Australia Blog
News and notes from Google Down Under
Introducing a new platform for storytelling
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
In the year 2000, I sat in a cinema in Brixton with my mum watching an extraordinary film called
Timecode
, in which four simultaneous 90 minute stories share the screen in a conspicuous abundance of footage. It felt momentous. The old scarcities of storytelling were disappearing in the digital age, and I knew that as cost and bandwidth reduced, and technology improved, we’d soon be telling stories in a whole host of new, multi-dimensional ways. The science fiction was coming true.
Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney is still playing with those ideas, 14 years later. Our latest project, the cube, is an experimental platform for interactive storytelling, drawing on WebGL and HTML technology. It allows
filmmakers, musicians, artists and other creatives to make a six-sided interactive film in which the viewer controls the narrative structure.
Six videos—for example six concurrent scenes, or a music track sung in six different styles—are wrapped around a ‘cube’ which a viewer then manipulates to determine which sides they see. The audio is synchronised with the cube’s movement turning it into a visual audio-mixer.
The future of the cube will be on mobile devices but its first outing was in a physical installation at the Semi-Permanent design conference in Sydney. Wired Magazine visited the cube and they wrote about it
here
.
(Credit Lucinda Barlow)
(Credit Noel McLaughlin)
We think the cube shows what will be possible in the near future with smartphone technology and modern browsers. We hope it inspires clever creative people to play, to design, and to imagine narrative when you start adding extra dimensions. Screens that interact and cross-pollinate, a film that is different every time, released from linear restraints of TV.
We had lots of help in making this project come to life. The primary prototype was developed by Jude Osborn of
Potato
, the primary video sketches came from Emlyn Dodd at BananaStand,
Semi-Permanent
introduced us to their friends Steve Ayson and Damien Shatford to make the film, and we’re working with
Mark
/
M&C Saatchi
on the next iteration of it.
Look out for other cubes coming to the web soon - we have an exciting collaboration with some Australian musical artists coming up.
Posted by Tom Uglow, Creative Director, Google Creative Lab
Labels
20%
3D
AdSense
AdWords
AdWords Express
Agencies
agencies adwords TV
Analytics
android
announcements
antarctica
App Marketplace
apps
art
Australia
Australian IT
big data
Big Query
blogging
blogs
books
broadband
business
calendar
campaign management
careers
CeBIT
chrome
Chromebox
cloud computing
competition
computer science
conversion tracking
creativity
currents
cyber safety
cycling
dashboard
Developer Day
developers
digital advertising
digital economy
Display
display ads
Doodles
drive
ebooks
education
Election
energy
enhanced campaigns
Enterprise
entrepreneurship
environment
Equatorgate
Fairfax
film
filtering
G'day Google
Getting Aussie Business Online
Gmail
gone google
gonegoogle
google
Google App Engine
Google Apps
Google Apps for Business
Google Apps for Education
Google Art Project
Google Australia
Google Chrome
Google Code
Google docs
Google Drive
Google Earth
google maps
Google Places
google play
Google Search
Google Serve
Google Sites
Google Talk
Google Trends
Google+
Googlers and culture
government
green
Guest blogger
guest speakers
Hangouts
HR
iGoogle
information
innovation
internet
internet industry
IT
Julia Gillard
language
life
local
maps
measurement
media industry
mobile
Moderator
movies
music
navigation
NBN
netball
new features
news
NGEN
non-profit
online advertising
online safety
open government
open source
Partnerships
picasa
play
Policy
politics
prime minister
privacy
prizes
PSI
publishers
puppies
real estate
Reception
recruitment
removals
rentals
reporting
research
Running
scholarships
schools
science
search
search ads
Security
shopping
sitelinks
sketchup
small business
smartphones
SMB
street view
student programs
students
Stupid Google employee tricks
Summer of Code
Support
survey
sydney
symphony
tablet
technology
Themes
tips
training
transit
translate
transparency
transport
Universities
vault
voicesearch
Wave
women
workplace culture
YouTube
YouTube Live
zeitgeiest
Archive
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Feed
Follow @googledownunder
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.