“Aouda’s Adventures” is a transmedia, digital storytelling project based on the novel Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. Aouda is an Indian Princess who is rescued by the protagonist Phileas Fogg and his assistant Passepartout. Around the World in Eighty Days is from the perspective of Phileas Fogg, so from a different angle, “Aouda’s Adventures” is from Aouda’s perspective. There are four different mediums covered that help illustrate Aouda’s perspective, a website, augmented reality, social media, as well as a podcast.
The website, “Aouda’s Adventures” is the main medium which serves as a foundation for Aouda’s story. It prompts users when to use other technologies to interact with her story which contains other mediums such as podcast recordings and augmented reality through Aurasma. The website contains illustrations of the different characters Aouda encounters along with artifacts, which are revealed through augmented reality and on an Instagram account.
The augmented reality portion contains scenes from Aouda’s perspective of her journey that users interact with via Aurasma, which can be used on devices like iPads and most smart phones. After holding up the device to the scene, artifacts can be viewed and engaged with by double-clicking on the item. The artifacts found in the illustrations are also physical objects in the display that can be held.
The social media platform used is Instagram. Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing, social networking application. The Instagram account is used as a digital photo album from Aouda’s travels, as if she were snapping photos along her adventure.
The podcast embedded into the website is another digital technology used as an oral platform for Aouda’s story. Recorded by Dino de AElfweald, the actress who plays Aouda in The Willamette Radio Workshop performance of Around the World in Eighty Days. The dialogue is journal entries that Aouda would have used to record her thoughts throughout her travels.
The project, “Aouda’s Adventures” opens up the story of travels around the world by further developing Aouda’s Character. Augmented Reality provides interactivity with the illustrated scenes and physical artifacts available at the exhibition, Chronicles: Stories of the Past Present & Future. The character’s story is told through journal entries that are audible to website viewers via podcast links. “Aouda’s Adventures” ties all project pieces together by fluidly meshing the transmedia elements. Without the website, the different elements wouldn’t have been as cohesive in the character development of Aouda.