Week 9
Dorothy and Cebe will lead the class discussion today
CLASS ACTIVITIES
- Discussion of the Read/Watch/Play/Explore materials due today assigned by Cebe and Dorothy
- Brief presentation of Practitioner Interviews
- Work on your own Interactive Non-Fiction Storytelling projects (as time allows)
Cebe's Readings:
- Julia Breitbach, Analog Fictions for the Digital Age, “This Thing in the Text”, pages 48-65
- Why Computers Should Be Hidden, by Ian Bogost
- Reinventing Analog Game Studies, by Aaron Trammell, Emma Leigh Waldron, and Evan Torner
- Never Alone: Inspirational Art (Examples of material artwork that are incorporated within the game/directly inspiring the aesthetics. Why are these works important to note/acknowledge?)
- Questions to ponder:
- How do you define “materiality”? How would you describe its place in the “digital mono-media” world?
- Is “materiality” inherent to art/documentary/interactive non-fiction pieces? How have definitions of “materiality” evolved? Can one create “materiality” within a virtual, yet 3-D world?
- How may an “object-thing” (i.e. photograph) transform absence into “presence”? Does “presence” need to be concrete “materiality”? Can presence be felt as “everyday magic”? How can digital storytelling facilitate a composition of both these senses of “presence”?
- How can interactive digital story telling “nudge us to focus on a non-computational activity, rather than reminding us of all the other, digital ones we might choose instead?” How can they help to engage user movement/action from the digital/virtual into the “analogue”/real…to fulfill the “desire to have specific experiences with worldly materials” or the desire to have specific interactions with places and/or people?
- Interactive Documentary on "Comfort Women" Asks You to Listen to Victims of Sexual Violence by Allison Meier
- The Space We Hold: A Review by Alifiyah Hussain
- Experience: The Space We Hold by Tiffany Hsiung, supported by the National Film Board of Canada (Interactive Documentary)
- Brief description (and trailers) of the documentary that inspired the project: The Apology by Tiffany Hsiung
- Discussion Questions:
- How does the gesture of holding space, literally and figuratively, change the act of listening?
- Does interactive documentary seem like a natural step for documentary filmmakers to pursue considering the popularity of interaction across many arts and cultural institutions?
- Based on our conversation from last week related to the topic of empathy and compassion, what might be the pitfalls or advantages of interactive media as a supplemental form (or form/genre on its own)?
- Optional Reading:
- Never Alone (2016), by E-Line Media and Upper One Games
- The Space We Hold by Tiffany Hsiung, supported by the National Film Board of Canada (Interactive Documentary)
- Practitioner interview: Interview a media practitioner who is working in some way within the boundaries of the disciplines and mediums discussed in this class. This person may be a documentary filmmaker who is working to expand the medium in some interactive/participatory way; a game designer who engages in social activism; an activist who makes interactive media; a transmedia producer who works across media platforms; etc. Thoroughly document and post the interview in Scalar. Please make sure that you let your interviewee know that it may be made public online. You may choose to conduct the interview in any format you like: text, audio, video, or some other creative format or combination of formats. You will also give a brief presentation of your interview in class today.
Interview with Parul Wadhwa, by Aria
Interview with Carinne Knight, by Cebe
Interview with James Morgan, by Dorothy
