Residing in the finest Television and Film school in the country we are constantly confronted with the challenge of reconciling narrative and interactivity. There have have been myriad noble experiments and few run away hits. With the recent arrival of truly cheap and pervasive tools for computer storytelling, there has been a promising shift in emphasis away from controlling stories towards the full creation and sharing of stories. Led by Douglas Rushkoff, the Narrative Lab began as an extension of Storytelling and PostLinear Narrative Lab classes, and seeks to explore the relationship of narrative to media and meaning through a series of practical experiments in media.
Projects include:
Narrative for Ubiquitous Computing - Kyle Outlaw
Exit Strategy - an online open source novel
23 Cent Stories - http://www.23centstories.com - an interactive storytelling environment
Truly Interactive TV - James Robinson lets users write their own scripts using existing TV dialogue
The Persuaders - a documentary for PBS/Frontline on the latest persuasive narrative styles
Nothing Sacred - a scholarly exploration of Torah narrative as an open source experiment
Next Renaissance - a comparison of Renaissance narrativity to current narrativity
Open Source Democracy - a whitepaper on applying the open source model to participatory government
Testament - a comic book for DC/Vertigo making use of disruptive and multiple narrative
Interactive Screenwriting - Development of post-linear approaches for writing and formating screenplays
Classes include:
Storytelling for Active and Interactive Media
Post-Linear Narrative Lab
Theoretical Perspectives on Interactivity
Technologies of Persuasion