Gorogoa (Buried Signal, 2017)
IML 425: Narrative Across Media
Units: 4.0
Tuesdays, 13:00 – 15:50
SCI 209
Instructor: Kiki Benzon (she/they)
Office: SCI 101J
Office Hours: by appointment
Email: kbenzon@cinema.usc.edu
Course Description
In this course, we will explore traditions and emerging practices in multimedia storytelling. What are stories and why are they important to us? How does the medium through which stories are conveyed affect their meaning and reception? In this era of media convergence, what new kinds of narratives can be generated through the mingling and merging of disparate platforms and technologies? In considering these questions, we will draw from theories in narratology, media studies, and cultural studies toward understanding a variety of practices in storytelling across literature, film, television, comics, XR, videogames, and physical/virtual environments. In view of current discussions on media specificity, we will consider the narrative affordances of particular media forms and modalities; what, for example, can stories expressed through the moving image achieve that those conveyed through text, music, or illustration cannot? An evolving digital culture is changing the ways we create and experience stories, which may be distributed through multiple media channels—installations, live events, virtual spaces, traditional broadcast media—or emerge from transmedial storyworlds or jointly authored, interactive experiences. We will examine works by innovators occupying these expanding zones of practice and use our own skills as media-makers and storytellers to create “narratives across media.”
Learning Objectives
– create and read stories in a range of genres and media environments
– expand our knowledge about the histories and practices of storytelling across cultures and communities
– understand theories of narrative, multimodality, and multimedia representation
– learn strategies for working with multiple media forms and platforms
– become familiar with writers and artists creating narrative work that merges film, video, illustration, photography, games, XR and other media practices in innovative ways
– increase proficiencies across media-making practices both digital and analog
– gain experience offering critique and having our own work critiqued
– consider our work as artists and theorists within current social and political precarities and urgencies
Technological Proficiency and Hardware/Software Required
It is recommended that students have access to a laptop computer for time spent in the classroom.
Required Readings and Supplementary Materials
Readings will be provided in PDF format. As occasional video content, games, apps, etc. may be required, students should budget about $30 for expenses.
Description and Assessment of Assignments
Weekly Critical Engagements (7)—Writing or Making (3% each = 30%): You are asked to engage with the week’s themes, readings, or “experiences” through either a written reflection (300-400 words) or a creative work. The latter may assume any form or medium that seems appropriate to you or that you would like to experiment with, so long as you are able to articulate its relationship to the week’s topic. So that we all have a chance to access your reflection/work before class, I would ask that you submit them to our Slack channel before 17:00 on the day before our meeting (doing so is part of your 3% mark.) You need only submit 10 over the course of the term; you choose which weeks.
Presentation (25%): You will deliver a 45-minute presentation on a week/topic of your choosing. The presentation may be comprised of some combination of lecture, activity, performance, workshop, or other modality that encourages your peers to engage with ideas or practices connected to the week’s theme.
Multimedia Narrative (35%): This is an opportunity for you to create a multimedia narrative experience and share it with the class. You will be introduced to authoring tools, exemplary works, and prototyping strategies to provide inspiration and direction. This narrative project will be developed over the course of the term, and there will be several check-in points along the way.
Participation (10%): Active engagement with ideas, activities, and discussions is imperative for your success in the course. You should have read/watched/played the assigned works before each class. You begin the course with full marks for participation; if you are disruptive in class (arrive late, leave early, use your phone, etc.), your participation mark will be reduced. Honor the work of your peers by engaging with their research and creations.
Assessment of Assignments
| Assignment | % of Grade |
| Weekly Critical Engagements (10) | 30 |
| Presentation | 25 |
| Multimedia Narrative | 35 |
| Participation | 10 |
| Grade | % |
| A | 95 – 100 |
| A- | 90 – 94 |
| B+ | 87 – 89 |
| B | 83 – 86 |
| B- | 80 – 82 |
| C+ | 77 – 79 |
| C | 73 – 76 |
| C- | 70 – 62 |
| D+ | 67 – 69 |
| D | 63 – 66 |
| D- | 60 – 62 |
| F | 59 and below |
Assignment Submission Policy
Assignments submitted after the deadline will be subject to a one letter-grade penalty per day late.
MA+P Division Absence policy
MA+P classes depend on group work and in-class critique, which makes attendance crucial. You are expected to be present for every scheduled class session. If you must miss a class, please be sure to get any notes and assignments from a classmate so you do not fall behind. Students are allowed two absences before a reduction in grade. Tardiness or leaving class early for (0 to 15 minutes) will be considered ½ an absence. Missing more than 30 minutes of a class is considered an absence. After your second absence, each additional absence will lower your final grade by 5%. If you anticipate attendance issues, please notify your professor immediately.
Course Schedule: A Weekly Breakdown
Week 1: January 9
introduction to the course
Week 2: January 16
| Topic | Reading and Composing |
| Prepare | Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour” (1894)
Nabokov, Vladimir. “Signs and Symbols” (1948) |
| Activity | composing stories |
Week 3: January 23
| Topic | Nonlinearity and Narrative Assemblage |
| Prepare | The Mirror (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)
Pry (Tender Claws, 2014) |
Week 4: January 30
| Topic | “New Narratives” and Multimodality |
| Prepare | Dena, Christy. “Beyond Multimedia, Narrative and Game: The Contributions of Multimodality and Polymorphic Fictions.” New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality. Ruth Page, ed. Routledge, 2009. |
Week 5: February 6
| Topic | Interactive Fiction / Twine |
| Prepare | Dys4ria (Anna Anthropy, 2012)
Redshift and Portalmetal (micha cárdenas, 2015) Harvey, Alison. “Twine’s Revolution: Democratization, Depoliticization, and the Queering of Game Design.” Game: The Journal of Italian Game Studies. (2014): 95-107. |
| Activity | writing interactive narratives /Twine |
Week 6: February 13
| Topic | Ludo-narrativity and Videogames |
| Prepare | Gorogoa (Annapurna Interactive, 2017)
Jenkins, Henry. “Game Design as Narrative Architecture.” First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan, eds. MIT, 2004. |
Week 7: February 20
| Topic | Immersive Storytelling / 360° & VR |
| Prepare | Posted content on Slack |
Week 8: February 27
| Topic | non-fiction narratives / documentary / Visit Ganek Immersive Studio |
| Prepare | Nash, Kate. “Stepping into the story for good: Virtual reality (VR) and empathy in the context of first-person media” Interactive Documentary: Theory and Debate. Routledge, 2022. |
Week 9: March 5
| Topic | Narrative Spaces: Installations and Environments |
| Prepare | Combrink, Louisemarié. “A Narratological Perspective on Installation Art.” de arte 56.2-3. (2021): 2-3. |
Week 10: March 12
Spring Recess – No Class
Week 11: March 19
| Topic | Tangible Storytelling / escape rooms |
Week 12: March 26
| Topic | Multimedia Narrative Project proposals |
Week 13: April 2
Studio Class / Guest Facilitator
Week 14: April 9
| Topic | Transmedia Storytelling and Worldbuilding |
| Prepare | Phillips, Andrea. “Storytelling” and “Structure.” A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling. McGraw Hill, 2012. |
Week 15: April 16
Studio Class / Guest Facilitator
Week 16: April 23
| Topics | Multimedia Narrative Project Presentations; Project due (35%) |
ACADEMIC POLICIES
Land Acknowledgement Statement:
We acknowledge our presence on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Kizh and Chumash peoples. Please visit Native-Land.ca to learn more, and to discover the Original People of your home.
SCA Diversity and Inclusion Statement:
Diversity and Inclusion are foundational to the SCA community. We are committed to fostering a welcoming and supportive environment where students of all identities and backgrounds can flourish. The classroom should be a space for open discussion of ideas and self- expression; however, SCA will not tolerate verbal or written abuse, threats, harassment, intimidation or violence against person or property. If students are concerned about these matters in the classroom setting they are encouraged to contact their SCA Diversity and Inclusion Liaison, http://cinema.usc.edu/about/diversity.cfm; e-mail diversity@cinema.usc.edu. You can also report discrimination based on a protected class here https://equity.usc.edu/harassment-or-discrimination/
Students and Disability Accommodations:
USC welcomes students with disabilities into all of the University’s educational programs. The Office of Student Accessibility Services (OSAS) is responsible for the determination of appropriate accommodations for students who encounter disability-related barriers. Once a student has completed the OSAS process (registration, initial appointment, and submitted documentation) and accommodations are determined to be reasonable and appropriate, a Letter of Accommodation (LOA) will be available to generate for each course. The LOA must be given to each course instructor by the student and followed up with a discussion. This should be done as early in the semester as possible as accommodations are not retroactive. More information can be found at osas.usc.edu. You may contact OSAS at (213) 740-0776 or via email at osasfrontdesk@usc.edu.
In the spirit of disability culture, please feel free to stim, stretch, knit, doodle, move around, change seats, do yoga or do what feels right to your bodymind.
Academic Integrity:
The University of Southern California is a learning community committed to developing successful scholars and researchers dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and the dissemination of ideas. Academic misconduct, which includes any act of dishonesty in the production or submission of academic work, compromises the integrity of the person who commits the act and can impugn the perceived integrity of the entire university community. It stands in opposition to the university’s mission to research, educate, and contribute productively to our community and the world.
All students are expected to submit assignments that represent their own original work, and that have been prepared specifically for the course or section for which they have been submitted. You may not submit work written by others or “recycle” work prepared for other courses without obtaining written permission from the instructor(s).
Other violations of academic integrity include, but are not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, fabrication (e.g., falsifying data), collusion, knowingly assisting others in acts of academic dishonesty, and any act that gains or is intended to gain an unfair academic advantage.
The impact of academic dishonesty is far-reaching and is considered a serious offense against the university. All incidences of academic misconduct will be reported to the Office of Academic Integrity and could result in outcomes such as failure on the assignment, failure in the course, suspension, or even expulsion from the university.
For more information about academic integrity see the student handbook or the Office of Academic Integrity’s website, and university policies on Research and Scholarship Misconduct.
Please ask your instructor if you are unsure what constitutes unauthorized assistance on an exam or assignment, or what information requires citation and/or attribution.
Creating a policy for the use of AI Generators in your course
Review the considerations and sample options below to include language in your syllabi regarding the use of AI in your courses.
Considerations when crafting a policy for AI/Chat GPT use in your course:
- Does your department, program, or school have an existing policy?
- Under what circumstances is AI use permitted in the course and/or for specific assignments?
- How should students cite or credit AI-generated material? (USC Libraries AI Generators Citation Guidance)
- How will students be held accountable for AI’s tendency toward hallucination (i.e., deceptive data)?
- What are the ethical considerations of using AI in general and in your discipline?
- How can AI be used as an effective learning tool, rather than a content creator for course assignments?
Sample Option A–not permitted
Since creating, analytical, and critical thinking skills are part of the learning outcomes of this course, all assignments should be prepared by the student working individually or in groups. Students may not have another person or entity complete any substantive portion of the assignment. Developing strong competencies in these areas will prepare you for a competitive workplace. Therefore, using AI-generated tools is prohibited in this course, will be identified as plagiarism, and will be reported to the Office of Academic Integrity.
Option B–permitted on specific assignments
In this course, I encourage you to use artificial intelligence (AI)-powered programs to help you with assignments that indicate the permitted use of AI. You should also be aware that AI text generation tools may present incorrect information, biased responses, and incomplete analyses; thus they are not yet prepared to produce text that meets the standards of this course. To adhere to our university values, you must cite any AI-generated material (e.g., text, images, etc.) included or referenced in your work and provide the prompts used to generate the content. Using an AI tool to generate content without proper attribution will be treated as plagiarism and reported to the Office of Academic Integrity. Please review the instructions in each assignment for more details on how and when to use AI Generators for your submissions.
Option C–encouraged use
I expect you to use AI (e.g., ChatGPT and image generation tools) in this class. Learning to use AI is an emerging skill, and I welcome the opportunity to meet with you to provide guidance with these tools during office hours or after class. Keep in mind the following:
- AI tools are permitted to help you brainstorm topics or revise work you have already written.
- If you provide minimum-effort prompts, you will get low-quality results. You will need to refine your prompts to get good outcomes. This will take work.
- Proceed with caution when using AI tools and do not assume the information provided is accurate or trustworthy If it gives you a number or fact, assume it is incorrect unless you either know the correct answer or can verify its accuracy with another source. You will be responsible for any errors or omissions provided by the tool. It works best for topics you understand.
- AI is a tool, but one that you need to acknowledge using. Please include a paragraph at the end of any assignment that uses AI explaining how (and why) you used AI and indicate/specify the prompts you used to obtain the results what prompts you used to get the results. Failure to do so is a violation of academic integrity policies.
- Be thoughtful about when AI is useful. Consider its appropriateness for each assignment or circumstance. The use of AI tools requires attribution. You are expected to clearly attribute any material generated by the tool used.]
Include common examples of activities and assignments that might occur in your class:
- Please ask me if you are unsure about what constitutes unauthorized assistance on an exam or assignment, or what information requires citation and/or attribution.
- In this class, you are expected to submit work that demonstrates your individual mastery of the course concepts.
- Group work. Unless specifically designated as a ‘group project,’ all assignments are expected to be completed individually.
Include information regarding grade outcomes a student may expect if found in violation:
If found responsible for an academic violation, students may be assigned university outcomes, such as suspension or expulsion from the university, and grade penalties, such as an “F” grade on the assignment, exam, and/or in the course.
Statement on Fair Use:
Fair use is a legal principle that defines certain limitations on the exclusive rights of copyright holders. MA+P projects are produced with fair use doctrines in mind using its four pillars: (1) the purpose and character of use, (2) the nature of the copyrighted work, (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. Generally speaking, this means you must only use as much of a copyrighted work as is necessary to make your point, and you must cite your sources accordingly.
Citation Guidelines:
We assert that work produced in our classes is covered under the Doctrine of Fair Use. In order to make this claim, however, all projects must include academically appropriate citations in the form of a References section, which covers all sources, in order to receive a passing grade. The References section is either included in the project itself or as a separate document, as appropriate. For citation purposes, we follow Kairos Journal of Rhetoric,Technology and Pedagogy style guide; Kairos uses APA format, which is slightly modified and whose general guidelines and specific examples may be found here: http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/styleguide.html#apa
Computer Code:
Computer code is often shared and reused. This is appropriate in a MA+P course unless otherwise directed by the assignment. If you do use code, you should attribute it. Please follow these protocols from MIT which call for placing a comment in one’s code with a URL to the original source, a note if it was adapted, and the date of retrieval: https://integrity.mit.edu/handbook/writing-code
PLEASE NOTE:
FOOD AND DRINKS (OTHER THAN WATER) ARE NOT PERMITTED IN ANY INSTRUCTIONAL SPACES IN THE SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS COMPLEX
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