Creating Kathputli Stories with Octo Studio

Kathputli is a traditional Rajasthani puppet art form known for its storytelling through intricate puppetry. This activity will blend this ancient form with modern creative coding through Octo Studio, a creative platform that allows users to design digital stories and animations.

Activity Goals

To blend the traditional Rajasthani Kathputli puppet art with creative coding skills for crafting digital stories and animations.
Introduce simple concepts like sequencing and logic through an unplugged coding activity.
Familiarize participants with the basics of the Octo Studio application and how coding can bring puppetry to life in a digital setting.
To teach how to combine filmmaking techniques and coding to craft stories.
Integrate visual coding concepts using physical objects and flowcharts for better comprehension.

Activity Resources

Materials

Paper, sketch pens, scissors, and ruler to design coding blocks
Octo Studio app installed on a mobile device

Age Groups

Ages 8 and above

Facilitation Tips

Begin with a discussion about participants’ experiences with puppet shows. Introduce Kathputli’s history using videos/images.
Draw parallels between puppetry and coding: puppeteers control puppets with strings, while coders control digital puppets with code.
Encourage participants to brainstorm story ideas based on folk tales or personal experiences.
Help participants to use physical objects to represent coding logic. Discuss how these physical representations can translate into Octo Studio’s digital blocks.
Support troubleshooting by discussing what each character is supposed to do and exploring available Octo Studio blocks.
Encourage participants to present their projects and give each other feedback. Reflect on:
How coding brought Kathputli storytelling to life.
Combining technology and tradition.
Exploring creative possibilities in Octo Studio.

Inspiring Inventors

Octo Studio was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the MIT Media Lab, the same team that created Scratch, a globally popular coding language for kids.