Guinness Ghost Stories
A tangible and interactive narrative of place
A tangible and interactive narrative of place
Guinness Ghost Stories was an experiment with narratives that reside in objects and locations in the physical world. In an interactive installment, audience play with the objects and small bits of story emerges. Guinness Ghost Stories was part of a bigger project at Media Lab Europe's Story Networks Group, led by Glorianna Davenport of MIT Media Lab, where we designed interactive narratives that took place in physical spaces, and where the narrative itself had a strong link and connection to the space in which it took place.
Guinness Ghost Stories was an installation in the Guinness Hop Stores, the site of Media Lab Europe facilities.
Guinness Ghost Stories was an installation in the Guinness Hop Stores, the site of Media Lab Europe facilities.
As a ghost appears it is represented by a visual projection in the installation space. Accompanying the visuals are audio tracks of the ghost telling his or her story.
The voice of a "ghost" telling the story about the free medical benefits of working at Guinness.
The installation space. The participant pulls a pint at the tap, and the ghost appears. The lamp on top of the chest flickers at first, to signal the ghostly presence, and as the ghost vanishes the lamp goes dark.
The blue LEDs will light up as the pint is poured. Only when a full pint is placed in the coaster will the ghost appear and offer their story. As the story is told, the LEDs will turn off one by one, and when the pint is empty the ghost vanishes.
The participant calls out the ghost by pulling a pint of Guinness, and placing it in a coaster. A pint of Guinness must of course be poured "correctly" ;) and be full (as indicated by the blue LEDs). As the full pint is placed in the coaster, the ghost will soon appear.
