Indiana West

1912

Neurofiction

Reactive storytelling based on neural activity by Hannu Rajaniemi and Samuel Halliday:

What if a book could read you?

Neurofiction is a new kind of literary experience, created with the support of New Media Scotland. Neurofiction combines:

off-the-shelf hardware

machine learning

and customised prose.

Together, these enable stories that change themselves in response to the reader’s brain activity. […]

In neurofiction, the story’s effect on the reader’s brain – electrical activity of their neurons – is captured using an electroencephalography headset. Using an algorithm that learns what themes and elements engage each reader, our neurofiction engine turns this data into a unique path through the story. The reader can be guided to one of multiple possible endings or allowed to explore a new region of the story space.

Note that neurofiction is not interactive fiction: the reader experiences the story as linear, calm and immersive, as if reading a book. But by opening themselves to be read, neurofiction readers become subconscious collaborators in the creation of a new narrative.

[via nerdcore] [project website] [open source neural activity tracker] [updates via #neurofic]