Sanjay Chand Sood

Buzz: telling compelling stories

This paper describes a digital theater installation called Buzz. Buzz consists of virtual actors who express the collective voice generated by weblogs (blogs). These actors find compelling stories from blogs and perform them. In this paper, we explore what it means for a story to be compelling and describe a set of techniques for retrieving compelling stories. We also outline an architecture for high level direction of a performance using Adaptive Retrieval Charts (ARCs), allowing a director-level of interaction with the performance system. Our overall goal in this work is to build a model of human behavior on a new foundation of query formation, information retrieval and filtering.

The association engine: a free associative digital improviser

In this article, we present the Association Engine, a multimedia installation that explores the space of language and exposes connections between words by performing a series of improvisational games. It stands out from previous efforts in the realm of computers and theater as the agency has been empowered with a cultural understanding, more specifically, it uses the Web as a source of cultural reality.