The Internet is changing the nature of storytelling. For a director whose attention is turning ever web-wards, the urge to transform viewers from passive couch potatoes to active participants in an unfolding drama or adventure is a hard one to resist.

So when Boards approached London-based Nexus Productions to discuss the possibility of transforming our cover into an augmented reality experience, executive producers Cedric Gairard and Chris O’Reilly turned to Amsterdam-based artists Theodore Watson and Emily Gobeille to take readers on an interactive narrative journey. The front cover is an invitation into the curious graphic world of Rise and Fall. The back cover is also interactive and can be used to uncover a behind-the-scenes look at how the project was achieved.

“We took a little bit of a different approach and made the cover more interactive instead of augmenting over a live video feed,” says Gobeille. “We’re allowing the user to control the story and the pacing so they’re in charge of their experience, rather than just observing it.”

To activate Rise and Fall, users must go to www.boardsmag.com/RiseAndFall, download an app to activate the experience and point the cover of the March issue at their webcam. The story begins when readers turn the magazine, hence the tagline: “A delightful adventure takes an unusual turn”.

Readers travel through the ‘Rise’ world as a disembodied hand clutching a balloon and can shift directions to the darkened ‘Fall’ world by turning the cover upside down, causing the balloon to morph into an umbrella.

The story unfolds as the character encounters nodes, triggering short animated sequences that last up to 20 seconds. The nodes also interact with each other, and as users shift gravitational forces within the world, they learn something new about its contrasting dynamics.

Watson wrote the software for Rise and Fall using openFrameworks, a free, open-source C++ programming toolkit created for designers and artists. It allows programmers to create particle systems, sound, graphics, motion-tracking and algorithmic animation.

“You can work very quickly and write very fast, powerful code,” says Watson. “It’s nerdy code for people who aren’t too nerdy, but are more artistically or design-inclined.”

Both Watson and Gobeille fit that description. They were students in Parsons’ design and technology MFA program when they met during a 24-hour Atari game-design jam, started dating and eventually moved to Amsterdam.

A native of Britain, Watson is best known as an artist and programmer and has exhibited around the world. His recent projects include the Graffiti Research Lab’s Laser Tag graffiti system, and an augmented sand sculpture for Amsterdam’s Film Museum and Wieden+Kennedy.

Gobeille, who hails from Connecticut, is a designer working in motion graphics and has worked for studios Razorfish and Loyal Kaspar. In 2007, they collaborated for the first time on an interactive ecosystem installation for children called Funky Forest, which shares thematic similarities with Rise and Fall.

“I have a fascination with the processes in nature,” says Gobeille of the animation. “A lot of that comes through in the decay and the phases of the moon and how that affects the tides. Nature’s ability to design is a great source of inspiration for me.”

Watson and Gobeille are now represented as a duo by Nexus’ new interactive arts division. They hope Rise and Fall demonstrates to the ad execs, producers and directors who read Boards that the work that goes into producing an animated film or commercial can apply to non-linear interactive projects.

The pipeline on Rise and Fall also diverged from a traditional film production. The concept, design and production phases happened simultaneously, as the directors constantly tweaked the app’s interactivity throughout the three-month production.

“The software really evolves so we’re constantly testing things and seeing what works with the interaction,” says Watson. “We were constantly changing stuff around up until the last few days, getting rid of different elements and adding new stuff in.”

For Amsterdam music house MOST, that meant working closely with the directors to implement 14 music tracks plus additional layers of sound triggered when readers encounter the story nodes.
Watson and Gobeille provided composers Ivo Witteveen and Otto van den Toorn with playful snippets from underground electronic dance music to use as inspiration for the soundtrack’s gentle blend of original guitar and synthesizer music with chopped up animal noises, electro glitches and whistling.

“It’s modified in such a way that it’s not clear anymore what the original sounds were,” says Witteveen. “They have become new sounds borrowing some of the organic quality of the original sounds.”

Nexus’ O’Reilly compares the state of interactive art in commercial and artistic projects to the time when 3D animation became accessible to artists and animators. If more directors see interactive as a medium to tell stories, it will be liberated from techie circles and find its way into more digital experiences – and magazine covers.

“The interactive tools Theo and Emily are using are beyond being just this remit of a few technology boffins,” he says. “I was into the idea [of Rise and Fall] as a simple narrative idea. I could imagine a very strong short film based on the same premises. The fact that you’re controlling the physics of it is doubly exciting.”

“I see a huge trend toward interactive experiences becoming the norm within people’s lives,” adds Watson. “I’m hoping people will see the possibilities for the future and think of the different, creative ways it can be experienced.” Q

www.nexusproductions.com    
www.m-ost.nl
www.theowatson.com              
www.zanyparade.com