This is the shorter version of my presentation for the 2011 version of Reality Ends Here. This version was uploaded for a talk delivered on 4 June 2012 at Transmedia Storytelling Berlin. See http://www.transmedia-storytelling-berlin.de/events/tmsb-10-jeff-watson/ (German)

1. Environmental Game &
Reality Ends Here Participatory Spectacle

2. Production
Critical Studies
Writing
Producing
Animation
Interactive Media

5. The Future
Committee
March, 2011

6. The Future Committee: Mandates
• Jump-start collaboration and discovery among students across divisional
and disciplinary boundaries (ie, break down the silos)
• Provide incoming students with an opportunity to experiment with media
making across the range of practices represented at the SCA
• Connect students to faculty, resources, and the broader community,
especially alumni and industry mentors

7. The Intervention
• A collaborative production game • Secret & underground
involving students making media
representative of the divisions of
• Less Hollywood, more Godard
the SCA
• No grades, no affiliation with
• Played in students’ spare time (not
class
in class)
• Completely optional
• Mechanics of the game will drive
students to constantly explore new
partnerships and ideas • No overt invitation to play
• Encounters with alumni and other
mentors will be integrated into play
of the game

8. Graffiti, Old Lucas Building Walkway
1980s

9. Mystery Postcards
July 2011

10. Courtyard flag

11. 8mm Camera/Puzzle Box

12. Flag advisory and courtyard flag

14. Game Office August 22, 2011

18. Call and response

19. Call and response

20. The floodgates open

21. Reality card pack - 10 playable cards + instructions

31. Jane Student

33. Jane Student
Card-based combinatorial
creative prompting system
Final version
July 2011

34. Player-submitted “Deal”

36. http://reality.usc.edu

38. “A productive chaos”
Tribalism, card banks
gamejackers, and other signs of
life

39. Grit = Passion + Persistence

40. story of the SCA
writing the next
chapter social engagement
creative
participation
Schematic: narrative placemaking dynamo - a virtuous cycle

41. Goals Met
• Jump-start collaboration and • 181 registered players, evenly
discovery among students across distributed across the five divisions
divisional and disciplinary of the cinema school
boundaries (ie, break down the
silos)
• Provide incoming students with an • 122 collaborative projects
opportunity to experiment with submitted, encompassing 32
media making across the range of different kinds of media forms
practices represented at the SCA
• Connect students to faculty, • Dozens of unique mentorship
resources, and the broader encounters and experiences with
community, especially alumni and alumni and industry professionals
industry mentors

42. Goals Met II: Discovered Goals
• Sanction DIY media making in a • Average of 8 projects submitted
school steeped in traditional per week, all produced using
professionalism students’ own resources
• Shift the power relations between • In-game skill-sharing led and
learners and faculty (peer to peer organized by students, with faculty
learning, out-of-class mentorship, serving as support rather than
etc) coordinators
• Engage students in discussing • 4400+ game-related status
their own education and shaping updates and tweets, and tens of
the evolution of the game itself student-created Facebook
groups sharing knowledge, skills,
and insights.

43. More info: http://reality.usc.edu
Jeff Watson
@remotedevice
Benjamin Stokes
@bgstokes

45. Jane Student
Card-based combinatorial
creative prompting system
Final version
July 2011