The area of
interactive narrative design research has, in my perception, got an upswing
lately, and after spending a week in the Netherlands I think I know why :).
On Sunday
the 26th of September I was invited to give a talk at the Interactive Narrative
Design Think Tank at the Nederlands Film Festival in Utrecht. The other
speakers were Michael
Bas (Co-founder of Ranj, pioneer of interactive narrative experiences for commercial clients), Geert-Jan Strengholt (Director Medialab at public broadcaster VPRO), and Roy
van der Schilden (Game designer, game studio Wispfire).
The
event was moderated by Hartmut Koenitz, Professor of Interactive Narrative
Design at the HKU, and he gave an overview of the field, stressing how
important it is for all of us who are in different fields, but all working with
narrative design to get together.
The event was a great example of that - film people, game people, broadcasting people and artists - we had a very interesting discussions over drinks, and new collaborations were seeded. I hope to return to the Netherlands soon!
The
event was moderated by Hartmut Koenitz, Professor of Interactive Narrative
Design at the HKU, and he gave an overview of the field, stressing how
important it is for all of us who are in different fields, but all working with
narrative design to get together. The event was a great example of that - film people, game people, broadcasting people and artists - we had a very interesting discussions over drinks, and new collaborations were seeded. I hope to return to the Netherlands soon!
A
few days later I got to visit HKU University of the Arts Utrecht and
meet the students in the brand new education in Narrative design.
I
also got the chance to meet up with colleagues from both the University of Delft
(Rafa Bidarra), and University of Amsterdam (Frank Nack), and we got the chance
to talk about the forthcoming work in the COST Action of Narrative Complexity.
(The full name is COST Aktion
CA18230 "Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations,
INDCOR) We are all getting connected now, all over
Europe, thanks to Hartmut Koenitz and his colleagues in the Interactive
Narrative Design research group (Christian Roth, Noam Knoller, Teun Dubbelman, Yotam Shibolet, and Mirka Duijn.
It is amazing what they have accomplished the past few years: the founding of ARDIN, the COST action, organisation of numerous conferences, workshops, think-tanks and meet-ups connecting industry and research. And on top of that they started a new educational programme, and published many impactful papers. It is mind boggling, humbling - and important. Their work has impacted my own research focus: I am back in the design space of interactive narratives, and I love it.
It is amazing what they have accomplished the past few years: the founding of ARDIN, the COST action, organisation of numerous conferences, workshops, think-tanks and meet-ups connecting industry and research. And on top of that they started a new educational programme, and published many impactful papers. It is mind boggling, humbling - and important. Their work has impacted my own research focus: I am back in the design space of interactive narratives, and I love it.
Here are some
photos!
At the Narrative
Design Think tank 26/9 2019
And then
Links:
About the Think Tank
About the
research group Interactive Narrative Design
Slides from
my talk:
