Explore emerging forms of narration in video games
Workshop evaluation is based on participation in the five days of the workshop and on the level of active engagement of the student.
This workshop invites a critical and creative exploration of the narrative possibilities offered by video games, drawing on a corpus of theoretical texts and diverse imaginaries from science fiction and fantasy. The video game will be considered as a performative medium and a narrative exploration tool, capable of opening spaces for new forms of storytelling.
Through the study of works by game designers, artists, and authors such as Muriel Tramis, Octavia Butler, or Rivers Solomon, participants will interrogate narrative patterns encountered in video games and science fiction. They will explore possible hybridizations between these narratives and develop new ones in resonance with their artistic practices and their sensory and virtual experiences, both individual and collective.
The first day will aim to establish a common set of references. Subsequent teaching will alternate between theoretical inputs (readings, discussions, gameplay viewings), research presentations, and collective reading workshops (walks). Concepts such as wandering, glitch, altered bodies, intertextuality, or shared universes between literary fiction and video games (Clive Barker, Ursula Le Guin, Samuel Delany, H. P. Lovecraft) will be explored.
Participants will develop a project in the form of their choice: video game prototype, installation, performance, performed reading, machinima, etc. The final output will be based on their personal research and practices, while drawing on the narrative tools of video games and genres explored during the week (science fiction and fantasy).
The goal of this workshop is to grasp the narrative issues in a video game work and in the hybrid forms it takes within the field of contemporary art. It will aim to produce indisciplined, critical, and poetic narratives: speculative fictions that challenge the aesthetic, narrative, and political norms of the medium.
Fugue and marronnage, CG short and video games, 2024
© Noam Rezgui
The evaluation is based on participation in the five days of the workshop and on the degree of active engagement of the student.