Narrative Lab Course – Fall 2008

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 9/4
Intro
Lab: Knock-Knock

Week Two 9/11
Aristotle, Will and the Arc
The Poetics by Aristotle
Arc, turning point. Rationality. Cause. Sense.
Lab: Knock-Knock

Week Three 9/18
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 9/25
Story
Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee (Excerpt)
Lab: Tell Story #2

Week Five 10/2
A Doll’s House – read play, any translation Gutenberg Version Here
Structure becomes religion.
then read handout: Shaw: The Quintessence of Ibsenism
Workshop: Beat structure of entire play. Watch A Doll’s House (Ibsen/Hampton) for linear narrative, and its departure

Week Six 10/9
Alienation and Meta-story
Brecht on Theatre (excerpt handout)
Watch or read either: Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Existenz
Lab: Bring, describe, or demonstrate a meta-narrative moment

Week Seven 10/16
Sequential Narrative and Point of View
Handout from: Sandy Mackendrick on Film Grammar (who was Mackendrick?)
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Sequence as Story. Negative space.
Lab: Pose plastique. AND Meetings/Proposals for 2-3 person Group Projects.

NOTE: no class on 10/23

Week Eight (10/30)
Happening
Handout: Kaplow on Happenings and additional handouts, from
Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, Expanded Edition, by Randall Packer
more at www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/index.html
Handout: Chris Crawford

Meet in groups before this week’s class to create rule sets for Happenings.
Lab: Happenings.

Week Nine 11/6
New Structures
Handout from Marie-Laure Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality.
(students encouraged to tackle rest of book)
Find example of an interactive narrative project to show to class, such as www.thebuildersassociation.org
Handout from Rushkoff, Exit Strategy.
Lab: Group one review.

Week Ten 11/13
State of the Art
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game – handout/excerpt
additional discussion at : www.electronicbookreview.com/v3/threads/threadtoc.jsp?thread=firstperson
Lab: Group two review (and we alternate from now on)

Week Eleven 11/17 – THIS IS A MONDAY AT 9:30AM
Narrative and Play
Huizinga (excerpt/Handout)
Lab: Group one review

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Week Twelve 12/4
Politics of interactive narrative.
Games and Renaissance transcript of a talk by Douglas Rushkoff (This link/assignment will probably be changed to a different more extended talk on similar subject.)

Lab: Group two review

Week Thirteen 12/5 (THIS IS A FRIDAY at 9:30AM)
Lab: Final Presentation group one.

Week Fourteen 12/11
Lab: Final Presentation group two.

REQUIRED READING:

You are not required to read any Rushkoff, but if I were taking a course with someone I think I’d get a lot more out of it if I were more than familiar with his writing. It really hurts when you read a teacher’s stuff later, and realize all the stuff you would have wanted to talk about. So my recommendations of Rushkoff stuff, in order of relevance to this course, are:
ScreenAgers, Exit Strategy, Media Virus, Cyberia, Get Back in the Box, Coercion, Open Source Democracy

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 (excerpt provided)
by Robert McKee. Publisher: Regan Books. ISBN: 0060391685

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Publisher: Kitchen Sink Press; ISBN: 006097625X; Reprint edition (May 1994)

Exit Strategy (a novel) by Douglas Rushkoff. Softskull Press.

Brecht on Theater by Bertolt Brecht (excerpt provided)
Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub; ISBN: 0809005425; Reissue edition (September 1994)

Narrative as Virtual Reality (excerpt provided), Marie-Laure Ryan; (John Hopkins)ISBN:0-8018-6487-9
First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game (excerpt provided) MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-23232-4

Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality,(excerpt provided) Expanded Edition, by Randall Packer. W. W. Norton & Company (2002) ISBN: 0393323757

RECOMMENDED READING:
The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Paper); ISBN: 0671213326; (November 1977)

ScreenAgers by Douglas Rushkoff (2004 edition)
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 )