CCTP-628: Interactivity, Immersion, and Play

Here’s a course descrip­tion for the new grad­u­ate course I’ll offer next fall at George­town. Frankly, the course is a work–in–progress, and so the semes­ter is still a bit blurry. Still, I’m excited about the early drafts of a syl­labus, which will draw on Samuel Tay­lor Coleridge, robotic vac­u­ums, gospel choirs, Aris­to­tle, hor­ror films, Star Trek fans, and Grand Theft Auto IV (among others).

Fall 2009 Gar­ri­son LeMas­ters
CCTP-628 Inter­ac­tiv­ity Immer­sion + Play

Is inter­ac­tiv­ity a prop­erty of the medium, or a per­cep­tion of the user? How do the affor­dances of immer­sive tech­nolo­gies resi­t­u­ate our expe­ri­ence of the world? Is play an inher­ently inno­v­a­tive or deriv­a­tive activity?

Inter­ac­tiv­ity, Immer­sion, and Play are three of the most widely-cited, but poorly under­stood, affor­dances of “new media.” With an empha­sis on video games, sim­u­la­tive tech­nolo­gies, and “2.0” nar­ra­tiv­ity, this syn­thetic course will con­sider these three inter­re­lated con­cepts from a vari­ety of dis­ci­pli­nary per­spec­tives, includ­ing the his­tor­i­cal, philo­soph­i­cal, rhetor­i­cal, tech­ni­cal, and aes­thetic. We will weigh the­ory against praxis, sup­ple­ment­ing schol­arly and philo­soph­i­cal texts with weekly case stud­ies of inter­ac­tive tech­nolo­gies, immer­sive envi­ron­ments, and play­ful design.

Dur­ing the semes­ter, stu­dents will write and pub­lish a work of inter­ac­tive fic­tion (IF) using Inform, a natural-language design system.

The course will cul­mi­nate in the pub­lic pre­sen­ta­tion of exper­i­men­tal inter­ac­tive instal­la­tions designed and built by the students.