Theatrical storytelling in a virtual space

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we explore the uniqueness of storytelling in a theatrical context. From this exploration, we present a theoretical structure for classifying theatrical performance and describe a technical framework for creating such performances in a virtual space. The framework allows for interplay between human actors, virtual performers and live audience members cohabitating both physical and virtual spaces. We describe a prototype implementation of the framework and provide the details of a distributed performance given in the spring of 2004 as a proof of concept for the system.

REFERENCES

• 1: Cohen, R., Theatre, 6th Edition,. McGraw-Hill, 2002.
• 2: Sauter, W., The Theatrical Event: Dynamics of Perfomance and Perception, University of Iowa Press, 2000.
• 3: Stephen N. Matsuba , Bernie Roehl, "Bottom, Thou Art Translated": The Making of VRML Dream, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, v.19 n.2, p.45-51, March 1999 [doi>10.1109/38.749122]
• 4: Matthew Lewis, Bowen virtual theater, Proceedings of the SIGGRAPH 2003 conference on Web graphics: in conjunction with the 30th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, July 27-31, 2003, San Diego, California [doi>10.1145/965333.965389]
• 5: M. Slater , J. Howell , A. Steed , D-P. Pertaub , M. Garau, Acting in virtual reality, Proceedings of the third international conference on Collaborative virtual environments, p.103-110, September 2000, San Francisco, California, United States [doi>10.1145/351006.351020]
• 6: Farley, K, "Digital Dance Theatre: The Marriage of Computers, Choreography and Techno/Human Reactivity", Body, Space and Technology, 3(1), 2002, (http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/pfa/bstjournal/3no1/journal3_1.htm)
• 7: F. Sparacino , G. Davenport , A. Pentland, Media in performance: interactive spaces for dance, theater, circus, and museum exhibits, IBM Systems Journal, v.39 n.3-4, p.479-510, July 2000
• 8: Claudio S. Pinhanez , Aaron F. Bobick, “It/I”: a theater play featuring an autonomous computer graphics character, Proceedings of the sixth ACM international conference on Multimedia: Technologies for interactive movies, p.22-29, September 13-16, 1998, Bristol, United Kingdom [doi>10.1145/306774.306783]
• 9: Moltenbrey, K, "Staged Magic", Computer Graphics World, December 2003, 31--34.
• 10: Bill Tomlinson , Marc Downie , Matt Berlin , Jesse Gray , Derek Lyons , Jennie Cochran , Bruce Blumberg, Leashing the AlphaWolves: mixing user direction with autonomous emotion in a pack of semi-autonomous virtual characters, Proceedings of the 2002 ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics symposium on Computer animation, July 21-22, 2002, San Antonio, Texas [doi>10.1145/545261.545263]
• 11: Ken Perlin , Athomas Goldberg, Improv: a system for scripting interactive actors in virtual worlds, Proceedings of the 23rd annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.205-216, August 1996 [doi>10.1145/237170.237258]
• 12: Inhabited television: broadcasting interaction from within collaborative virtual environments, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), v.7 n.4, p.510-547, Dec. 2000 [doi>10.1145/365058.365095]
• 13: Zellner, D. "Definitions and Directions of the Theatre" in Theatre in Cyberspace, S. Schrum, ed. Peter Lang Publishing, 1999, pp 21--27.
• 14: Kauffmann, S., "Notes on Theatre and Film" in Focus on Film and Theatre, Hurt, J, ed., Prentice-Hall, 1974.
• 15: Mateas, M.,. "An Oz-Centric Review of Interactive Drama and Believable Agents." Technical Report CMU-CS-97-156, Department of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA, 1997.
• 16: Steve Benford , Chris Greenhalgh , Gail Reynard , Chris Brown , Boriana Koleva, Understanding and constructing shared spaces with mixed-reality boundaries, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), v.5 n.3, p.185-223, Sept. 1998 [doi>10.1145/292834.292836]
• 17: Andrew M. Phelps , Kevin J. Bierre , David M. Parks, MUPPETS: multi-user programming pedagogy for enhancing traditional study, Proceedings of the 4th conference on Information technology curriculum, October 16-18, 2003, Lafayette, Indiana, USA [doi>10.1145/947121.947143]
• 18: Andrew M. Phelps , David M. Parks, Fun and Games: Multi-Language Development, Queue, v.1 n.10, February 2004 [doi>10.1145/971564.971592]
• 19: Sheng Liang, Java Native Interface: Programmer's Guide and Reference, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1999
• 20: Craig W. Reynolds, Flocks, herds and schools: A distributed behavioral model, ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, v.21 n.4, p.25-34, July 1987
• 21: Reynolds, C.W., "Steering behaviors for autonomous characters". In Proceedings of Game Developers Conference, pages 763--782, 1999.
• 22: Law, K, "Emotion in Flocking", Masters Project, Rochester Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Science, June 2004.
• 23: David Birchfield, Generative model for the creation of musical emotion, meaning, and form, Proceedings of the 2003 ACM SIGMM workshop on Experiential telepresence, November 07, 2003, Berkeley, California [doi>10.1145/982484.982504]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Virtual reality

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Human Factors

Keywords:
distributed performance, storytelling, virtual theatre