Experiments with the theatrical Greek chorus as a model for interactions with computational narrative systems - Narrative Intelligence - page 180

through four interactive scenes: the TOWN of Montgomery, the BUS on which
Rosa Parks is arrested, the JAIL cell to which she is taken, and the Holt Street
CHURCH where the boycotters congregate. Alternating with these scenes are
refrains in which chorus members chant about moments in the story.
People often say that a story “unfolds,” and that is the way we frame inter-
actions with TOGI. By selecting areas of scene images and querying depictions
of characters and chorus members, viewers unfold details of plot and character.
Thestorycanberevealedthroughsix“folds”: 5
Fold 0. Viewers do not have to interact with TOGI. Viewers who let it play on
its own hear the “default” story, told by a chorus member who sees the events
from today's perspective. She thinks that Parks and others who participated in
the Montgomery Bus Boycott set an example that remains relevant. Each of the
four scenes opens with a bit of her narration.
Fold 1. Clicking part of a scene image, or module, reveals an associated set of
characters and chorus members. The default story is put “on hold” as the char-
acters begin talking with each other, revealing additional aspects of the story.
If the viewer interacts no further, the characters' dialog plays out. Then the
program returns to the point at which the viewer intervened, and the program
continuesasinFold0.
Fold 2. As the Fold 1 characters' dialog proceeds, the viewer may click on one
or more of the available chorus members. Activated chorus members interject
comments within the dialog. One of our concerns in scriptwriting was to key
the meaning of each potential choral interjection to a corresponding chunk of
the characters' dialog. If the viewer activates more than one chorus member,
the multiple comments play out in queue. Then the Fold 1 dialog resumes. The
tonal effect is colorful, a bit like talk radio, and the visual presentation in this
early prototype is like an illustrated storybook. Still images and movie clips per-
tinent to the dialog come and go, superimposed over the pictorial background
of the scene.
Fold 3. If, during the Fold 1 dialog, the viewer clicks a character rather than
a chorus member, the character turns to the chorus member whom the viewer
has queried most frequently up to that point in the program. This character
and chorus member exchange remarks relevant to the current dialog, and after
their remarks play out, the dialog resumes.