News

SEMINAR

The Evolution of Interactivity in Storytelling: From Epistolary Novels to Digital Media

Day 1, Friday, March 15, 2024

Reconfiguring Realities: VR & Interactive Narratives in Documentary

Presenters: Ruohan Tang (University of Southampton, UK), Katy Morrison (Deakin University, Australia), Dorothy Santos (University of California Santa Cruz, USA), Broderick Fox (Occidental College, USA)

This panel explores the transformative impact of virtual reality and interactivity on documentary storytelling, delving into the evolving paradigms of spatial narratives, embodied interactions, and ethical concerns. Through various methodological lenses, it scrutinizes how these emerging technologies challenge traditional documentary forms, offering new dimensions of viewer engagement and narrative complexity, raising critical questions about presence, agency, and the complexities of representing ‘reality.’

Day 2, Saturday, March 16, 2024

Digital Narratives: Forms and Experiments Across Media

Presenters: Steffen Moestrup and Karsten Vestergaard (Danish School of Media and Journalism, Denmark), Jennifer Smith (North Central College, USA), Jonah Shallit (Johns Hopkins University, USA), Mitchell Gunn (University of Toronto, Canada)

This panel will examine the evolving landscape of narrative and storytelling in digital and interactive media, exploring everything from hands-on pedagogical models to literary experiments and technological obsolescence. Panellists will present empirical and analytical studies that unpack the complexities and opportunities of various forms, such as digital storytelling, social media, Adobe Flash, and experimental literature.

Day 3, Sunday, March 17, 2024

Intersections of Narrative and Interactivity: Unpacking Player Engagement in Video Games and Interactive Fiction

Presenters: Richard Joseph and Kayla Penteliuk (McGill University), Audrey Halley (Indiana University Bloomington, USA), Claire Carroll (University of Cambridge, UK)

This panel delves into the multi-layered interactivity and narrativity in video games and interactive fiction, exploring how player engagement intersects with storytelling mechanics and fan culture. It scrutinizes the implications of interactivity on narrative structures, from adaptations of feminist icons and classical myths to the affordances and limitations of choice in interactive fiction.

TALK

Culture of Hunger in Brazil:

From Glauber Rocha to Luis Inácio Lula da Silva

In the 1960s, Brazil’s Cinema Novo (New Cinema) proposed the decolonization of cinema. The “culture of hunger” emerged as aesthetic rupture and social criticism within it. Hunger was the nourishing force for revolutionary action in the arts. In 2003, hunger would become one of the symbols of the Left and President Lula’s administration. Did Cinema Novo’s prophetic ideas inspire Lula? What is the role of the “culture of hunger” in Brazilian culture? How does hunger become a significant factor for the independence of Brazilian culture? 

Revitalizing Cinema Novo’s manifesto and contemporary political discourse on “culture of hunger,” this communication aims to refashion the history of Brazil’s social-political aesthetics—to examine the complex hypertextual references and intersections between film and politics in Brazilian culture.

Presenter:
Hudson Moura, Ph.D., Lecturer, Politics and Public Administration, and Associate Member, Centre for Studies in Food Security, Ryerson University

Friday, April 23, 12:00 – 1:30 pm (EST) (13:00h – 14:30h Brasilia time) via Zoom
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/culture-of-hunger-in-brazil-tickets-150385889243