UC Irvine

This work presents Shiva’s Rangoli – a tangible interactive storytelling installation that allows readers to impact the emotional tone of the story by sculpting the ambience of the space they are located in. The installation is culturally rooted in Indian mythology and the traditional art form of Rangoli making. I propose meaningful forms of interaction and design implications for tangible storytelling experiences in ambient environments.

I designed and implemented Shiva’s Rangoli. To evaluate the installation, I interviewed participants based on their experience using it. The findings suggest that people can engage in different and meaningful ways with a narrative by impacting its emotional tone through crafting the ambience of their environment. The findings also reveal that ambiences and tangible interfaces can play diegetic roles to connect the reader with the story, by existing in both the reader’s world and the story world.

I propose how to design an interactive story that allows readers to engage at a level of its emotional and aesthetic context, without having control over the story’s plot. I recommend ways to design interfaces that act as diegetic bridges between the world of the reader and the world of the fiction. I study how people interact with culturally specific interfaces for interactive storytelling. I also investigate if people are motivated to engage creatively with such a system.