Recently, animal welfare has become an often discussed topic in Madeiran society. The recent changes in the law regarding population control have stressed existing institutions to their limit (both economically, and concerning offered services) and the number of abandoned domestic animals is expected to rise. Small online and offline communities have formed to lend support, but have limited reach to solve the problem.
“Tell a Tail” explores the intersection of transmedia storytelling, education, and mixed reality, by creating digital media content that showcases the problem from the view of several stakeholders, and urges the user to take an active role in the discussion and quest to solve the problem of Madeira’s abandoned animals.
Platform: Android (AR Core compatible smartphones and VR compatible smarphones) Timespan: September 2018 – expected late 2019 Role: Co-Advisor, Programmer Advisors:Valentina Nisi, Mara Dionísio and Paulo Bala Students: Sarah Oliveira and Tânia de Andrade
Tell a Tail: Caminho Incerto (Unknown Path)
Sarah Oliveira’s work is a “choose you own adventure” comic book with AR interactive points. In addition to co-advising, I worked on the foundations of the Unity application using AR Core and Fungus, to make 12 storytelling AR points that complement the information present in the comic book.
Tell a Tail 360
Tânia de Andrade’s work is an interactive 360º VR documentaryfollowing the day to day of local kennel and the work of local NGO’s rescuing endangered animals. In addition to co-advising, I worked on the foundations of the Unity application that allows interaction with the remote controller and mixes different types of media (images, video, sound, etc.) in a 360º environment.
@inproceedings{Bala2020c,
title = {Tell a Tail: Leveraging XR for a Transmedia on Animal Welfare},
author = {Paulo Bala and Mara Dionisio and Sarah Oliveira and T\^{a}nia Andrade and Valentina Nisi},
url = {https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030657352},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-11-14},
booktitle = {Entertainment Computing \textendash ICEC 2020},
publisher = {Springer},
abstract = {Playful interactions and storytelling become a powerful conduit for educational-entertainment experiences aimed at informing and critiquing social issues. In this paper, we describe the design of a transmedia experience, which uses its separate channels to deconstruct a complex social issue, while maintaining a coordinated and consistent story experience. Tell a Tail explores the welfare issues of companion animals through (1) a branching comic book extended with Augmented Reality scenes, and (2) an immersive 360o documentary about the rescue of abandoned companion animals. Our contribution is the rationale and design of an initial working prototype of the transmedia experience. Initial pilot evaluations revealed that the prototypes were well received, with participants praising the content and the medium used to deliver it. Through reflection on findings of the pilot studies and design decisions of the prototypes, we delineate how the affordances of different XR technologies can be used to inform and raise awareness of a social issue.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Playful interactions and storytelling become a powerful conduit for educational-entertainment experiences aimed at informing and critiquing social issues. In this paper, we describe the design of a transmedia experience, which uses its separate channels to deconstruct a complex social issue, while maintaining a coordinated and consistent story experience. Tell a Tail explores the welfare issues of companion animals through (1) a branching comic book extended with Augmented Reality scenes, and (2) an immersive 360o documentary about the rescue of abandoned companion animals. Our contribution is the rationale and design of an initial working prototype of the transmedia experience. Initial pilot evaluations revealed that the prototypes were well received, with participants praising the content and the medium used to deliver it. Through reflection on findings of the pilot studies and design decisions of the prototypes, we delineate how the affordances of different XR technologies can be used to inform and raise awareness of a social issue.
@inproceedings{dionisio2020tale,
title = {Tale of T(r)ails: The Design of an AR Comic Book for an Animal Welfare Transmedia},
author = {Mara Dionisio and Paulo Bala and Sarah Oliveira and Valentina Nisi},
url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-62516-0_25},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62516-0_25},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
booktitle = {International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling 2020},
pages = {281--284},
organization = {Springer, Cham},
abstract = {Storytelling is a fundamental component of a child’s early development stages, informing their world view and promoting self-growth. Comic books are a common medium in these development stages, for their power of communication and expression. Inspired by narrative branching structures and technological advances in Augmented Reality (AR), we developed Tale of T(r)ails, an AR branching comic book, targeting pre-teenagers (10\textendash12 years old). This paper’s contribution focuses on the design of an AR comic book aiming at critically engaging pre-teens with Animal Welfare and motivating them for real-world actions.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Storytelling is a fundamental component of a child’s early development stages, informing their world view and promoting self-growth. Comic books are a common medium in these development stages, for their power of communication and expression. Inspired by narrative branching structures and technological advances in Augmented Reality (AR), we developed Tale of T(r)ails, an AR branching comic book, targeting pre-teenagers (10–12 years old). This paper’s contribution focuses on the design of an AR comic book aiming at critically engaging pre-teens with Animal Welfare and motivating them for real-world actions.
@inproceedings{bala2020tell,
title = {Tell a Tail 360º: Immersive Storytelling on Animal Welfare},
author = {Paulo Bala and Mara Dionisio and T\^{a}nia Andrade and Valentina Nisi},
url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-62516-0_35},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62516-0_35},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
booktitle = {International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling 2020},
pages = {357--360},
organization = {Springer, Cham},
abstract = {Immersive technologies aligned with storytelling can create novel and powerful tools to inform and ponder on social issues. This demo paper describes a cinematic virtual reality project, Tell a Tail 360 ∘ , on the rescue of abandoned companion animals. Tell a Tail 360 ∘ was designed targeting teens (13\textendash19 years old) and its inclusion in a classroom setting. By using 360 ∘ videos of a rescue kennel, animal hospital and the field work of non-governmental organizations, we intend for the target audience to be exposed to different animal welfare issues relevant to their context.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Immersive technologies aligned with storytelling can create novel and powerful tools to inform and ponder on social issues. This demo paper describes a cinematic virtual reality project, Tell a Tail 360 ∘ , on the rescue of abandoned companion animals. Tell a Tail 360 ∘ was designed targeting teens (13–19 years old) and its inclusion in a classroom setting. By using 360 ∘ videos of a rescue kennel, animal hospital and the field work of non-governmental organizations, we intend for the target audience to be exposed to different animal welfare issues relevant to their context.