Ying Horowitz & Quinn LLC
The Silent History
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The Silent History
The Silent History
The Silent History is a groundbreaking novel, written and designed specially for iOS, that uses serialization, exploration, and collaboration to tell the story of a generation of unusual children — born without the ability to create or comprehend language. The story is told through daily updates, about 1500 words each, delivered through the app each weekday. For readers who wish to explore the world of the novel in more depth, there are also hundreds of location-based stories across the U.S. and around the world. These can be read only when your device’s GPS matches the coordinates of the location.
2. The Brief: Summarize the problem you set out to solve. What was the context for the project, and what was the challenge posed to you?The Silent History is a self-initiated project. We wanted to create a work of digital fiction that was neither content-led nor technology-led, but instead was developed holistically — content and form informing each other.
3. The Intent: What point of view did you bring to the project, and were there additional criteria that you added to the brief?The story is presented as a series of oral histories, fictionally collected by the Department of Health and Human Services after the epidemic reached its conclusion in 2043, and made available to the public. The app is therefore supposed to be the future delivery mechanism for this report.
4. The Process: Describe the rigor that informed your project. (Research, ethnography, subject matter experts, materials exploration, technology, iteration, testing, etc., as applicable.) What stakeholder interests did you consider? (Audience, business, organization, labor, manufacturing, distribution, etc., as applicable)We tried to imagine what government reports in the future may look like, how information would be disseminated and presented in a, likely, digital-only world. Recent reports like that from the 9/11 Commission were our starting ground, combined with an effort to imagine how info-graphics, data, and narrative may be presented in 30 years time, without alienating the actual iOS users of today.
5. The Value: How does your project earn its keep in the world? What is its value? What is its impact? (Social, educational, economic, paradigm-shifting, sustainable, environmental, cultural, gladdening, etc.)Our goal was to fit all information on a single screen. Best seen on the iPad version in portrait orientation, the Testimonials and Field Reports reside side-by-side, separated by a moveable center bar — a new iOS interface paradigm. The serialized content is shown as a circle for each volume, with sectors indicating episodes, reader progress, and current serialization position. Past-episode navigation is facilitated by a unique blooming mechanism. The project been recognized by Sundance Labs, SXSW Interactive Awards, and many major press outlets as a landmark piece of digital interactive fiction.
Although the project had some divided opinions amongst the jury members it was felt that the project was a bold experiment in creative fiction and has been beautifully executed. Having only dipped our toes into the rich world it creates we look forward to reading, listening and watching more.