KaavadBits: Interactive Art Installation for a New Narrative Experience

This work explores branching narratives through KaavadBits, a tabletop art installation embodying the kaavadiya-jajman (narrator-patron) perspective of kaavad baanchana, the Indian storytelling tradition of reciting the kaavad. For diegetic worldbuilding of tales from Panchatantra, a compilation of ancient Indian animal fables, the narrator takes the physical form of a tree, with which the audience interacts using tokens for a seamless multi-modal storytelling experience. Building on the related explorations, we propose a design that immerses the audience through choice, character and question-based interactions, followed by insights from its user study. Through this paper, we aim to strike consequential tangible, technological and narrative explorations into various lesser-known traditional forms of storytelling that may inspire new interaction techniques, ultimately preserving the art form.