Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life, Vol. 3, No. 2 (September 2016), 88-91

Automatic Generation, Creativity, and Production of Narrative ContentTakashi Ogata

Faculty of Software and Information Science, Iwate Prefectural University152-52, Sugo Takizawa, Iwate 020-0693, Japan
E-mail: t-ogata@iwate-pu.ac.jp

Abstract
In accordance with the concept of this organized session, in this presentation, we will consider the study ofautomatic narrative or story generation as a research field of artificial intelligence (AI) at the levels of generation,creation, and production. Firstly, we study the technologies of narrative or story generation systems based mainly
on artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Next, the artistic and aesthetic problems of narrative creation are
considered in terms of their relationships with technologies and systems of narrative generation. Further, issues oforganizational or social narrative production are presented. The survey and discussion will be conducted based on
topics in this session relating to game and advertising systems and our integrated narrative generation system.
Keywords: Multiple narrative structures model, Integrated narrative generation system (INGS), Geino information
system (GIS), Narrative generation, Narrative production, Narrative creation.

1. Introduction
In this paper, I consider the study of automatic narrativeor story generation as a highly interdisciplinary research
field of information technologies, including artificial
intelligence (AI) and cognitive science, as well as
literary theories such as narratology.
For the author, this issue can be focused on thefollowing levels: generation, production, and creation.
The first automatic narrative “generation” means thetechnological aspect of systems that automaticallygenerate narrative texts. In particular, it indicates anarrative generation mechanism as a single subject. In
contrast, we call the narrative generation phenomenon ata collective and organizational level narrative“production.” This differentiation is dependent upon anarrative model of multiple narrative structures asproposed by the author in the following section. The
word “production” is closely associated withorganizational or social narrative making. On the otherhand, narrative “creation” is a word on a different levelthat has an artistic and aesthetic nuance.

This paper first presents the author’s multiple
narrative structures model as a background to thisconsideration. Next, we respectively explain the“Integrated Narrative Generation System: INGS”1 and“Geino Information System: GIS”2 as frameworks for
single level narrative generation and multiple level
narrative production. Lastly, according to the above
frameworks, we discuss the possibilities of narrativebased systems and content technologies based on therelationships between narrative generation andproduction, future narrative creation at the artistic level,
and aesthetic problems of narrative.
2. A Model of Multiple Narrative Structures
For the author, one of the basic concepts of narrativegeneration is “multiplicity.” It is necessary to design
narrative generation systems to model multiple narrative
structures. Although such models have various aspects,
from the formal aspect of narrative to the aspect ofnarrative semantics, an important characteristic is thatnarrative generation is divided into the following two

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aspects: (1) the narrative generation and reception
process based on a single subject, and (2) the narrative
production and consumption process based on many
subjects or collective authors. In other words, thenarrative production (and consumption) processcontains many narrative generation (and reception)
processes. The narrative production and consumption
process is a field that is socially open and is strongly
related to the documents and narratives produced bypeople on the web.
Further, in narratives, there exists narrative
multiplicity among various elements, such as story andcharacter. For instance, in the characters of kabuki
plays, actors can appears with multiplicity, by, forexample, playing one or several characters in the dramaa contemporary person living in the modern day, aperson from the past with an historical story, etc.
From the viewpoint of the author’s “Expanded
Literary Theory: ELT,”3 this model is partially related
to Bakhtin’s theory of polyphony4 and Kristeva’s theoryof inter-textuality.5 Bakhtin’s theory terms aspolyphonic novels those that are not integrated by asingle authorial voice, while Kristeva’s theory proposedthat all types of document can respectively exist in anetwork with many documents and the fragments may
include novels and other genres, whether or not theauthor is conscious of that fact. Both theories amplified
narrative multiplicity in their respective manners. The
multiple narrative structures model comprises these
theoretical frameworks.

3. Integrated Narrative Generation System(INGS)The INGS is a developing narrative generationarchitecture that corresponds to a single level narrative
generation subject. Fig. 1 provides an overview of theINGS, demonstrating that various narrative techniques
and knowledge are organized in a synthesizing systemthat associates a number of literary theories for therealization of ELT.
The INGS comprises several components related to
the narrative generation process and control, narrativetechniques for the generation of narrative structures, andnarrative knowledge including relatively large-scaledictionaries.
At first, the generation process is divided into threephases: story, discourse, and expression. A “story”
generated by the story generation mechanism means thecontent of a narrative or a temporal sequence of events.
A story is represented by a tree structure consisting of
the three basic units: event, relation, and state. A story
structure is generated using one or more story
techniques, and states associated with the events are
created according to another mechanism. Through thisprocessing, an event that is a basic element of a story
and a discourse are also generated. Each event basicallyconsists of a verb concept and some noun, and otherconcepts. A “discourse” transformed by the discourse
mechanism signifies the structural aspect of narrating astory. The discourse structure and the surface media
used to narrate it are distinguished and, accordingly, it isdescribed with a conceptual representation form.

OutputGeneration results by each mechanism (i.e., a story, adiscourse, a natural language, a piece of music, and an image).

Input
A set of generative parameters

Entire control

Story content
knowledge base

Event/statetransformation
knowledge base
Conceptual
dictionaries

Story control

Discourse control
Discourse
techniques

Story
techniques

Naturallanguagemechanism

Statemanagement
mechanism

StorymechanismMusicmechanism

Imagemechanism

Imagedata baseLetternotation
dictionaryDiscoursemechanism
Function callFig. 1. An overall architecture of INGS

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1

Data referenceAutomatic Generation, Creativity,“Expression” means the aspect of narrative
representation by various surface media, including
natural language, visual media, and music.
The control mechanism relating to many parts ofthe process currently utilizes a tentative approach basedon the parameters and rules for the above three phases.
In addition, a circulative process control, which does notlimit the generation order among the phases to a fixedorder, is also adopted in the meta-level mechanism.
The generation of each tree structure of a story anda discourse is performed using story techniques anddiscourse techniques that generate or transform from an
old tree structure to a new tree structure using
knowledge elements including conceptual dictionaries
for verb and noun concepts. The surface narrative
representation is conducted in this process.
An important design concept is “versatile,” whichmeans the potential to be used and applied to any
purposes relevant to narrative generation without
limitations regarding themes and genres. In the future
perspective of the INGS, we aim to develop a versatilenarrative generation architecture through which diverse
narratives can be generated with various themes, genres,structures, etc. This would allow the INGS to be applied
to various narrative production mechanisms as a single
level narrative generation subject.
4.

folklore, performing arts including kabuki, and aspectsof the modern entertainment business. A geinoorganization, such as an entertainment agency orpromoter, is a synthetic narrative productionconsumption system that aggregates a variety of thenarrative generation-reception processes of scenarios,
the lives of actors and actresses, etc. The GIS is acomprehensive and multiple framework in which
various narrative generation processes are driven byauthors, receivers, characters, actors and actresses,
directors, producers, etc. It is therefore one of thesystems of multiple narrative structure.
Geino
Field
Geino
event

Receptionmechanism
Narrativeas image

Reactionmechanism
Trail
information

Geino Information SystemThe Japanese word geino has a complex meaning that
includes elements of shrine rituals, entertainment, andamusement. From the viewpoint of narrative generation
research, a geino system is a whole that multiply
contains diverse narrative generation processes andcomprises a multiple narrative phenomenon. For theauthor’s research plan, the INGS is contained in the GIS.
The GIS is a model in which multiple narrative
generation and production mechanisms are conducted toperform the social level tasks of narrative. The INGS
and GIS correspond to narrative generation-reception
and narrative production-consumption respectively. Inthe GIS, various levels of the narrative generation
process are driven by authors, receivers, characters,actors, and actresses. For example, a kabuki play is acollection of multiple narratives built around original
scenarios, authentic related histories, and the actors’
private scenes. The construction will be connected withthe plan for a future narrative generation systemcomprised of several other narrative generation systems.
Fig. 2 shows an original conceptual version of theGIS2. This idea of a conceptual model labelled GIS wasoriginally based on a survey and analysis of JapaneseGeino history

RecieverMechanism

Narrative
interpretation
mechanism

Geino
Producer
Mechanism

Geino event
sequence

Life event

Narrative
production
mechanism
Narrative
strategymechanism

Interpretive
imageLifeevent
sequence

Narrative
expansion
mechsnism

Geinowork
resource

Geinowork

Life work
resource

Life work

GeinojinGeinojinresource

Fig. 2. The original GIS model2

5. Generation, Production, and Creation ofNarrative
Although the INGS is a tentative but progressing systemthat is under development, the GIS remains at theconceptual level. The design and development of theGIS to bridge the narrative generation-reception and theproduction-consumption by the INGS is planned, basedon the following process through development andexperimentation with application systems. For instance,
we have developed a multimedia narrative generation
system called KOSERUBE,6 which was designed as anapplication using the INGS within the system. However,

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Takashi Ogata

we do not intend to have a function through which thenarrative generation and reception are repeated to store
a kind of history of narrative generation. By designing
such a circulative system, we will implement a
prototype of the GIS based on KOSERUBE.
On the other hand, Kawamura7 and Ogata8 havedeveloped advertising generation systems based on
original ideas. It is necessary for advertisement as asocial system to have a history or story through its
circulative generation, namely at the level of narrative
production-consumption. In Ogata’s study ofadvertisement as narrative, in particular, it will bepossible to integrate the INGS or a part thereof as asingle advertising generation mechanism into the GIS.
Such an approach to the GIS through narrativegeneration application systems will be possible in avariety of systems, such as entertainment gamesystems,9 a new narrative approach modelled on kabuki,
and so on. Further, the narrative production andconsumption model in which the GIS is included willlink to the world of the contents business, including theresults of narrative generation and the narrative
generation function itself.
On the other hand, there is an important issue inanother direction. By the word narrative “creation,” wemean various values that go beyond the mere generationand production of narrative. In particular, the problemof narrative creativity is associated with diverse values,
such as entertainment value, artistic value, literary value,aesthetic value, managerial value, etc. For instance, acontents business company related to narrative
production needs to sell values by providing narrativecontent. For the author, this problem is related to theproblem of narrative multiplicity or the multiple
narrative structures model. We have an idea thatnarrative multiplicity results in narrative values. The
verification of this idea or hypothesis will be attempted
dependent upon the development and social practice of
the GIS through various application systems.
6. Conclusion
We presented the author’s multiple narrative structuresmodel as a background to this consideration andintroduced the INGS and GIS as frameworks for single
level narrative generation and multiple level narrative
production. Next, we discussed the possibilities ofnarrative-based systems and content technologies basedon the relationships between narrative generation andproduction, further artistic level narrative creation andthe aesthetic problems of narrative.
In the future, it is necessary to organically link theINGS and GIS as an integrated system; therefore, levelsof narrative generation-reception and productionconsumption also need to be associated with each other.
Further, the level of narrative creation should beconsidered in terms of the relationships of the above
multiple system framework. Designing, developing, andexperimenting (including at a social level) the INGS,GIS, and the application system are the main works.
References
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