Island Stories: The Madeira Story Generator Project

Abstract

In this paper I describe an ongoing project at the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (Madeira-ITI) that is concerned with making new discoveries in the field of creative writing through the use of repurposed technological artefacts. Recently the Madeira Story Generator (MStoryG) project has been conducting experiments in collaborative storytelling and exploring new authoring platforms using an analogue Solari Udine split-flap display—an old-style Arrivals board—formerly located at Madeira International Airport. The ‘hacked’ Arrivals board and a mirror software replica Departures board can receive messages via Twitter and Facebook. Using the physical and virtual boards we have looked into phenomena such as the attractive ambiguity of repurposed objects. We have also examined ways of engaging users with public storytelling and enticing them to collaborate and share their stories. In terms of content, we have staged a transatlantic Twitter fiction collaboration between our users (students and researchers at the University of Madeira), the New Orleans Review, and the US-based travel writing website Airplane Reading. In this and future experiments, we aim to discover new ways of engaging audiences and authors in new forms of creative writing and publishing by taking advantage of the possibilities of both old and new media channels.