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SAMKUL-Samfunnsutviklingens kulturell

Extending Digital Narrative

Alternative title: Utvikle digital fortelling

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

The Extending Digital Narrative project brings an experimental approach to humanities research, analyzing new forms of digital narrative which are contemporary and not yet fully settled, not a part of the cultural archive of the past, but in the process of becoming. Working with an interdisciplinary team that will involve contributions from leading international experts in digital narrative, authors, developers and early career researchers, XDN will advance the state of the art in electronic literature through the analysis of three forms of digital narrative: 1) Immersive: Virtual reality and augmented reality narratives (including constructed/modeled narrative environments and 360 cinema) that situate the viewer within an immersive visual field. 2) Conversational: There is a long history of textual works featuring conversational models of interactivity (such as Interactive Fiction). Language artists are building upon those in creating works that engage with aurality through smart speakers. 3) Generative: Machine generated or AI-driven narratives that are produced algorithmically, blending to varying degrees human authorship and computational text generation. XDN will document, map, analyze and develop these emerging forms of digital narrative and place them in cultural and technological context while considering how they produce affect and identification, how they entail new forms of "cyborg authorship," and their potential cultural impacts. Research methods will include: 1. Historical and contextual analysis of each genre 2. Focused readings and case studies of works 3. Database documentation, field analysis, and network visualization 4. Applied experimental research 5. Evaluations of audience response to these emerging forms XDN will provide foundational research on the relationship between narrative, immersion, aurality, and machine learning that will be useful to researchers and to the cultural sector.

New genres of digital narrative are emerging at pace that traditional humanities research have been challenged to keep up with. With this project we propose an experimental approach to humanities research, analyzing new forms of digital narrative which are contemporary and not yet fully settled, not a part of the cultural archive of the past, but in the process of becoming. Working with an interdisciplinary team that will involve contributions from leading international experts in digital narrative, authors, developers and early career researchers, XDN will advance the state of the art in electronic literature through the analysis of three forms of digital narrative: 1) Immersive: Virtual reality and augmented reality narratives (including constructed/modeled narrative environments and 360 cinema) that situate the viewer within an immersive visual field. 2) Conversational: There is a long history of textual works featuring conversational models of interactivity (such as Interactive Fiction). Language artists are building upon those in creating works that engage with aurality through new devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home Assistant. 3) Generative: Machine generated or AI/neural network-driven narratives that are produced algorithmically, blending to varying degrees human authorship and computational text generation. XDN will document, map, and analyze these emerging forms of digital narrative and place them in cultural and technological context while considering how they produce affect and identification, how they entail new forms of cyborg authorship, and their potential cultural impact. Research methods will include: 1. Historical and contextual analysis of each genre 2. Focused readings and case studies of works 3. Database documentation, field analysis, and network visualization 4. Applied experimental research 5. Evaluations of audience response

Funding scheme:

SAMKUL-Samfunnsutviklingens kulturell