dynamic media

This dissertation presents theoretical and technical support for, and implementations of, narrative computational media works with the following characteristics: generative content, semantics-based interaction, reconfigurable narrative structure, and strong cognitive and socio-cultural grounding. A system that can dynamically compose media elements (such as procedural computer graphics, digital video, or text) to result in new media elements can be said to generate content. The GRIOT system, a result of this dissertation, provides an example of this. It has been used to implement computational poetry that generates new narrative poems with varying particular concepts, but fixed themes, upon each execution. This generativity is enabled by the Alloy system, which implements an algorithm that models key aspects of Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner's theory of conceptual blending. Alloy is the first implementation of Joseph Goguen's algebraic semiotics approach to blending. (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002; Goguen, 1998) This research also contributes to the theory of algebraic semiotics by developing a blending-based notion of style. Semantics- based interaction means here that (1) media elements are structured according to the meaning of their content, and (2) user interaction can affect content of a computational narrative in a way that produces new meanings that are constrained by the system's author. "Meaning" in this case indicates that the author has provided formal descriptions of domains and concepts pertinent to the media elements and subjective authorial intent. Meaning can also be reconfigured at the level of narrative discourse. The formal structure of a computational narrative can be dynamically restructured, either according to user interaction, or upon execution of the system as in the case of narrative generation. Strong cognitive and socio- cultural grounding here implies that meaning is considered to be contextual, dynamic, and embodied. The formalizations used derive from, and respect, cognitive linguistics theories with such notions of meaning. Furthermore, the notion of narrative here is not biased toward one particular cultural model. Using semantically based media elements as a foundation, a cultural producer can implement a range of culturally specific or experimental narrative structures.

"Prom Week" is an innovative new social simulation game from the Expressive Intelligence Studio at UC Santa Cruz. Unlike other social games like The Sims, Prom Week's goal (as with its spiritual and technological predecessor, Façade) is to merge rich character specificity with a highly dynamic story space: a playable system with a coherent narrative. When I was brought on board as the lead author a year before release, I had no idea the scale of work I was getting myself into: overseeing a team of (at times) eight writers to create over eight hundred hand-authored scenes tightly integrated with pre- and post-conditions, inline variation, and animation choreography. Each scene had to be specific enough to be narratively satisfying but broad enough to cover as wide a possibility space as possible, putting severe limitations on how dialogue could be written. As the project progressed, we developed a number of survival strategies for sharing authorship with algorithms, managing complexity (and coherency) in process-intensive fiction, and working with programmers to produce and refine the tools we needed to do this "quantum authoring." The result was a huge win for interactive storytelling: emergent character behavior and reactive stories from our cast of characters. In this talk I'll share key insights along with demonstrations of our custom authoring tool and unique gameplay moments.

Each Prom Week scene narrates a specific change in the underlying social simulation, which recreates (in painful accuracy) the last week before senior prom for a cast of eighteen high school students. Each type of social change--such as two characters breaking off a relationship, or one impressing another with his coolness--needs a pool of hand-authored scenes that instantiate this change dramatically. The most specific scene for a given situation is chosen, so in addition to a generic break-up conversation, authors could create more specific scenes (a break-up between two shy characters, or for a jilted boyfriend). Scenes are often dynamically personalized further through character-specific vocabulary and references to recent events. Characters are not authored directly, but instead given a set of permanent traits (clumsy, sex magnet), temporary statuses (popular, sad), and starting relationships with and feelings towards other characters. This bundle of definitions helps the system select an appropriate scene for each character to perform in a given situation. As writers, it was tremendously exciting to see the system start performing our characters correctly, without having to hand-tag scenes as being appropriate for specific characters. I'll show some examples of this happening in my presentation.

At ELO 2010 in Providence, we presented our initial thoughts on what authoring for Prom Week might be like ("Authoring Game-based Interactive Narrative using Social Games and Comme il Faut," Mike Treanor). We're excited to come full circle and share our post-mortem results with the electronic literature community.

(Source: Author's abstract, 2012 ELO Conference site)