Tuesday, September 15 Synchronous Topic: Circling Back to Ranges of Interactivity
If you miss class: Take a look at the Statement of Goals and Choices prompt posted on our course site, and let me know if you have any questions about that assignment and how it both supports the work you're doing with the major projects this semester. Also fill out the worksheet posted below that walks you through how to apply the SOGC approach as well as Striner, Azad & Martens' approach to interactivity to howling dogs and Public Secret. We'll look at Public Secret together as a class since folks were having trouble accessing it because it uses Adobe Flash. As you have a slice (basically a piece of your project, aim for around 2 minutes or 2 pages, or whatever the approximate equivalent is for the format you're working in) of your Project 1 due on Sunday along with Multimodal Experiment 4, check in with me to share your questions about the upcoming work.
Class Summary: We began by checking in on the constraints and affordances of online learning, and students shared ways that they can best engage (or what causes them to disengage) from online classes. Then everyone revisited their in-class writing from last week, and updated it with more specifics related to the interactivity in howling dogs and Public Secret. Finally everyone broke into groups and worked through questions related to the texts on interactivity we've explored so far (see the worksheet linked below). We ended by having some folks share what they found, and checking in on what's coming up.
Materials:
In-Class Writing
For your in-class writing this week, I'll ask you to return to the in-class writing you created last week in response to this prompt: How do howling dogs and Public Secret structure interactivity and audience engagement in different ways? What is gained through the way they use multimodal design, and what would have been lost if they were composed without an interactive element and using predominately the linguistic mode?
Revise your response from last week using my feedback as a guide, and then connect your response to the approach to interactivity outlined by Striner, Azad & Martens in "A Spectrum of Interactivity."
Tuesday, September 17 Asynchronous Topic: Creative Play, Frustration and Failure
For this week, the only asynchronous class activity will be to check out some altgames. Altgames are described as non-traditional videogames that are neither produced by large game studios (AAA games), and don't look like the games produced by many independent creators (indie games). They're games that resist the structures of games, created by people who seek to disrupt your expectations when it comes to games. Some may argue that they stretch or break the definition of what it means to be a game. They sometimes break these rules in order to make an argument, and sometimes for humor or fun (or they make a point through their use of humor/fun). For more info, check out this article.
Check out one (or more!) of these altgames (for most, you'll need to download and extract a zip file to run, let me know if you run into problems doing this):
Nathalie Lawhead's "Everything is Going to Be Okay" (content warning: explores themes of self-harm, trauma, suicide, and mental illness, see Lawhead's artist statement for more details)
Eden (Twine game)
Or find your own through the Twitter bot @SupportAltGames
Then first, go to the members section of the class website and sign in using your U of I account. Then add a post to our class forum outlining what game or games you played, how they structured interactivity, and how they differed from other game experiences you've had (or if you don't play videogames, talk about how they differed from your expectations of games). You can respond to other students' posts, but you're not required to.
Other than that, as you have both a Multimodal Experiment 4 and a slice of Project 1 (a short excerpt from your project, about two pages or two minutes' worth or the equivalent) due on Sunday, use the rest of your time to focus on those assignments. Reach out for help clarifying the assignments or if you want to run your slice or experiment by me before submitting.
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