Immersive Literary Imaginaries

Catalog description

How do we use new immersive technologies to tell stories and share ideas? Can we find ways to express critical and textual analysis through animation, filmmaking, and interactive storytelling? Literature has always found ways to attract new audiences through film and theater adaptations, performances, or talks. Museums and exhibition spaces are increasingly developing interactive displays or immersive installations to explore themes and subjects of important works. Reading together, identifying key themes, and discussing concepts in narrative portrayal and storytelling, we will create short interactive pieces based on critical reflection and textual analysis of a specific literary work. We will write, develop and use immersive storytelling techniques, to share ideas and design user or visitor experiences. You will be guided through technical work while developing your appreciation for the themes and contexts of the novel. This is an applied critical-theory class that blends literature analysis with creative computing and artistic production. Each iteration of this course will be centered on a specific literary work. In spring 2023, we will explore Native American perspectives through contemporary literature, specifically, the novel There, There (2019) by Tommy Orange. There, There is told through the perspectives of its characters, each bound by history, dealing with their circumstances and each challenging perception of race and identity. Students will adapt and shape critical responses into a series of animated interactive sequences which can be displayed and shared through an interactive book.