DISCOVER STORIES IN WHICH YOUR WOLRD MATTERS
Application overview
Bored with traditional literature? Want to adapt the narrative to you? Or are you just an experimental literature (or stones) enthusiast? This one's for you!
Ambient Library is an ambient literature application prototype including one chapter with nine parallel stories, which can be read in any order without affecting the reading experience. The application uses two different story modes, camera feed, current time and date, and a name chosen by you. To emphasise the unique reading experience the application prioritises the presentation (and of course narrative) of the stories as the main feature. To simplify the experience and make the app more accessible this is also a single tap interaction experience.
IN SUPPORT OF AMBIENT LITERATURE
Ambient literature is a new and emerging genre of digital storytelling. It is experimenting with the use of data available on player's ambient to enhance the story. This application was inspired by ambient literature pieces and developed in support of helping this new genre evlove.
DISCOVER THE APP
Play the video to discover more!
In the world where the universe is an unbreakable logical system, everything can change with one tiny mistake. A mysterious J'son has cracked the code of the universe and now has more power than anyone. What will happen in the world where the laws of physics are not definite? Who can adapt to the changes if acquired linguistic knowledge isn't transferable into communication skills? Follow the stories of six different characters and the Own-Stones from around the world of Kugel.
ALL THAT MATERS ARE STONES
Take a step into the world of stones! Those wise creatures have a lot to say if the right person is ready to listen. However, they know their own value and can therefore be unbelievably stubborn. Only the chosen ones are allowed to be their carriers... You can't chose your stone, the stone has to chose you.
THE NON-LINEARITY
The storytelling and narrative choices made aimed to create a non-linear, immersive and contemporary reading experience allowing the user to ‘connect’ with the story. To emphasise the non-linearity of the narrative, the application is using two types of non-linear storytelling: modular structure and parallel stories. The prototype chapter uses modular structure serving as a “hub” for the user to return to in order to start a new story. All stories within a chapter were written as parallel narratives, therefore can be read in any order. The action of the stories within a chapter takes place at the same time, but represents different perspectives – from stones, through protagonists to the antagonist.
THE VISUALISATION OF FORM AND PERSPECTIVE
There are 2 story modes, a light and a dark one. The light story mode is used for the stories of the protagonists and stone poems. In order to emphasise the narrative, it uses a minimalistic style with white background and dark font aligned to the left (as seen on Figure 5 on the left side). The dark story mode is used for antagonist stories and dark poems. It utilises a minimalistic style with dark background, white font and blurred and faded live camera feed for more immersive experience (as seen on Figure 5 on the right side). Additionally, all the poems use italicised font to distinct them from prose.
DISCOVER THE STORY TYPES
There are 4 types of stories within the app:
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stone poems – the poems describing the perspective of either Own-Stones or their Carriers
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dark poems – the poems explain the antagonist’s perspective
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light prose – the stories of protagonists written in different styles to express the character differences (for instance, Terry’s story is written using a more impressionistic and poetic writing style to express his visionary and mysterious nature)
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dark prose – the stories of the antagonist written in an experimental genre to express the scientific nature of the antagonist.
READ STORIES
Worried you'll forget which stories you have and haven't read? Nothing to worry about! The app will add a note under a story once it has been completed. That way you'll always know you didn't miss anything. Now you can go ahead and read the stories in any order you'd like!
USE OF AMBIENT DATA
To aid the immersive and contemporary experience a combination of in-app user choice and life data feed was used. Firstly, to allow the user to customise the experience, a name generator was added to the app flow providing the user with the possibility of choosing a name used in the stories and on-boarding. Additionally, to allow for more unique and contemporary experience some stories utilise the real-life time and date data provided by the app, making the parallel stories the user is reading take place at the same time on the same day and therefore being parallel to the user’s time. Moreover, to emphasise the sense of contemporarity the stories ‘unfold’ in small parts slowly revealing the bigger story in oppose to presenting the reader with many paragraphs of text as traditional literature does. To make the stories more immersive an additional dimension was added to the dark story mode narratives by using the life camera feed and bringing the text closer to the player.
THE APP
USE OF AMBIENT DATA
To aid the immersive and contemporary experience a combination of in-app user choice and life data feed was used. Firstly, to allow the user to customise the experience, a name generator was added to the app flow providing the user with the possibility of choosing a name used in the stories and on-boarding. Additionally, to allow for more unique and contemporary experience some stories utilise the real-life time and date data provided by the app, making the parallel stories the user is reading take place at the same time on the same day and therefore being parallel to the user’s time. Moreover, to emphasise the sense of contemporarity the stories ‘unfold’ in small parts slowly revealing the bigger story in oppose to presenting the reader with many paragraphs of text as traditional literature does. To make the stories more immersive an additional dimension was added to the dark story mode narratives by using the life camera feed and bringing the text closer to the player.
