Story and storage – narrative theory as a tool for creativity in augmented reality storytelling

Digital domains render possible new forms of narrative creativity. This article explores to what extent it is practicable to inform the invention of new storytelling techniques in location–based media, such as augmented reality (AR). Doing research & development with explorative storytelling in indirect AR one often encountered a returning problem: When digitally reconstructing and displaying sequences of historical events in situ, a paradox tend to emerge: The linear sequence of actions and events might often benefit from in–depth information about historical contexts of various sorts. However, the moment the user embarks on a contextual digression to seek a better understanding, the sequence itself is abandoned and/or fragmented. This is a type of conflict where the designer must make difficult choices in order provide a prolific story experience. How may we best combine and balance sequence and access, storytelling and in–depth exploration, to the benefit of rich locative perceptions and adventures? In the following we consult narrative theory to find a design and implement the solution in three different simulations of historical events on site. These are selected from antiquity and World War II. We discuss the challenges and elucidations so far, as well as feedback from visitor’s testing the situated simulation AR applications on location.