Swishwiffling Storyworlds

SWISHWIFFLING

Storyworlds

“The books transported and introduced her to a lived exciting lives. She sailing ships with Joseph Africa with Ernest Hem with Rudyard Kipling. She the world while sitting i English village.�

her into new worlds amazing people who went on olden-day h Conrad. She went to mingway and to India e travelled all over in her little room in an — Roald Dahl, Matilda

SWISHWIFFLING

Storyworlds Mamta Khanna

http://images.blog.whsmith.co.uk/leadimage/roald-dahl-100-quiz.jpg

SWISHWIFFLING STORYWORLDS In the build-up to the centennial Dahl Day celebrations in September 2016, Swishwiffling Storyworlds is a series of after hours book club events at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre.

Its main aim is to make adult fans of Roald Dahl’s stories reflect upon their memories of the characters as children, and compare them to their understanding of the same as adults.

The events that take place on Friday evenings starting in April 2016 are a build up for the 100th Dahl day celebration on 13 September 2016, with a different story from the museum visitors’ top five favourites of 2015 being featured each month.

April: Matilda May: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory June: The Twits July: Fantastic Mr. Fox August: The B.F.G.

This book will tell you about...

01 4

The Splendiferous Museum

08 The Client 10 Adults and the Museum

02

Context

18 The Importance of i Stories 20 Perception of Dahl’s i stories today 24 Picking Stories 27 Structure

03 04 05 Test Runs

30 The Big Black Box 31 Revisiting Matilda @ Southbank Centre 34 The Hush-hush Trial Run

Creating a Swishwiffling Storyworld

38 The Storyworlds 39 The Scenes 40 The Space 52 Panels 60 Costumes

Collaborators on the project

68 Abhishek 68 Agnieszka 69 Ishita 70 Nirmita 71 Prachi 71 Praneti

5

THE SPLENDIFEROUS MUSEUM

“Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never f ind it.�

Roald Dahl, The Minpins

Location + Client The project proposal is based at The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, a children’s museum dedicated to Roald Dahl’s life and inspiration for his stories.

It is visited by thousands of people annually, children and adults alike.

Swishwiffling Storyworlds was created with the assumption that the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre is its client. The constraints and design decisions were made keeping them in mind.

Image source: http://goo.gl/FkjIJb

8

9

Text/ Use phones

Explain stuff to kids

What do ADULTS usually do in the children’s museum?

10

Babysit

Supervise Assist kids

Chat with other adults 11

“However........ [some] Grown-ups are quirky creatures, full of quirks and secrets.”

Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World

They READ

They PLAY

They POSE

Why not create a space for these visitors who love Dahl, and expect to see more of his storyworlds in the museum?

They want to be immersed in his stories and know more about how their favourite characters were written...

They have FUN! 12

They Wonder

They Become the Characters

They EXPLORE

They OBSERVE 13

CONTEXT

“‘We is in Dream Country,’ the BFG said. ‘This is where all dreams is beginning.’”

Roald Dahl, The BFG

What do you remember from your favourite childhood stories?

Dahl’s stories resonate with people, and make them feel as if they were written especially for them...

He has a peculiar charm about his writing that treats kids as grown-ups, and grown-ups as kids.

17

The Importance of Revisiting Stories

I share Bruno Bettenheim’s view on fairytales being an important part of every child’s upbringing as they subconsciously teach the child the norms of society and give them a sense of purpose and meaning. The darkness in them deals with issues that are anxieties for a child, and allows children to face and overcome their fears in symbolic terms.

18

Many of Dahl’s critical readers share my belief that his storyworlds are created in a way to make a child know that the world is fictional, making it a safe space to engage with their worries (various Goodreads reviews, 2012-2016).

The morals in these stories are not explicitly defined as they can mean different things to children and adults at different stages of their life.

As a child we tend to perceive everything in black and white, but as an adult you see the grey areas and metaphors hidden in the text.

19

Questions posed to 40 adult favourite book? visitors ofWhich theis your museum

What brings you to the Museum?

Which is your favourite book?

Nostalgia

Educate/ Encourage Children

New Workshops/events

Would you attend a lates event?

James and the Giant Peach Fantastic Mr Fox Danny, the Champion of the World The Twits JamesBFG and the Giant Peach The Fantastic Matilda Mr Fox Danny, the Champion of the World The Twits The BFG

Do you wish there were more activities for adults?

Yes

20

No

Maybe

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator The Enormous Crocodile George's Marvellous Medicine Charlie and the Chocolate Factory The Witches Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator Esio Trot The Enormous Crocodile George'sdid Marvellous Medicine When you last read your The Witches

favourite Dahl book?

Yes

No

What do you remember most?

Last Year

1-5 years ago

Characters

Plot

5-10 years ago

Over 10 years ago

Scene

Visuals/ Illustrations

Insights

“

Danny was my favourite because it was believable.

I always thought I could do that if I moved to a place where there was a forest.

I remember Danny’s dad doing sweet things for him.

Vibhor, 32

“ ”

“

Willy Wonka. He got a chocolate factory. He could produce everything he wanted to! It’s still a dream of mine to own one someday. It’s interesting how Dahl was inspired by the Cadbury boxes to write this story Will, 37

”

I love Miss Honey… She’s the best teacher in the world! I wanted to be like Matilda when I was a child. Playing tricks on your parents and being able to move things with your eyes was the coolest superpower”

”

Upasana, 28

Most adults who visit the museum have romanticised memories of Dahl’s characters 21

SWISHWIFFLING STORYW people understand the ro in their childhood, by rei them now that their pe

WORLDS aims at making ole Dahl’s stories played introduing the stories to erception has changed.

24

Choosing the Stories The cloud in the museum is an installation where visitors pin their favourite story.

The five favourites of 2015 were picked as the five stories that would be featured each month.

25

The Storyworlds A diegesis is the world of the story.

The diegesis of Swishwiffling Storyworlds uses elements from the existing Dahl diegeses, and supplements them with more content; its framing narrative weaving the five events together.

Each event has a subnarrative about the development of the stories’ characters.

The Twits

Matilda

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The BFG

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

KEY

26

Drafts & Making of The Twits

Drafts & Making of Matilda

Dahl’s Other Diegeses

Swishwiffling Storyworlds

The Twits’ Diegesis

Matilda’s Diegesis

Drafts & Making of Dahl’s Other Diegeses

Audience’s Opinions and Memories

Drafts & Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox

Drafts & Making of The BFG

Event’s Diegesis

Fantastic Mr. Fox’s Diegesis

The BFG’s Diegesis

Drafts & Making of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Diegesis

Structure of events

Childhood Memories (Level 3)

World of Archive (Level 4)

Matilda’s Storyworld (Level 5)

Miss Honey’s Classroom (Level 2)

World of Museum (Level 1)

Using the event based on Matilda as an example, we can see different narrative elements and behavioural theories coming together to enrich the audience’s experience.

Swishwiffling Storyworlds aims to make the audience realise that they become the authors of the character’s development in their mind once they read the story.

27

TEST RUNS

“Bunkum and tummyrot!

You’ll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that. Would Columbus have discovered America if he’d said ‘What if I sink on the way over? What if I meet pirates? What if I never come back?’ He wouldn’t even have started.”

Roald Dahl

The first proposal was to scatter boxes around the museum with dual view points for children and adults.

There are mirrors that reflect adult’s new, informed opinions written behind the characters from Goodreads communities.

The Big Black Boxes Pros: Illustrated environment Sense of immersion The dual display for different audiences Little details from the book Note: People liked the illustration style, but not everyone could identify with it instantly.

30

Cons: Confusion about where to look first No context for opinions Nobody scanned the code for the online discussion The adults attention was divided

Revisiting Matilda at the

Southbank Centre I tried a more interactive reading of the book at the Southbank Centre while the Imagine Festival was on, as it gave me a chance to test on my target audience, who were there for various Dahl related events.

A few lines from ‘The Weekly Test’ were selected, and an actor played Miss Trunchbull while the audience played Matilda.

31

32

People wrote their opinions before and after the reading, and they had different things to say. It was an enjoyable experience for everyone who took part and gave me interesting results.

I tried testing with different sizes of groups, and with children and adults.

Adults voiced their opinions more freely when children weren’t around.

Reading gave people a context to form an opinion out of. The audience loved being part of the reading and everyone read using funny voices and expressions!

This led to me selecting ADULTS as my target audience.

33

The Hush-hush Trial Run The final test run was conducted on a closed group of people as the copyright agreements over the content from the museum forbade me from sharing the it.

Dressing up allowed people to become part of the Matilda universe very easily, and identify with the characters.

It was success in terms of understanding the sequence of events, and people’s perception did change based on the facts they saw, and the re-reading.

They appreciated the grey shades in the characters which they overlooked as kids.

34

35

CREATING A SWISHWIFFLING STORYWORLD

“Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it.

Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable...”

Roald Dahl, Matilda

Swishwiffling Storyworlds at the Museum Each location was picked based on a connection it had with the story it was hosting.

April: Matilda (In Miss Honey’s Classroom) May: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (By the Wonka Factory Gates) June: The Twits (In Cafe Twit) July: Fantastic Mr. Fox (In the Crafts section, by the stop motion display of the film) August: The B.F.G. (In the Children Eating Room, a pun on the giants from the story eating the children)

38

The Scenes to be Re-read Matilda was the story picked to be detailed as it was the first in the series.

The two chapters, ‘The First Miracle’ and ‘Miss Honey’s Story’ are the ideal chapters to pick as they show an interaction amongst all three characters that are being discussed.

Pink lines for Miss Honey

Brown lines for The Trunchbull

A variety of the characters’ idiosyncrasies are visible through these, showing that they’re all different shades of grey after all, not just good and bad.

Most adults feel horrified after re-reading this part as they now truly understand the horrific treatment described by Dahl.

Blue lines for Matilda

39

The Existing Space Miss Honey’s classroom is ideal for the first event based on Matilda. It is the location from the book, in which one of the scenes being read is set.

There is mis-matched furniture and cut out characters from Dahl’s other stories.

The visual language of the space differs vastly from the rest of the museum.

40

fi The Space: Redefined I tried not changing the contents of the room too much, so it can be used by children through the week. The whiteboards, the posters of other stories and storage have remained, but have been modified slightly to suit the event.

The positions of the general audience and those who dress up as characters keeps continuously changing as visible below.

41

The Space

42

Illustrations are synonymous with Roald Dahl’s books, and The half real-half illustrated world makes people feel as if they’ve crossed a threshold into a world that’s not exactly real. The illustrated

elements are things that link to the story directly.

The entire room has a blue wall paper that is a shade that’s neither too bright (since it is part of Miss Trunchbull’s gloomy

school) nor too dark (as it is still Miss Honey’s primary children’s classroom, and she’s added a few touches to it.)

43

The Space

44

45

The Space

46

47

The Space

48

49

The Space

50

51

The Panels Presenting the archival information in a fun way was a key part of the experience.

Roald Dahl is known for surprises; there’s an element of interactivity across spaces, events and interfaces associated with him.

Being a school scene, the panels changed from physical desks to hidden psudeo cabinets that are “discovered” during the experience.

52

The panels combine references to one of the earliest editions of Matilda, the time the book was published, and the audience of the exhibition.

Body typeface is a link to the cover typeface from the Heinemann Educational Publishers’ 1991 edition of the book.

Gill Sans font used for the title and captions is a typeface that was used widely in the 80s places the readers (visitors) within the context.

The coloured words, through their intensity, symbolise the strength of certain characteristics of each character.

Watercolour paper was chosen as it gave a texture that resembled the paper from the books.

53

The Panels: Matilda

54

55

The Panels: Miss Honey

56

57

The Panels: Miss Trunchbull

58

59

The Costumes Based on their Instagram feed, it’s proven that adult visitors of the museum like dressing up in pieces of the children sized costumes that fit, and projecting themselves onto the characters.

Costumes help produce an emotional and intellectual connection to the character.

This led to the idea of costumes for the people who will read the characters lines.

The audience will ‘label’ the characters with various personality traits on stickers in shapes that relate to them. The act of labelling puts power in the audience’s hands.

The labels change from the start to the end, reflecting the change in peoples perception. The costumes are a record of this change.

Each of the costumes elements have been picked based on their descriptions in the book, the musical and the film.

60

Miss Trunchbull Bad at Biology

Mean Cruel

Horrible

The Perception: And as for her clothes‌ they were, to say the least, extremely odd. She always had on a brown smock which was pinched in around the waist with a wide leather belt. The belt was fastened in front with an enormous silver buckle. The massive thighs which emerged out of the smock were encased in a pair of extra-ordinary breeches, bottle-green in colour and made of coarse twill.

She looked, in short, more like a rather eccentric and bloodthirsty follower of the stag-hounds than the headmistress of a nice school for children. —Matilda

Atheletic

Misunderst

ood

Slightly ed Victimis

Torturer

Nasty

Bad A hi T ef!

61 61

Miss Honey Sweet

R

Nice Childish

The Perception:

Best teac h ever er 1

Miss Honey gets a pink scarf and skirt. The pink represents a delicate, motherly side to her. It also reflects the little girl hiding inside her, waiting to be rescued.

The plastic books stuck to her at the end look like a protective bubble that’s formed around her.

Scared

Ma

nip

Caring

Pretty 62

t

ien l i s e

ula

tiv

e Weak

Matilda

Adult like

rt

a Sm

evo chi

Mis

Cute

The Perception:

us

Matilda has a blue pinafore.

Though she is a child, she has the intellect of a much older person. The pinafore resembles an outfit a child would wear, and the blue, being a neutral shade brings out her adult like nature.

It keeps in line with Quentin Blake’s illustrations of her too.

The

t Bes

l

fu er

w

Po

Strong

A Rea der Brave 63 63

The store bought costumes from Primark and New Look keep the cost down, while giving the audience a connection with the characters.

54 64

65 55

COLLABORATORS

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”

Roald Dahl

Abhishek Matta

Agnieszka Szypicyn

Abhishek is a furniture and product designer currently about to finish a masters programme in Design (Furniture) from CSM.

He has worked in the luxury furniture market and is currently developing a furniture collection on astronomy and cosmology.

Aga is a graphic and experience designer with an eye for typography and model making.

Her work often combines both digital and analogue techniques and she is not afraid to use new materials in order to achieve more distinctive results. She has been working with Adidas, Oakley and The British Museum for whom she created customer experience design solutions.

See more of him at www.abhishekmatta.com

A Dahl fan, she was excited to develop the panels and graphic language for the project.

Production Photo Documentation

His work is a celebration of making and craft techniques in a variety of different materials.

Graphic Design

She can be found at www.inesdesignes.com

68

Ishita Kulkarni

Costume Design Video Documentation Ishita Kulkarni is a costume designer from LCF inclined towards creating interactive costmes. Having strong skills in textile dyeing and fabric manipulation enhances her ability to create intriate patterns and texture.

By mapping the emotional journey of the characters, she created links between the emotions of the audience and the physical metamorphosis of the characters on the project.

Find her at www.issuu.com/kulkarniishita

69

Nirmita Amin Storyboarding

Nirmita is an illustrator from Camberwell College of Art and Design. With a BA in architecture, she tries to merge the line between 2D and 3D in her work.

Having grown up in the UK and experiencing Dahl as a child, she was keen to come on board the project to create illustrations for the characters and the storyboard.

70

Prachi Joshi

Praneti Kulkarni

Prachi graduated as an Exhibition designer from MAEER’s MIT Institute of Design (India).

Opting to specialise in museums, she worked with design firms and museums in India.

Praneti, a Narrative Environments alumna, is an Indian spatial designer with a keen interest in exhibition and experience design.

Validator of Dahlness

She is currently pursuing an MA in Narrative Environments at university of the Arts CSM (London) to become an effective storyteller and to create meaningful spatial experiences.

Her love for Dahl’s stories led her to validate little details from Dahl’s storyworlds.

Timekeeping

Her aim is to design multisensory experiences that evoke emotions, leading to conversations among communities.

Her punctuality and ability to get things done earned her the position of the timkeeper on the project.

Check out her work at www.pranetikulkarni.com

71

Mamta Khanna

Spatial Design Storytelling Project Management Mamta Khanna is a curious, geometry-loving thematic spatial designer with a flair for the dramatic. She graduated from MIT’s Institute of Design with a diploma in Retail and Exhibition Design, and worked with a multitude of companies and clients in India before moving to the United Kingdom.

She created this project as she wanted to combine her childhood passion of storytelling with themed spaces.

72

When you grow up an of your own, do pleas something importan is not fun at all!

What a child wants — is a parent who is SP

— Roald Dahl, Dan

nd have children se remember nt: A stodgy parent

— and DESERVES — PARKY.

nny the Champion of the World

a MA Narrative Environments major project Tutor: Bethany Shepherd Course Leader: Patricia Austin London 2016 Mamta Khanna would like to thank and acknowledge the following individuals for their support in the creation of this project: Adam Scott, Ambreen Kazi, Anna Lincoln, Anne Marie Mayo, Arif Wahid, Fatima Khuzema, Florence Ravenscroft, Ioanna Mylona, Julia Mariani, Karan Khanna, Li Yu, Lily Cheng, Madhavi Khanna, Mahira Narverkar, Matt Haycocks, Rachana Nitin, Rachel White, Sheroy Katila, Sonal Merchant, Sunil Khanna, Tom Butler, Vishanka Gandhi, William Price, Yewon Shim and Zhongxi Liu