At the end of the twentieth century, RE/Search published three volumes dedicated to the “Incredib... more At the end of the twentieth century, RE/Search published three volumes dedicated to the “Incredibly Strange.” Looking a cinema and music, these were forays into the unconventional and unpopular, the avant-garde and in-bad-taste, outsider and oppositional cultural artefacts. This project produced an archeology of marginal media with decidedly countercultural sentiment which has been influential in intellectual attempts to comprehend weird in culture; from Washburn & Demo’s (2013) “Bad Music” anthology and Hoberman and Rosenbaum (2009) adventures in “Midnight Movie” culture to Jeffrey Sconce’s (1995) conception of the “paracinema” community. Chris Charla has recently revived the strange, this time looking specifically at games with a series of zines (a punky format of which RE/Search would most certainly approve) called Incredibly Strange Games. Here the tone is softer and more celebratory, lovingly exhibiting the unusual and unplayed. Inspired by the ethos of the “incredibly strange” and a personal penchant for shovelware, shitty games (kusoge), the Simple Series by 505 and neo-situationist numbers like the LaLaLand games, this “Seriously Weird Edition” seeks to take weird seriously. A venture in five parts, this collection brings together a variety of strange tales of videogames demonstrating that the weird can be wonderful and, of course, well played.
While the printed word, music and film have well-known means of evoking empathy, interactive digi... more While the printed word, music and film have well-known means of evoking empathy, interactive digital media lacks such well-established storytelling strategies, especially with regard to non-fiction works. Autobiographical storytellers who wish to relate their experiences interactively, such as through hypertext, do not have a clear toolkit of techniques to rely on. In this paper, we consider some techniques used by autobiographical authors of hypertext stories to evoke empathy. Our close reading of two interactive works, Travis Megill’s Memorial and Steven Wingate’s daddylabyrinth, indicates that multimodal elements and the author-reader relationship are important factors in conveying a sense of “what it’s like” to be the autobiographical life subject. In Memorial, a tribute to a dead brother, the narrator is monologic and in-text hyperlinks uncover the layers of emotion of a brother’s grief. Occasional unexpected revelations from clicking a hyperlink give insight into the author’s ...
Mobile Communication in Asia: Local Insights, Global Implications, 2016
The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important aspect of what it means to be a ... more The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important aspect of what it means to be a “family”. Existing research has shown that such stories help family members maintain close bonds. Additionally, the sharing of personal experiences can help family members create and present individual and family identities. Traditionally, these stories are shared face-to-face. However, for a variety of reasons, more families are geographically distributed. While there has been extensive research into how migrant workers make use of ICTs for social support or interpersonal communication, there remains a gap in understanding how these workers use ICTs specifically for family storytelling. To address this, we conducted two rounds of ethnographic interviews with 25 Filipino domestic helpers in Singapore. At the same time, we sought to examine the types of stories these women currently share. As such, we deployed cultural probe packs which consisted of a disposable camera and writing materials. The interview findings show that factors such as cost or limited access to technology resulted in fewer opportunities for family storytelling. In addition, interviewees also described themselves to have “nothing interesting to share” and that they were “unable to do more” in terms of sharing their experiences with their families back home. Interestingly, the cultural probe findings suggest that this perception may not always be accurate, as evidenced by how the participants were able to reflect upon their daily lives and record numerous personal experiences using the probes.
Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’.... more Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’. Yet each life story genre highlights different aspects of the truth. In autobiography, the personal subjective truth of self-identity is foregrounded. In biography, it is the seemingly objective truth about someone’s life asserted by another person, whose mediation introduces an element of subjectivity. In a documentary life story testimonial, the credibility of the objective truth presented is of utmost importance, but so is the subjective life experience that undergirds it. In this article we ask: How is interactivity exploited to construct the truth claims in interactive life stories across genres? By comparing three interactive nonfiction life stories – an autobiography, Fitting the Pattern (Wilks 2008), the biographical docugame The Cat and the Coup (Brinson / ValaNejad 2011), and the documentary Alma (Fougere / Dewever-Plana 2012) –, we explore how the aspects of truth most releva...
While the printed word, music and film have well-known means of evoking empathy, interactive digi... more While the printed word, music and film have well-known means of evoking empathy, interactive digital media lacks such well-established storytelling strategies, especially with regard to non-fiction works. Autobiographical storytellers who wish to relate their experiences interactively, such as through hypertext, do not have a clear toolkit of techniques to rely on. In this paper, we consider some techniques used by autobiographical authors of hypertext stories to evoke empathy. Our close reading of two interactive works, Travis Megill's Memorial and Steven Wingate's daddylabyrinth, indicates that multimodal elements and the author-reader relationship are important factors in conveying a sense of " what it's like " to be the autobiographical life subject. In Memorial, a tribute to a dead brother, the narrator is monologic and in-text hyperlinks uncover the layers of emotion of a brother's grief. Occasional unexpected revelations from clicking a hyperlink give insight into the author's inner conflictual, buried feelings of guilt. daddylabyrinth, a maze of hyperlinked vignettes that mirror the author's psychological space, engages the reader conversationally, and is structured to reflect the author's interior journey to exorcise the anger issues inherited from his father. Using Douglas and Hargadon's distinction between immersion and engagement, we suggest that affective empathy is more likely to be evoked when a hypertext immerses the reader in a single, consistent stream of consciousness, whereas cognitive empathy is more likely to arise if the hypertext seeks to engage rather than immerse, by dialoguing with the reader and constantly overturning conventional schemas, and by foregrounding its structure.
Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’.... more Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’. Yet each life story genre highlights different aspects of the truth. In autobiography, the personal subjective truth of self-identity is foregrounded. In biography, it is the seemingly objective truth about someone’s life asserted by another person, whose mediation introduces an element of subjectivity. In a documentary life story testimonial, the credibility of the objective truth presented is of utmost importance, but so is the subjective life experience that undergirds it. In this article we ask: How is interactivity exploited to construct the truth claims in interactive life stories across genres? By comparing three interactive nonfiction life stories – an autobiography, Fitting the Pattern (Wilks 2008), the biographical docugame The Cat and the Coup (Brinson / ValaNejad 2011), and the documentary Alma (Fougère / Dewever-Plana 2012) –, we explore how the aspects of truth most relevant to each life story genre are foregrounded using interactivity.
Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’.... more Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’. Yet each life story genre highlights different aspects of the truth. In autobiography, the personal subjective truth of self-identity is foregrounded. In biography, it is the seemingly objective truth about someone’s life asserted by another person, whose mediation introduces an element of subjectivity. In a documentary life story testimonial, the credibility of the objective truth presented is of utmost importance, but so is the subjective life experience that undergirds it. In this article we ask: How is interactivity exploited to construct the truth claims in interactive life stories across genres? By comparing three interactive nonfiction life stories – an autobiography, Fitting the Pattern (Wilks 2008), the biographical docugame The Cat and the Coup (Brinson / ValaNejad 2011), and the documentary Alma (Fougère / Dewever-Plana 2012) –, we explore how the aspects of truth most relevant to each life story genre are foregrounded using interactivity.
The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important aspect of what it means to be a ... more The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important aspect of what it means to be a ‘family’. Existing research has shown that such stories help family members to maintain close bonds. Additionally, the sharing of personal experiences can help family members to create and present individual and family identities. Traditionally, these stories have been shared face-to-face. However, for a variety of reasons, more families are geographically distributed. While there has been extensive research into how migrant workers make use of ICTs for social support or interpersonal communication, there remains a gap in understanding how these workers use ICTs specifically for family storytelling. To address this, we conducted two rounds of ethnographic interviews with twenty-five Filipino domestic helpers in Singapore. At the same time, we wanted to examine the types of stories these women currently share. As such, we deployed cultural probe packs which consisted of a disposable camera and writing materials. The interview findings show that factors such as cost or limited access to technology resulted in fewer opportunities for family storytelling. In addition, interviewees also described themselves to have ‘nothing interesting to share’ and that they were ‘unable to do more’ in terms of sharing their experiences with their families back home. Interestingly, the cultural probe findings suggest that this perception may not always be accurate, as evidenced by how the participants were able to reflect upon their daily lives and record numerous personal experiences using the probes.
At the end of the twentieth century, RE/Search published three volumes dedicated to the “Incredib... more At the end of the twentieth century, RE/Search published three volumes dedicated to the “Incredibly Strange.” Looking a cinema and music, these were forays into the unconventional and unpopular, the avant-garde and in-bad-taste, outsider and oppositional cultural artefacts. This project produced an archeology of marginal media with decidedly countercultural sentiment which has been influential in intellectual attempts to comprehend weird in culture; from Washburn & Demo’s (2013) “Bad Music” anthology and Hoberman and Rosenbaum (2009) adventures in “Midnight Movie” culture to Jeffrey Sconce’s (1995) conception of the “paracinema” community. Chris Charla has recently revived the strange, this time looking specifically at games with a series of zines (a punky format of which RE/Search would most certainly approve) called Incredibly Strange Games. Here the tone is softer and more celebratory, lovingly exhibiting the unusual and unplayed. Inspired by the ethos of the “incredibly strange” and a personal penchant for shovelware, shitty games (kusoge), the Simple Series by 505 and neo-situationist numbers like the LaLaLand games, this “Seriously Weird Edition” seeks to take weird seriously. A venture in five parts, this collection brings together a variety of strange tales of videogames demonstrating that the weird can be wonderful and, of course, well played.
While the printed word, music and film have well-known means of evoking empathy, interactive digi... more While the printed word, music and film have well-known means of evoking empathy, interactive digital media lacks such well-established storytelling strategies, especially with regard to non-fiction works. Autobiographical storytellers who wish to relate their experiences interactively, such as through hypertext, do not have a clear toolkit of techniques to rely on. In this paper, we consider some techniques used by autobiographical authors of hypertext stories to evoke empathy. Our close reading of two interactive works, Travis Megill’s Memorial and Steven Wingate’s daddylabyrinth, indicates that multimodal elements and the author-reader relationship are important factors in conveying a sense of “what it’s like” to be the autobiographical life subject. In Memorial, a tribute to a dead brother, the narrator is monologic and in-text hyperlinks uncover the layers of emotion of a brother’s grief. Occasional unexpected revelations from clicking a hyperlink give insight into the author’s ...
Mobile Communication in Asia: Local Insights, Global Implications, 2016
The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important aspect of what it means to be a ... more The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important aspect of what it means to be a “family”. Existing research has shown that such stories help family members maintain close bonds. Additionally, the sharing of personal experiences can help family members create and present individual and family identities. Traditionally, these stories are shared face-to-face. However, for a variety of reasons, more families are geographically distributed. While there has been extensive research into how migrant workers make use of ICTs for social support or interpersonal communication, there remains a gap in understanding how these workers use ICTs specifically for family storytelling. To address this, we conducted two rounds of ethnographic interviews with 25 Filipino domestic helpers in Singapore. At the same time, we sought to examine the types of stories these women currently share. As such, we deployed cultural probe packs which consisted of a disposable camera and writing materials. The interview findings show that factors such as cost or limited access to technology resulted in fewer opportunities for family storytelling. In addition, interviewees also described themselves to have “nothing interesting to share” and that they were “unable to do more” in terms of sharing their experiences with their families back home. Interestingly, the cultural probe findings suggest that this perception may not always be accurate, as evidenced by how the participants were able to reflect upon their daily lives and record numerous personal experiences using the probes.
Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’.... more Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’. Yet each life story genre highlights different aspects of the truth. In autobiography, the personal subjective truth of self-identity is foregrounded. In biography, it is the seemingly objective truth about someone’s life asserted by another person, whose mediation introduces an element of subjectivity. In a documentary life story testimonial, the credibility of the objective truth presented is of utmost importance, but so is the subjective life experience that undergirds it. In this article we ask: How is interactivity exploited to construct the truth claims in interactive life stories across genres? By comparing three interactive nonfiction life stories – an autobiography, Fitting the Pattern (Wilks 2008), the biographical docugame The Cat and the Coup (Brinson / ValaNejad 2011), and the documentary Alma (Fougere / Dewever-Plana 2012) –, we explore how the aspects of truth most releva...
While the printed word, music and film have well-known means of evoking empathy, interactive digi... more While the printed word, music and film have well-known means of evoking empathy, interactive digital media lacks such well-established storytelling strategies, especially with regard to non-fiction works. Autobiographical storytellers who wish to relate their experiences interactively, such as through hypertext, do not have a clear toolkit of techniques to rely on. In this paper, we consider some techniques used by autobiographical authors of hypertext stories to evoke empathy. Our close reading of two interactive works, Travis Megill's Memorial and Steven Wingate's daddylabyrinth, indicates that multimodal elements and the author-reader relationship are important factors in conveying a sense of " what it's like " to be the autobiographical life subject. In Memorial, a tribute to a dead brother, the narrator is monologic and in-text hyperlinks uncover the layers of emotion of a brother's grief. Occasional unexpected revelations from clicking a hyperlink give insight into the author's inner conflictual, buried feelings of guilt. daddylabyrinth, a maze of hyperlinked vignettes that mirror the author's psychological space, engages the reader conversationally, and is structured to reflect the author's interior journey to exorcise the anger issues inherited from his father. Using Douglas and Hargadon's distinction between immersion and engagement, we suggest that affective empathy is more likely to be evoked when a hypertext immerses the reader in a single, consistent stream of consciousness, whereas cognitive empathy is more likely to arise if the hypertext seeks to engage rather than immerse, by dialoguing with the reader and constantly overturning conventional schemas, and by foregrounding its structure.
Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’.... more Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’. Yet each life story genre highlights different aspects of the truth. In autobiography, the personal subjective truth of self-identity is foregrounded. In biography, it is the seemingly objective truth about someone’s life asserted by another person, whose mediation introduces an element of subjectivity. In a documentary life story testimonial, the credibility of the objective truth presented is of utmost importance, but so is the subjective life experience that undergirds it. In this article we ask: How is interactivity exploited to construct the truth claims in interactive life stories across genres? By comparing three interactive nonfiction life stories – an autobiography, Fitting the Pattern (Wilks 2008), the biographical docugame The Cat and the Coup (Brinson / ValaNejad 2011), and the documentary Alma (Fougère / Dewever-Plana 2012) –, we explore how the aspects of truth most relevant to each life story genre are foregrounded using interactivity.
Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’.... more Autobiographies, biographies, and documentary life stories all claim to tell a ‘true life story’. Yet each life story genre highlights different aspects of the truth. In autobiography, the personal subjective truth of self-identity is foregrounded. In biography, it is the seemingly objective truth about someone’s life asserted by another person, whose mediation introduces an element of subjectivity. In a documentary life story testimonial, the credibility of the objective truth presented is of utmost importance, but so is the subjective life experience that undergirds it. In this article we ask: How is interactivity exploited to construct the truth claims in interactive life stories across genres? By comparing three interactive nonfiction life stories – an autobiography, Fitting the Pattern (Wilks 2008), the biographical docugame The Cat and the Coup (Brinson / ValaNejad 2011), and the documentary Alma (Fougère / Dewever-Plana 2012) –, we explore how the aspects of truth most relevant to each life story genre are foregrounded using interactivity.
The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important aspect of what it means to be a ... more The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important aspect of what it means to be a ‘family’. Existing research has shown that such stories help family members to maintain close bonds. Additionally, the sharing of personal experiences can help family members to create and present individual and family identities. Traditionally, these stories have been shared face-to-face. However, for a variety of reasons, more families are geographically distributed. While there has been extensive research into how migrant workers make use of ICTs for social support or interpersonal communication, there remains a gap in understanding how these workers use ICTs specifically for family storytelling. To address this, we conducted two rounds of ethnographic interviews with twenty-five Filipino domestic helpers in Singapore. At the same time, we wanted to examine the types of stories these women currently share. As such, we deployed cultural probe packs which consisted of a disposable camera and writing materials. The interview findings show that factors such as cost or limited access to technology resulted in fewer opportunities for family storytelling. In addition, interviewees also described themselves to have ‘nothing interesting to share’ and that they were ‘unable to do more’ in terms of sharing their experiences with their families back home. Interestingly, the cultural probe findings suggest that this perception may not always be accurate, as evidenced by how the participants were able to reflect upon their daily lives and record numerous personal experiences using the probes.
The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important part of what it means to be a “f... more The recording and sharing of family stories remains an important part of what it means to be a “family”. While there is prior research into supporting storytelling for families living apart, there remains a gap in understanding and supporting family storytelling for migrant workers. To address this gap, we explored how technologies could be designed for domestic helpers. Nine domestic helpers were recruited and divided into three design teams. The participatory design sessions and cultural probe findings led to the design of Kwento, a prototype mobile application that uses prompts to encourage helpers to reflect upon their personal experiences.
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Inspired by the ethos of the “incredibly strange” and a personal penchant for shovelware, shitty games (kusoge), the Simple Series by 505 and neo-situationist numbers like the LaLaLand games, this “Seriously Weird Edition” seeks to take weird seriously. A venture in five parts, this collection brings together a variety of strange tales of videogames demonstrating that the weird can be wonderful and, of course, well played.
Inspired by the ethos of the “incredibly strange” and a personal penchant for shovelware, shitty games (kusoge), the Simple Series by 505 and neo-situationist numbers like the LaLaLand games, this “Seriously Weird Edition” seeks to take weird seriously. A venture in five parts, this collection brings together a variety of strange tales of videogames demonstrating that the weird can be wonderful and, of course, well played.