Rushkoff: POST-LINEAR NARRATIVE LAB
This laboratory class will consider the impact of interactivity and technology
on traditional narrative structure, and explore new methods for conveying narrative
in non-linear and interactive forms of art, entertainment, and communications.
Each class meeting will be broken up into two parts. The first will examine
an aspect of traditional narrative, and the way it is threatened or rendered
obsolete in an interactive context. The second will take the form of workshop
exercises and short projects through which both traditional narrative styles
and alternative narrative forms specifically suited for an interactive environment
will be conceived, prototyped and evaluated.
Be forewarned: we will force ourselves to master the nature of linear narrative,
as well as its elements, before attempting to bring them into non-linear media.
Students will also develop longer-term experiments in interactive narrative,
developing rule sets through which emergent narratives may develop. Students
will be required write a short response to each week’s reading, and email
it to the instructor before class. These responses will form the basis of class
discussion. They should not be summaries of the reading - they are reactions
and comments. Length is not important - a paragraph is fine. But quality of
thought and writing matters.
Final projects are not necessarily finished productions, but should consist
of experiments in breaking linear convention, audience participation, surrender
of authorial control, or development of alternative methods of generating reversal,
recognition, or other properties of linear narrative.
Readings are due the week they are listed. Grading will be based 1/3 on each:
In-class participation including workshop exercises, weekly responses, final
project.
Week One
Intro
Lab: Knock-Knock
Week Two
Aristotle, Will and the Arc
The Poetics by Aristotle
Arc, turning point. Rationality. Cause. Sense.
Lab: Knock-Knock
Week Three
Cause and Effect
Backwards and Forwards by David Ball (and read or watch Hamlet, if
necessary)
also recommended: Lalos Egri: The Art of Dramatic Writing
Lab: Tell Story #1 (and I cried and cried and cried/screamed/laughed)
Week Four
Story
Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting,
by Robert McKee
(Excerpt)
A Doll's House - watch movie or read play
Structure becomes religion.
Lab: Tell Story #2 (if necessary)
Watch A Doll's House (Ibsen/Hampton) for linear narrative, and its departure
Week Five
Alienation and Meta-story
Brecht on Theatre
handout: Shaw: The Quintessence of Ibsenism
Watch or read either: Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or
Existenz
Lab: Bring, describe, or demonstrate a meta-narrative moment
Week Six
Sequential Narrative
Handout from: Sandy Mackendrick on Film Grammar (who was Mackendrick?)
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Sequence as Story. Negative space.
Lab: Pose plastique. AND Consideration of Projects.
Week Seven
Happening
Handout: Kaplow on Happenings and additional handouts, from
Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, Expanded Edition, by Randall
Packer
more at http://www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/index.html
Meet in groups before this week’s class to create rule sets for Happenings.
Lab: Happenings.
Week Eight
NEW!
Marc Lafia Visit
See: www.marclafia.net
Afterwards, meet with project partner or swim buddy and discuss progress.
Week Nine
Structures
Handout from Marie-Laure Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality.
(students encouraged to tackle rest of book)
Find example of interactive narrative project to present to class, such as http://www.thebuildersassociation.org
Lab: Group one presents (and we alternate from now on)
Week Ten
State of the Art
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game
additional discussion at : http://www.electronicbookreview.com/v3/threads/threadtoc.jsp?thread=firstperson
Week Eleven
Identity
Week Twelve
Restoring the Elements
Interactive Storytelling, Crawford (handout)
Week Thirteen
Politics of interactive narrative.
Games and Renaissance transcript of a talk by Douglas Rushkoff (given to NY Law School, of all places)
Week Thirteen and Fourteen
Lab: Final Presentation of Projects
REQUIRED READING:
The Poetics by Aristotle (translated by Malcolm Heath)
Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0140446362; (March 1997)
Backwards and Forwards by David Ball
Publisher: Southern Illinois Univ Pr (Trd); ISBN: 0809311100; (September 1998)
Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting
by Robert McKee. Publisher: Regan Books. ISBN: 0060391685
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Publisher: Kitchen Sink Press; ISBN: 006097625X; Reprint edition (May 1994)
Brecht on Theater by Bertolt Brecht
Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub; ISBN: 0809005425; Reissue edition (September
1994)
Narrative as Virtual Reality, Marie-Laure Ryan; (John Hopkins)ISBN:0-8018-6487-9
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23232-4
RECOMMENDED READING:
Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, Expanded Edition, by Randall Packer.
W. W. Norton & Company (2002) ISBN: 0393323757
The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper); ISBN: 0671213326; (November 1977)
ScreenAgers by Error! Contact not defined..
Publisher: HamptonPress;
The Quintessence of Ibsenism by George Bernard Shaw (1891)
Publisher: Dover Pubns; ISBN: 0486281299; reprint edition (July 1994)
Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Publisher: Mythos Books: ISBN: 0691017840
The Grammar of Film Language by Daniel Arijon
Publisher: Silman-James Press; ISBN: 187950507X; Reprint edition (September
1991)
Screenplay by Syd Field
Publisher: DTP; ISBN: 0440576474; Rei Expnd edition (July 1, 1984 )