J222 Interactive Narratives: Future Storyforms

Welcome to Interactive Narratives! This course will explore how digital narratives are reported, designed, produced, and consumed in various digital and virtual formats. This is an ever-changing field with new and old technologies evolving constantly. The goal of this course is to understand how media professionals can best utilize any new technologies to meaningfully enhance a story. We will explore and create immersive narratives with AR, VR, mobile, social media, audio, and more.

When we talk about interactive narratives, we think about the classic New York Times’s “Snowfall.” Since then, we’ve seen an explosion of new digital content leveraging code, AR, photogrammetry, spatial audio, maps… Making these stories require finesse and critical thinking. Not every story can benefit from an interactive treatment and not every tool is fit for the job.

How do we decide which tool to use and when? Which tools are better for reporting? Which ones are better in the production? How do we edit interactive stories? What should we be looking for when putting a pitch together? How do we design and think ahead about interactions? How to make sure our interactive/immersive experience gets people hooked? How do we make our experience accessible? This is where this class comes in.