Idea #1-Interactive Story: In my portfolio, there were a lot of projects regarding writing. Writing, creative writing to be specific, is a hobby I have had for a long time, and quite honestly my dream job would be to write/storyboard for JRPGs. To start down this path, I was thinking of writing a story (a short story given the scale of the project) and using technology to make it interactive. Now, in regards to where I would take this down the interactive field is still up in the air, although some ideas have come across my mind such as a text-based adventure, pictures and animations in still frame accompanying the story to give it life, and having voice over edited in so you are following along with the story.
Idea #2-Visual Novel: While the concept might be the same as the first one in being heavily story reliant, the technology and skills needed for the project are different. A visual novel is a hybrid between gaming and storytelling, and focuses on a few core gameplay mechanics while making sure the story is one of the main selling point. When taking a look at my IMM portfolio map, there were a few gaming projects I had listed, and after talking with a friend about what I should make my project be for thesis, this was one of the ideas they pitched. As of this point, I can say I do not have the skills needed to pull this off, however over the course of 7 months I’d like to think that could change.
Idea #3-Folklore Compiler? (Name Pending on this one) An interest of mine aside from writing has always been history with a strong focus on ancient times. Now, while learning about the civilizations themselves was neat, I always likes the stories the had to tell, which in turn ended up leading to an interest in modern anthropology. I realize that “stories” might not be clear, so let me make that even clearer: the myths, the legends, the tales where scholars are not certain if there is any reality backing them. With technology where it is, I was thinking of making a large compiler for a great many of these projects, be it in the form of a website, a video, etc. Let’s take the website as an example: one direction I could take this in is having a map of the world on the screen and have it be interactive. Once you hover the mouse over a certain region of the Earth, you can see a list of stories and tales from that region, and then click on one to see it. At this point I don’t really know how I would go about creating something like this, but when skill and practicability were taken off the table this was a thesis idea that came straight into my mind.
As you heard in class, I really like the comparative folklore and mythology idea. Some examples of this applied specifically to the bible: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/gallery/2013/sep/05/holy-infographics-bible-visualised
You’ll notice that those are more abstract than the map-based interface you’ve described. Not that one approach is better than the other, necessarily, but you should allow yourself to explore the pros and cons of different graphical interfaces.
As we discussed in class, it might make sense to focus on a single story and somehow — through the visualization and interface — allow the user to reveal the similarities between the story as it’s manifested in multiple cultures.
I absolutely adore your 3rd idea! I think it’s really unique and sounds really interesting. I’m a big fan of legends and mythologies. This would be a great educational tool, I can see this being used in history classes. It could be interesting to see how different cultures in similar areas have their own interpretations of myths (think greek vs. roman, etc.) and how there are certain themes that unite all myths across the globe (like the hero’s journey). I think it’d be great to focus on a couple myths per continent and really knock those out of the park with the research and detail. I’d also be careful to be as respectful as possible when talking about other peoples mythos. Also how far back would you go and what would you consider a myth vs. a historical retelling of lost events? Would prehistoric cave paintings count as legends? Stonehenge has been around for thousands of years and the purpose/methods of its construction have been lost so people created their own myths of how it came to be (like the wizard Merlin lifting them himself, etc.) and what it means.