Building the Prototype

Developing the first prototype of Saganauts began as both a creative and a philosophical exercise — a kind of dialogue between two worlds I’ve spent years navigating: museums and storytelling.

I knew from the start that museums carry an enormous responsibility. Their role is to preserve, document and communicate cultural heritage with scientific precision. Every object, every artwork, every label must be accurate. But children don’t meet culture through accuracy alone — they meet it through curiosity, emotion and identification.

So my challenge was this:

How do you create a digital tool that respects the museum’s need for factual integrity while also speaking the language of a child’s imagination?

The first step was to sketch the idea as a story engine — a small prototype that could draw on museum data and turn it into personalised stories. Each story would adapt to a child’s age, name and reading level, ensuring both accessibility and emotional resonance. The foundation had to be scientifically sound, but the experience had to feel alive — not like reading a database, but like being invited into a world.

As I built the prototype, I realised that this balance — between knowledge and wonder — was the real heart of Saganauts. The museum contributes the facts; the AI weaves them into narrative form; and the child brings the spark that makes it all meaningful.

The early version was simple, but it worked. A few objects, a few stories, and a clear sense of what could be achieved if culture and technology learned to collaborate instead of compete.

Now, the project is moving toward its next stage: expanding the tool together with museums, educators and authors, testing how it supports children’s learning, and integrating fixed stories written by children’s book writers alongside the AI-generated ones.

My hope is that Saganauts can grow into a space where museums and imagination meet halfway — a tool that helps culture speak to the next generation in a way that is both truthful and alive.