Who has the power to say what things mean, where that occurs?

Interaction
One of the most fundamental human processes
Look at a dictionary definition ‘a reciprocal action, effect or influence’
‘Interactively means the ability to intervene in a meaningful way with the representation itself’ Andy Cameron
Interaction is NOT interpretation
http://www.fortheloveofgod.nl

If you interact with something, you intervene.

The interaction is them going into the video booth, pressing record and getting uploading their work
Interpretation is them discussing Damien Hirst’s work

Choice
Interaction offers the audience choice. Do I do this or do I do that?
It places the audience in relation to information
We have different way of going about things
Stephen Fry – choice between reading a book in a linear sense. Designed for us to navigate it in a different way, using choice, using different tabs.

Tense & Aspect
Bernard Comrie (‘Aspect’ 1976) in Dissimulations AC – looking at language.
Two forms of time references in language.
Tense – relates to situations taking place in the past, present or future. I WENT, I’M GOING, I’VE GONE. Language that tells you by structure, what time flow we are in.
Aspect – draws a distinction between the perfective; a situation viewed from the outside as completed and the imperfective; a situation viewed from the inside as ongoing. INperfective, can be changed and can be perfective. It’s all about communication and how information flows through communication.

Narratives and game play deal with past present and future it different ways.

Narrative & Game Play
Digital media offers us ways to enter this ‘imperfect aspect’
Stories & Games
Non-linear structures. You don’t have to start from the beginning, you can start wherever you like

Narrative
Stories – any kind of information
Narrator – a voice that guides you
‘Narrative is a component of those deep structures with which we construct ourselves and our universe’ A.C
IT IS A KEY WAY IN WHICH WE CONNECT WITH EACHOTHER
‘It should contain both actor and a narrator; it also should contain three distinct levels consisting of the text, the story of the fabula (a story that conveys a moral) and its ‘contents’ should be ‘a series of connected events caused or experienced by actors” (Mieke Bal 1885) in Lev Manovich ‘The Language of New Media’ 2001 p227
Traditional representations of narrative are ‘perfective’ no matter what you do with them and where you enter them they are complete. You cannot change it.

Lets look at some digital stories
Morris Lessmore (Moonbot Studios) ¬¬¬¬– You are forced to interact with it otherwise the story does not continue – you always stay in one scene.
How much can I intervene?

Daniel Merlin – interactive comic. You can change characters and access different perspectives.

David Benique

David Merill –
Interactive computer – the size of a cookie

Value
AC sites the work of Max Whitby
Stories – serious – for adults – high cultural value
Games – frivolous – for kinds – low cultural value

Games
Play; creative activity – games; rules and boundaries
‘Every game is define by a set of rules. The rules might be embodied in thousands of lines of programming code or a few lines of text on the back of a board game, but at some level all games are essentially structural.”
- Replay; Game design and game culture’ p8
- Ludology (the study of games)
- Games have winners and losers plays do not (Lalande 1928) in Gonzalo Frasca ‘Ludology meets Naratology’ 1999

Interaction and Audience
- Games are both object and process. They cant be read as texts or listened to as music. They must be played. Playing is integral, not coincidental like the appreciative reader or listener. This creative involvement is a necessary ingredient in the uses of games. (Aarseth 2001) in Gonzalo Frasca ‘Play the Message’ 2007
- ‘The experience won’t actually occur if the audience doesn’t engage it.’ Brandon Rickman Replay; game design and game culture’ p13

Piaget & Skinner
- Learning – stages – punitive (punished)
- Jean Piaget a cognitive psychologist looking at child development mid 20th century
- B.F. Skinner psychologist Radical Behaviourism – pigeons – education
- Psychology of Learning Behaviour

Games and Learning
World of Warcraft