A Creative Exploration of the Use of Intelligent Agents in Spatial Narrative Structures

This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of authoring tools for creating spatial narrative structures– exposing the relationship between artists, the tools they use, and the experiences they create. It is a research-creation enterprise resulting in the creation of a new authoring tool. A prototype collaborative tool for authoring spatial narratives used at the Land|Slide: Possible Futures public art exhibit in Markham, Ontario 2013 is described. Using narrative analysis of biographical information a cultural context for authoring and experiencing spatial narrative structures is discussed. The biographical information of artists using digital technologies is posited as a context framing for usability design heuristics. The intersection of intelligent agents and spatial narrative structures provide a future scenario by which to assess the suitability of the approach outlined in this study

Hybrid books for interactive digital storytelling : connecting story entities and emotions to smart environments

Nowadays, many people use e-books, having high expectations regarding their reading experience. In the case of digital storytelling, enhanced e-books can connect story entities and emotions to real-world elements. In this paper, we present the novel concept of a Hybrid Book, a generic Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) artifact that requires seamless collaboration between content and smart devices. To that end, we extract data from a story and broadcast these data in RDF as Linked Data. Smart devices can then receive and process these data in order to execute corresponding actions. By following open standards, a Hybrid Book can also be seen as an interoperable and sustainable IDN artifact. Furthermore, according to our user-based evaluation, a Hybrid Book makes it possible to provide human sensible feedback while flipping pages, enabling a more enjoyable reading experience. Finally, the participants positive willingness to pay makes it possible to generate more revenue for publishers

The development of a gamebook for education

Mobile technologies are becoming very accessible to students, due to advances in the development of technology and a simultaneous decline in hardware costs. In this way, it is relevant to consider the potential of these devices in teaching and learning. Our research was designed to evaluate the possibility of creating gamebooks (gamified books) that are effective in teaching and learning. After analyzing the features available in many free or open tools for making ebooks we find out that these tools were not appropriate creating gamebooks. This paper presents a novel interactive book, the gamebook (g-book): a book with a story that can be read sequentially or not. The main difference refers to the ability to choose different paths to the main characters or the unfolding of the history, as happens in games. We built a model of a dynamic book that functions as an educational game for "Environmental Studies", aimed at children in the 4th grade, mostly 9-10 years old, in Portuguese schools. This paper presents the design and features of this g-book titled "Adventures in the Guadiana River", implemented with the Unity3D platform that can be explored in iPhones, iPads, Android mobile devices and web browsers for the OSX and Windows platforms. Preliminary tests with our prototypes revealed very good usability and promising pedagogical potential in the proposed models.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Use of Tools: UX Principles for Interactive Narrative Authoring Tools

The technology supporting Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) is of particular significance to cultural heritage research. IDN technology provides a means of engagement in cultural heritage sites, a medium for culturally significant stories, and culturally significant story-centric games. While previous work in this space has numerous examples of user experience (UX) evaluations of the interactive narrative works themselves, there is significantly less in terms of evaluation of technology for authoring IDN, creating a UX research space in this area that is focused on audience and not authors. We propose to balance this focus by considering the UX of authoring tools more closely. In this work, we undertake a review of the state of the art of authoring tools for IDN such as story-centric games, and report on a rigorous UX evaluation of representative technologies (n=21). We also address the challenges of UX research for these tools through an original evaluation methodology where authors complete a story composed of representative story features. Our study leads us to conclude 7 UX principles for IDN authoring tools that both explore how authors use tools to create story-focused games, and how the interface for these tools impacts the creative process

Literacy for digital futures : Mind, body, text

The unprecedented rate of global, technological, and societal change calls for a radical, new understanding of literacy. This book offers a nuanced framework for making sense of literacy by addressing knowledge as contextualised, embodied, multimodal, and digitally mediated. In today’s world of technological breakthroughs, social shifts, and rapid changes to the educational landscape, literacy can no longer be understood through established curriculum and static text structures. To prepare teachers, scholars, and researchers for the digital future, the book is organised around three themes – Mind and Materiality; Body and Senses; and Texts and Digital Semiotics – to shape readers’ understanding of literacy. Opening up new interdisciplinary themes, Mills, Unsworth, and Scholes confront emerging issues for next-generation digital literacy practices. The volume helps new and established researchers rethink dynamic changes in the materiality of texts and their implications for the mind and body, and features recommendations for educational and professional practice

Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity

Tesis doctoral: Narrativas Móviles – estrategias discursivas y modos de participación en el Arte Locativo

This thesis investigates the design process of mobile-based narratives to verify whether the affordances and constraints of the supporting medium have contributed to shaping specific discursive strategies and particular participation modes. Have properties such as connectivity, location-awareness, portability, and multimodality enabled narrative formats that gained force by contesting traditional patterns and classic narrativity notions? The unveiling of the research inquiry happens through a bricolage of methods in a dialogue between artistic and scientific domains. The study of the phenomenon comprises three correlated stages. The first is a theoretical literature review that investigates the artistic use of locative and mobile media, and their influence in the basic principles governing narratives. The second is a case study of Blast Theory artistic practice grounded in an ethnographic approach with site-visit, and resulting in a qualitative analysis of four of their projects. The third moment consists of applied-theory activities that lead to the collaborative development of a geolocated narrative which serves to evaluate participant's experience.Esta tesis explora el diseño de las narrativas basadas en los dispositivos móviles, dedicándose a comprobar si los recursos expresivos y las limitaciones del medio contribuyen a la formación de estrategias discursivas y modos de participación particulares y específicos. Propiedades tales como la conectividad, la geolocalización, la portabilidad y la multimodalidad han permitido la aparición de nuevos formatos narrativos que ganan fuerza disputando los patrones tradicionales y las nociones clásicas de la narratividad? La revelación de la pregunta se da fruto la combinación de diferentes métodos, mediante un diálogo entre los ámbitos artístico y científico. El estudio del fenómeno comprende tres etapas. La primera es la revisión de la literatura teórica que investiga el uso artístico de los locative media, así como su influencia en los principios básicos que rigen las narrativas. La segunda es un estudio de caso de la práctica artística del colectivo Británico Blast Theory, basada en el abordaje etnográfico de una visita de campo y posterior análisis cualitativo de cuatro de sus obras. El estudio se extiende en un tercer lugar con actividades de teoría aplicada, incluyendo el desarrollo colaborativo de una narrativa geolocalizada que sirve para evaluar la experiencia de los participantes