Show me, I may remember

Involve me, I will understand

Brosmind came out like RIchard Simmons after chugging a can of Red Bull – super high energy! They really wanted the audience to be invested. They took the first step by breaking the ice… in florescent colored costumes… while sharing their childhood… and introducing us to their mother. Potential embarrassment was no longer a factor. As they told us their story, they invited us to participate through the use of a “commentary” keyboard that was linked to the main presentation. The keyboard was given to a lucky studio audience member (Mark), who could press a key whenever he wanted to comment on the presentation (and he did quite a stellar job might I add). This presentation interaction allowed the audience to participate in the story and laugh along with the brothers. The brothers then passed out postcards, asked everyone to draw a picture on the back, and then send it to the Brosmind studio. Through sharing, participation, and invitation, the brothers became approachable and we became a part of their story.

Julien Viallee gave people the opportunity to interact with a story already in progress in the video, Danse Dance. The concept of the project was a video playing throughout the whole piece. In this video, there was a desk filled with objects the user could interact with. As the video played, the user could click an object and it would animate. Even in a guided environment, the user still had a direct effect on the story.

Joshua Davis translated human emotions to a supercomputer with the development of The Face of Watson visualization. The visualization was implemented to humanize Watson based on his confidence level. Watson would take the question, evaluate it and then come up with a response. One of 24 pre-determined “emotional” states would appear, depending on how confident he was in his answer. Giving Watson that visual reaction is the building block that the audience can relate to and understand.

The collection of presenters and approaches demonstrated that a storyline can be applied in many ways, but is remembered when it engages the audience in an exploratory way and gives them the opportunity to fill in some of the blanks.