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21W.765J | Spring 2006 | Undergraduate

# Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative: Theory and Practice

Readings are also listed by session.

### Required Readings

Bleecker, Julian. “A Manifesto for Networked Objects - Cohabiting with Pigeons, Arphids and Aibos in the Internet of Things.” nearfuturelaboratory.com.

Borges, Jorge Luis. “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Hypertext.

———. “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Collected Fictions. Translated by Andrew Hurley. New York, NY: Penguin, 1999. ISBN: 9780140286809.

Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think.” Atlantic Monthly, July 1945.

Chaplin, Heather, and Aaron Ruby. “Will Wright and the Model of Everything.” Smartbomb. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin, 2005. ISBN: 9781565123465.

Dibbell, Julian. “A Rape in Cyberspace.” My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York, NY: Henry Holt & Company, 1999. ISBN: 9780805036268.

Gilliam, Terry. Twelve Monkeys. 1995.

Marker, Chris. La Jetée. 1962.

McGonigal, Jane. “Experimental Gameplay: I Love Bees.” Lecture Notes. March 2005.

———. “Alternate Reality Gaming: Experimental Social Structures for MMOs.” Lecture Notes. October 2005. (PDF - 2.9 MB)

Mindell, David A. Between Human and Machine. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780801880575.

Momus. “I Dance, Therefore I Am.” Wired News.

Morville, Peter. Ambient Findability. Cambridge, MA: O’Reilly, 2005. ISBN: 9780596007652.
See Chapter 1 at the O’Reilly Web site. (PDF)

Murray, Janet H. Hamlet on the Holodeck. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780262631877.

Nelson, Theodor H. Literary Machines. Sausalito, CA: Mindful Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780893470524.

Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780262240451.

Sterling, Bruce. Shaping Things. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780262693264.

Turing, A. M. “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” Mind 49 (1950): 433-460.

Turkle, Sherry. “Virtuality and Its Discontents: Searching for Community in Cyberspace.” The American Prospect 7, no. 24 (1996).

Wright, Will. “Sims, BattleBots, Cellular Automata God and Go: A Conversation with Will Wright.” By Celia Pearce. Game Studies (July 2002).

### Readings by Session

LEC # | TOPICS | READINGS
--- | --- | ---
1 | Introduction Lecture: Pulp Fictions |
2 | Borges, Wright and Pearce, Janet Murray: Three Important Thinkers/Authors on the Structure of Non-Linear Narrative | Borges. “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Borges. “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Hypertext. Will Wright and Celia Pearce Interview. Murray. Hamlet on the Holodeck. Chapter 2.
3 | President’s Day: No Class |
4 | Metamedia | Will Wright and Celia Pearce Interview. Murray. Hamlet on the Holodeck. Chapter 2. Bush. “As We May Think.” Nelson. Literary Machines.
5 | Games People Play | Turkle, Virtuality and Its Discontents: Searching for Community in Cyberspace. Dibbell. “A Rape in Cyberspace.” Chaplin and Ruby. “Will Wright and the Model of Everything.” Momus. “I Dance, Therefore I Am.”
6 | Final Cut Lab Session |
7 | Cybernetics and Feedback | Turing. “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.”
8 | Mobile Media |
9 | Patriot’s Day: No Class |
10 | Rules of Play / ARG | Salen and Zimmerman. Rules of Play. Chapters 5, 6, and 7. McGonigal. “Alternate Reality Gaming.” ———. “Experimental Gameplay.”
11 | Ubiquitous Computing | Mindell. Between Human and Machine. Introduction and chapter 4. Morville. Ambient Findability. Chapters 1, 2, and 7. Sterling. Shaping Things. Chapters 5, 6, 11, and 12. Bleecker. “A Manifesto for Networked Objects.”
12 | ICA Living in Motion: Design and Architecture for Flexible Dwelling | Salen and Zimmerman. Rules of Play. Chapters 5, 6, and 7. Gladwell. “Tilly and Focus Groups.”
13 | Final Project Presentations |
14 | Final Project Presentations |

## Course Info

##### Instructor

- Prof. Beth Coleman

##### Departments

- Comparative Media Studies/Writing
- Literature

##### As Taught In

Spring 2006

##### Level

Undergraduate

##### Topics

- Fine Arts
  - Game Design
  - Media Studies
    - Digital Media
- Humanities
  - Literature
    - Creative Writing
    - Criticism
    - Fiction

##### Learning Resource Types

group_work Projects with Examples

Browse Resources

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