7,101 research outputs found
Planning formalisms and authoring in interactive storytelling
Interacting Storytelling systems integrate AI techniques such as planning with narrative representations to generate stories. In this paper, we discuss the use of planning formalisms in Interactive Storytelling from the perspective of story generation and authoring. We compare two different planning formalisms, Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning and Heuristic Search Planning (HSP). While HTN provide a strong basis for narrative coherence in the context of interactivity, HSP offer additional flexibility and the generation of stories and the mechanisms for generating comic situations
Narrative Approaches to Wellbeing
The importance of narratives in therapeutic processes such as convalescence, psychotherapy and counselling is well-established. Such narrative-based approaches highlight the benefit of sense-making, coping and positive affect in circumstances of illness or psychological distress. These phenomena are consistent with theories of narrative which emphasise contextualisation and the restoration of equilibrium. This paper proposes to open up further areas of enquiry by examining a range of theoretical models of narrative as an imaginative space. It will examine a selection of established models of narrative in literary and media disciplines, and identify some themes and categories which recur in the practice of story-telling – such as inevitability and agency, community and individuality, freedom and destiny, absurdity and purpose. The paper will conclude by articulating some of the major themes that narrative suggests as a discipline, and which therefore might prove fruitful in understanding not only how story-telling plays a part in therapeutic processes, but how narrative might help to formulate a more generalised notion of wellbeing
Agents for educational games and simulations
This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications
Directed Emergent Drama
A fully interactive drama, where the player interacts with intelligent Non- Player Characters (NPCs), can revolutionise entertainment, gaming, education, and therapy. Creating such a genuinely interactive drama that is entertaining and gives players a sense of coherency as active participants in the unfolding drama has seen a substantial research effort. Authors have the power to shape dramatised stories for theatre or television at will. Conversely, the authors' ability to shape interactive drama is limited because the drama emerges from players' and NPCs actions during game-play, which significantly limits authoring control.
A coherent drama has a recognisable dramatic structure. One philosophy is to use planning algorithms and narrative structures to reduce required authoring. However, planning algorithms are intractable for the large state-spaces intrinsic to interactive dramas, and they have not reduced the authoring problem sufficiently.
A more straightforward and computationally feasible method is emergent interactive drama from players' and NPCs' actions. The main difficulty with this approach is maintaining a drama structure and theme, such as a mystery theme or a training scenario, that the player experiences while interacting with the game world. Therefore, it is necessary to impose some form of structure to guide or direct the unfolding drama.
The solution introduced in this thesis is to distribute the computation among autonomous actors that are guided by goals and drama structures which a centralised autonomous director agent distributes among the actors, which comprises the following four main elements:
a) autonomous rational actor agents that know they are acting and can negotiate dialogues between them to remain realistic while simultaneously progressing the drama, without the player knowing,
b) Bayesian network to model the actors reasoning, including beliefs about other actors' mental states
c) an autonomous director agent uses "schemas", conceptual structures based on motifs, to guide the actors
Exploring the scalability of character-based storytelling
Interactive Storytelling is establishing itself as a major application of virtual embodied characters. To achieve further progress in the field, some authors have suggested that it was necessary to break the 10minute barrier for story duration, while preserving story pace. In this context, understanding scalability issues is an essential aspect of the development of future Interactive Storytelling technologies. Scalability can be defined as the production of a richer narrative which follows the scaling-up of the Artificial Intelligence representations for plot structure or characters ’ roles. We have formalised narrative events in terms of “film idioms ” which are dynamically recognised as the story is generated. This enabled us to stage a number of experiments in which we modified several determinants of scalability, such as the number of feature characters or the complexity of their roles and recorded subsequent narrative extension, through the number of film idioms generated. 1
Mnemodrama : Alessandro Fersen's parashamanic training technique for the occidental performer.
Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/2461 on 14.02.2017 by CS (TIS)This thesis is the first full-length study of the experiments in
performer training undertaken by Alessandro Fersen in his studio
laboratory in Rome between 1957 and 1983 and practiced since then in
the codified technique which he calls Mizemodrama ( literally, "a
drama of memory").
The purpose of my research is twofold: firstly, to focus on the
development of the core technique of mnemodrama which is a
theatrical simulation of ritual object manipulation employed by
shamans in traditional cultures in order to induce an altered state of
consciousness. In Fersen's terms such transic techniques provide the
contemporary performer with a psychic training which enables him to
explore different aspects of his persona rediscovered from both the
autobiographical and archetypal levels of his unconscious. Secondly,
the thesis presents a case for viewing Alessandro Fersen as a pioneer of
post-war experimental theatre practice, particularly from the
standpoint of the interdisciplinary nature of his experiments (theatre
combined with anthropology, ethnology and psychology) and his focus
on training rather than performance within the confines of a
laboratory. The philosophy behind his research, its goals and
methodology are therefore compared with those of his more celebrated
peers, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Richard Schechner and Eugenio
Barba.
This thesis combines academic research with two periods of
observation of the mnemodrama in performance at Fersen's studio in
Rome in 1990 and 1992. Subsequently, I was able to introduce Fersen
and his work to British academic theatre professionals for the first time
at the international conference on Performance, Ritual and
Shamanism organised by the Centre for Performance Research and
held in Cardiff in January 1993. Finally, the appendices contain
Fersen's essential justification for his research, from which the
arguments of this thesis have been developed. The appendices also
represent the first substantial translation of Fersen's writings on theatre
to appear in the English language
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