Research

This statement describes my academic research and development objectives. These objectives fall into two categories: "Narrative, Play and Social Space" is an investigation of computationally-mediated pervasive games; "Mentality" describes an effort to re-imagine MMO gamespace, starting with the development of a 3D knowledge-mapping system that uses semantic networks (or “mind maps”) to procedurally generate information-rich virtual environments.

Narrative, Play and Social Space

I'm interested in addressing the question of how an increasingly mobile, ubiquitous and interoperable communications infrastructure can enable new forms of computationally-mediated narrative, both in terms of traditional author-to-audience storytelling and emerging modes of collaborative networked expression and participation. Three broad classes of activity inform this inquiry: the development of cross-media artworks that go beyond the frame of the screen; procedural approaches to drama management; and the role of play in creating hybrid forms of audience and community.

Key questions I will address in this context include: Can highly-mediated approaches to play and narrative, many of which involve the deep and tangled integration of story-telling and story-consuming into the fabric of everyday life, produce emotional and social effects analogous to those produced by the novel or the narrative cinema? What kinds of theoretical frameworks can help us to understand how ruleset-driven cross-media narrative experiences fit into the history of performance and representational art? And finally, as the lines between audience and community, author and participant blur in the context of highly personalized, network-enabled game-like story-activities such as SF0 or World Without Oil, is it even possible to address issues of identity and epistemology without inventing new terms and poetics?

Crucial to this study will be an examination of the intersection between structured social play and computational drama-management systems (e.g. Facade, Oz). How can procedural approaches to story-making help to guide massively-scaled improvisations in social space? What are the limitations of such systems, and what are their core affordances? Can game-like, goal-directed improvisational encounters be mediated by computational agencies such that the end result is a focused and clearly-articulated narrative? Or is the insistence on notions of dramatic unity, parsimony and closure an unreasonable intervention of "legacy" critical modes on a fundamentally novel medium?

An inquiry into the nature of this intersection is essential as we enter an age of ubiquitous information technology wherein the respective agencies of authors, crowds and machines promise to collide in productive and unpredictable ways. Drawing on recent research in the field of computational drama management, I will explore the notion of a "procedurally-authored Alternate Reality Game system," both as a means of deploying cross-media artworks such as my ongoing Black Sea Tapes project, and as a way to enable massively-scaled narrative play systems wherein player/participants co-create game-like narrative objectives alongside a computational agency. In developing this system, I hope to explore a range of possible futures for the role of computation in cross-media narrative and structured social play.

Key readings include the critical theory of Deleuze and Guattari; drama management research by Michael Mateas, Andrew Stern and Joseph Bates; the "relational aesthetics" of Nicolas Bourriaud; Situationist polemics and manifestos from the "New Games Movement" of the 1970s; notes on the persuasive and political aspects of game play by Ian Bogost and Gonzalo Frasca; Jane McGonigal's extensive research on Alternate Reality Gaming; and visions of the future of community and ubiquitous computing by Clay Shirky and Rich Gold.

Mentality

The following text is an abridged version of the full Mentality project proposal, which can be viewed here.

Mentality is a 3D knowledge-mapping system that uses semantic networks (or “mind maps”) created with a modified version of IHMC cMap Tools to procedurally generate information-rich virtual environments. These environments will enable users to navigate conceptual space using architectural metaphors. Mentality is envisioned for use in educational and project-development settings as an information visualization tool. Other potential applications include use in health care/recovery as an assistive mnemonic system for patients dealing with memory loss; architecture as a means for analyzing flow and connectivity between discretely-purposed spaces; blogging as a way to create personal spatial archives; social networking as a way to map and enable relations between friends and affinity groups; and game design as a level-authoring tool. Finally, Mentality points the way toward a more thorough implementation of the so-called “3D Web” by offering a critique of the architectural metaphors underlying current online virtual spaces.

The initial implementation of Mentality is envisioned as a way of spatially visualizing the rhizomatic structures of semantic networks. In its simplest form, Mentality is a mash-up of mind-mapping and computer-assisted design (CAD) software. As users add nodes, connections and media artifacts to a mind map, this information is passed to Mentality, which procedurally generates a spatial representation of the network by finding the most efficient uninterrupted paths (“hallways”, "staircases", etc) between nodes (“rooms”) and constructing a legible architectural environment to render these connections. When the user changes the semantic network underpinning the structure, these changes will be reflected in real-time, meaning that while connections between nodes may remain unaltered, the specific spatial/architectural arrangement of the nodes and connections will be dynamic, changing according to the needs of the larger system of connectivity demanded by the knowledge base.

Clearly, successful implementation of Mentality depends on being able to overcome many significant technical challenges. The project will require collaborative work with a diverse range of programmers, cognitive scientists, designers and artists. By working towards the creation of a prototype system, I hope to explore the range of possibilities, problems and theoretical implications presented by procedural spatial representation, and in so doing, generate new questions and objectives for future research.

On a theoretical level, the fluid adaptive knowledge spaces proposed by Mentality present a direct challenge to contemporary virtual spaces that use architectural metaphors as a way of systematizing information and organizing communication. Second Life, for example, uses architectural metaphors in an effort to create what proponents describe as the “3D Web.” But if systems like Second Life are at least partially intended to point the way toward a truly “spatial” Web, then for the most part, they fall short of the mark.

Despite recent online and ubicomp shifts toward dynamic data collection, display and representation, information in social MMO gamespaces such as Second Life is presented in a static, hard-coded manner: while certain aspects of the architecture are dynamic – virtual screens, for example, might grab XML feeds to display changing content – the architecture itself is decidedly non-dynamic. Buildings are fixed in space and layout unless their owners engage in the laborious process of redesigning them and/or spend (real) money to relocate. Nowhere in Second Life is there a significant computational feedback between the information content of the virtual spaces and/or their owners and the organization of the spaces themselves. In this sense, Second Life is akin to the early days of the Web: a network of static, hand-coded sites updated only when the author sees fit to do so.

Like Second Life, the central question asked by Mentality concerns the utility of virtual spaces in communication and representation. But while Second Life suggests that these spaces must adhere to a certain baseline of spatio-geographical verisimilitude in order to be usable (ie, the virtual world must be represented as a fixed and contiguous landmass), Mentality asks for the reexamination of such limitations.

A hypothetical MMO virtual world based on Mentality would be a dynamic self-organizing space, shifting form based on context and the connections created by its users. Virtual “neighborhoods” would be organized not on the basis of property acquisition and fixed geography, but rather in terms of affinity networks and taste fabrics. Proximity would be mapped to density of connections and usage patterns; geography and architecture would thus shift to accommodate new connections and activities on a highly contextual basis. How would users react to such an ephemeral and dynamic spatial representation? Would this kind of contextually-generated environment be of greater utility than geographically static worlds that mimic the physical and economic structures of the real world? Or would it just be confusing? And finally, how would the system navigate and reconcile the multiplicity of contexts implicit in a massively multiplayer gamespace?

Investigating these and other questions raised by the notion of procedural MMO gamespace generation is a core objective of the Mentality project. In concert with several other current projects addressing this issue – from Georgia Tech's Charbitat to Bentley Systems' Generative Components to Will Wright's Spore – Mentality is intended to assist in the creation of a vision for the next generation of networked virtual spaces. Key readings will include: Glorianna Davenport's research on affinity networks and "taste fabrics"; commentaries on emergent game design by Jesper Juul, Salen & Zimmerman, Celia Pearce, Janet Murray and others; insights into the relationship between game worlds and player agency from the writings of Espen Aarseth and Mckenzie Wark; the cybernetics and systems theory of Gregory Bateson and Marvin Minsky; Michel Foucault's studies of knowledge and power; and Erving Goffman's views on social interaction and identity.