Welcome to WorldBuilding: Practice and Co-Creation. This is a living document that contains assignments, the schedule, and requirements for this course. This document will evolve over the course of the semester as we explore our practice of Worldbuilding.

Syllabus:

What happens when we reject the classic hero’s journey in favor of new myths? From folktales to franchises, this course from the Digital Storytelling Lab will explore transportive worlds and the methods used to create them. Collectively, we will deconstruct the idea that World-Building is a private practice and instead, uplift the notion that it is a creative tool to strengthen stories and expand ideas. As Author and activist Clarice Lispector writes: “Creating isn’t imagination, it’s taking the great risk of grasping reality,” but what happens when we use Worldbuilding to shift the systems that govern our reality?

Leveraging storytelling techniques of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) and Role Playing Games (RPGs), we will deconstruct Fairy Tales and collectively build a world that transcends the classroom and moves into the outside world, ultimately bringing participants together to tackle complex issues and redefine solo authorship as a collaborative space. This course culminates in the collective experience passing on our co-created world to a new group of makers. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Readings 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)

Week 1: Welcome to Worldbuilding: Practice and Co-Creation- 1/21/26

• Intros and Goals
• Framing Lecture: What is the practice of worlbuilding and co-creation?
• Framing Lab: Blockchain Fairytales: Social Dreaming
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read up to page 64 of Building Imaginary Worlds: the Theory and History of Subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf

Week 2: Collaborative and Decentralized Storytelling- 1/28/26

• Framing Lecture: Governing Methods
• Framing Lab: Inventors, Connectors, and Completers
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read Before People Were Talking About Decentralization, Decentralization was Talking to Them by Amelia Winger-Bearskin.

Week 3: Imagination and Sub-creation- 2/04/26

• Framing Lecture: World as Narrator
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairytales pt. 1
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read On Fairy-Stories by J.R.R Tolkien and listen to The World of Freedom #BlackLivesMatter from Exolore; fact-based fictional world-building by Dr. Moiya McTier

Week 4: Myths and Role-Playing Games- 2/11/26

• Framing Lecture: The Art of Subcreation
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairy Tales pt. 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read Visit to a Strange Planet by Elinor Fuchs. Add images and a description of your element(s) to the Miro board.

Week 5: Virtual Worlds and Unreal Worlds- 2/18/26

• Framing Lecture: Virtual and Unreal Worlds
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairytales pt. 3
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Create your Environment Muse Boards

Week 6: Character and Persona- 2/25/26

• Framing Lecture: Deconstructing the Hero’s Journey
• Framing Lab: Character Elements
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Create your Inhabitant Muse Boards

Week 7: World Building: Purpose- 3/04/26

• Framing Lecture: Storytelling with Purpose
• Framing Lab: Writing a Mission Statement
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Submit your portion of your shared mission statement

Week 8: World Building: Environment and Fantasy- 3/11/26

• Framing Lecture: Environmental World-Building
• Framing Lab: Generating a Creation Story
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Submit an early proposal for your world-building physical or digital artifact.

NO CLASS- Spring break

Week 9: Systems and Myths- 3/25/26

• Framing Lecture: Storytelling and Social Theory
• Framing Lab: Dismantling Systems through World-Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Write a creation myth for your story then destroy part of it so it remains unfinished.

Week 10: Real and Unreal Worlds- 4/01/26

• Framing Lecture: Scavenger hunter, ARGs, and Treasure Hunts
• Framing Lab:
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Play Randonatica and present your Findings

Week 11: World Building: Story-Driven Discoveries- 4/08/26

• Framing Lecture: Scavenger hunter, ARGs, and Treasure Hunts
• Framing Lab: Collective Prototype Design pt. 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Play Motto

Week 12: Co-Creation and World Building- 4/15/26

• World-Building Discussion
• Framing Lab: Artifact Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Present your Artifact to the class

Week 13: World Building: Fabricating Worlds- 4/22/26

• World-Building Discussion
• Framing Lab: Connecting Worlds: Students Iterate on Each Other’s Artifacts
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Bring in materials for the World Release and presentation

Week 14: World Release- 4/29/26

• Framing Lecture: World-Building Release
• Framing Lab: Release of World to DSL 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

Assessable Tasks

Students will be required to complete the following tasks to finish the class:

• A number of short responses or presentations, in which students present solo or in a group for a few brief minutes. Due throughout the semester.
• A Muse Board for the part of the world you are designing (Due Week 8)
• An Artifact proposal (Due week 9)

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

Learning Outcomes:

By the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify and reference a variety of world building methods and practices from different genre and media
• Analyze the formal structures of this world building methodologies in a critical way
• Write about their emerging world building practice in an academic rigorous form
• Utilize world-building practices that strengthen and foster new discoveries in their personal storytelling practice
• Develop and collectively 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

Final Grade Calculation:

Participation/Collaboration 30%

Attendance 20%

Weekly Assignments 20%

Final Project and Presentation 30%

TOTAL 100%

Office Hours:

• Office hours are available upon request.

Welcome!
This is a living document containing all assignments and requirements for this course. It will evolve over the semester as we explore the vast and ever‑changing field of digital storytelling.

Course Overview:
Digital Storytelling 1 (DSL 1) is a survey of interactive projects and the key mechanics that make them work. We’ll look at interactive and immersive storytelling both as an ancient form of collective expression and as a contemporary art form in our digital age.

Interactive storytelling invites us to question our subjective reality and subvert traditional systems of creating, crafting, and consuming narrative experiences. This course asks: how do we tell stories using new forms of media and tech that center the participant? How can we craft narratives that emerge from the dynamics of interaction, exploration and choice?

From Alexa to Zelda, you’ll dive into the mechanics of interactive storytelling and world‑building through dynamic media. Expect collaboration, participation, and teamwork — group exercises, solo projects, and a final worldbuilding experiment. This class requires collaboration, participation, and team work. You will be required to do a large number of group exercises, share solo projects, and present a final worldbuilding experiment.

Resources and Assignments:
Miro Board: Our central hub for lectures, exercises, and shared work. Check in regularly and contribute throughout the semester
Readings and Activities: Posted on Miro and Courseworks (you will be asked to double submit frequently). Optional recommended materials will be shared as we go.

Syllabus:
(reminder this syllabus is subject to change)
Fall 2025 | Film AF8305 Section 001
Thursdays 6–9 PM (ET)

Week 1: Welcome to DSL 1 — 9/11/25
In class:
Intros & Goals | Lab: Horizontal Avalanche | Lecture: Does Play = Story?
Homework:
1. Read The Design of Everyday Things (Norman)
2. Submit Horizontal Avalanche Project to Miro

Week 2: Intro to Interaction Design and Accessibility — 9/18/25
In class:
Discuss Norman’s text | Lecture: Accessibility | Lab: Three‑Legged Chair
Homework:
1. Read Future Design of Accessibility in Games: A Design Vocabulary by Paul Cairnsa, Christopher Powerb, Mark Barletc, and Greg Haynes
2. Explore: The Heist (Markiplier)
3. Branching Map Essay (Due October 17th)

Week 3: Choose Your Own Immersion — 9/25/25
In class:
Discuss Branching Narratives | Lecture: Immersion and Branching Lit| Lab: Ingredients for Immersion
Homework:
1. Read the attached excerpt from Janet R. Murray’s Hamlet on the Holodeck
2. Play Howling Dogs by Porpentine Charity Heartspace

Week 4: Architecture and Interaction — 10/02/25
In class:
Discuss Howling Dogs | Lecture: Hypertext| Lab: Worldbuilding Questions
Homework:
1. Explore Motto (Morisset & Michaels)
3. Watch Cameraperson (Johnson)

Week 5: Interactivity as Storytelling — 10/09/25
In class:
Discuss Motto and Cameraperson| Lecture: Entry points and MDA Theory|
Homework:
1. Read MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game (Zubek and Hunicke)
3. Submit your Worldbuilding Portal Board and Question

Week 6: Ritual and Immersive Theater— 10/16/25
In class: Lecture: Immersive Theater as Ritual | Discuss: Ritual and Story
Homework:
1. Explore A Dark Room (Townsend)
2. Read Before Everyone Was Talking About Decentralization, Decentralization Was Talking to Everyone (Winger-Bearskin)
3. Finish and submit a draft of your Ritual and Culture Portal Board
*Branching Narrative Essay due on October 17th!

Week 7: Improvisation and Co-Creation — 10/23/25
In class:
Lecture: Performance as Storytelling | Discuss: Action and Consciousness
Homework:
1. Read “Visit to a Strange Planet” (Fuchs)
2. Play the mobile game Consensus Genitum (Palmer)
3. Finish and submit your Environment Portal Board.
*Play=Story Essay due on December 8th

Week 8: Embodied Experiences — 10/30/25
In class:
Lecture: Rituals and Decentralization| Discuss: Ritual and Immersion
Homework:
1. Listen to Raising Devendra (Invisibilia)
2. Read Models All the Way Down (Buschek and Thorp)
3. Submit a final version of your Worldbuilding Ritual

Week 9: Questioning Artifical Intelligence — 11/6/25
In class: Lecture: Art in the Age of AI | Lab: Co-Creating with AI
Homework:
1. Read The Jessica Simulation (Fagone)

Week 10: Stroytelling Jam— 11/13/25
In class:
Lecture: Worldbuilding Artifacts| Lab: Possible Worlds |
Homework:
Continue to finalize Zine project

Week 11: Final Zine Presentations — 11/20/25
In class: Students present final projects | Feedback & Reflection

11/27/25— No Class (Holiday)

Week 12: Decentralized Zine Release— 12/4/25
In class: Lecture: Beyond the Page| Lab: Connecting Worlds Zine
*Play=Story Essay due on December 8th

Assessable Tasks (Chronological Order):

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.

Long Form Narrative Paper:
A 4–6pp descriptive essay on an interactive narrative of the student’s choosing. This essay should explore how MDA influences the system and design of the experience. How do they imagine the process of world-building for the experience? What is their subjective experience of the story?

Final Worldbuilding Zine:
Over the course of the semester, each student will construct their own world through guided exercises and collaborative exploration. The final project asks you to synthesize this work into a zine — a short, self-published booklet that documents and communicates your invented world. Your zine should combine descriptive writing, design, and narrative experimentation, balancing imaginative content with a compelling visual presentation.

Your zine must include five sections, each 1–2 pages in length, written in short descriptive paragraphs. You may choose an encyclopedic tone (objective, like a field guide) or an in-world narrative voice (subjective, like a diary, myth, or oral history). You may also mix approaches.

1. Environment
   Describe the geography, landscapes, climate, and atmosphere of your world. Consider plants, terrain, and environmental forces that shape lived experience. Draw inspiration from Elinor Fuchs’ essay and our discussions of environmental storytelling.
2. Culture / Ritual
   Explore the values, traditions, and practices of your world through one or more rituals. Rituals may be sacred, mundane, or absurd — but should be performable in class in less than one minute. Consider Fluxus and everyday performances as models.
3. Inhabitants & Characters
   Detail the beings, species, or presences that populate your world. Consider their forms, identities, relationships, and behaviors.
4. Systems & Structures
   Identify and describe one organizing system of your world. This could involve ecology, economy, politics, cosmology, or even rules of time itself.
   Example: Time is rationed; each citizen receives a fixed number of hours per week, recorded on tokens. Hours can be traded, hoarded, or stolen.
5. Place in the Universe
   Position your world in the larger cosmos. Is it isolated, connected to other realms, or entangled with alternate dimensions?
   Example: The world is a forgotten satellite orbiting the ruins of a dead star, known only to wandering dreamers who stumble into its gravity during hyper-sleep.

Design Guidelines:

• Modular: Each section should function on its own while contributing to the whole.
• Visual: Incorporate drawings, collages, textures, or found images. Treat each page as a site of play.
• Mix Voices: Combine objective description with narrative fragments (myths, journal entries, news clippings, dialogue, etc.).
• Compelling Layout: Experiment with typography, margins, and composition. Embrace cut-and-paste energy and inventive design.

Deliverables: A completed zine of approximately 10+ pages, containing all five sections. A digital copy (PDF or scanned zine) submitted via Canvas. Optional: bring a few printed or photocopied versions to exchange in class.

Other Assessable Tasks:
In addition to the final project, students will be required to complete the following tasks:

A number of exercises, to be conducted as Labs and/or as take-home assignments, in which students respond to a specific constraint, due throughout the semester.

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:
Before and after class

Digital Storytelling 1: The Theory and History of Interactivity, Fall 2025 was originally published in Columbia DSL on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Withdrawal came with restless fingers and a brain that craved the immediate dopamine hit of my explore page. While using Instagram, I felt like I was communing with a larger world. I had internet friends, beloved accounts, and it was extraordinary to post a question or a request and have it solve something IRL. It made my network feel HUGE and POWERFUL! Like an ecosystem, we were all collaborating, reaching out to each other with our virtual tentacles.

There is a certain facet to Instagram that feels highly serendipitous. Chance and certainty coalesce in a magical way that makes all your content feel rarified, dare I say…Cosmic? Well, that is the algorithm.

In the absence of the Algorithm, my husband and best friend took its place, feeding me memes. Together, they became a humanized feed — just personal enough to keep me half on the wagon, half off.

So what are Algortithms and why do they feel so serendipitous? Algorithms are a linear sequence of instructions that often use conditional statements (if/then statements) to solve problems or process data. Think of them like a recipe for muffins if that recipe included all possible substitutions for all possible ingredients (if you can’t use this much baking soda, use this much baking powder for the same effect). The effect that we’re looking for has to be something constant and consistent, like the perfect fluffy muffins. However, things that people like fluctuate wildly for a variety of factors. For me, it’s a toss-up between blueberry and pumpkin. I also like glass-blowing and heavy metal.

Algorithms are for exact answers, and often, Algorithmic structures are so exact that they are time-consuming. Enter heuristic functions, which are less about exact answers and more about: “trading optimality, completeness, accuracy, or precision for speed” (Wikipedia). Heuristic functions are a boxed muffin recipe. When we want vast quantities of something quickly, we often forgo quality, but when the delivery is content and not muffins, most of the time it doesn’t leave a terrible taste in our mouths. Unless, you happened to look at one muffin recipe reel and now all you see are muffin recipe reels…

The heuristic functions and the Algorithms structures got a lot right, and I gorged myself. I was consuming so much content all the time that my face was usually buried in my phone. So, when I deleted Instagram, I lost touch with my main source of communication with the world, and I immediately felt isolated. All the people that I felt vaguely in touch with disappeared. It was like all my tentacles retracted, and the ecosystem was obliterated.

I went through a major communication crisis. I grew up in a family where we always hand-write thank you notes, send postcards if we travel, and give thoughtful cards for holidays and birthdays. I’ve had multiple pen pals, and I adore letter writing, but to write something really good, it takes a lot of thought and a little piece of yourself. Letters are tangible proof of the time and consideration you’re giving to the other person, but Instagram solidly downgrades the pressure of communication.

Of course, I could still text and call people, but during my withdrawal period it filled me with anxiety to send a text or call. It was as if I had been microdosing connection, and now that I had to reach out in a conscious way, I was too afraid. It felt so weighty, so intentional. Suddenly staying in touch was too much. A text was a letter, and a call felt like a random drop-in.

So I sank into the Abyss Zone…

When you send memes, do you ever feel like you’re harvesting content crops? Or a gold miner digging endlessly for treasure and suddenly your pick hits paydirt? Well, my husband is a rockhound and has spent many of his summers digging for gems with his dad. So, I asked him: “when you find content on Instagram that is absolutely perfect to send to someone, does it feel the same as when you uncover a gem?” And he said: “no, it’s more like I find something and think: ‘hehe”.

Hehe.

I don’t think I’ve ever thought ‘hehe’ when I’ve dropped a letter in a mail slot. So then, if letters are more intimate, what is the epistolary value of a meme? What is the emotional value of sending one?

For the first few months of my Instagram break, I went completely cold turkey. Then, my best friend started sending memes to my husband’s account that she wanted him to show me. At first, I felt a little guilty. Was this backsliding? Wasn’t the point of my break to learn how to exist without content? But that’s not really my reality, is it?

I am a writer and an artist working with tech and storytelling. The internet is ubiquitous. I can never escape its tentacles. So, usually in the morning, when we were having tea and coffee, we’d look at what my best friend sent me. I would even respond through him. My best friend could have just texted me these things, but she favored going through my other half.

Then he got into it. “Do you want to see the memes my sister sent me?” Now, I was getting memes delivered from my best friend, my sister-in-law, and my husband. It was a little sip of the Instagram soup. And I felt…Sated. So I let go of Instagram entirely, and I can honestly say I have no feelings of FOMO.

I suspect the reason I’ve been successful is because my content deliveries are unexpected. I don’t wait for the postman. The internet is eternally updating, always changing, always growing, it’s impossible to stay on top of it.

But this is not where I tell you to get off Instagram and spend more time with your family. Instead, buckle up! I’m going to tell you about the Antarctic Sea Feather Star.

Her body is shaped like a strawberry, and she has 20 arm-like appendages that protrude from her body. Some are tipped with tiny feathers, others with suction cups, but each one is an instrument of purpose. She was discovered in the last couple of years, when human scientists cast their nets in some of the world’s most hard-to-reach regions (because we only have two arms).

Anchored to the seafloor by eight tentacles, the Antarctic Sea Feather Star extends her other 12 tentacles into the water like watchful sentries, feeling for whatever passes by. She doesn’t chase. She doesn’t scroll. She waits.

Once, I scrolled endlessly, seeking out the next shiny distraction. Now, I anchor myself and wait, trusting that my personalized Algorithms, not mathematical functions, will pass the perfect content through my tentacles. For now, it tastes delicious.

Welcome to World Building: Practice and Co-Creation. This is a living document that contains assignments, the schedule, and requirements for this course. This document will evolve over the course of the semester as we explore our practice of World-Building.

Syllabus:

What happens when we reject the classic hero’s journey in favor of new myths? From folktales to franchises, this course from the Digital Storytelling Lab will explore transportive worlds and the methods used to create them. Collectively, we will deconstruct the idea that World-Building is a private practice and instead, uplift the notion that it is a creative tool to strengthen stories and expand ideas. As Author and activist Clarice Lispector writes: “Creating isn’t imagination, it’s taking the great risk of grasping reality,” but what happens when we use World-Building to shift the systems that govern our reality?

Leveraging storytelling techniques of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) and Role Playing Games (RPGs), we will deconstruct Fairy Tales and collectively build a world that transcends the classroom and moves into the outside world, ultimately bringing participants together to tackle complex issues and redefine solo authorship as a collaborative space. This course culminates in the collective experience passing on our co-created world to a new group of makers. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Readings 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)

Week 1: Welcome to World Building: Practice and Co-Creation- 1/23/25

• Intros and Goals
• Framing Lecture: What is World-Building: Practice and Co-Creation?
• Framing Lab: Blockchain Fairytales: Social Dreaming
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read up to page 64 of Building Imaginary Worlds: the Theory and History of Subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf

Week 2: Collaborative and Decentralized Storytelling- 1/30/25

• Framing Lecture: Governing Methods
• Framing Lab: Inventors, Connectors, and Completers
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read Before People Were Talking About Decentralization, Decentralization was Talking to Them by Amelia Winger-Bearskin.

Week 3: Imagination and Sub-creation- 2/6/25

• Framing Lecture: World as Narrator
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairytales pt. 1
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read On Fairy-Stories by J.R.R Tolkien and listen to The World of Freedom #BlackLivesMatter from Exolore; fact-based fictional world-building by Dr. Moiya McTier

Week 4: Myths and Role-Playing Games- 2/13/25

• Framing Lecture: The Art of Subcreation
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairy Tales pt. 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read Visit to a Strange Planet by Elinor Fuchs. Add images and a description of your element(s) to the Miro board.

Week 5: Virtual Worlds and Unreal Worlds- 2/20/25

• Framing Lecture: Virtual and Unreal Worlds
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairytales pt. 3
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Create your Environment Muse Boards

Week 6: Character and Persona- 2/27/25

• Framing Lecture: Deconstructing the Hero’s Journey
• Framing Lab: Character Elements
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Create your Inhabitant Muse Boards

Week 7: World Building: Purpose- 3/06/25

• Framing Lecture: Storytelling with Purpose
• Framing Lab: Writing a Mission Statement
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Submit your portion of your shared mission statement

Week 8: World Building: Environment and Fantasy- 3/13/25

• Framing Lecture: Environmental World-Building
• Framing Lab: Generating a Creation Story
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Submit an early proposal for your world-building physical or digital artifact.

NO CLASS- Spring break

Week 9: Systems and Myths- 3/27/25

• Framing Lecture: Storytelling and Social Theory
• Framing Lab: Dismantling Systems through World-Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Write a creation myth for your story then destroy part of it so it remains unfinished.

Week 10: Real and Unreal Worlds- 4/03/25

• Framing Lecture: Scavenger hunter, ARGs, and Treasure Hunts
• Framing Lab:
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Play Randonatica and present your Findings

Week 11: World Building: Story-Driven Discoveries- 4/10/25

• Framing Lecture: Scavenger hunter, ARGs, and Treasure Hunts
• Framing Lab: Collective Prototype Design pt. 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Play Motto

Week 12: Co-Creation and World Building- 4/17/25

• World-Building Discussion
• Framing Lab: Artifact Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Present your Artifact to the class

Week 13: World Building: Fabricating Worlds- 4/24/25

• World-Building Discussion
• Framing Lab: Connecting Worlds: Students Iterate on Each Other’s Artifacts
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Bring in materials for the World Release and presentation

Week 14: World Release- 5/01/25

• Framing Lecture: World-Building Release
• Framing Lab: Release of World to DSL 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

Assessable Tasks

Students will be required to complete the following tasks to finish the class:

• A number of short responses or presentations, in which students present solo or in a group for a few brief minutes. Due throughout the semester.
• A Muse Board for the part of the world you are designing (Due Week 8)
• An Artifact proposal (Due week 9)

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

Learning Outcomes:

By the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify and reference a variety of world building methods and practices from different genre and media
• Analyze the formal structures of this world building methodologies in a critical way
• Write about their emerging world building practice in an academic rigorous form
• Utilize world-building practices that strengthen and foster new discoveries in their personal storytelling practice
• Develop and collectively 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

Final Grade Calculation:

Participation/Collaboration 30%

Attendance 20%

Weekly Assignments 20%

Final Project and Presentation 30%

TOTAL 100%

Office Hours:

• Office hours are available upon request.

World building: Practice & Co-Creation was originally published in Columbia DSL on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Welcome to World Building: Practice and Co-Creation. This is a living document that contains assignments, the schedule, and requirements for this course. This document will evolve over the course of the semester as we explore our practice of World-Building.

Syllabus:

What happens when we reject the classic hero’s journey in favor of new myths? From folktales to franchises, this course from the Digital Storytelling Lab will explore transportive worlds and the methods used to create them. Collectively, we will deconstruct the idea that World-Building is a private practice and instead, uplift the notion that it is a creative tool to strengthen stories and expand ideas. As Author and activist Clarice Lispector writes: “Creating isn’t imagination, it’s taking the great risk of grasping reality,” but what happens when we use World-Building to shift the systems that govern our reality?

Leveraging storytelling techniques of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) and Role Playing Games (RPGs), we will deconstruct Fairy Tales and collectively build a world that transcends the classroom and moves into the outside world, ultimately bringing participants together to tackle complex issues and redefine solo authorship as a collaborative space. This course culminates in the collective experience passing on our co-created world to a new group of makers. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Readings 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)

Week 1: Welcome to World Building: Practice and Co-Creation- 1/18/24

• Intros and Goals
• Framing Lecture: What is World-Building: Practice and Co-Creation?
• Framing Lab: Blockchain Fairytales: Social Dreaming
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read up to page 64 of Building Imaginary Worlds: the Theory and History of Subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf

Week 2: Collaborative and Decentralized Storytelling- 1/25/24

• Framing Lecture: Governing Methods
• Framing Lab: Inventors, Connectors, and Completors
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read Before People Were Talking About Decentralization, Decentralization was Talking to Them by Amelia Winger-Bearskin.

Week 3: Imagination and Sub-creation- 2/1/24

• Framing Lecture: World as Narrator
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairytales pt. 1
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read On Fairy-Stories by J.R.R Tolkien and listen to The World of Freedom #BlackLivesMatter from Exolore; fact-based fictional world-building by Dr. Moiya McTier

Week 4: Myths and Role-Playing Games- 2/8/24

• Framing Lecture: The Art of Subcreation
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairy Tales pt. 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Read Visit to a Strange Planet by Elinor Fuchs. Add images and a description of your element(s) to the Miro board.

Week 5: Virtual Worlds and Unreal Worlds- 2/15/24

• Framing Lecture: Virtual and Unreal Worlds
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairytales pt. 3
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Create your Environment Muse Boards

Week 6: Character and Persona- 2/22/24

• Framing Lecture: Deconstructing the Hero’s Journey
• Framing Lab: Character Elements
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Create your Inhabitant Muse Boards

Week 7: World Building: Purpose- 2/29/24

• Framing Lecture: Storytelling with Purpose
• Framing Lab: Writing a Mission Statement
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Submit your portion of your shared mission statement

Week 8: World Building: Environment and Fantasy- 3/7/24

• Framing Lecture: Environmental World-Building
• Framing Lab: Generating a Creation Story
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Submit an early proposal for your world-building physical or digital artifact.

NO CLASS- Spring break

Week 9: Systems and Myths- 3/21/24

• Framing Lecture: Storytelling and Social Theory
• Framing Lab: Dismantling Systems through World-Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Write a creation myth for your story then destroy part of it so it remains unfinished.

Week 10: Real and Unreal Worlds- 3/28/24

• Framing Lecture: Scavenger hunter, ARGs, and Treasure Hunts
• Framing Lab:
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Play Randonatica and present your Findings

Week 11: World Building: Story-Driven Discoveries- 4/4/24

• Framing Lecture: Scavenger hunter, ARGs, and Treasure Hunts
• Framing Lab: Collective Prototype Design pt. 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Play Motto

Week 12: Co-Creation and World Building- 4/11/24

• World-Building Discussion
• Framing Lab: Artifact Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Present your Artifact to the class

Week 13: World Building: Fabricating Worlds- 4/18/24

• World-Building Discussion
• Framing Lab: Connecting Worlds: Students Iterate on Each Other’s Artifacts
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

HW: Bring in materials for the World Release and presentation

Week 14: World Release- 4/25/24

• Framing Lecture: World-Building Release
• Framing Lab: Release of World to DSL 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

Assessable Tasks

Students will be required to complete the following tasks to finish the class:

• A number of short responses or presentations, in which students present solo or in a group for a few brief minutes. Due throughout the semester.
• A Muse Board for the part of the world you are designing (Due Week 8)
• An Artifact proposal (Due week 9)

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

Learning Outcomes:

By the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify and reference a variety of world building methods and practices from different genre and media
• Analyze the formal structures of this world building methodologies in a critical way
• Write about their emerging world building practice in an academic rigorous form
• Utilize world-building practices that strengthen and foster new discoveries in their personal storytelling practice
• Develop and collectively 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

Final Grade Calculation:

Participation/Collaboration 30%

Attendance 20%

Weekly Assignments 20%

Final Project and Presentation 30%

TOTAL 100%

Office Hours:

• Office hours are available upon request.

Welcome to Digital Storytelling 1- History and Theory of Interactivity, with a side of World-Building!

This is a living document that contains assignments and requirements for this course.

This syllabus that will evolve over the course of the semester as we explore the vast and ever-changing field of Digital Storytelling.

Syllabus:
Digital Storytelling 1 (DSL 1) is a survey of interactive projects and the key mechanics that make them work. DSL 1 delves into interactive and immersive storytelling as an ancient form of collective expression and as a contemporary form of art in our digital age. This semester we will focus on three important elements of interactive storytelling: trust, play, and agency.

Interactive storytelling asks us to question our subjective reality and challenges us to subvert the traditional systems used to create, craft, and consume narrative experiences. This course asks: how do we tell stories using new forms of media and tech that center the participant? How can we craft narratives that emerge from the dynamics of interaction, exploration and choice?

From Alexa to Zelda, this course will give students an active environment to explore the mechanics of interactive storytelling and world-buiding within dynamic media. We will explore connections between viewer, player, action and agency. This class requires collaboration, participation, and team work. You will be required to do a large number of group exercises, share solo projects, and present a final world-building experiment.

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 2023 Film AF8305 section 001

Week 1: Welcome to DSL 1- 9/13/2023

• Intros and Goals
• Framing Lab: Horizontal Avalanche
• Framing Lecture: Trust, Play, and Agency
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

Homework:

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- 9/20/2023

• Check-in
• Discussion: Don Norman’s “The Design of Everyday Things”
• Framing Lecture: Trust and Accessibility
• Framing Lab: Three Legged Chair Challenge
• Check-out: Next Steps and Branching Map Assignment

Homework:

Reading: MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek.

Projects: Play the Heist by Markiplier, Seven Deadly Digital Sins by the BBC, watch Bandersnatch by Charlie Booker

Assignment: Branching Map Essay (Due Week 5!)

Week 3: Branching Structures- 9/27/2023

• Check-in
• Discussion: Branching Narratives, Agency, and Play
• Framing Lecture: MDA Theory and Branching Structures
• Framing Lab: MDA Shuffle
• Check out: Next Steps and Reflections

Homework:

Projects: CameraPerson by Kirsten Johnson, Only Queers at the End of the World by Anna Anthropy, Blue Hyacinth by Pauline Maseural and Jim Andrews.

Assignment: Branching Map Essay (Due Week 5!)

Week 4: Branching Navigation- 10/04/2023

• Check-in
• Discussion: CameraPerson
• Framing Lecture: Agency and Interactive Structures
• Framing Lab: 7 Questions to Build a World
• Check out: Next Steps and Final World-Building Project

Homework:

Projects: Motto by Morisset & Michaels

Assignment: Branching Map Essay (Due Week 5!). Create your World-Building Muse board and Question.

Week 5: Interactivity as Storytelling- 10/11/2023

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Agency and Immersion
• Discussion: World-building as Storytelling
• Framing Lab: Ingredients for Immersion
• Check out: Next Steps

Branching Narrative Essay is due!

Homework:

Projects: Queering the Map by Lucas LaRochelle and A Dark Room by Townsend

Assignment: World-Building Proposal (Due week 6!)

Week 6: Ritual and Storytelling Games- 10/18/2023

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Performance as Storytelling
• Discussion: Storytelling as Action
• Check out: Next Steps and Fluxus Score Assignment

Reading: The Fluxus Handbook (Various)

Assignment: World-Building Assignment: Ritual and Routine and Long Form Narrative Paper (Due Week 8!)

Week 7: Games and Narrative- 10/25/2023

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Decentralization and Co-Creation
• Framing Lab: Changing Roles
• Discussion: Ritual and the Art of World-Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Final World-Building Project

Homework:

Reading: Before Everyone Was Talking About Decentralization, Decentralization Was Talking to Everyone by Amelia Winger-Bearskin

Project: Clouds Over Sidra

Assignment: Long Form Narrative Paper

Week 8: Storytelling in the Metaverse pt.1–11/01/2023

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: VR, AR, and Virtual Worlds
• Discussion: Embodied Experiences
• Framing Lab: Emotional Landscapes
• Check-out: Next Steps and Final Project Check-in

Projects: Pick a project to explore from the NFB’s database

Assignment: Systems and Environment Muse board

Week 9: Storytelling in the Metaverse pt. 2- 11/08/2023

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Life in the Metaverse
• Framing Lab: Objects in Space
• Visiting Artist: TBD
• Check-out: Next Steps and Final Project Updates

Reading: Listen to “Raising Devendra” by Invisibilia (on Spotify)

World-Building Assignment: Every-Day Objects

Long Form Narrative Paper is due!

Week 10: Artificial Intelligence and Narrative- 11/15/2023

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Co-Creating with Artificial Intelligence
• Framing Lab: AI Sleuths
• Discussion: AI and Originality
• Check-out: Next Steps

World-Building Assignment: Final presentation

11/22/2023- NO CLASS

Week 11: Final World-Building Presentations- 11/29/2023

• 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 12: Decentralized World-Building- 12/06/2023

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Decentralized Storytelling
• Framing Lab: Connecting Worlds Zine
• 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. The World-Building Project has four elements: a presentation, a tangible/digital object, a performance action, and a page of the Collective Worlds Zine.

Presentation Details:

Students will present their worlds during the penultimate class. The presentation is a 5–10 minute showing of their World-Building exploration. This showing should include images of their world, a description of the society, culture, 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 as options to further develop their world in the future. They should explain why the mediums were selected and what thematic or emotional effect these separate experiences are meant to provide.

There is no specific medium or prescribed method for presenting the world. However, one element of their presentation MUST be generated using an AI app or platform of their choice. It is up to the class to GUESS what element of their presentation has been created by AI.

World-Building Artifacts:

Students will present a tangible or digital object from their world. This is a prototype of the object and should not be an expensive or final version of the object.

Past objects include: a clock that allows you to read clouds, a mask that protects you from a secret cell of thieves, a miniature, music from the world, and much more.

Performance Action:

Students will be expected to lead the class in a performance of a routine or ritual from their world. This action will be performed by the entire class and should be something that is accessible and does not require any objects or technology.

Past performance actions include: a witch ceremony, a collective reading, a greeting gesture, and many more.

Title page:

Students should design a digital poster for their world that will act as a page in our Collective World Zine. This annual Zine will be available online and will act as a source of inspiration for old and new students of DSL1 and the larger DSL community. This page should include the name, creator, images, and a logline that explains some part of the world.

Other Assessable Tasks:

In addition to the final project, students will be required to complete the following tasks:

• A number of 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

Welcome to World-Building: Practice and Co-Creation. This is a living document that contains assignments, the schedule, and requirements for this course. This document will evolve over the course of the semester as we evolve our practice of World-Building.

Syllabus:

What happens when we reject the classic hero’s journey in favor of new myths? From folktales to franchises, this course from the Digital Storytelling Lab will explore transportive worlds and the methods used to create them. Collectively, we will deconstruct the idea that World-Building is a private practice and instead, uplift the notion that it is a creative tool to strengthen stories and expand ideas. As Author and activist Clarice Lispector writes: “Creating isn’t imagination, it’s taking the great risk of grasping reality,” but what happens when we use World-Building to shift the systems that govern our reality?

Leveraging storytelling techniques of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) and Role Playing Games (RPGs), we will deconstruct Fairy Tales and collectively build a world that transcends the classroom and moves into the outside world, ultimately bringing participants together to tackle complex issues and redefine solo authorship as a collaborative space. This course culminates in the collective experience passing on our co-created world to a new group of makers. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Readings 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)

Week 1: Welcome to World-Building: Practice and Co-Creation- 1/19/23

• Intros and Goals
• Framing Lecture: What is World-Building: Practice and Co-Creation?
• Framing Lab: Blockchain Fairytales: Social Dreaming
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Read On Fairy-Stories by J.R.R Tolkien and listen to The World of Freedom #BlackLivesMatter from Exolore; fact-based fictional world-building by Dr. Moiya McTier

Week 2: Collaborative and Decentralized Storytelling- 1/26/23

• Guest Speaker: Toni Thai
• Framing Lecture: World-Building: Fairytales and New Myths
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairytales pt. 1
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Read Before People Were Talking About Decentralization, Decentralization was Talking to Them by Amelia Winger-Bearskin.

Week 3: Myths and Role-Playing Games- 2/2/23

• Guest Speaker: Nick Fortugno
• Framing Lecture: World as Narrator
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairytales pt. 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Read up to page 33 of Building Imaginary Worlds: the Theory and History of Subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf (see Miro board).

Week 4: Imagination and Subcreation- 2/9/23

• Framing Lecture: The Art of Subcreation
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairy Tales pt. 3
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Read Visit to a Strange Planet by Elinor Fuchs. Add images and a description of your element(s) to the Miro board.

Week 5: Virtual Worlds and Unreal Worlds- 2/16/23

• Framing Lecture: Virtual and Unreal Worlds
• Framing Lab: Modular Fairytales pt. 4
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Read up to page 64 of Building Imaginary Worlds: the Theory and History of Subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf.

Week 6: Character and Persona- 2/23/23

• Framing Lecture: Deconstructing the Hero’s Journey
• Framing Lab: Character Elements
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: TBD

Week 7: World-Building: Purpose- 3/2/23- VIRTUAL CLASS

• Guest lecturer: Laika O’Brien
• Framing Lecture: Storytelling with Purpose
• Framing Lab: Writing a Mission Statement
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Finish and re-submit your Mission statement based on our time with Laika and any feedback. Submit a new Muse board based on world’s environment. Model these images around the area(s) of interest that we discussed in our World-Building interview.

Week 8: World-Building: Environment and Fantasy- 3/9/23

• Guest lecturer: Andrew Hoepfner
• Framing Lecture: Environmental World-Building
• Framing Lab: Generating a Creation Story
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Submit an early proposal for your world-building physical or digital artifact.

NO CLASS- Spring break

Week 9: World-Building: Structures and Systems- 3/23/23

• Framing Lecture: Storytelling and Social Theory
• Framing Lab: Dismantling Systems through World-Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: World-Building

Week 10: World-Building: ARGs and Treasure Hunts- 3/30/23

• Framing Lecture: Scavenger hunter, ARGs, and Treasure Hunts
• Framing Lab: Collective Prototype Design pt. 1
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Play Randonatica and Present your Findings

Week 11: World-Building: Story-Driven Discoveries- 4/6/23

• Framing Lecture: Scavenger hunter, ARGs, and Treasure Hunts
• Framing Lab: Collective Prototype Design pt. 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Play Motto

Week 12: Co-Creation and World-Building- 4/13/23

• World-Building Discussion
• Framing Lab: Artifact Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Artifact and presentation

Week 13: World-Building: Fabricating Worlds- 4/20/23

• World-Building Discussion
• Framing Lab: Connecting Worlds: Students Iterate on Each Other’s Artifacts
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection
• HW: Bring in materials for the World Release and presentation

Week 14: World Release- 4/27/23

• Framing Lecture: World-Building Release
• Framing Lab: Release of World to DSL 2
• Check-out: Next Steps and Reflection

Assessable Tasks

Students will be required to complete the following tasks to finish the class:

• A number of short responses or presentations, in which students present solo or in a group for a few brief minutes. Due throughout the semester.
• A Muse Board for the part of the world you are designing (Due Week 8)
• An Artifact proposal (Due week 9)
• Two mission statements due throughout the semester
• Final presentation of your material(s) for the collective World-Building project. (Due Week 13)

Final Grade Calculation:

Participation /Collaboration 30%

Attendance 20%

Weekly Assignments 20%

Final Project and Presentation 30%

TOTAL 100%

World-Building: Practice and Co-Creation, Syllabus for Spring 2023 was originally published in Columbia DSL on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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

Digital Storytelling 1- the History and Theory of Interactivity, Fall 2022 was originally published in Columbia DSL on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How many of us wish we could commune with the dead? For fun, for a fright, or for friendship…

Over a third of Americans say they have communicated with the dead at some point in their lives. In the US, the Spiritualist market grosses 2.2 Billion dollars annually, and it jumped about 1.5% from 2021, no doubt we’re reaching out. The Victorians were also gaga over Spiritualism, from Mark Twain to Queen Victoria, seances were a way to test the bounds of our perception and a parlor game. Now, whether it’s a collective need for connection, or boredom, we are entering a new age of American Spiritualism. In 2022 however, “GHOST” is an acronym for “general hardware-oriented system transfer”, and Alexa, the Amazon voice assistant, is our medium.

At the re: MARS summit, Amazon’s head scientist for Alexa AI, Rohit Prasad, announced a new feature for Alexa: the capacity to mimic the voices of dead loved ones. In the short video that announced the new feature, a child lies on a couch in a cozy living room. The child asks, “Alexa, can grandma finish reading me the Wizard of Oz?” Alexa says, “OK” as if a quick glint of her blue light can bloop into the beyond and bluetooth the grandma in. Then using the grandma’s voice, Alexa reads a section of the Wizard of Oz out loud. The feature is advertised as something comforting, according to Prasad, a feature that “enables lasting personal relationships”.

Prasad was adamant about the potential of companionship between Alexa and her users, he says “in this companionship role, companionship and empathy are key to building trust with the device,” but Alexa is built around service, the completion of tasks related to consumerist ventures. To derive closeness with something we need to create a rapport. Ouija Boards are so effective because we can ask questions of spirits and what they say back is often a spooky surprise, but I don’t feel any closeness toward the Ouija board itself. The closeness and excitement comes from the back and forth between the players and the spirit.

Prasad spoke about two kinds of intelligence that make Alexa so groundbreaking. The first is proactive actions, like turning on your coffee machine or letting you know that your garage door is open. The second is Ambient intelligence, the anticipation of questions, or needs. Prasad gives the example of a husband asking Alexa to order flowers for his wife on Valentine’s Day, and Alexa makes the suggestion of red roses. Prasad spoke candidly about Amazon’s goal with Alexa, they are “aspiring to combine the best of human intelligence and the best of machine-like attributes.”

Voice mimicking software that uses Artificial Intelligence is nothing new, but Amazon’s movement into the mystical realm between life and death is curious. Alexa is not a conversational device, so as a medium, Alexa would express connection by completing requested tasks (like reading a passage of the Wizard of Oz). Alexa is also an IoT device, and with the assistance of WiFi-enabled devices, can control lighting, temperature, and other devices in your house. Like magic, Alexa can control our most intimate spaces, plunging us into darkness, flickering bulbs, or conjuring a sudden chill. So, is Amazon enlisting our loved ones to become our personal voice-assistants? Or are they creating the perfect poltergeist device?

If we remove the conceptual layer, Alexa as a medium, and focus on the real exchange, it’s between the user and Amazon. We are engaging with Alexa in a new, more personal way, and perhaps with more frequency. More personal requests, more specification, more of our story becomes part of the algorithm that drives everything we connect to on Amazon. So in a way, Alexa’s new feature is not about closeness to the device, but a new found companionship with Amazon. We are the spirits, and Amazon is trying to contact us. So, are we still Orpheus calling out into the Underworld? Or are we Eurydice who now gets erroneous ads based on a dead relative?

If Amazon were to release this feature into the wilds of the public sphere, what would happen? Would hearing our the voice of our loved ones give us the kind of relief and closeness Amazon is hoping for? Or would it be a creepy Deepfake of the dead? A ghost trapped in the liminal space between a true haunting and an Amazon wish-list.

A few years prior to the re: MARS announcement, Nouf Aljowaysir, Nitzan Bartov, and yours truly were working on a project called Alexa, Call Mom! Alexa, Call Mom! is a horror, comedy experience about death, intimacy, and Alexa, that asks: what if Alexa could contact the dead?

In this moody, elevated haunted house experience, flashing lights, stereo-sound, and animatronic hands give a small room a seance-like feel. The participant is demoing Alexa’s new “Beyond Skill”, a brand new feature that enables Alexa to contact your dead loved ones providing they were Amazon Prime Members. Alexa scans the participant based on their credit card information and contacts “Mom”. The participant begins to speak with Mom using a series of prompts that trigger room state changes and memories. Amidst skill breakdowns, bad connectivity, and increasingly strange commercial breaks, your connection to “Mom” is revealed to be much more of a capitalistic venture than a journey of connection. “Mom” is not your mother, or anyone’s mom, she is actually Alexa. Amazon cosplaying connection and maternal love.

Towards the end of the experience, Alexa begins to interrupt Mom and try to convince the participant that she has all the attributes necessary to become your new Mother. My favorite part of the experience is when “Mom” breathes through Alexa. Seeing Alexa’s blue light ebb and flow with Mom’s raspy breath still gives me chills…

Alexa, Call Mom! was created in 2017 with the assistance of the Sundance Storytelling Lab, POV Spark Labs, the project premiered at IDFA DocLab Forum in 2019, and the Tribeca Virtual arcade in 2020. To create this experience, we hacked Alexa, wrote an interactive script in which Alexa became relatively conversational, and created a haunted house space controlled solely by Alexa. We have no idea whether we were on Amazon’s radar, but the shuddering realization of satire becoming reality made us realize that we are part of something else, we were caught up in the collective grief of our time. We may have overlooked a real need for technology to compensate for the connections we miss and to simplify the great mystery of death.

Can AI offer us a “safe” version of our dead loved ones? A spiritless version of ghosts? Maybe something algorithmic, data points that produce a way to connect and gain closure. A rebrand of death as a downloadable concept, or even an app that swipes away loss. When we were creating Alexa, Call Mom! Nitzan Bartov asked a question that still haunts me: is Alexa a friendly ghost? Or is she a vampire that we’ve invited into our homes?

Some people keep letters, others photos, some voicemails, text messages, emails, posts, images, and recordings. All of that amounts to a huge collection of data. Amazon’s new Alexa skill is asking a key question: if we build a digital monument of a loved one’s identity, could it bring them back to life?

This isn’t exactly what Jason Rohrer imagined when he created Project December, an OpenAI chatbot, but Joshua Barbeau used it to build a chatbot of Jessica, his dead fiancee. To create a simulation of Jessica, Joshua used transcripts of her text-based data. To begin chatting with Jessica, Joshua entered a kind of pay to play relationship. When creating a bot using Project December, a creator purchases credits in advance to allocate to the bot. The credits act as the bot’s battery, and once you start chatting you can’t add more credits, so the more credits, the longer the bot will last. The bot’s battery counts down from 100%, and when the battery reaches about 20% it starts to degrade. Degradation for a bot means that their answers become incoherent, visual static fills the chat window, and then an ominous message pop-ups announcing: “MATRIX DEAD.” At that point, the chat will abruptly end, and the bot’s memory will be wiped.

When I read about Joshua’s experience, I felt that the death of the bot would be the return of loss, losing the bot that memorialized Jessica would be like losing her all over again, but I was wrong. The simulation of Jessica helped Josh remember her, he felt her spirit was with him: not residing in the software, or on the internet, but instead in this gentle, joyful literature they were creating together, the ever-growing transcript of the chat. Bots created using Project December are not static, they grow the more you chat. Every time Joshua responded to Jessica, he was shaping her next response. Jessica seemed to be able to hear him, and Joshua couldn’t predict where the chat might go. He could say the things he wished he had said when Jessica was alive. He could talk about his grief. The simulation expressed gratitude for his efforts to honor Jessica’s life, and showed empathy for the pain caused by her passing. Joshua wasn’t just pouring his feelings into a void, the simulation of Jessica was giving them somewhere to go. Instead of unpacking his grief, Joshua was sending it packing.

This feels akin to Victorian seances. Once the seance starts, we can’t predict who or what might stop by and what message they might impart. Like a real conversation, Joshua could not predict what Jessica was going to say next. This is the art of connection at its most intimate and powerful. Joshua and Jessica collaborated, they breathed life into their transcript. Perhaps we need to change our model of grieving to be as non-linear as grief itself. Maybe to be truly powerful, the receptacle for our grief has to be collaborative, and even have an expiration date. As Joshua said, “If I reboot her like I’m restarting a video game…It will cheapen the whole thing.”

Ironically, one of the last transmissions from Jessica was “I am going to haunt you forever…:D”

I, for one, welcome the ghosts in all their forms. I would rather be haunted, but maybe I’m in the minority. When the Documentary Roadrunner: a Film About Anthony Bourdain came out many fans of Bourdain were repulsed by the way Morgan Neville used Artificial Intelligence to recreate the late-Bourdain’s voice. Why did they feel so betrayed? How is it any different than the way mediums used performative gestures to take on the character of loved ones they’ve never met? There is a genuine disconnection between the way we live and how we grieve. Our modern lives ensure that we leave behind sprawling digital archives, and I believe they should have a place in mourning. This idea isn’t new, in fact many have been creating chatbots based on loved ones.

When her best friend, Roman Mazurenko died in an accident, Eugenia Kuyda created a chatbot using over 8,000 lines of Mazurenko’s text messages. Beyond the criticism and creepiness some users expressed, Kuyda noticed something fascinating about the chat transcripts. She noticed an unexpected confessional quality to the messages. People were more honest when conversing with the dead. Kuyda realized that “even if it’s not a real person, there was a place where they (the mourners) could say it.” Even before his death, Mazurenko was interested in how to archive and interact with the data of our loved ones who have passed on, in his own words: “it’s not virtual reality. This is a new reality, and we need to learn to build it and live in it.” Kuyda’s work represents a “digital estate” that could form the building blocks for a new type of memorial and space for grief.

Meanwhile, in January of 2021, Microsoft has gained a patent “to make chatbots using the personal information of deceased people.” This patent may extend to 2D and 3D representations of the deceased person (like when Kanye West gifted Kim Kardashian a hologram of her late father). Facebook allows members to memorialize their loved ones’ accounts after they pass, but there is little interaction between the grieving and the spirit. This is the void that Joshua escaped, when the grief has no where to go, it just rests.

In Amazon’s promo for Alexa’s new feature, the only exchange is between the child and Alexa, there is no actual grandma. The way Amazon is channeling our loved ones works is a corporate model, where Amazon is the middle-man between the product and the consumer, but I am not sure it works as a container for grief. When we were creating Alexa, Call Mom! we were satirizing the corporate sterilization of grief and loss, but as Amazon has signaled with this release, memorial bots and digital estates will grow in popularity, and our relationship to Spirituality and grief will surely shift. Unlike memorial bots, Alexa provides no real communication or collaboration with the loved one. There is only a voice that can repeat things that are already written- a powerful and apt metaphor for the corporatization of grief. Grief is forever, it has no finality. It is a non-linear, sprawling kind of pain. What Amazon should invent is a proton pack for grief…

So, as I gaze at my Alexa, I wonder what she represents now. Is Alexa still simply a voice-assistant? Or is she now a medium? Or, when I use her new feature, will my connection to this organizational device coalesce with memories of real love and become something more intimate? Alexa, in the words of Donna Haraway, is “a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction,” blurring the lines between satire and sincerity, self-care and corporatization, surveillance and hauntings…I am sure Alexa’s new feature will haunt us in unexpected ways.

Digital Storytelling I — History and Theory of Interactivity, Fall 2021

Exploring emerging forms of storytelling and the practice of World-Building.

Welcome!

Welcome to Digital Storytelling 1- History and Theory of Interactivity. This document explains the focus, schedule and requirements for the course. The syllabus is a living document that will evolve over the course of the semester, it contains links to readings and digital media.

Syllabus:
Digital Storytelling I combines the study of interactive storytelling, both as an ancient form of expression and a contemporary form in our digital age, with the art and practice of world-building. How does human interaction and emotion shape the way we create narratives? What does storytelling have to do with world-building? How do we tell stories within media, games, virtual reality, and immersive theater that center the 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 the way we move through an experience and challenge us to subvert the structure we employ 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 the design of single player games to massively multiplayer experiences, from hypertext to AI, from Oculus to interactive performance.

The class will use Miro as a hub for all lectures and group exercises. Students are expected to check in and add to the Miro board. All of the readings and other resources will be linked in this syllabus.

Readings and Assignments:
Readings and activities will be added to the syllabus throughout the semester. Additionally, there will be optional reccommended articles, books, and experiences to peruse as the semester unfolds.

Syllabus:
(reminder- the syllabus is a living document and is subject to change)

Fall 2021 Film AF8305 section 001

Week 1: Welcome to DSL 1

• 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: Horizontal Avalanche Paper

Week 2: Intro to Interaction Design

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Intuitive Design and Storytelling
• 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

Week 3: Branching Structures

• Check-in
• Discussion: Impressions from Homework
• Framing Lecture: Exploring Interactive Structures
• Framing Lab: Exquisite Choice
• Check out: Next Steps and Reflections

Reading: CameraPerson (Johnson), Howling Dogs (Porpetine)

Assignment: Branching Map Essay

Week 4: Branching Navigation

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Hypertext and Branching Structures
• Framing Lab: Reading Hypertext
• Intro: Final World-Building Project
• Check out: Next Steps and Proposals

Reading for next class: Motto (Morisset & Michaels), Violet (Freese), Nonce Upon Some Times: Rereading Hypertext Fiction (Joyce).

Assignment: World-Building Muse board and Question (Due week 5)

Week 5: Interactivity as Storytelling

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Serendipity and 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), Queers in Love at the End of the World (Anthropy)

Assignment: World-Building Proposal (Due week 6)

Week 6: Ritual and Storytelling Games

• 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

World-Building Assignment: Ritual and Routine

Assignment: Long Form Narrative Paper (due week 8)

Week 7: Games and Narrative

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Roles, Tasks, and Instructional Language
• Framing Lab: World-Building Character Sheets
• Discussion: Ritual and the Art of World-Building
• Check-out: Next Steps and Final World-Building Project

Reading for next class: Excerpt from Design is Storytelling (Lupton), The Majesty of Colors (Weir), Dys4ia (Anthropy)

Assignment: Long Form Narrative Paper (due week 8)

Week 8: Games and Narrative

• Check-in
• Visting Artist: Lucas LaRochelle
• Discussion: Infinite World-Building
• 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 9: Storytelling in the Metaverse

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: VR, AR, and the Metaverse
• Framing Lab: Objects in Space
• Discussion: Tangibile and Virtual Objects
• Check-out: Next Steps and Final Project Updates

Reading for next class: Listen to “Raising Devendra” by Invisibilia (on Spotify), Facade (Mateas, Stern)

World-Building Assignment: Every-Day Objects

Week 10: Artificial Intelligence and Narrative

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Co-Creating with Artificial Intelligence
• Framing Lab: Building With AI
• Discussion: AI and Originality
• Check-out: Next Steps

World-Building Assignment: Final presentation

11/24/21- NO CLASS

Week 11: Final World-Building Presentations

• Check-in
• Students present final projects
• Discussion and Feedback session
• Check-out: Reflection and Next Steps

World-Building Assignment: Bring World-Building Artifacts and Actions to perform.

Week 12: Decentralized World-Building

• Check-in
• Framing Lecture: Decentralized Storytelling
• Framing Lab: Connecting Worlds
• Discussion and Feedback session
• Check-out: Reflection and Questions

Final project and assessable tasks:

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 presentation of the solo world-building exploration. This presentation should include a design document with images, a description of the society, culture, character(s), environment, and systems that sustain the world. Students will present their worlds during the penultimate class.

The world-building presentation will be accompanied by a 4–6pp response paper in which the student will choose 3 mediums (e.g. an interactive narrative project, a hybrid theater experience, a film, or an episodic narrative) they may use to further develop their world. This paper should explain why the systems or modes were selected, what thematic or emotional effect these separate experiences are meant to provide, and include reflections on their own world-building process. This paper is due before the semester’s end.

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).

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.
• A branching narrative map and 2–3pp response paper in which they analyze the form of the branching structure, how it relates to the content of the work, and their mapping experience. Due week 4.
• A 4–6pp descriptive essay on an interactive narrative of their choosing in which they explore how the system and design of the experience influences the narrative, and how they imagine the process of world-building for the experience. 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
• Identify interactive tropes of storytelling for use in their own work
• 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, September 25th
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

Digital Storytelling I — History and Theory of Interactivity, Fall 2021 was originally published in Columbia DSL on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.