Intro to the COST Action CA18230, Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations (INDCOR)

1. CA 18230 INDCOR INTERACTIVE
NARRATIVE DESIGN FOR
COMPLEXITY REPRESENTATIONS
-
BRUSSELS, 6.12.2019
HARTMUT KOENITZ
@HKOENITZ

2. AGENDA
INTRO
DISSEMINATION AND STSM CHAIRS
BREAK
WORK GROUPS

3. SOME STATISTICS
SO FAR:
28 NATIONS (2 MORE CURRENTLY IN
THE PROCESS OF JOINING)
42 MC MEMBERS, 22 MC
SUBSTITUTES

4. VISION
WE ARE WORKING TO CREATE NEW
FORMS OF HUMAN EXPRESSION TO
UNDERSTAND COMPLEX TOPICS.
TO THAT END WE FACILITATE A FIELD
FOR RESEARCH AND NEW PROFESSIONS

5. INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE DESIGN FOR
COMPLEXITY REPRESENTATIONS
WHAT IT IS
A DIFFERENT KIND OF NARRATIVE
ITS PARTICULAR ROLE
REPRESENTATIONS OF COMPLEXITY
THE ROAD AHEAD

6. ACADEMIC
ARTIST

7. PROFESSOR INTERACTIVE
NARRATIVE DESIGN

8. PROFESSORSHIP TEAM
+ MANY MORE

9. VIDEOS &
INSTALLATIONS

10. WHAT ARE
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL
NARRATIVES (IDN)?

11. [IDN IS AN] EXPRESSIVE NARRATIVE FORM IN
DIGITAL MEDIA IMPLEMENTED AS A
COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEM [...] AND EXPERIENCED
THROUGH A PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
Koenitz, 2015

12. INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVE (IDN)
IS NOTONEFORM
IDN ENCOMPASSES A RANGE OF MANIFESTATIONS,
INCLUDING
NARRATIVE VIDEO GAMES, INTERACTIVE
DOCUMENTARIES, JOURNALISTIC INTERACTIVES,
AR/VR EXPERIENCES…

13. IDN ≠ +

14. IDNS ARE NEITHER
DEFICIENT MOVIES NOR
DEFICIENT GAMES
AGAIN: IDNS ARE NEW TYPES OF NARRATIVE (AND
THAT’S STILL OK)

15. WHAT IS NARRATIVE?

16. NARRATIVE [IS] A FORGIVING, FLEXIBLE
COGNITIVE FRAME FOR CONSTRUCTING,
COMMUNICATING, AND RECONSTRUCTING
MENTALLY PROJECTED WORLDS
David Herman, 2002

17. NARRATIVE IS A
COGNITIVE FUNCTION
FOR SENSE-MAKING
IT IS NOT TIED TO A SPECIFIC FORM

18. THE SPACE OF NARRATIVE
NOVEL
DOCUMENTARY
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
KISHOTENKETSU
MOVIE
AFRICAN ORAL STORYTELLING
ABORIGINAL STORYTELLING
IDN
…

19. MANY FORMS OF
NARRATIVES EXIST THAT
DIFFER FROM THE (MAINSTREAM)
EUROCENTRIC MODEL

20. ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVE STRUCTURES
KISHOTENKETSU AFRICAN ORAL STORYTELLING

21. CECI N’EST PASUN MODÈLE NARRATIF UNIVERSEL
Figure 2: Story arc in Computers as Theatr
1991)
resort to a historical approach. And indeed, the O

22. KOENITZ, H., DI PASTENA, A., JANSEN, D., DE LINT, B., MOSS, A. (UPCOMING) THE MYTH
OF ‘UNIVERSAL’ NARRATIVE MODELS: EXPANDING THE DESIGN SPACE OF NARRATIVE
STRUCTURES FOR IDN, ICIDS 2018, CHAM: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING
4.2 Bengali Widow’s Narratives
The Bengali Widow’s narrative structure either raises after the climax to a tragic
outcome, when the protagonist is abandoned by her family, or folds back to see the
protagonist becoming the antagonist to her son’s bride.
We derived this narrative structure (Fig. 2) from the comparison of different nar-
ratives that circulate among the West Bengal population that focus on the powerless-
ness of the displaced widowed mother. In so doing, they provide a critical perspective
on the status of the apparent stability women are assumed to have acquired upon
marriage, which comes into question in West Bengal after the death of their spouse,
especially if their children have already reached adulthood by that time [50]. Therefore,
the Bengali widowed mother narrative wants to illustrate a less romanticized reality
which many women face. At first sight, this narrative structure is reminiscent of the
dramatic arc, however there is a crucial variation that is connected to the ‘themes’ of
the narrative. The climax is not followed by a phase of dénouement; rather, the tension
keeps growing, either with the narrative looping back on itself if the widowed mother
becomes the antagonist (the mother-in-law) for the bride of her son – effectively
repeating the cycle from marriage to close – or, by continuing forward to show the
abandonment of the mother by her sons after the death of her husband, will end in a
climax where her sons and daughters-in-law leave her beggared and alone. What is
notable here is the underlying tension between the mother’s expectations for how her
sacrifices for her children will be repaid in the future and the reality of widowhood, as
well as her gradually shifting role from protagonist to antagonist in the eyes of the
younger generation of brides. Having two variants in a narrative is an aspect that can be
made productive for IDN, as the different outcomes can be connected to players’
choices. In addition, IDN could add additional varieties, e.g. an outcome in which the
widow becomes a good friend and trusted advisor of the next generation of women.
Fig. 1. Etiological structure
The Myth of ‘Universal’ Narrative Models 7
4.3 Ganga Comics
This structure is based on adaptations of Indian mythology in comics, in which the
solution to one conflict also immediately causes the next conflict to arise.
The “Ganga” [52] comic provides another interesting narrative structure to study
(Fig. 3). The “Ganga” comic is derived from the Amar Chitra Katha (ACK), an
illustrated comic series depicting hundreds of tales from the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata,
Panchanatra, and Vasavadatta, alongside a host of other plays, epics, and romances
across the Indian subcontinent. This particular story stems from the Mahābhārata, a
collection of mythological and instructive stories that revolve around a main narrative
that recounts the power struggle between two groups of cousins, namely the Kauravas
and the Pandavas. The Mahābhārata represents a seminal text for the growth of
Hinduism, and it is understood as both Dharma (moral law) and Itihasa (history) [53].
The “Ganga” comic is a particular variety of this narrative that utilizes the affordances
of its medium.
The narrative structure is arranged as a negotiation between the two poles of
‘responsibility’ and ‘consequence’. The narrative begins with an initial instigating
action (IA), which would have specific consequences (C1). The next step involves the
search of a solution (S1), that eventually results in a sort of resolution (R1), which
however would have other ongoing consequences (C2). These further consequences
would begin the next part of the narrative, as the secondary instigation for further
action, escalating and repeating until all major consequences are resolved. The
“Ganga” comic narrative structure is characterized by a cumulative pattern, in which
the consequences of the solution to each problem affect the overall narrative. This
aspect also aligns well with the affordances of IDN; the idea of player choice affecting
the problems/conflicts they will encounter later in the story is a powerful one with
much potential for the creation of many individually different narratives from the same
system.
Fig. 2. West Bengali widow narratives
8 H. Koenitz et al.
AuthorProof
4.4 Sīra Narratives
Sīra narratives (Fig. 4) recount the circle of life and death of a Bedouin community
known as the Banī Hilāl tribe. These narratives have the purpose of preserving the
memory of brave warriors who vanished as the tribe achieved peace through struggle.
More specifically, they narrate the adventures of the tribe as it traveled toward Tunisia
in search of new pasturages. They feature an ‘accurate’ historical frame of the
migration and conquest, while the actual narratives are “a series of intricate tales built
on tension among a constellation of central characters” [54], involving several key male
roles playing opposite a single female lead role.
The life of the Bedouin tribe is organized in a “pattern of repeating cycles” [54],
which organize the progression of episodes as journeys, from the protagonists’ birth to
their death. Each episode narrates a journey, with varying characters and changing
composition of events; the different and unique premises of every episode emphasize
the significance of each individual journey. The dual nature of the ‘journey theme’,
understood both as the search of new life and as war campaign, “sets up a vital tension
of opposites”, such as “famine-plenty, desert-pasture land, war-peace, life-death” [54].
Fig. 3. Ganga comics
The Myth of ‘Universal’ Narrative Models 9
4.5 Epiphanic Structure
This original structure features a cycle of conflict designed to create a moment of
epiphany, which causes the player/interactor to suddenly understand the events of the
narrative in a different light, and subsequently explores the narative again from the
beginning to discover the consequences of this revelation.
While alternatives to established narrative structures have been discussed before,
these discussions frequently lack a structural analysis. Moreover, established narrative
structures like the Hero’s Journey are gleaned from the analysis of linear, fixed media
with no regard for the participatory aspect of interactive narrative. In contrast, the
above structure (Fig. 5) is inspired by and partially based on the analysis of two
playthrough sessions of PlatinumGames’ 2017 action game NieR:Automata [56], in
which players see the same events twice, but through the eyes of each of the two
protagonists.
Fig. 4. Sīra structure (Connelly 1973)
10 H. Koenitz et al.
AuthorProof
The first playthrough builds up to an epiphany, a realization or retrospective
moment that radically re-contextualizes the events of that playthrough; the second
playthrough then has players experience those same events with that epiphany in mind,
which causes a (presumed) significant shift in the meaning that the player ascribes to
their own actions and the actions of the protagonists. Another game that can be said to
follow this structure is Paper Dino’s Save the Date [57]. The structure can be described
as follows:
1. Opening: the introduction of the storyworld;
2. Cycle(s) of Conflict (CoC): the protagonist(s) face(s) challenges – physical, battles
and treasure hunts; emotional, relationships with other characters/actors; mental,
piecing together clues about the storyworld’s backstory – and overcome(s) them (or
not);
3. Culmination: the fulfilment of the CoC’s narrative purpose, its result;
4. Epiphany: a realization or retrospective moment, as a consequence of the culmi-
nation, that radically re-contextualizes the events of the CoC;
5. (optional) Post-epiphanic Replay(s): the implicitly or explicitly acknowledged rep-
Fig. 5. Epiphanic structure
The Myth of ‘Universal’ Narrative Models 11
AuthorProof

23. IDN IS POSSIBLE -
WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

24. IDN CAN
REPRESENT
COMPLEXITY

25. A PERSONAL
APPROACH

26. I’M FROM THE COUNTRY OF THE CHANGING NARRATIVE

27. GERMAN HISTORY IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER
[ … ] NO COHERENT, OVER-ARCHING
NARRATIVE CAN BE CONSTRUCTED FOR IT;
THE JIGSAW PIECES DO NOT FIT TOGETHER
British Museum Curator Neil MacGregor 2016

28. THERE IS ALSO AN ALTERNATE REALITY MACHINE THERE
THE STASI ARCHIVES

29. HISTORICAL / POLITICAL
NARRATIVES ARE NOT
FACTS, THEY ARE
CONSTRUCTED

32. YES, WE ALL KNOW THAT
THE BIAS PROBLEM
THE FILTER BUBBLE

33. HOWEVER…

34. IDEOLOGY AND HIDDEN
FACTS ARE NOT THE
ONLY PROBLEMS

35. OUR REALITY IS
COMPLEX

36. A CHANGED VIEW

37. WE KNOW WE LIVE
IN A
COMPLEX WORLD

38. WE DO HAVE SOME
SYSTEMIC
UNDERSTANDING

39. WE KNOW WE SHOULD
NOT FEED THE DUCKS
ALLIGATORS

41. YET…

42. WHEN IT COMES TO MANY
PRESSING PROBLEMS, WE
FALL BACK TO IMMUTABLE
NON-COMPLEX NARRATIVES

45. CANNOT
REPRESENT
Figure 2: Story arc in Computers as Theatre (Laurel,
1991)
to a historical approach. And indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary
an answer. It lists the first proper occurrence as “arc of story” in 1978:
G. Stewart in ELH 45 483 In the proliferated death scenes of Bleak
Dickens brings death as never before into the pages that intervene
the implied oblivion before and after the arc of story, the unvoiced voids
ive. (OED Online, n.d.)
ation to Aristotle and Freytag, ‘story arc’ is a ghost-like existence, “used

46. TRADITIONAL NARRATIVES ARE
NO LONGER ABLE TO
ADEQUATELY REPRESENT OUR
COMPLEX REALITY

47. THE POSTMODERN CONDITION
IS […]
A CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION
Jean-François Lyotard 1979

48. TRADITIONAL REPRESENTATION
PROVIDE AN OPENING FOR
EXTREMIST PROPAGANDA IN
ITS INABILITY TO CONTAIN
COMPETING NARRATIVES

50. COMPLEXITY REQUIRES
NEW NARRATIVES
David Rejeski, Heather Chaplin, Robert Olson 2015

52. THERE IS A NEED FOR
ART TO REFLECT
COMPLEXITY

53. A SHIFT, […] TOWARDS AN
ART OF SYSTEM AND
PROCESS
Roy Ascott 1964

54. IDN AS SYSTEMS CAN
REPRESENT AND EVEN
LET US EXPERIENCE
COMPLEXITY

55. G A M E S A R E [ … ]
ESSENTIALLY SYSTEMIC
Eric Zimmerman 2009

56. AYITI - THE COST OF LIFE

57. FIREWATCH

58. PLAYERS/INTERACTORS
LEARN ABOUT DECISIONS
AND CONSEQUENCES

59. THE LAST HIJACK
INTERACTIVE

60. PLAYERS/INTERACTORS
LEARN ABOUT
DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVES

61. FORT MCMONEY

62. IDN ARE TOOLS FOR
COMPLEXITY BY
PROMOTING AND TEACHING
SYSTEMIC THINKING

63. IDN ENABLE COMPREHENSION BY
TEMPORARILY COGNITIVELY REDUCING
COMPLEXITY, BUT NOT ELIMINATING IT

64. THIS ENHANCED
COMPREHENSION IS THE
BASIS FOR AN
IMPROVED DISCOURSE

65. WHAT NEEDS TO
BE DONE

66. HOW CAN WE MAKE
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL
NARRATIVES BETTER
UNDERSTOOD AND MORE
WIDELY USED?

67. MANY GOOD EXAMPLES, BUT
THEY ARE ARTISTIC ONE-OFFS,
NO ESTABLISHED
WORKFLOWS, CONCEPTS,
VOCABULARY, EVALUATION

68. ISSUES
MODELS & FRAMING
DESIGN KNOWLEDGE
EVALUATION & IMPACT

69. WHERE DO WE
START?

70. FOUNDATION:
MODELS

71. THE NATURAL SCIENCES
HAVE WAYS TO
REPRESENT
MULTIPLICITY

72. 80 YEARS AGO, THERE WAS A CAT, SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT
DEAD AND ALIVE AT THE SAME TIME
¨

73. MANY ADDITIONAL METHODS WERE DEVELOPED EVER SINCE
CYBERNETICS
SYSTEM THEORY
CHAOS THEORY
FUZZY LOGIC

74. A MODEL FOR IDN

75. DIFFERENCE TRADITIONAL FORMS AND IDN
Interaction
Computer w/
Software
Output (can be
fixed by recording)
Design/Programming
Creator
IDN
Writing
Author
Output (is fixed)
Book
{Not in
traditional
media

76. IDN REQUIRES INSTANTIATION
COMPUTER W/SOFTWARE
OUTPUT 1 OUTPUT 2 OUTPUT N
INTERACTION 1 INTERACTION 2 INTERACTION N

77. PROCESS
SYSTEM
PRODUCTPRODUCT - STORY
SYSTEM - PROTOSTORY
PROCESS - INSTANTIATION
SPP MODEL (KOENITZ 2015)
POTENTIAL
NARRATIVES
INSTANTIATED
NARRATIVES
PERFORMANCE/UX
DESIGN
RECORDED OUTPUT

78. KOENITZ, H. (2015). TOWARDS A
SPECIFIC THEORY OF INTERACTIVE
DIGITAL NARRATIVE. IN H. KOENITZ, G.
FERRI, M. HAAHR, D. SEZEN, & T. I. SEZEN
(EDS.), INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVE
(PP. 91–105). NEW YORK: ROUTLEDGE.

79. KNOLLER, N. (2019). COMPLEXITY AND THE
USERLY TEXT. IN M. GRISHAKOVA, & M.
POULAKI (EDS.), NARRATIVE COMPLEXITY:
EXPERIENTIAL AND COGNITIVE INTERFACES.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA: UNIVERSITY OF
NEBRASKA PRESS.

80. DESIGN
KNOWLEDGE

81. IDENTIFYING
IDN DESIGN
CONVENTIONS

82. A/B TESTING USING QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE METHODS
Group A
Group B
Prototype A
Prototype B
Measurement
Comparison

83. DESIGN CONVENTION: INTRO TEXT TO SCRIPT THE INTERACTOR
The Walking Dead
Life is Strange
Heavy Rain
Until Dawn

84. RESEARCH GRANT NL
STIMULERINGSFOND CREATIVE
INDUSTRY IN COLLABORATION WITH
LOCAL GAMES COMPANY WISPFIRE

85. ROTH, C., & KOENITZ, H. (2017).
TOWARDS CREATING A BODY OF
EVIDENCE-BASED INTERACTIVE DIGITAL
NARRATIVE DESIGN KNOWLEDGE:
APPROACHES AND CHALLENGES. HTTP://
DOI.ORG/10.1145/3132361.3133942

86. KOENITZ, H., ROTH, C., KNOLLER, N., & DUBBELMAN,
T. (2018). “CLEMENTINE WILL REMEMBER THAT” –
METHODS TO ESTABLISH DESIGN CONVENTIONS FOR
VIDEO GAME NARRATIVE. PRESENTED AT THE
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2018 DIGRA INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE THE GAME IS THE MESSAGE, TORINO,
ITALY. RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://WWW.DIGRA.ORG/
WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/DIGITAL-LIBRARY/
DIGRA_2018_PAPER_290.PDF

87. EVALUATION

88. MEASUREMENT TOOLBOX
EVALUATION OF IDN USER
EXPERIENCES
SELF-REPORT SCALES
BASED ON
ENTERTAINMENT THEORY
CONNECTED TO
MURRAY'S TAXONOMY
(AGENCY, IMMERSION,
TRANSFORMATION)
the term “immersion” – Murray uses the word in a more general
sense of all aspects that let an interactor feel as being transported
to a different reality [22], while in our psychologically-oriented
perspective [27], immersion is only a technical quality of virtual
environments, which is complemented by presence to account for
the perceptible aspects. Thus, in order to connect the two
approaches, decisions have to be made in regards to which
meaning will be adopted for a combined model. This also might
mean to re-name and re-locate existing categories. In the concrete
case of immersion, we adopt Murray’s more general use and re-
locate the technical aspects of immersion (e.g. sensoric input and
system feedback) as part of the usability dimension. Similarly, we
emphasize eudaimonic appreciation as a more inclusive term over
aesthetic pleasantness, which we have used in our earlier work.
Figure 1. Roth’s original categories
3. USER EXPERIENCE DIMENSIONS
We evaluate the IDN user experience on 12 dimensions, which we
group under Murray’s experiential qualities of agency, immersion
sections, we will describe these experience dimensions in more
detail.
Figure 2. Dimensions of user experience

89. THE LAST HIJACK
INTERACTIVE

90. VAN ENSCHOT R., BOOGAARD I., KOENITZ H.,
ROTH C. (2019) THE POTENTIAL OF
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVES. AGENCY
AND MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES IN LAST HIJACK
INTERACTIVE. IN: CARDONA-RIVERA R.,
SULLIVAN A., YOUNG R. (EDS) INTERACTIVE
STORYTELLING. ICIDS 2019. LECTURE NOTES
IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, VOL 11869.
SPRINGER, CHAM

91. WRAP UP

92. IDN ARE
(SYSTEMIC)
REPRESENTATIONS
OF COMPLEXITY

93. IDN
PROMOTE SYSTEMIC
THINKING

94. IDN
ARE KEY TO ENABLE
DISCOURSE ON
COMPLEX TOPICS

95. LET’S WORK ON IT
TOGETHER

97. ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH IN DIGITAL
INTERACTIVE NARRATIVES
HTTP://ARDIN.ONLINE

98. THANK YOU
HARTMUT.KOENITZ@HKU.NL
@HKOENITZ
HTTP://HARTMUTKOENITZ.COM
HTTP://HKU.NL/IND