Nathan Costello

To tell a story aloud is one of the oldest acts there is. In rural Ireland, emigration and the slow creep of mass culture are wearing down the localised stories that hold places together, most of them never written down and carried only through voice.

Simulated Storytelling is a social robot inspired by the figure of the seanchaí, developed in conversation with communities on the Dingle Peninsula. It has an expressive face and an Irish accent, and tells only real stories gathered from real people.

As a designer, I am interested in emerging interactions and the bridges they might build between people. The work is a critical design project, less a product than a question made physical: how do you design a presence you actually want to hear a story from?

It listens too, drawing in newer voices that the tradition has often left out, holding a thread between generations before it thins to nothing.