Inspired by our experience in the Collective Storytelling class, Wajma Mohseni and I joined forces to work on an independent project of great personal meaning.
My role on the project was to set up the Tuio/Reactivision technology (described below) and program the interaction in Processing.
Objects of Displacement began with stories Wajma collected from family members and friends who were forced to flee their homes in Afghanistan during several periods of conflict. By focusing the conversation around one meaningful object these individuals were able to bring with them, Wajma’s interviews revealed the complex issues of conflict, displacement, memory, culture, value, family, and the essence of home. We are now working to expand this collection of stories to include the voices of displaced individuals from all over the globe.
Stacking Stories was born out of our desire to give Objects of Displacement a physical dimension. We wanted our audiences to touch the personal treasures featured in the stories, while learning of their complicated past.
We chose projection on sand as our storytelling canvas to give the content malleability and texture, allowing visitors to shape the surface with their fingers. Stories are given weight and shape through the use of stones as a navigational interface. The challenge of balancing the stones conveys the tumult and uncertainty of the storytellers' circumstances.
The Experience
The experience begins with a box of patterned stones, representing one individual’s story. When a stone is placed on the sand, it triggers a line of the story to appear. As stones are stacked on top of one another, the story progresses, line by line until the object and the owner of the story are revealed.
The Technology
Stacking Stories uses a web-cam, placed above the table, to read the TUIO patterns laser-cut into the clay-molded stones. The patterns are interpreted by reacTIVision, which sends the pattern’s individual ID and x,y coordinates to a Processing sketch. Processing drives the visual display.