Mythologizer
A research tool developed during the summer and winter semesters of 2024 to study the development, mutation, and transformation of myths across cultural, geographical, and sociological contexts. The tool was created as the primary outcome of our research project by Lilli-Chiara Kurth, Célestin Meunier, Eman Safavi Bayat, and Pierre-Louis Suckrow.
Mythologizer explores mythology through both analog and digital lenses, integrating design experiments, participatory workshops, and computational modeling. The project moves beyond historical reconstruction to treat myths as dynamic, evolving constructs shaped by human interaction and cultural context.
Process Overview
To reach the final stage, several iterative design phases were carried out:
- Designed an analog myth-making game
- Conducted the game in the format of interviews, recording the sessions on video
- Created a short film from the interview footage
- Workshopped the concept with a student cohort as a collective community exercise
- Tracked myth mutations within the analog game on a custom website
- Developed an agent-based simulation capable of running infinite myth epochs, modeling cultural evolution through adjustable agent parameters
The Interview
The Workshop: Also Fish (movie)
Process Tracking
The analog game’s myth evolution process is documented here:
Abstract
This research project applies biological and computational techniques to mythology, extending Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist approach and drawing on the work of Jean-Loïc le Quellec and Julien d’Huy. Moving from historical reconstruction toward myth generation, it treats myths as dynamic, adaptive constructs.
Our methodology combined literature analysis, expert consultation, qualitative experiments, and the development of Mythologizer, an agent-based simulation modeling myth transmission dynamics. These computational methods reveal how individual traits and social forces influence the stability, mutation, and transmission of myths. Though still an experimental project, Mythologizer offers a framework for examining storytelling evolution within cultural ecosystems.
👉 Read the paper: Download PDF