Framing

Here’s an essay by Michael Cook, talking about the importance of framing.

Framing is a Computational Creativity technique where the computer explains what decisions it made to try to convince the viewer that it did something intelligent.

There’s a related concept in game AI, where enemy characters will talk loudly to explain what they’re doing. One example is the way that F.E.A.R.’s squad AI used voice to communicate to the player what was going on under the hood.

Framing that explains things that are otherwise not obvious to an observer is a useful tool to avoid what Noah Wardrip-Fruin calls the “Tale-Spin Effect”, where all of the complex machinery under the hood is completely invisible to the player.

Using framing to give your generative processes context, and adding cues to hint at why it made certain decisions, will go a long way on making your results more interesting to the people observing them.