prototype and test our interactive objects within an actual immersive space.
By taking the colour out of the space we took most meaning out with it, left were only the shapes of the objects. This created an interesting aesthetic and a ‘blank canvas’ for us to paint on with light and projections.
Creative collaboration
To make UNSCENE a reality we collaborated with a number of people including a writer, an actress and a lighting designer in order to create and bring the narrative to life.
Object-based Interactions
We designed interactive objects that when picked up, touched or moved would trigger story fragments in the form of narration or projections inside the space.
A Responsive System
Apart from building the sensors into the objects we created a wireless communication network between the objects in the space and a remote computer that would trigger the desired effects.
Testing the Experience
We tested the technology and user experience with a number of participants to make sure the system was stable enough for all interactions.
