The Infinite Adventure Machine

TIAM is a proposal for a computer program which generates fairy-tale plots.  While fully automatic story generation remains an unsolved problem for computer science, this project explores the links between imagination and computation. Tales and myths; the core narratives of human culture, have been transmitted for generations through various technologies and media. What new forms might they take through digital formats and Artificial Intelligence? Based on the work of Vladimir Propp, who reduced the structure of russian folk-tales to 31 basic functions, TIAM aims to question the limitations and implications of attempts at programming language and narrative. However the program is unable to deliver a finished story, only a crude synopsis and illustrations, users have to improvise, filling the gaps with their imagination and making up for the technology’s shortcomings.

tiam-video-still-04

tiam-video-still-05

tiam-video-still-06

tiam-6405407969_59dac8c4c1_o

2012

Application Prototype and video

Research Log

Story Improvisation:
Matt Ward & Tilly Warren

Commissioned by:
Microsoft Research, Cambridge UK
Microsoft Office Team
Design Interactions, Royal College of Art, London UK
as part of the Future of Writing project.

Publications:
The Future of Writing
Creative Applications
We Make Money Not Art
Boing Boing
Fast Company
La Feuille

Exhibitions:
Transnatural at NEMO - Amsterdam NL
Electric Bookshop - Edinburgh Science Fest. UK
ACM Multimedia - Scottsdale AZ USA
Glitch Fiction - Paris Design Week FR