Taylor's Semester Recap
Engaging with multimodal digital work this semester has been a really interesting experience. In general, I’ve always preferred simple written/visual work to interactive stories. I love video games, but when I’m just trying to understand the information a story is trying to share, I usually feel bogged down by interactive elements. I’ve also never enjoyed VR; I tend to find it disorienting and, I think if you’re a truly good writer, you can tell an engaging story without having to use things like VR. (Not to mention, I have enough trouble staying in tune with this reality, let alone a different one!) However, with all that being said, I did have fun exploring the many interactive projects we looked at for class. Of the many stories we viewed, my favorite was definitely Motto. I loved seeing my own photographs alongside those taken by others because it was such a tangible reminder of the humanity we share. It made a world that often feels endless into something small and personal, if even just for an hour or so. I wouldn’t have felt that connection if the story had been done in a less interactive format, so I fully appreciated the medium in this case. Additionally, Motto differs from many other interactive stories in the way that it focuses on our tangible surroundings, rather than trying to bring us into a new place. For example, the story Far Away from Far Away presents us with images of the story it’s telling: videos of the characters, maps showing their locations, and interactive elements to draw us further into this world. Motto, on the other hand, asks us to take our own photos of our surroundings. It prompts us to take photos of ourselves, a door, a window, a chair, a drawing of a cat. It encourages us to explore the world we’re already in, rather than pulling us into a new one. Even as we explore the world within the story (inside of the ghost’s head, for example), the images we took earlier are integrated so that we remain connected to our surroundings. Motto fixes a lot of the issues I tend to have with interactive media, allowing me to focus on the things around me and forge a deeper connection with things that are real. It’s a really interesting idea to use the audience’s surroundings as part of a larger story, turning them into the story itself, and it’s definitely part of why I enjoyed the story so much. I’m reminded of the conversation we had about the idea of VR as an “empathy machine.” I definitely understood that description the most when I was exploring Motto because I found myself empathizing with the things around me and with the other people who added their own photos to the story.
This semester definitely made me reconsider my opinions on interactive storytelling. I still prefer good writing and simple visual elements for the most part (especially when it comes to informational stories), but I understand the appeal of interactivity in projects meant to evoke empathy. It will be exciting to see if other stories come along and, like Motto, use interactivity in truly creative ways that capture my attention.
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