This project began with a proposal we submitted for the National Arts Council’s Arts in Your Neighbourhood (AYN) initiative, which brings diverse arts programmes inspired by neighbourhood spaces to a focus town each season.
Given restrictions on in-person events during the COVID-19 pandemic, we proposed an interactive story in Google Street View that would allow people to virtually explore the Kallang area.
Ideation
360º photographs can create a curious sense of space, since users are able to click and drag an image to look around freely. To make the most of this medium, it was essential to ensure some degree of realism in how users move through or interact with the story.
We sought to achieve this in two ways. First, story choices and objects are positioned in ways that encourage users to explore the environment. Second, the route is planned such that the user’s journey feels more like a walk between places rather than teleportation.
At certain points where suitable photos were not available, this meant adjustments to the writing – we had to weave in compelling reasons for ‘teleporting’ the user between locations, such as by narratively giving the user a motorcycle ride.
Process
Just as stories enrich the experience navigating the maps, the format of Google Street View itself shaped the very stories meant to enrich the online space.
One consideration for our writer was the unique process of writing for the Google Street View space. Different from conventional literary forms, the writers needed to understand how to utilise the tools we had – Google forms, PowerPoint slides, and Twine – to craft a suitable narrative for the online space.
For more, read our blog
Behind the scenes: using google street view in interactive storytelling – here
