Shared Stories

Overview

This installation visualizes storytelling patterns through five foundational tales. The selected tales are represented as illuminated wire spheres covered in diffusion fabric, ranging in diameter based on cultural spread. Their dandelion-like appearance evokes the organic sprawl of folktale transmission.

LED-lit connection strands link tales with shared motifs, forming a glowing network. When a tale displays a specific motif type, all connections containing that type light up in sync, regardless of their current motif, revealing deep narrative connections across categories.

Data Analysis

The data foundation for this project comes from the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Tale Type Index (ATU) and Thompson Motif Index (TMI), cross-referenced to identify fundamental story patterns across cultures. Five tales were selected based on their geographic reach and motif diversity.

Note on Scope and Inclusivity
While these indexes are often treated as global in scope, they were developed within European folkloristic traditions and reflect the cultural lens of that context. I recognize and regret the limitations this introduces. Although the selected tales were chosen for their documented breadth within the dataset, they represent a relatively narrow sampling of world storytelling traditions. I care deeply about the diversity and richness of global narratives, and any future iterations of this work will involve deeper data sourcing to include a more inclusive range of sources.

Motif Types and Distribution

The dataset contains 14 distinct motif types, each with a specific color code and varying numbers of submotifs:

Selected Tales

1. The Wolf and the Kids (Tale 123)

• • • Category: Animal Tales
    • Sphere Size: Largest
    • Submotifs: 5
    • Geographic Distribution: Documented in Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mari, Erzya, Udmurt, and Khanty traditions
    • First documented in the Aesopic fable (Perry 1965, 529 No. 572), then in the 12th century by Marie de France and ca. 1350 by Ulrich Boner.
    • Summary: A mother goat warns her kids not to open the door while she’s away. A wolf comes, disguises his voice and whitens his paws with flour to trick the kids into believing he’s their mother. They open the door, and he eats them all except for the youngest who hides. When the mother returns, she cuts open the sleeping wolf’s belly, rescues her children, fills his stomach with stones, and sews him back up. When the wolf wakes and tries to drink from a well, the weight of the stones pulls him in and he drowns.
      

2. The Kind and Unkind Girls (Tale 480)

• • • Category: Tales of Magic
    • Sphere Size: Medium
    • Submotifs: 22
    • Geographic Distribution: Appears widely across Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and various Uralic cultures including Mari, Erzya, and Udmurt
    • Elements of the tale are documented in 1595 in the comedy “The Old Wives’ Tale” by G. Peele.
    • Summary: A mistreated stepdaughter encounters magical beings or tasks on a journey. Due to her kindness and diligence in helping everyone she meets, she receives valuable rewards (gold, jewels, or beauty). Her envious stepsister undertakes the same journey but behaves rudely and lazily. As punishment, she receives disfigurement or other negative consequences (frogs falling from her mouth, horns growing on her head). The kind girl often marries a prince in the end.

3. The Three Golden Children (Tale 707)

• • • Category: Tales of the Supernatural
    • Sphere Size: Small
    • Submotifs: 20
    • Geographic Distribution: Found in Finnish, Finnish-Swedish, and Swedish oral traditions
    • Documented in 1550 by Straparola, “Piacevoli notti” (IV,3) and in an Arab version in the 1001 Nights.
    • Summary: Three girls boast about what they would do if they married the king. The youngest promises to bear three golden children. The king overhears and marries her, but when she gives birth to the promised golden triplets, her jealous sisters substitute animals and cast the babies away. The triplets survive, raised by a miller or fisherman. When grown, the brothers seek magical objects but are turned to stone. Their sister rescues them and obtains the objects, which reveal the truth to the king. The family is reunited, and the evil sisters are punished.

4. The Master’s Precepts (Tale 910B)

• • • Category: Religious Tales
    • Sphere Size: Small
    • Submotifs: 16
    • Geographic Distribution: Present in Finnish, Finnish-Swedish, and Swedish oral tradition
    • Summary: A poor man works for a rich farmer for three years. Instead of wages, he receives three precepts: “Always follow the main road,” “Mind your own business,” and “Postpone your anger until the next day.” He also receives a loaf of bread (with hidden money) not to be cut until reaching home. By following the first precept, he avoids robbers. By minding his own business, he earns a reward for discretion. By postponing his anger, he avoids killing his own grown son whom he mistakes for his wife’s lover. When he finally cuts the bread, he discovers his wages were hidden inside all along.

5. The Brave Tailor (Tale 1640)

• • • Category: Anecdotes and Jokes
    • Sphere Size: Smallest (slightly squeezed for visual interest, although distribution is identical to “The Three Golden Children” and “The Master’s Precepts”)
    • Submotifs: 16
    • Geographic Distribution: Appears in Finnish, Estonian, and Latvian folklore, with additional variants in Karelian, Mari, and Erzya traditions
    • Known as a proverbial phrase, “To kill many flies with one blow”.
    • Summary: A tailor kills seven flies with one blow and makes a belt saying “Seven at one stroke.” Misinterpreted as referring to men, this causes everyone to fear him. When meeting a giant, the tailor uses clever tricks to appear stronger (squeezing water from “stone” that’s actually cheese, throwing a bird instead of a stone). He later tricks his way through impossible tasks set by a king—defeating giants, capturing a unicorn and wild boar—and wins half the kingdom and a princess. When his humble origins are discovered, he escapes punishment through more clever deception.

Construction Specs and Materials

• Dimensions: 24″ × 24″ × 24″ wooden cube frame
• Base: 5″ thick housing for electronics
• Viewing: 360-degree open design

Materials:

• Wire sphere molds (2″ to 4″ diameter)
• Craft wire
• Diffusion fabric
• Pine plywood
• Stain & varnish

Light System:

• WS2811 addressable LED strips
• Three separate LED strips (cut from one string of 1000 lights):
• Strip 1: 334 LEDs
• Strip 2: 332 LEDs
• Strip 3: 334 LEDs
• LED distribution:
• Base ambient lighting
• Tale clusters
• Connection strands

Electronics and Control:

• ESP32 microcontroller with FastLED library
• 12V, 200W power supply
• 5V buck converter for ESP32 power
• 3 GPIO pins for LED control (pins 5, 18, 19)
• 20 coded connections between tale spheres
• 120-second full cycle animation timing
• Object-oriented code structure organizing:
• 5 Tale objects
• 20 Connection objects
• Base lighting system
• Animation controller

Code Architecture

The code for this installation uses object-oriented programming to manage five foundational tales and their connections via shared motifs. A custom class system handles tales, motif types, and connection logic while using the FastLED library to control nearly 1,000 addressable LEDs across three strips.

Each tale cycles through a unique sequence of motifs, with timing adjusted so all tales complete a loop simultaneously. When a motif changes, the system checks other tales for shared motif types and triggers dynamic wave animations across the connecting LEDs.

Each visual element is defined by a custom data model:

• • Tales are associated with physical LED ranges and motif sequences
  • Motif types are assigned distinct colors for visual consistency
  • Connections light up dynamically when motif types align across tales

The animation runs on a 120-second loop, updating LED colors and triggering interactions at a smooth frame rate. Performance is optimized through preallocated objects, minimal computation in the main loop, and efficient memory use. The code is modular, making it easy to adjust timing, colors, or expand the number of tales in future iterations.

References

Hagedorn, J. (n.d.). trilogy: Reference ATU and TMI datasets for myth and folktale motifs. GitHub. https://github.com/j-hagedorn/trilogy

Return to Home >