Plato's Apparent Democracy: Building Interactive Narratives Through Apparent Behaviour

Andkjær, Kasper Ingdahl

4. term

Medialogy, Master

2017

2017-07-01

131

This thesis investigates whether apparent behavior—the simple visual and motion cues that make us perceive cause, intention, and interaction among figures—can be used to build interactive stories that audiences can both understand and experience as complete, without relying on costly, complex systems. Drawing on perception research, a minimalist, abstract application remediates themes from Plato’s Republic and lets users influence the narrative through rules for motion, grouping, and attraction between elements. The prototype is organized into scenes (including radicalization, the demagogue’s entry and rise, and tyranny) and is evaluated with two targets: intelligibility (how well the audience’s interpretation aligns with the author’s intent) and closure (a felt sense of a coherent, rounded story). Findings indicate gains in intelligibility, while a stable sense of closure was not achieved. The thesis concludes that additional design measures and a more effective stimulus are needed to produce consistent closure, yet the approach shows promise as a lower-cost framework for interactive narratives.

Dette speciale undersøger, om tilsyneladende adfærd – de simple visuelle og bevægelsesmæssige cues, som får os til at opleve årsag, intention og figurers samspil – kan bruges til at skabe interaktive fortællinger, som både er forståelige og opleves som afsluttede, uden at kræve dyre og komplekse systemer. Med udgangspunkt i perceptionsteori udvikles en minimalistisk, abstrakt applikation, der remedierer temaer fra Platons Staten og lader brugeren påvirke fortællingen gennem regler for bevægelse, gruppering og tiltrækning mellem figurer. Prototypen er struktureret i scener (bl.a. radikalisering, demagogens indtog og tyranni) og testes med fokus på to mål: forståelighed (i hvilken grad publikums tolkning matcher forfatterens intention) og „closure“ (fornemmelsen af en afrundet, sammenhængende fortælling). Resultaterne peger på, at tilgangen kan styrke forståeligheden, mens en stabil oplevelse af afrunding ikke blev opnået. Specialet konkluderer derfor, at der kræves yderligere designgreb og et mere effektivt „stimulans“ for at skabe konsistent closure, men at tilgangen rummer potentiale som en omkostningslet ramme for interaktive fortællinger.

[This apstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]

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