+44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

StutterBox
Proof of Concept Presentation
Supplemental Document
Prepared for: MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments
Prepared by: Jan Berkel, Crystal Campbell, Martin Dittus, JTKV Koh & Adam Krause

12 March 2008
Proposal number: A01-080312

StutterBox
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smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

Concept Summary
What is StutterBox?
STUTTERBOX is a transdisciplinary platform to tell stories with. Its aim is to be impulsive and participa-
tory, and provides a “no man’s land” between author and audience, in which the very act of narration be-
comes one with the performance.

Orchestration of a performance happens on multiple levels. The table itself hosts a horizontal surface in
which a large display is contained. The display not only shows the user and audience an outcome of a
narrative, but also acts as the instrument interface which users play so that a story may unfold.

Counterpart to the virtual narrative environment is a physical condition. In order to manipulate aspects
contained within the surface of the display table, real-life, three dimensional objects must be used. These
“Tangibles” house fiduciary symbols that act as triggers which activate elements that appear on the dis-
play. Tangibles can be any object so long as they contain a fiduciary symbol. This means that physical
props arranged on the surface of the table can narrate a story in parallel and even interact with one an-
other in real-time, affecting the virtual narrative displayed in the table. This synchronicity between virtual
and tangible is an essential part to the interaction in STUTTERBOX.

When a person places a Tangible on the table, it activates elements of the narrative that are either charac-
ters or environments. Other Tangibles can be placed on the surface to effect the mood and disposition of
each element. Not only does each element of the narrative act in accordance to the whim of the author,
but they are also programmed to be generative. Combinations of characters, environments and disposi-
tion Tangibles produce new forms of output, each element building upon another in a semantic fashion.

STUTTERBOX effectively blurs the dichotomous relationship between author and audience. Both author
and audience of the story constructed on STUTTERBOX become subject to each others influence, which
in turn affects the story in unexpected and dynamic ways.

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

An instrument for those who play.

It’s intuitive nature and shallow learning curve make it as easy as stepping up to a table and pushing solid
objects around its surface. The very nature of activating visual elements to build stories within the inter-
face is reminiscent of playing with dolls and toy figurines as a child. One could illicit a visual response as
easily as one would press a key on a piano to hear a sound. Its habitually interactive cues make it a plat-
form that could facilitate purposeless play regardless of the age, sex, race, cultural background, educa-
tion, practicing discipline, etc. of the user.

In the hands of the video & installation artist, STUTTERBOX becomes an instrument to make the act of
storytelling tactile, performative, participatory, and co-creative; in which the author becomes a character
within the performance, collaborating with other elements also performing in and on the table. This meta-
narrative of playing becomes purposeful within the performative context, as the way one plays influences
the story in which others experiencing STUTTERBOX are audience to.

New tools for new stories.

Storytelling is the basis of human sharing. It is a method we employ to transmit ideas and concepts which
in turn, can be interpreted by others. This act of interpretation, a metaphysical copy and paste, is how we
learn from one another. As ideas change through reinterpretation, ideas becomes redefined. As ideas
becomes redefined, so too, do the methods to share and interpret these ideas.

STUTTERBOX exists as a mediator between what is commonly perceived as compartmentalized entities.

The user, interface Tangibles, virtual work environment and actual output product all play key rolls in defin-
ing the meta-narrative perceived by the audience. In terms of conveying a story, each element has equal
footing as the audience perceives the story output and construction simultaneously, and in parallel to one
another, directly influencing the composition of the experience in its entirety.

As versatile a tool STUTTERBOX has the potential to be, its playing need not be so orchestrated and lin-
ear. Its intuitive usability makes interacting with the table for purposeless play possible. As people play
with objects on the table, visuals are triggered instigating an immediate reciprocation between display,
object and user. This interaction affords STUTTERBOX to be picked up and played with rather easily,
making the roles of author and audience transparent.

StutterBox
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smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

StutterBox
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smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

Layers upon layers of narrative.

Digital technologies have come a long way in terms of representation and are increasingly becoming par-
ticipatory. People have become hybrid creators/consumers. User generated content in the form of sam-
pling and the mash-up appropriate content which is reinterpreted and released, only to be re-
appropriated by another who is audience to the work and who also has the potential and outlet to be-
come a creator, thus continuing the cycle of cultural copy and paste.

The passivity of 20th century media has been eclipsed by the remix generation. New platforms of repre-
sentation provide rich interaction. Using direct manipulation through intuitive gestures, real-time, co-
creative input on STUTTERBOX is possible, facilitating genuine collaborative experiences of semantic
digital content between groups of people. Stories can be constructed, conveyed and reinterpreted by
both the performer and audience, all at the same time.

The visceral and direct manipulation of tangible artifacts allows anyone to invoke a visual response from
STUTTERBOX. As a person directs objects on the surface of the table, a story unfolds between the two
dimensional digital output, the physical, three dimensional object and the performer. This process is wit-
nessed entirely by the audience, every element of the story and act of storytelling laid bare like plain text.
Diegetic, extradiegetic and hypodiegetic all exist in one instance, employing actional, explicative and the-
matic functions to explain a simultaneous narrative. Because of the nature of the interaction, the audience
and the author take turns as homodiegetic narrators, involved and intertwined into the very fabric of the
story.

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

Resources
STUTTERBOX would not be possible without generous support from the following:

KesselsKramer: KKOUTLET
http://kkoutlet.com/

Linux Mint
http://www.linuxmint.com/

Natural User Interface Group

http://www.nuigroup.com/

Reactable: Reactivision
http://reactable.iua.upf.edu/

Sun Microsystems: JAVA

http://www.java.com/

The English and American Studies Wiki, Oldenburg

http://www.wiki.uni-oldenburg.de/fk3/angl-am/index.php?title=Narratology

... and all our family and friends, whom we love dearly!

By the community, for the community.

This document, its contents, the STUTTERBOX source code and hardware design, and all visual material
that occurs and is used on STUTTERBOX is licensed under the GNU Public License 2.0 and Creative
Commons Attribution License 2.0. For more information regarding the afore mentioned licenses look to
the following links:

Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/

GNU General Public License

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

Team Members

Jan Berkel
Jan's background is in network engineering but now he prefers to develop software to network** other
people. He works at Trampoline Systems, a London-based startup building a new generation of enter-
prise social software. Jan enjoys arguing about (and implementing) the software architecture for
STUTTERBOX together with Martin.

Crystal Campbell
Multidisciplinary designer specializing in cross-platform multidisciplinary projects. As a member of Rose-
bud&Grumpers she has been pioneering VJing as a live performance tool for narrative, blending uncon-
ventional, traditional and modern equipment and methods. Crystal is the usability consultant for
STUTTERBOX.

Martin Dittus
Studied International Media and Computing at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany, then
moved from a comfortable life of slacking to a busy schedule as a software developer at Last.fm in Lon-
don, UK where he handles large data sets in a variety of contexts. Does data visualizations on the side,
some of which were featured on infosthetics.com and visualcomplexity.com. Martin is a software devel-
oper for STUTTERBOX.

Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh
Jeffrey is the coordinator of the STUTTERBOX project and spends most of his time trying to hold on
tightly, as his friends float to new and interesting territory.

Adam Krause
Industrial designer born and trained in Toronto, Canada. Completed his BDes in Industrial Design at the
Ontario College of Art & Design, he has worked for Canada’s National Ballet School and Phoenix Anima-
tion in Toronto, and has had success as a freelance web and industrial designer. Adam is the hardware
designer and builder of the STUTTERBOX table and Tangibles.

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

StutterBox
 +44(0)7956090856

smallcaps@gmail.com
5 Ferdinand Street
Jeffrey T. K. V. Koh London England NW1 8ES www.villainous.biz

StutterBox Proof of Concept

StutterBox