I decided to take a linear story and add an interactive element to the delivery of the piece. My original piece was a poem called The Babbling Brook. By adding music, sound effects, and a set of detailed performance instructions, I was able to change a fixed poem into an experience that would be different each time it is performed. The piece requires a handful of people but can support up to a whole classroom full of participants. The poem is to be read in a way similar to a round. A group of speakers narrates the poem; each following whoever is first. A random number generator determines the length between who starts the next line. The music and SFX aspect can be performed by any number of people who will act as the ‘musicians’ of the piece. Everyone is assigned a track. A random number generator assigns everyone a specific track to play. The musician has full control over how the volume of the track should flow as well as when it should start and stop. The fact that the same tracks can play over each other and happen together ensures that each performance will sound different. There exists the possibility that 5 of the same track can play at the same time. In the future, I would like to expand this project to having a line shuffler to the poem so it can be read in random order. I would also like to add another 10 tracks to add to the variation of the performance.

When looking at interactivity and how to categorize digital pieces I always look to Roger Caillois and his types games or play. This piece, although not a game per se, can be analyzed through the lenses of this chart. I would say that my piece falls under Alea and Mimicry. Alea, or chance is a major element of this project. I took a while to think about how to add random elements to a piece that normally is seen as linear. I realized that having rules assigned to random values that will never repeat was the perfect way to ensure uniqueness. This piece also employs the idea of mimicry. I decided that by having multiple speakers, their voices alone cascading over each other would create an effect similar to the babbling of water in a brook. It can be either quiet or loud depending on the number of speakers and how they want to perform it. There is no right or wrong way to do this. The same goes for the music and sound effects. These parts are adding music and actual recording of brooks, and nature to something that is just speech. So in this sense, they are mimicking a set of places that does exist in a room, while the music is mimicking what one may hear in their head as if it were a cinematic experience.

One key concept that I keep coming back to is the MIT Interactivity Definitions. While again these aspects may be more applicable to games I believe that many can apply to all digital interactive media. The definition that applies to my work is interruptability. This piece can be started or stopped in time and it does not affect how it should be received in a negative aspect. I recommend that the players in general take as much liberty as they want in how they perform the piece. It is not about how real or song like the audio aspect is; it is that an atmosphere of the wonder of the forest and brook are created.

As I mentioned before, in the future I plan to a second random interactive element that would cause the lines of the poem to appear in a random order while the speakers are cascading the words. What I spent most time on was the random elements; the instruments tracks and how the poem will be read. Randomness I feel is an essential part to making an interactive experience a one of a kind thing. Randomness allows for any kind of variation you want and keeps things from being too repetitive.

When talking about presence, it is not that one needs to understand or make sense what is going on but how does the piece affect you. The presence of a piece may be that it is grabbing your attention, playing with your senses. It could be that it is taking real time data and transforming it via some obscure visualization or making something move. The point being, seemingly random information is being transformed into something tangible; whether related or not. In this piece I hope to add a real time weather plug-in that will vary the poem’s random generation speed according to the weather. For right now, the presence relies solely within the hands of the performers. They have full control to make this piece however they wish. If someone does not wish to start his or her music until half way through, that is his or her choice. The piece is about exploring the connection people make with nature. When I visited the brook in the forest, I found it a great place to think out loud and get things off my chest. It was both listening and partaking in a kind of conversation between my words and the rushing water. The way the poem is to be spoken echoes this kind of interaction for the audience. The sound effects draw everyone closer to the original source thus replicating and making the experience feel more real. Sometimes depending on the order of tracks played the pieces build and take away tension; the same way the poem does. These are representative of the thoughts rushing through one’s mind and causing anxiety. Alas, they are only temporary, but if a “player” does not like the sounds they can turn down their channel or pause it and then start it again. The beauty of this piece is the ever-changing soundscape that is created. The presence of this forest brook and the feelings it may evoke will be different and ever changing, never to be heard the same way twice.

My Interactive project can be found here. It is possible to be performed by one person, but you will need to open multiple tabs in your browser to do so. Enjoy!