Wednesdays 2-5
Room E53-220
Assignment for Week 10: April 16, 1997
Character Contest Assignment Week 11: April 23, 1997
- Office Hour: Mondays 2-4, or email (jhmurray@mit.edu) for appointment
- Office after April 1st: 9-321
Grade will be based on:
The final story project can be a substantial revision / extension of one of the earlier weekly assignments or projects (including the interactive character)
Graduate students are required to provide
This is a course in narrative with an emphasis on narrative structure. There is no requirement to learn programming or graphic design beyond the ability to make a simple web page with links.
Week 1
February 5 THE AESTHETICS OF DIGITAL NARRATIVE
JHM: Overview of properties of digital medium and design principles electronic narrative
In class lab: Examine projects from previous year
Students present: Critique of previous year's projects
Week 2
February 12 JOURNEY, WEB, AND TRAIL
READ:
Analysis of kinds of navigational or digressive movement
In class lab: HTML practice
Begin thinking about Project #1 Assignment, due March 5 and March 12
Week 3
February 19 SEGMENTATION AND CONNECTION
READ/VIEW and be prepared to discuss : Jane Wagner, The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe
Create a hypertext representation of some part of the story
In class lab: Segmentation practice using existing web materials
Week 4
February 26 REPRESENTING TIME AND SPACE
VIEW: Alan Ayckbourne, The Norman Chronicles
Assignment for week 4: Create a hypertext representation of some part of the story
In Class Lab: Navigation as Agency
Week 5
March 5 PROJECT I WORKSHOP
Presentation of Preliminary Lexia Design, Navigational Design, and Boundary Definitions for Project I by all students for mutual critique
Week 6
March 12 PROJECT I DUE
Class presentations: Project I
In class lab: Read and Critique one another's finished projects.
Week 7
March 19 PROJECT I DUE
Class presentations: Project I continued
In class lab: Read and Critique one another's finished projects.
vacation week
Week 8
April 2 FORMULAIC ELEMENTS IN NARRATIVE
READ: Morphology of the Folktale, see assignment sheet for selections
Assignment for Week 8: Morphological Analysis of a story of your choice or web page with examples of morphological variation on the WWW
Week 9
April 9 VARIATION AND JUXTAPOSITION
Conferences on Project I
Preliminary Design of Project II due in conference
VIEW: Groundhog Day OR "Parallels " episode of StarTrek
READ: Borges "The Garden of Forking Paths" and Lightman excerpt from Einstein's Dreams
Assignment for Week 9: Representation of Formulas of Variation
Week 10
April 16 CHATTERBOTS
Chatterbots Assignment for week 10
Graduate students: read Boden and Colby essays on PARRY.
Hand-in: Record of sessions with chatterbots, with annotations of what worked and what did not.
In class lab: Learn authoring system for character; review characters from last year
Week 11
April 23 THE GREAT ANNUAL ELIZA CONTEST
Students will create their own chatterbots and then interact with one another's characters. Prizes awarded to characters and interactors in various categories.
Dessert celebration afterwards.
Week 12
April 30 HYPERTEXT AND AUDIENCE RESPONSE
Week 13
May 7: WORKSHOP PROJECT II
Week 14
May 14: PROJECT II DUE
In class reading and critique of one another's stories.