Transmedia can create powerful, immersive, and vast story worlds and have resulted in the creation of successful entertainment experiences such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and The Matrix. Previously, transmedia endeavours were frequently motivated by commercial interests (marketing campaigns, entertainment … Continue reading Designing Transmedia: A Toolkit for Educators
BEDTIME is an interactive video experience that seeks to imitate bedtime rituals and our experiences with digital tools and media at large during restful periods. Taking up concepts from the digital humanities, the project asks its participants to consider the relationship between digital activities, distraction, and the necessity of sleep that is so often delayed by our engagements with the digital. The relationship between screen time and bedtime is constantly examined by scientists, but extended engagement with the digital is unavoidable for many professionals, students, and the population in general. By taking a light-heartened and aesthetic approach to the activities undertaken before falling asleep, the viewer of BEDTIME … Continue reading BEDTIME
What’s Your Research Story? An Online Exhibit About Crafting Digital Narratives As An Academic How can we use digital storytelling to craft narratives to promote our research as academics? Whether you’re a graduate student, researcher or professor, you’ve likely been asked this question: what exactly is your research about? Although public audiences might not always associate digital storytelling with academic research, it is, in fact, an effective medium to share what your research is about in a concise, engaging way. One of the key challenges with digital storytelling in academic research environments is being able to combine “cold” research data with a rich, compelling narrative (as the two are traditionally seen associated with two different spheres). … Continue reading What’s Your Research Story? An Online Exhibit About Crafting Digital Narratives As An Academic
Malandia is a text-based interactive narrative that aims to explore ideas related to contemporary game theory. Before you read on, please play the game and then return to read more. (Disclaimer: This game requires an active internet connection. This game is best played with sound turned on.) Malandia was conceived as a hands on exploration of contemporary issues related to game theory. In How to Do Things with Videogames, Ian Bogost writes “we can understand the relevance of a medium by looking at the variety of things it does” (3). In this case, he is making reference to exploring specific productions of a medium before passing judgement … Continue reading Malandia – An Exploration of Permanence, Consequence and Player Agency in Interactive Narrative Games
https://itch.io/embed/63269?dark=true NOTE: (Sub)Way can be found at these links if the above embed is not working/down: http://www.philome.la/Daniel_Rosen/subway https://danielrosen.itch.io/subway In making (Sub)Way I learned a fairly important lesson about the way I perceive game design and the narrative possibility space of interactive fiction. Namely, that the smoke-and-mirrors effect of choice-based narrative design is not only necessary to making a game narrative function effectively in terms of interpreting player involvement, but that it is an inherent positive trait of interactive narratives. Games and narratives have a complicated relationship, particularly when it comes to authorial control over the narrative and the decisions made within it. The issue being there … Continue reading Having it the Player’s Way: (Sub)Way and the Illusion of Narrative Choice
This research project analyzes the ways in which the online magazine Rookie utilizes material-based elements of zine culture in order to create an embodied community. The term “embodied community” is taken from Alison Piepmeier’s Girls Zines and it refers to the connections that are formed between zine creators and readers by materiality. A zine, in its existence as a handmade artifact, acts as a sort of mediator of human touch (Piepmeier calls it a “surrogate physical interaction” (59)), sharing human emotions through their physical traces. Such an embodied community opens up space for a participatory culture, to borrow the term from Henry Jenkins, because it encourages … Continue reading Zine Culture and the Embodied Community of Rookie Mag
Playing “Indians”: Indigenous Adventures in the Digital World “The truth about stories is that that’s all we are” – Thomas King “Stories are the key to the endless oratory, the teachings, and the knowledge of our people. It’s not all we are, but when we remember the story, the flood of knowledge locked behind it is let loose.” – Lee Maracle Whether one agrees with Thomas King’s proposition that stories habit us constantly, or Lee Maracle’s gentle rebuttal, which reminds us that stories need to be recalled and acknowledged to wield their power, there is little argument against their importance. No matter our culture or affiliations, stories … Continue reading Playing “Indians”: Indigenous Adventures in the Digital World
The Multimedia Learning website is meant as a visual exploration of current design principles within the field of e-learning, and serves as a helpful guide in designing the most effective multimedia learning experiences possible. Images are presented in a DO/DON’T diptych similar to that employed by VICE, and are meant to contrast good multimedia learning design practices with bad ones. Principles are largely adapted from The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, edited by Richard E. Mayer. Continue reading Principles of Multimedia Theory
RE:Imagining Change is about using stories to “win campaigns, build movements, and change the world.” Written by Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Canning, who are both co-founders of the Center for Story-Based Strategy in the U.S., they offer research, strategies, tactics, tools and real-world examples of successful social change campaigns. The mix of scholarly research, practical tips and fascinating case studies make this text useful and engaging for scholars, activists, and the general public. On this page are three infographics, each one focused on those three target audiences. Each infographic offers the information and resources that will interest each audience the most. If you want to learn more, … Continue reading Storytelling for Scholars, Activists and the Public
Poetry in Play (PIP) Whether you are teaching or learning in or outside of the classroom, PIP is a resource for understanding poetry, literary terms, and the devices at play. Poetry is often the subject students approach with the most apprehension. We hope situating poetry in a more playful and interactive context will lessen students’ anxiety and build their confidence in their own analytical and close reading skills. Our mission is to provide students with the tools to find their own unique perspectives on poetry and to help them feel confident and excited about studying–the often dreaded unit–poetry. We hope our initiative inspires others to contribute … Continue reading Poetry in Play (PIP)
Stories in Play 