Introduction – Chapter 1 Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace

Hamlet on the Holodeck Who is Janet Murray? –PhD in English Literature from Harvard –Recognized the possibilities for storytelling in new digital medium –Established first university course in interactive narrative at MIT(1990s) –Since 1999 at Georgia Tech professor in the school of Literature, Media, and Communication 2

Hamlet on the Holodeck Worked at IBM as a Systems programmer –“Suits” and “hackers” –Musical printer 3 Victorian scholar at MIT teaching humanities –Novel as ultimate form –Not into deconstruction

Introduction All media as extensions of ourselves serve to provide new transforming vision and awareness –Marshall McLuhan 4 Telephone extends our voices Book extends our memory Computer combines aspects of all of these –Virtual spaces, connect people, retrieve information

Narrative Microworlds LOGO programming language for children to learn mathematical concepts. – 5 “movie map”, “movie manual”. –Combination of text, video, and navigable space suggested that a computer based microworld need not be mathematical but a dynamic fictional universe

Narrative Microworlds Some kinds of knowledge can be better represented in digital formats than they have in print. –Foreign language –Excerpts scenes from movies for discussions 6 Computers –Fragmenting information –More we cultivate it as a tool for serious inquiry, more it will offer itself as both an analytical and synthetic medium

Narrative Microworlds New technologies are extending our powers faster than we can assimilate the change “I find myself longing for a computer-based literary form even more passionately than I have longed for computer-based educational environments,….I’m hooked on the charm of making the dumb machine sing” 7

Hackers and Bards Complementary skills –“I find myself anticipating a new kind of storyteller, on who is half hacker, half bard. ” –“The spirit of the hacker is one of the great creative wellsprings of our time, causing the inanimate circuits to sing with ever more individualized and quirky voices” –“The spirit of the bard is eternal and irreplaceable, telling us what we are doing here and what we mean to one another.” 8

The Holodeck A "holodeck" is a fictional virtual reality facility featured in the Star Trek universe. –It is often used for recreational activities. The holodeck is often used to recreate familiar places, participate in interactive stories, and to practice a variety of sports and skills. – 2Ehttp:// 2E 9

The Holodeck Empty black cube covered in white gridlines –A computer that projects elaborate simulations by combining holographic with magnetic “force fields” and energy-to-matter conversion 10 Utopian technology applied to age-old art of story- telling A universal fantasy machine –Illusory world open to individual programming that can be stopped, started, or turned off at at will –Vision of a computer as a story-telling genie in the lamp

The Holonovel Janeway’s Holonovel- Lucy Davenport –More leisurely, and open ended exploration –Presented over several episodes. – Ai4https:// Ai4 11

Alien Kisses If we could someday make holographic adventures as completing and vividly realized as Lucy Davenport Holonovels, 12 –Would this destroy our grip on the actual world? –Will the new digital technologies be as benign and responsible as a novel? –Or dangerous as a hallucinogenic drug? –

Reaction to New Media A generally positive vision of the future of interactive narrative –How does it compare to today’s games? –Long standing debate of whether or not games are art Stories were not always positive –As a replacement for the real world –Holoaddiction 13

Reaction to New Media Early reaction is generally negative –Fear of change –To the printing press –To the secular theater –To the movie camera –To the television screen 14

Reaction to New Media Brave New World(1932) –Talkies, Movies, and Feelies Fahrenheit 451 (1953) –Vision of reality tv? –“The televisors are evil because they create ‘an environment as real as the world.’” –“Books are … better … their meager sensory input makes their illusions easier to resist.” 15

Reaction to New Media TekWar (1990) –Vision of virtual reality, addictive, delusional –“the source of addiction, destitution, bad trips, overdose deaths, and gangster violence.” Computer Games –A film critic complained that his sons quit reading to play video games that “offer a kind of narrative, but one that yields without resistance to the child's desire for instant gratification.” 16

Utopian and Dystopian Visions Bridging the Hopes and Fears –Sensation-based storytelling –“Neither vision of the future refutes the other.” “Eventually all successful storytelling technologies become “transparent”: we lose consciousness of the medium and see neither print nor film but only the power of the story itself.” 17

Real Life Holodeck Joachim Tesch and Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics –The closest thing to Star Trek's 'Holodeck' - a large scale tracking lab with VR headsets used to develop everything from redirected walking to control algorithms. – s7Mhttps:// s7M 18