We use the term Physical Narrative (PN) to mean a physical space that, as it is explored, reveals a form of narrative, whether as an exploration of a character or a series of events. There are several elements that we use as the “defining” elements of a PN. A PN is interactive, physical, character based, authored, mechanical and explorable.

We have attempted to explore many of the subtleties in the PARN book. One of the canonical examples is the snoopiness of looking into the private drawers, rubbish bins and other surroundings of other people. Like a detective, we can put together the story of a person or a space by investigating what we find, collecting the evidence, connecting the dots and building a narrative that explains what we find.

One of our strong motivations in using physical narratives to explore future scenarios is to allow the feeling of embedding the visitor in a world that is subtly but significantly different from the current everyday, allowing them to feel the everyday of a possible future.

We will sketch some ideas here about how we have gone about developing physical narratives previously as well as including some speculations based upon what we have learnt from this process. We presume that a scenario has been developed and that there is some desire to look at how to build a physical narrative to allow it to be explored.

One of the design ideas that we have tried to use is that the best model of something is that thing itself. With technology we can change the behaviour of a thing, to slip it into the scenario, while maintaining the physicality of the thing.

People are remarkable story tellers. Given enough noncontradictory evidence, a narrative will be constructed to explain what is going on. People like to sit in chairs, flick through magazines, open files on computers, lie on beds, listen to sounds through windows, follow diagrams, open drawers, read letters, look at photos, listen to radios and be in a space.

Physical narratives are not a mass audience thing. People handle things. It is very close to one-on-one performance, but without a performer. Encourage and reward exploration. Have a sign asking people to put things back where they found them. Physical narratives are a game, people will play by the rules, they know that it is not a real person's room they are exploring.

• Physical Narration Website
• Physical and Alternate Reality Narratives Wiki
• PARN Book as a pdf