REFINING MY RESEARCH FOR CONSULTATION

After my consultation and experimentation last week, I felt that I had a clearer grasp of my research objectives. The primary aim is to explore the intersection between human behavior and interactions, focusing on how individuals perceive and interpret their experiences. I'm interested in understanding human-computer interactions, which, at their core, are both universal and deeply personal. I would like to investigate the transition from mass-produced interactions to personalised, socially produced experiences. In terms of research questions, I'd like to explore:

How do various sensory stimuli in the interactive environment contribute to a participant's sense of immersion and impact their narrative construction?
To what extent does the design of the immersive environment influence a participant's sense of subjectivity?
How do biases manifest during an immersive experience?
Can certain narratives lead to desensitization to specific concepts?
What distinguishes a group experience from an individual one?
How does the interplay between narrative structure and perspective affect a viewer's ability to differentiate between fact and fiction in a story?.

Fundamentally, my core intention revolves around crafting an interactive narrative that empowers users to make their own choices and chart their unique path within the narrative. This approach serves a dual purpose:

To emphasise that their actions carry consequences within the storyline,
To generate a data visualization outcome that captures real-time data on the choices users make.

The goal here is to showcase and analyse how individuals navigate and interact with the narrative, shedding light on the intricate interplay between user choices and the resulting storyline developments.

AN INTERACTIVE FILM: CASE STUDY

During my research, I came across this interactive film titled "The Little Extras," which I find highly relevant to my project. This interactive film essentially encompasses all the elements I aim to incorporate into my final year project. It effectively constructs a narrative that prompts users to question their moral compass, even though there's no singular correct answer, rendering it a highly subjective experience. The interaction in this film is relatively straightforward, primarily focusing on the choices within the narrative. The primary emphasis lies on the narrative itself and its inherent subjectivity. It delves into various social and moral dilemmas, thereby creating an opportunity to initiate conversations and gain insights into how individuals perceive different situations. It also highlights how our biases project real-life scenarios and influence our engagement with the story, underscoring the fact that everyone has unique perspectives and needs.

I went for consultation with these recent developments in my research and I felt pretty decent with what I had.

CONSULTATION AND FEEDBACK

I received extensive feedback during this consultation, although it wasn't exactly what I had initially hoped for. While discussing my progress with Andreas, he pointed out that my project seemed quite ambitious, potentially requiring more than a year to complete, given the available time and resources. Regarding the narrative aspect, he expressed concerns about the lack of a clearly defined narrative, which was a valid point because I also hadn't settled on a specific narrative at that point.

In terms of user interaction with the narrative, he initially perceived it as an old-school concept, primarily associated with video games, which led to a bit of miscommunication. I clarified that I was approaching interactive narratives from a theater perspective, not as a video game concept. Once that was clarified, Andreas became more receptive to the idea but still thought it might be too broad. Consequently, he suggested taking a step back and revisiting my research pillars, focusing on specific areas within those three pillars individually.

REFINING THE RESEARCH PILLARS.

With Andrease's help I was able to refine my research pillars on the bases of my research and where it could progress in the future.

NON - LINEAR NARRATIVES: Andreas recommended that I focus on non-linearity, given my interest in subjective and personalised narratives. He suggested researching this concept in the context of community theater and proposed the task of creating a narrative tree comparing two different theater eras as an exercise in understanding non-linearity better.

TANGIBLE INTERACTIONS: Initially, I concentrated on immersive and interactive design, but now I'm inclined to explore tangible interactivity as well. Andreas advised me to conduct more visual research and develop moodboards to further this aspect of my project.

DESENSITIZATION OF EMOTIONS:To be honest, this shift in focus was quite a stretch from my initial direction. However, considering my progress, Andreas recommended that my third pillar should revolve around the desensitization of emotions. Although he had some concerns about it becoming too scientific, he proposed that I approach it more from a commentary perspective to align with the overall theme of my research.

CLASS WORKSHOPS

During Thursday's class, we engaged in three different exercises to document our progress and encourage interaction among ourselves.

This exercise proved to be quite rejuvenating for the class. It became evident that many of us were facing similar challenges, and I was not alone in grappling with my research. Additionally, it was nice to witness the diverse range of projects and their progress in our cohort. The different insights and perspectives shared by my classmates were very interesting, and I found that I learned a great deal from their work. It also provided valuable tips and guidance on how to approach my own project moving forward.

PROGRESS PLAN FOR NEXT WEEK

As we transition into week 5, I'm feeling a bit stressed because it seems like I'm back to square one, despite Andreas helping me explore potential areas of research. My biggest concern is whether I'm headed in the right direction or not. Additionally, I've been struggling with the lack of visual research. It's not that I lack inspiration, but I haven't been able to find anything that I consider relatable or suitable for my research. This, in turn, has made it difficult to visualize my upcoming experiments. To address these concerns, I've decided to take a break from reading and instead focus on visualizing my experiments and creating an interactive narrative tree in the coming week.