Innovatively repurposing content across multiple platforms
IIIF is usually thought about as a way to simplify working with images on the web, but it has hidden storytelling powers as well.
In this post we explore how the same IIIF manifests and annotation lists can be presented in ways that re-imagine the concept of telling a story with IIIF.
The examples in this post are all driven by the exact same IIIF manifest and annotation list.
How IIIF gives a foundation for storytelling
The IIIF manifest and annotation list as defined by the presentation API hold the all information we need to tell a story; the manifest allows for describing the overall collection of images and canvases as a whole, whilst the annotation list can be linked to reference particular regions of a single image and provide extra information or assets pertinent to the specified region.
That said, most manifests describe objects simply and in a fashion that isn’t fully aligned with our idea of ‘storytelling’.
To that end we challenged ourselves to:
- Think differently about manifests
- Think differently about storytelling
We also invite you to think differently about these two things.
The examples in this post explore ways in which the same manifests and annotation lists can be presented in ways that re-imagine the concept of telling a story with IIIF.
Storytelling with Mirador highlight regions
Opening a manifest in Mirador offers the option to highlight annotations and their associated regions, however this isn’t really storytelling.
For a story to be told there needs to be a linear pattern for us to follow. This pattern exists in IIIF, but we need to do some work in order to surface it.
Linear webpage storytelling with IIIF
In the first and most basic example we illustrate the result of rendering the combined annotation list and manifest into a basic HTML webpage to tell a story.
In order to create a linear flow between annotations and objects we are dynamically combining them into a flat data structure.
This gives you a simple, linear story with all the content coming directly from the IIIF manifest.
Social media storytelling with IIIF
Using a Twitterbot we play with the idea that a story can be told sequentially over a period of time to a wide audience.
The information is all driven from the same IIIF manifest with a different pace and mechanism for delivery.
Storytelling with a IIIF Interactive Viewer
Providing a user with an interactive viewer is a common way of providing IIIF images.
Here we extend that idea to storytelling. The user has complete control over the narrative of the story, navigating annotations and images in the sequence seamlessly using next and previous, as well as and allowing panning / zooming for free movement around the artwork.
This kind of explorative storytelling has no restraints and we are encouraging the user to interact in whatever way they choose.
There are interesting possibilities with annotation lists, such as associating one annotation with multiple regions and side-by-side comparison of the subject with a supporting image.
Slow looking with IIIF
Slow looking is a contemplative experience inviting you to really take your time looking at art. In gallery this is often a guided experience for a small group of people, but using IIIF we can offer a slow looking experience online for every user of your collection.
We deliberately take away control from the user to create a passive, immersive and reflective experience. The user has no control, and instead must watch as the story of the painting slowly unfolds.
To experience it for yourself, hit full screen on the video above then sit back and relax.
Speech synthesis to tell stories with IIIF
The HTML Speech Synthesis API enables us to create an artificial storyteller.
Similar to the previous example the user relinquishes control of the narrative.
The story is spoken aloud with transcriptions, the user is now able to sit back and be ‘told’ the story in a more synthetic yet traditional sense of storytelling, still all driven by the same IIIF manifest.
With this technology you can effectively turn your IIIF manifest into a treasure trove of stories at the push of a button.
Human storyteller
Taking the concept of a storyteller a step further (or back to the beginning depending on your viewpoint), we wanted to explore the idea that one person could leverage IIIF to ‘speak’ a story to many ‘listeners’ (who may or may not be in the same room).
The storyteller has control of the narrative through their viewer; able to pan, zoom and navigate as in earlier examples.
These actions are mimicked precisely on devices of the ‘listeners’.
Listeners who are tuned in (by going to a single URL) watch and listen as the speaker guides them through the story.
The blend of the personal and group storytelling experience here is interesting and something we intend to explore further.
Conclusion
All the examples we discussed use the same manifests and annotation lists, the only differences were the way we presented the data to engage with the audience.
We hope we encouraged you to think differently about manifests, the data contained within them and the potential for telling compelling stories using IIIF.
If you’d like to learn more, please get in touch.
Hans Holbein the Younger, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve (‘The Ambassadors’) © The National Gallery, London. Used under license.
