Prelude

Category: Experimental Interactive Story, a project of Hypercinema class

Span: December 2019

Position: My own project

This is my final project for Hypercinema class. I created an interactive experience for participants with nothing but a cellphone and a video I uploaded on Youtube for this project. When presenting, the participant will listen to a story and make choices based on circumstances. And the setting of the story is a normal day of “you” five years before a science-fictional future. And the instructions are below:

The video is just for previewing the piece. To actually play and engage the piece, use your cellphone and follow the following instructions.

First, pull up a cell phone and make sure the “Portrait Orientation Lock” is on.
Second, open the Youtube app and search “Prelude, Jianhao Ma, Hypercinema.”
Third, open the video named after that, pause it right away, and enter the entire screen.
Fourth, place the phone facing up and horizontally on your desk, making sure the charging jack is facing right.
Finally, start the video and wait for the story to begin.

The approach I made was not 100% original, to be honest. It was inspired by board game logic. In role-playing board games, cards representing different outcomes' incidents use similar mechanics to tell a multi-linear story. And the setting of the story is one of my random spark ideas stored in my recorder. Each end is like a piece of the jigsaw. Putting them all together, you will have this world setting of a science-fictional future. And there reveals my discussion about morality and social problems about the existence of a certain technology.