Digital Storytelling 1- the History and Theory of Interactivity, Fall 2022
Welcome to Digital Storytelling 1- History and Theory of Interactivity, with a side of World-Building! This is a living document that contains assignments, the schedule, and requirements for this course. This document that will evolve over the course of the semester as we explore the vast and ever-changing field of Digital Storytelling.
Syllabus:
Digital Storytelling I focuses on the study of interactive storytelling, as an ancient form of collective expression, and as a contemporary form of art in our digital age. How do human interaction and emotion shape the way we create narratives, build worlds, and collaborate with each other? How do we tell stories using new forms of media that center the participant, not as a viewer but as an interactor? How can we craft narratives that emerge from the dynamics of interaction, exploration and choice?
Interactive storytelling and World-Building are active practices. They require us to question our subjective reality and challenge us to subvert the systems we use to create, craft, and consume narrative experiences. This course will take a close look at the mechanics of World-Building and storytelling within dynamic media, exploring connections between interactivity and narrative experience. The course will examine examples ranging from Alexa to Zelda.
Resources and Assignments:
Our class Miro board will serve as our hub for all lectures and group exercises. Students are expected to check in and add to the Miro board throughout the semester. Readings and activities will be added to the Miro board. Additionally, there will be optional recommended articles, books, and experiences to peruse as the semester unfolds.
Syllabus:
(reminder this syllabus is subject to change)
Fall 2022 Film AF8305 section 001
Week 1: Welcome to DSL 1- 9/14/2022
- Intros and Goals
- Framing Lecture: Interactive Storytelling: Practice and History
- Framing Lab: Horizontal Avalanche
- Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
Reading: Excerpt from The Design of Everyday Things (Norman)
Assignment: Submit your Horizontal Avalanche Project to the Miro board
Week 2: Intro to Interaction Design- 9/21/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: Storytelling and Accessibility
- Discussion: Don Norman’s “The Design of Everyday Things”
- Framing Lab: Three Legged Chair Challenge
- Check-out: Next Steps and Branching Map Assignment
Reading: Bandersnatch (Netflix), Question Bridge, and Seven Deadly Digital Sins
Assignment: Branching Map Essay (Due Week 4!)
Week 3: Branching Structures- 9/28/2022
- Check-in
- Discussion: Impressions from Homework
- Framing Lecture: Exploring Interactive Structures
- Framing Lab: Exquisite Choice
- Check out: Next Steps and Reflections
Reading: CameraPerson (Johnson), You Are Jeff Bezos (Lorischild)
Assignment: Branching Map Essay
Week 4: Branching Navigation- 10/05/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: Hypertext and Branching Structures
- Framing Lab: Exploring Hypertext
- Intro: Final World-Building Project
- Check out: Next Steps and Proposals
Reading for next class: Motto (Morisset & Michaels)
Assignment: World-Building Muse board and Question (Due week 5)
Week 5: Interactivity as Storytelling- 10/12/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: Uncertainty in Storytelling
- Discussion: World-building as Storytelling
- Framing Lab: World-Building Brainstorm
- Check out: Next Steps
Reading for next class: Queering the Map (LaRochelle), A Dark Room (Townsend)
Assignment: World-Building Proposal (Due week 6!)
Week 6: Ritual and Storytelling Games- 10/19/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: Performance as Storytelling
- Discussion: Storytelling as Action
- Check out: Next Steps and Fluxus Score Assignment
Reading for next class: The Fluxus Handbook (Various)
World-Building Assignment: Ritual and Routine
Assignment: Long Form Narrative Paper (Due Week 8!)
Week 7: Storytelling in the Metaverse pt.1–10/26/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: VR, AR, and Virtual Worlds
- Visting Artists: Akmyrat Tuyliyev, Christina Borins, and Jason Simms
- Discussion: How might we create an embodied experience?
- Check-out: Next Steps and Final Project Check-in
Reading for next class: Before Everyone Was Talking About Decentralization, Decentralization Was Talking to Everyone (Winger-Bearskin)
Assignment: Long Form Narrative Paper (Due Week 8!)
Week 8: Games and Narrative- 10/26/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: Can Immersion be a social act?
- Framing Lab: Changing Roles
- Discussion: Ritual and the Art of World-Building
- Check-out: Next Steps and Final World-Building Project
Reading for next class: Seances (Madden) and Clouds Over Sidra
Assignment: Long Form Narrative Paper (due week 9)
Week 9: Games and Narrative- 11/02/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: Can Immersion be a social act? pt.2
- Discussion: On-Boarding How to’s
- Check-out: Next Steps and Final Project Check-in
Reading for next class: Before Everyone Was Talking About Decentralization, Decentralization Was Talking to Everyone (Winger-Bearskin)
World-Building Assignment: Systems and Environment
Week 10: Storytelling in the Metaverse pt. 2- 11/09/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: Artifical Intelligence, Crypto, and Virtual Economies
- Framing Lab: Objects in Space
- Discussion: Embodied Experience
- Check-out: Next Steps and Final Project Updates
Reading for next class: Listen to “Raising Devendra” by Invisibilia (on Spotify)
World-Building Assignment: Every-Day Objects
Week 11: Artificial Intelligence and Narrative- 11/16/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: Co-Creating with Artificial Intelligence
- Framing Lab: World-Building with AI
- Discussion: AI and Originality
- Check-out: Next Steps
World-Building Assignment: Final presentation
11/23/21- NO CLASS
Week 12: Final World-Building Presentations- 11/30/2022
- Check-in
- Students present final projects
- Discussion and Feedback session
- Check-out: Reflection and Next Steps
World-Building Assignment: Bring World-Building artifacts, presentation, and actions to perform.
Week 13: Decentralized World-Building- 12/07/2022
- Check-in
- Framing Lecture: Decentralized Storytelling
- Framing Lab: Connecting Worlds
- Discussion and Feedback session
- Check-out: Reflection and Questions
Final World-Building Project:
Over the course of the semester, each student will build their own world by completing a number of guided exercises and assignments. These smaller projects will culminate in a 10–15 minute showing of their World-Building exploration. This showing should include images of their world, a description of the society, culture, character(s), environment, and systems that exist in the world.
The showing should also include three mediums (film, novel, series, interactive experience, fine art project etc.) that the student has chosen to further develop their world. They should explain why the mediums were selected, what thematic or emotional effect these separate experiences are meant to provide, and include reflections on their own world-building process.
Students will present their worlds during the penultimate class. There is no specific medium or prescribed method for presenting the world. It does not have to be a powerpoint presentation :)
Lastly, students will present a tangible object and lead the class in a performance of a routine or ritual from their world. These two assignments are due on the last day of class (after their final presentations).
Other Assessable Tasks:
In addition to the final project, students will be required to complete the following tasks:
- 10 exercises, to be conducted as “framing labs” or as take-home assignments, in which students respond to a specific constraint, due throughout the semester.
- Branching Map Essay: This assignment should include a branching narrative map (submitted to the Miro board) and 2–3pp response paper in which the student analyzes a story that uses a branching structure. They should focus on the form of the branching structure, how it relates to the content of the work, and their personal experience mapping and exploring the story. Due week 4.
- Long Form Narrative Paper: A 4–6pp descriptive essay on an interactive narrative of the student’s choosing. This essay should explore how the system and design of the experience influences the narrative, how they imagine the process of world-building for the experience, and their subjective experience of the story. Due week 8.
Learning Outcomes:
By the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Identify and reference a variety of interactive works from different genre and media
- Analyze the formal structures of this narrative work in a critical way
- Write critical responses to interactive work in an academic rigorous form
- Utilize world-building practices that strengthen and foster new discoveries in their personal storytelling practice
- Develop and design a world that can incorporate many forms, e.g. a formal system of interaction, a digital game, a hybrid theater experience, a film, or an episodic narrative
Guest Speakers
Guest speakers will join the class in-person and virtually. They will be present throughout the semester and cover the following subject areas:
Oral and Traditional Storytelling
Experience Design
Artificial Intelligence
Interactivity and Storytelling
Strategies for Social Change
World-Building
Final Grade Calculation
- Participation/Attendance 20%
- Branching Narrative Map 20%
- Long Form Interactive Narrative Analysis 20%
- Weekly Assignments 15%
- Final Project and Presentation 25%
Office Hours:
- Office hours are available upon request.
Key Dates:
Class is held Wednesdays 6 pm — 9 pm Eastern time
Saturday, Date TBD
Story I/O 10 am to 3 pm (via Zoom & Miro) *optional opportunity
Monthly Meetups
Columbia DSL meetups (via Zoom & Miro) *optional opportunity
Class Will Make Use of:
- Courseworks: course-related communication
- Miro: for documentation and prototyping
- Google Drive: for solo-work and readings
