This paper describes a search for natural ways to make responsive media, investigating the techniques used in oral performances and contrasts these with ways which start from a fixed, recorded form. It starts with the origins of storytelling and examines the way in which the epic poet constructs stories from themes and formulas as they are being performed. It points to similarities with entity–component–system techniques in games programming. It continues by looking at a form of improvised theatre from Renaissance Italy that combined oral performance with literary learning where the lack of a script avoided censorship. This was structured around scenarios for scenes that were played out through exaggerated stock characters. The computational challenge of creating this approach to storytelling in a machine involves programming interacting behaviours aiming towards a goal. Finally, the paper examines the challenge of storytelling in the form of a tour guide, where the narrative plays out in different orders in response to the movement through a museum or town and points towards the development of responsive learning experiences.

This document was originally published at IBC2018.