The last twenty or so years have seen a phenomenal expansion in the variety of forms of creative and narrative audiovisual expression. The increasing role of relatively recent developments such as the internet, mobile telephony and computer gaming, which complement the narrative representation of more traditional media, seems to have acted as a catalyst to unfreeze the standard types of story form that had been appearing on screens for over a hundred years. Storytelling has taken on new forms, in the physical format(s) of the narrative material, the place or device where it is experienced, and the way it is accessed by the viewer – in particular, a viewer who might now also be a creator, modifier, or active participant in the represented audiovisual experience. Including texts by leading media scholars Erkki Huhtamo and Ryszard W. Kluszczynski, this book offers both historical and contemporary analyses of a variety of these “expanding practices in audiovisual narrative”. Chapters discuss mobile and locative (and hybrid) narrative media; the connection between computer gaming and more traditional forms of storytelling and game-playing; the use of computational algorithms to organise and access narrative content; and explain how the traditional documentary film form is being transformed by the potential of the audience to participate in, or change the form of, a non-fictional narrative. Historically, the work of Luc Courchesne and Radúz Činčera is analysed, as is the media-archaeological context of interactivity, pushing buttons, and group experiences. Narrative forms will undoubtedly continue their process of expansion and evolution, such that one can never truly represent the “state of the art” of current practice in audiovisual digital media. Nevertheless, the articles presented here offer useful source material to inform scholars and practitioners from a variety of related fields about certain historical, cultural and theoretical aspects of the evolution of the narrative form in the digital age.

The variety in contemporary philosophical and aesthetic thinking as well as in scientific and experimental research on complexity has not yet been fully adopted by narratology. By integrating cutting-edge approaches, this volume takes a step toward filling this gap and establishing interdisciplinary narrative research on complexity. Narrative Complexity provides a framework for a more complex and nuanced study of narrative and explores the experience of narrative complexity in terms of cognitive processing, affect, and mind and body engagement. Bringing together leading international scholars from a range of disciplines, this volume combines analytical effort and conceptual insight in order to relate more effectively our theories of narrative representation and complexities of intelligent behavior. This collection engages important questions on how narrative complexity functions as an agent of cultural evolution, how our understanding of narrative complexity can be extended in light of new research in the social sciences and humanities, how interactive media produce new types of narrative complexity, and how the role of embodiment as a factor of narrative complexity acquires prominence in cognitive science and media studies. The contributors explore narrative complexity transmitted through various semiotic channels, embedded in multiple contexts, and experienced across different media, including film, comics, music, interactive apps, audiowalks, and ambient literature.

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings the 11th EAI International Conference on ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation, ArtsIT 2022 which was held in Faro, Portugal, November 21-22, 2022. The 45 revised full papers presented were carefully selected from 118 submissions. The papers are thematically arranged in the following sections: Dialogues Between Geometry, Computer Graphics and the Visual Arts; Games and Gamification; Museums and the Virtual; Animation, AI, Books and Behavior; Fluency, Fashion, Emotion and Play; Movement, Film and Audio.

This book formulates a new theological approach to the study of religion in gaming. Video games have become one of the most important cultural artifacts of modern society, both as mediators of cultural, social, and religious values and in terms of commercial success. This has led to a significant increase in the critical analysis of this relatively new medium, but theology as an academic discipline is noticeably behind the other humanities on this subject. The book first covers the fundamentals of cultural theology and video games. It then moves on to set out a Christian systematic theology of gaming, focusing on creational theology, Christology, anthropology, evil, moral theology, and thanatology. Each chapter introduces case studies from video games connected to the specific theme. In contrast to many studies which focus on online multiplayer games, the examples considered are largely single player games with distinct narratives and ‘end of game’ moments. The book concludes by synthesizing these themes into a new theology of video games. This study addresses a significant aspect of contemporary society that has yet to be discussed in any depth by theologians. It is, therefore, a fantastic resource for any scholar engaging with the religious aspects of digital and popular culture.

Connecting interactive cinema to media ethics and global citizenship Interactive Cinema explores various cinematic practices that work to transform what is often seen as a primarily receptive activity into a participatory, multimedia experience. Surveying a multitude of unorthodox approaches throughout the history of motion pictures, Marina Hassapopoulou offers insight into a range of largely ephemeral and site-specific projects that consciously assimilate viewers into their production. Analyzing examples of early cinema, Hollywood B movies, museum and gallery installations, virtual-reality experiments, and experimental web-based works, Hassapopoulou travels across numerous platforms, highlighting a diverse array of strategies that attempt to unsettle the allegedly passive spectatorship of traditional cinema. Through an exploration of these radically inventive approaches to the medium, many of which emerged out of sociopolitical crises and periods of historical transition, she works to expand notions of interactivity by considering it in both technological and phenomenological terms. Deliberately revising and expanding Eurocentric scholarship to propose a much broader, transnational scope, the book emphasizes the ethical dimensions of interactive media and their links to larger considerations around community building, citizenship, and democracy. By combining cutting-edge theory with updated conventional film studies methodologies, Interactive Cinema presses at the conceptual limits of cinema and offers an essential road map to the rapidly evolving landscape of contemporary media.

Over the last two decades, discoveries made in the field of cognitive neuroscience have begun to permeate humanities and social sciences. This special issue of Cinéma & Cie focuses on major conceptual and epistemological arguments arising from the dialogue between audiovisual studies and neurosciences. In the context of this intersection, Neurofilmology is an interdisciplinary research program that arises at the encounter between two models of viewer: theviewer-as-mind (deriving from a cognitive/analytical approach) and the viewer-as-body (typical of the phenomenological/continental approach). Accordingly, Neurofilmology focuses on the viewer-as-organism, by investigating with both empirical and speculative epistemological tools the subject of audiovisual experience, postulated as embodied, embedded, enacted, extended, emerging, affective, and relational.

As mobile communication, social media, wireless networks, and flexible user interfaces become prominent topics in the study of media and culture, the screen emerges as a critical research area. This reader brings together insightful and influential texts from a variety of sources-theorists, researchers, critics, inventors, and artists-that explore the screen as a fundamental element not only in popular culture but also in our very understanding of society and the world. The Screen Media Reader is a foundational resource for studying the screen and its cultural impact. Through key contemporary and historical texts addressing the screen's development and role in communications and the social sphere, it considers how the screen functions as an idea, an object, and an everyday experience. Reflecting a number of descriptive and analytical approaches, these essays illustrate the astonishing range and depth of the screen's introduction and application in multiple media configurations and contexts. Together they demonstrate the long-standing influence of the screen as a cultural concept and communication tool that extends well beyond contemporary debates over screen saturation and addiction.