Mise - en - Screen
from digital game spatial philosophies to interactive digital narrative design in VR
Module: Master's Thesis
Mentors: Prof. Dr. Gernot Weckherlin | Mr. Ravi Paritosh
Sponsor: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)
Mentors: Prof. Dr. Gernot Weckherlin | Mr. Ravi Paritosh
Sponsor: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)
COOP MSc Design Research Program
Bauhaus Foundation | Hochschule Anhalt Dessau
Bauhaus Foundation | Hochschule Anhalt Dessau
Once upon a time, and ever since, storytelling has been a fascinating and effective means of communicating events, possibilities and narratives - always with a spatial dimension through visualisation, gesticulation, and imagination.
At the intersection of artistic techniques and technological evolutions, a novel format of storytelling developed in the form of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDNs) - taking shape as hypertext fictions, digital games and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, to name a few. Spatiality here denotes the dynamic qualities of space as a processual being that is enacted upon by the viewer’s agency, as opposed to only being an inert backdrop element.
The main question this thesis looks to understand is what roles the spatiality of VR narrative experiences play as part of their storytelling process. By inquiring into research on digital game spatiality across themes of narrativity and interactivity, we explore the space as an experienced aspect of the narrative. This intersection is further developed into a speculative framework which aims to present the roles that spatiality plays in IDNs using VR, by recontextualising spatial ideologies prevalent in digital game experiences.
