Author: Hanney Roy
Registration Number: 056
Institution: Solent University, Southampton, UK
Abstract: If we consider the publication of Bandersnatch (Slade, 2018) by Netflix as a watershed moment for interactive digital narrative (IDN), are we to believe that we have now moved into a golden age, or are we still in an age of discovery? In 2008, Tom Abba, writing in the Journal of Media Practice, situates that moment as a turning point for IDN, offering several pertinent insights into the nature of interactive storytelling. Though Abba concludes that the degree to which experiments in IDN have been enabled has been, up to that point in time, extremely limited. Whereas now, some twelve years later and three years’ post-Bandersnatch, the opportunity to experiment has been granted as a plethora of emergent platforms offer just such a possibility. Having taken advantage of the opportunity to collaborate with Stornway.io (an online IDN story map editor) and experiment in the creation of IDN with a group of second-year media production students at a UK university, this paper revisits Abba’s 2008 article and asks questions about the nature of IDN in the current technological and cultural context. It offers a reflection on issues that emerge from the experience of introducing IDN to undergraduate students on a programme of study. The paper explores a model for teaching and creating IDN that draws on conversations with the founders of Stornaway.io, library research into IDN, as well as personal reflections by the researcher and the students involved in the collaboration. Initial findings point to the importance of agency as a key topic for anyone teaching IDN ideation and story development. Those with experience of teaching screenwriting will recognize the difference between story and plot as an important threshold concept, one further exacerbated by the need to include decision points that initiate branching narratives. The interaction between the decision points and "the story," rather than "the plot," being an important factor in providing the audience with satisfaction through meaningful action. An etymological exploration of the contrast between the terms "affect" and "effect" provides a playful means of thinking through these issues and arriving at a basis for an aesthetic of dramatic agency. Throughout this discussion, the paper also re-evaluates the difference between IDN and other forms of interactive experience, such as computer games, ARG's or transmedia experiences in order to establish a framework for thinking about interactive fiction video as a distinct and unique practice. In conclusion, the paper poses a final question asking if we can now reconsider IDN in terms of what we have watched rather than, as Abba terms it, what we might watch.
Bio: Hanney Roy has extensive experience of leading academic teams and has published on the use of live projects to bridge the divide between higher education and the world of work. More recently, Roy has turned towards creative talent development and community engagement as an important strand of his work. Alongside this, he continues to grow as a creative practice researcher and the developer of community driven, immersive, audio-visual arts projects. Recently funded projects include Darkside Portside AR/poetry-film trail, Cursed City Dark Tide transmedia experience, and the Snow Witch Art Exhibition in the city of Portsmouth, UK. He is the festival director for Making Waves International Film festival and for DVMISSION 48 Hours Film Challenge.