Story Sculpting in Virtual Landscapes

In our daily lives we use stories to describe events, to express emotions, to
demonstrate ideas. It is also believed that stories are a necessary part of the
learning process. Yet story telling and story recognition are skills that must
be developed. A powerful technique for teaching the use of the conventions and
structures of stories is to engage children in their construction. This process
allows the children to create an intellectual product that results in obvious
pride of accomplishment.

We present a virtual reality landscape consisting of a family of educational
environments for young users, which embodies a set of common principles. In
this shared virtual environment, participants interact directly with the world
to create story threads. The methods of interaction between the participants
and the world are natural and aided by the presence of artificial (remote or
proximate) agents. Our approach is based on constructivism, where real and
synthetic users, motivated by an underlying narrative, build persisting virtual
worlds through collaboration with other human and simulated agents. In terms of
learning environments, this encompasses nearly all the major contemporary
dogma: constructivism, collaboration, problem solving, and authentic
experiences.

Narrative and characters are used by conventional media, such as the novel or
the cinema, to present imaginary worlds. Virtual reality joins these traditions
as an artistic medium which encourages active participation in the creative
process, redefining the relationship between the audience and the work. In this
piece, it takes on the role of a distributed participatory theater where people
at various locations can share the same virtual stage. The viewers, challenged
by the vividness and the sensation of this new space, craft stories through
their travels in these fantasy worlds. These stories have a life beyond the
users' short term interaction with the virtual space; they persist, allowing
others to experience and further the ongoing narrative.

The participants are introduced to ideas of social interaction; they learn
about group dynamics when interacting with other real or imaginary characters;
they can become protagonists and, along with the characters, explore their
stories, give life to their imagination, and gain an awareness of changing
environments. The selection of the characters and the attributes that describe
them can determine the "central conflict" or general direction of the
narrative, without restricting its outcome.

Our prototype system explores the above ideas within the ImmersaDesk(TM)
virtual reality tableau. While this work can be experienced as a standalone
piece, its full potential is only shown when multiple networked users are
exploring, and interacting in the same virtual environment.

Collaborators
Maria Roussos
Odie Calima
Andrew Johnson
Jason Leigh
Christina A. Vasilakis