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Interactive Virtual Worlds

Abstract:
Tamiko Thiel's interactive virtual worlds provide Brechtian encounters with sites - internment camps in the USA, Dante's cosmology, the Berlin Wall - of complex, multi-layered historical and cultural meanings. Thiel will use scenes from her artworks to illustrate her generalized theory of dramatic structure, developed from architectural, music and narrative theory, and how with a very simple navigational interface even a timid or computerphobic visitor can be drawn into a complex emotional encounter with the dramatic content of a virtual world.

This talk is adapted from her essay on dramatic structure for vast narratives for the book "Third Person", edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, to be published by MIT Press in late 2008.

Speakers

Tamiko Thiel