In 2005 I made a dream about the Arrival of the Sensor & Calm Computing Age and started sketching the Design of a Story-Driven Innovation initatives to augment wakefulness & mindfulness in the 21st century. I would create a storyworld that would be distributed thru an ensemble of educational tools to promote reading & contemplation and enable spatial, immersive & participatory storytelling.
This project inspired all the Educational Design Project of my company Hello, Architekt and all my client work. It was architected to be an amazing storyworld. I craftily spearheaded a successful Kickstarter campaign that invited parents and kids to connect with nature, reinvent how stories are told and heard, explore their dreams and introduce them to the poetic potential of technology.
Starting as an iPad app, the Wuxia narrative platform would become more than a game or a software program: it would be an exact replica of the antihero, The Tonalli, discovered by Oremia and Wuxia. It would be the secret passage that allows young readers to enter the world of Wuxia the Fox and join the two heroes in their quest for meaning in a world that has lost its imagination.
Like the Tonalli in the story, the app would function as a mysterious musical instrument with magical powers, opening the way to new stories and interactive elements such as:
Different soundtracks and sound effects that react to specific words or the rhythm and tone of the voice telling the story
“Forgotten” sounds of nature and symbols associated with them
New audiovisual scenes activated by combinations of specific sounds and gestures
An Augmented Reality Storytelling Engine that displays complementary interactive audio-visual elements above the book when using the iPad rear camera and physical objects (Masks, Printed Symbols in the Illustrated Book, Street Signs-Graffitis, Wood Tiles)
Icons, musical instruments and audiovisual extras that appear in the iPad app when the storyteller wears a mask
What excited me about this project was its potential as an educational tool for parents and their children that embraces a unique pedagogical approach through a dream narrative. This would explore a mentor-learner relationship (rather than just teacher-student), and inspire parents and children to use technology in a way that is both mystical and alchemic. One central goal with this story-driven Educational Design & Art initiative would be to use the data shared amongst families and communities to better understand how haptics and sensorial components can enhance the capacities for creative development, knowledge sharing and generational wisdom.