We have become more aware than ever how narrative organizes our perceptions, and creates meaning…much as Joseph Campbell taught in the Power of Myth. Online learning lends itself to using a lot of narrative packages for learning activities. In the cloud, adaptive learning, and just in time learning, and interactive learning are enabled. This indicates we should understand what is “interactive narrative”.
This next generation of media – which will be a foundation for art, learning, self-expression and even health maintenance – requires a deeply interdisciplinary approach. Instead of engineer-built tools wielded by artists, we must merge art and science, storytelling and software, to create groundbreaking, technology-enabled experiences deeply connected to human culture.
It should be noted that the idea of interactive media has been around for some time…early online MUDD games were popular…and attempts to let the audience choose plot lines and especially alternate endings, have been present in video games, and even movies, for probably at least a few decades.
There’ are big hurdles to overcome with interactive narrative, because one of the ways narrative works, is to narrowly focus our attention to one specific story…which has drive and pull because we want to know “how it turns out”. Just like we want to know how our own personal narratives are going to turn out.
Having open ended narratives kind of throws us for a loop; we get anxious…”tell us how it ends!” seems a strong human drive, and when cultures don’t have a narrative that tells where it’s going, people tend to freak out, and act up, and anarchy becomes popular.. OTOH, online social media supports our ability to suggest our own narratives, so it’s “hard to say” how this change in the narrative of narrative is going to end. Puns intended.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/The-future-is-in-interactive-storytelling.pdf”]