III. Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive Storytelling

30 September – 2 October, 2021

Venue:

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, Hungary
(The conference will be organized in hybrid format.)

Topic:

Interactive Speculative Narratives – the Speculative Forms of Storytelling and Immersion online, mixed reality mediums, performing arts – during and after COVID-19

Nicholas Taleb considers the pandemic a “white swan event” - something that has been predicted (e.g. that major pandemics will happen), but whose exact form is unforeseeable and that results in major changes (In contrast he takes ‘black swan events’ as equally influential, but unpredictable). The COVID 19 pandemic is such a ‘white swan event’ and one of its consequences is that it made online interactive digital storytelling productions more prevalent, especially, since it was the only form of expression and dialogue with the audience for many creators.

The lockdown period stopped all events that required physical presence pushing artists to use the available tools of digital communication in novel and exciting ways, but also motivating the development of new tools to allow various types of virtual interactions. Examples for the former include the use of the Together Mode in MS Teams to create playful forms of interaction, examples of the latter are e.g. Online Syndicate Platform that was adapted by the company Fast Familiar.

For this year’s conference, we are asking what these changes mean for creators and scholars of interactive digital narratives:

  • Are there limits to the adaptation of existing stories from physical environments to online experiences?
  • Do online platforms force a reduction of narrative meaning and are they thus a challenge to complex representations?

Previously virtual environments were understood as fragmented (see Jenkins, 2006) does this notion still hold (Jenkins himself more recently modified his earlier predictions), or do we understand VE as a specific “new normal” with its own characteristics? In particular, do VE enable what Murray (2018) has called a “kaleidoscopic habit of thinking” that can help us “envision a more integrated transformational future” and “open up the possibility of expanding our understanding of the world and our cognitive capacity” (Murray, 2018:17). In that sense, VE could also be described as interactive design fictions (Sterling, 2012), virtual sandboxes to try out novel ways of communicating, interacting and expressing in the sense of “Playful Utopias” (Koenitz 2019). This notion connects VEs to the long tradition of literary and cinematic utopias and their effect on reality (cf Shedroff et. al. 2012) and positions VEs as a more democratic, participatory form of speculative narratives.

To better grasp the shifting world and the complexity of the changes, it is important to enhance emerging artistic practices to enable critical reflection while acknowledging the changed relationship between creators and audiences.The Zip-Scene Conference aims to take tools/XR/extended reality (VR/AR/MR) works seriously and treat them on equal footing to film and performing arts. On this basis, we are looking forward to papers that address narrative experiences enabled by digital platforms, especially online and XR.

Papers should address either one or several of the following questions:

Late-breaking developments

  • What effect did the COVID-19 pandemic have on interactive digital narrative artefacts?
  • What kind of narratives were prevalent in online digital productions in the last one year?
  • What is specific to the medium in the latest developments?
  • How is speculative design/future studies influencing interactive digital narratives?
  • How can IDN’s present the complexity of infodemics? Are there existing or novel practices that can offer a new approach to grasp the complexity of issues such as global warming or migration?
  • What novel disciplines can be studied with the help of IDN’s?
  • How can physical interactive installations or production be adapted for online versions?
  • What design strategies created the experience of full immersivity and presence for their users-turned-participants especially in the last year’s productions (see 2018/4 issue of the journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media).
  • What kind of principles of video game design do online/XR productions make use of (e.g. puzzle dependency charts and plot-shaped level design – see Short, 2019)?
  • How can we explore free-form play and rule-based gaming as different types of performances within mixed-reality theatre and immersive theatre?

Future applications

  • Are IDNs a suitable tool for studying the brain or for understanding consciousness?
  • What is the overlap between immersive productions and magic shows? What can the field of immersive storytelling learn from the science of magic?
  • How can we overcome dominant notions of established storytelling strategies in order to focus on engaging experiences in scholarship and practice?

Fundamentals of IDN

  • What engagement with and control over the narrative path is desirable for the audience turned participants when interacting with IDNs?
  • What does immersion mean in virtual productions? What is the audience’s expectation of a sensorial or virtual immersive event?
  • What practices can be found that encourage audience participation and co-creation?
  • What kind of design strategies can we use to provide a satisfying level of agency to participant audiences and provide opportunities for co-creation?
  • What can we learn from a comparison of site-specific live arts productions with those of online projects or VR projects?
  • Are interactive digital narrative experiences a media of attraction (see Rouse, 2016) or does the development differ in important ways from that of early film?

Conference themes:

  • Interactive storytelling methods
  • Interactive videos
  • Video games
  • Location-based technology (with augmented reality)
  • Virtual reality experiences & movies
  • Augmented reality in interactive storytelling
  • Games-based performing arts practices using new technology tools
  • Interactive Museums
  • Immersive environments (media archeology and phenomenological approach)
  • Transmedia storytelling

Proposals may be for a paper or a panel and should be related to at least one of the conference themes. Deadline for submitting the proposals is May 27, 2021. Please send us your abstract (max 350 words) and a short bio (max. 300 words) to the address: zipscene@mome.hu and please in CC: bakk@mome.hu. The papers will be reviewed by the conference committee. If your proposal will be accepted you will be given 20 minutes for your presentation.

We aim to carry out this conference preferably as an offline event based in Budapest, should the circumstances of the current pandemic permit. The organizer reserves the right to make changes to the event program.

Registration fee: EUR 65 (physical attendance) - for online presenters we will offer a lower fee proposal
More information about visitor tickets in September.

The organizers cannot cover travel, accommodation and lodging costs. Upon request we can provide you with an invitation letter.

For Whom

The conference addresses scientific researchers, game professionals, programmers, artists, scholars and professionals from the field of performing arts, game studies, interactive storytellers, experience designers, narrative designers, VR-professionals and philosophers concerned with the conference topics. The conference aims to bring together emerging scholars, professionals and creators in order to create a joint platform which would later help individuals to understand and to develop these types of productions.

Organised by:

Zip-Scene
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest
ARDIN – Association for Research in Digital Interactive Narratives

Strategic partner:

  1. Interactive Digital Narratives for Complexity Representations – INDCOR Cost Action indcor.eu
  2. Code and Soda Company codeandsoda.com
  3. Random Error Studio randomerror.studio

Supported by:

International Visegrad Fund
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest – Innovation Center
INDCOR COST ACTION/H2020

Consultant on behalf of ARDIN/INDCOR:

Hartmut Koenitz

References:

Benford S. & Giannachi, G. Performing Mixed Reality. 2011, MIT Press, Massachusetts

Jenkins. H. (2006). Convergence Culture. New York, University Press.

Koenitz, H. (2015). Towards a Specific Theory of Interactive Digital Narrative. In H. Koenitz, G. Ferri, M. Haahr, D. Sezen, & T. I. Sezen (Eds.), Interactive Digital Narrative (pp. 91–105). New York: Routledge.

Murray, J. Research into Interactive Digital Narrative: A Kaleidoscopic View. In: Rouse R., Koenitz H., Haahr M. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 11318. Springer, Cham, 2018. 17

Rouse, R. (2016). Media of attraction: a media archeology approach to panoramas, kinematography, mixed reality and beyond. In: Nack, F., Gordon, A.S. (eds.) ICIDS 2016. LNCS, vol. 10045, Springer, Cham, 97–107.

Shedroff N. & Noessel Ch, (2012). Make It So. Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction. Berlin: Rosenfeld Media.

Short, E. (2019) Mailbag: Self-Training in Narrative Design. https://emshort.blog/2019/01/08/mailbag-self-training-in-narrative-design/?fbclid=IwAR2PgubIPnP69Pw-1UyBkBqlyh1_D2SxfGmDtnIiuk1rDITSQEAnVmiE9Js. Accessed 31 January 2021.

Taleb, N.T. (2020) Corporate Socialism: The Government is Bailing Out Investors & Managers Not You. https://medium.com/incerto/corporate-socialism-the-government-is-bailing-out-investors-managers-not-you-3b31a67bff4a Accessed 31 January, 2021.

INDCOR COST Action Special Track

Special call for the members of INDCOR

Call for extended abstracts

Deadline: 15 June, 2021

A comprehensive view of Interactive Digital Narratives (IDNs) as a field of study and a design discipline is developing, including work on a shared vocabulary, authoring tools, conceptual underpinnings, a shared body of design principles, and methods for evaluation. The INDCOR project (Interactive Narrative Design for COmplexity Representations) addresses this challenge by means of a coordinated effort in establishing a shared conceptual framework, an understanding of societal impact, empirical evaluation methods and by analyzing and generalizing design and production methods of stand-out IDN works with a particular focus on the representation of complex issues.

The call invites contributions to the interdisciplinary study of IDNs as a means to address complexity as a societal challenge by representing, experiencing and comprehending complex phenomena. This Research Topic is focused on the application of IDNs in its various forms (XR experiences, Narrative-focused games, interactive documentaries, journalistic interactives, installation pieces, narrative interfaces to big data, etc) for the representation of complex issues. Such issues may include: the COVID 19 global pandemic, migration, war and conflict, global climate change as well as complex social and interpersonal issues around issues such as mental health, diversity and inclusion and gender representation. Due to its systemic, procedural and participatory nature IDNs have several advantages for representing such topics. IDNs allow audiences to experience the consequences of a series of choices (e.g. in terms of environmental impact) and then to reconsider these choices though replay. In addition, IDNs can contain multiple competing perspectives that enable audiences to experience them within a single comprehensive space. With a focus on participatory forms (e.g. integrated discussion fora, organized co-creative activities, or multiple authorship), IDNs can also coordinate and organize the discourse on a complex topic to accommodate mny voices and perspectives. So far, the potential of IDNs has been applied in diverse projects and with different conceptual frameworks. The challenge therefore is to change IDNs current status from ‘singular achievement’ of small groups of ‘initiated’ practitioners to ‘general practice’ of many media companies.

For this Research Topic, we invite contributions related to the representation of complex issues using IDN from a range of transdisciplinary engagements and methods, including theoretical and critical perspectives, design approaches, evaluation methods, and societal impact.

Some potential topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Implementation of IDNs by XR technologies creating Immersive media experiences
  • Theory and discussions on definition of IDNs
  • Authoring tools for IDNs
  • Evaluation methodology for IDNs
  • Exploring the use of IDN for encouraging Involvement and engagement in complex social issues
  • Application of IDNs addressing societal impact
  • Recent case studies and relevant experiments

If you wish to apply please send your extended abstract (max 1500 words) by June 15, 2021 to bakk@mome.hu and zipscene@mome.hu.
Please mention in the e-mail subject that you apply for the special track.

The aim of the special track is to discuss each presentation on this research topic and to give feedback that can serve as a solid base for further developing the submissions. Those who wish can submit the same abstract by 9th of August to FrontiersIn call (find the call for papers here) that is edited by members of INDCOR CoreGroup.

Vektor VR section

Hungary’s first VR focused event

Co-organized by Random Error Studio and Zip-Scene Conference in the frame of 3rd Zip-Scene Conference on Immersive Storytelling

The exhibition is free of charge, but registration is required.

Please note

  • When selecting the ticket you can choose a specific timeslot, but please visit the exhibition in the chosen timeslot, as we cannot accommodate more than 6 visitors simultaneously
  • Please bring your vaccination card otherwise we cannot grant you access to the exhibition!

We showcased for you some of the most groundbreaking AR and VR productions that tackle the sense of immersion in various ways.

Curated by

Ágnes Karolina Bakk and András Szabó // Random Error Studio

The Hangman at Home VR (2020)

(by Michelle & Uri Kranot)

 

“What does the hangman think about when he goes home at night from work?”

Inspired by the 1922 Carl Sandburg poem of the same title, this VR single-user immersive experience explores themes of acknowledgement and participation. It is not about hanging people, but about the awkward intimacy that comes with being human, and the connection between spectator, witness, and accomplice. The animated, interactive experience invites you into five interwoven stories, capturing pivotal moments in people’s lives. The Hangman at Home – VR ultimately reveals that we are all more alike than different, while raising questions of responsibility.

The experience begins with a call to action, as the user is asked to light a match to ignite the narrative. This non-linear, layered story is both interactive and observational. Users are given the choice to cross different thresholds, such as a door, a window, or a fireplace; each is a portal to a room where one of the five animated scenes unfolds. Eventually they have the opportunity to interact with objects that are extracted from these stories, to engage and create a soundscape. Finally, they are invited to take part in the poetic climax of this thoughtful, often playful, journey.

The Hangman at Home – VR is a co-production between Late Love Production (Denmark), Miyu Productions (France), Floréal Films (France) and the National Film Board of Canada.

Duration: 30 min

Grand Jury Prize for Best VR Immersive WorkVenice International Film Festival, Venice, Italy (2020)

  • Official Selection – VR Competition Ottawa International Animation Festival (2020)
  • Official Selection - Geneva International Film Festival (2020)
  • Official Competition - Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal (2020)
  • Official Selection - International Film Festival Rotterdam - Art Direction (2021)
  • Official Selection Annecy Festival - VR Works (2021)

Symphony of Noise (2019)

(by Michaela Pnacekova and Jamie Balliu)

 

Put on a headset and embark on an immersive journey through an enticing surreal world. Listen differently to your body, your everyday life, the world, and find the music within. This is a story through sound.

Immerse yourself in the world of exploration of sonic and magical landscapes in high-end spatial sound design where you can hear, see and feel sound in a way not possible before VR technology.

Create and discover the soundscapes of your life - step by step - from the first heartbeat to the chaotic sound of everything around you and gain the power to create your soundtrack of the world. Listen intently. Can you already hear the world becoming music in your ears?

The experience is inspired by Matthew Herbert's book ‘The Music’ in which the artist and musician creates soundscapes by association in the mind of the reader. In the VR piece, Herbert's poetry becomes the introduction to a new world of sounds. Going through four sonically and visually surreal landscapes, the user interacts and creates sounds through their body via breathing, voice and movement, while discovering the world around one-self and within one-self and creating their own symphony of noise in the final part of the experience. Our bodies become part of the score while creating and entering magical worlds. We learn to listen to the world differently. All sound is music.

The project premiered at Reeperbahn Music Festival and IDFA Doc Lab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction 2019 and is listed among the best XR installations of 2019 according to Forbes Magazine.

Duration: 15 min

  • VR NOW Awards Online, 2021 - Nomination for Best VR Entertainment
  • L.E.V. Gijón 2020 XRMass, Spain - On Site
  • XR Room, Geneva International Film Festival 2020
  • Official Selection FIVARS 2020 (Award For Excellence in Sound Design)
  • Vortex - L.E.V. Matadero 2020
  • Official Selection - Zlin International Film Festival
  • DocLab: Exhibition IDFA DocLab, 2019
  • Reeperbahn Music Festival, 2020
  • Official Selection - VRHAM!, 2019

Ilios (2020)

(by Mika Johnson & Marcel Karnapke)

 

ILIOS evolved as a correspondence between artists Karnapke and Johnson during the COVID-19 shut down. The two had collaborated in February, 2020, in Germany, on a digital project that was shut down when Johnson got stuck in North America for the remainder of the spring. The two artists continued to correspond, discussing the meaning of this event in their personal lives. ILIOS is a meditation on the state of flux we are all living in today: a state where patterns emerge only to undergo change in such sudden succession that reality and normality can only be assumed in short bursts.

Duration: 9 min

  • DOK Leipzig Neuland, 2020
  • Official Selection – BFI London Film Festival, 2020
  • Finalist – Real World XR Awards, 2020
  • Official Selection – Anifil Festival Liberec, 2021
  • Official Selection – Chelsea Film Festival, 2021

Exhibited productions

Deep Dive (2020)

(by Milosz Hermanowicz)

 

A wandering of two around a trauma to be faced.

Deep Dive (2020) is an intimate narrative experience for Virtual Reality which is set on the wild bank of a river where Magda, a young woman, is wandering around anxiously. An unexpected phone call from her little daughter seeking help gives her a goal. Magda now desperately wants to be reunited with her child. But the river is impossible to cross. In a moment of helplessness, an unlikely encounter takes place. Magda’s mother comes to her. Magda regains hope and leads their journey through the uncanny thickets and gloomy trees in a search of a way through the river.

The mother, enigmatically, keeps observing Magda without helping her. The only way back lies in their past and leads Magda to a confrontation with her deepest fears and regrets.

Duration: 17 min

  • VR Competition: Courant 3D, 2020
  • The International 3D-stereo Film Festival in Moscow, 2020
  • Official Selection – goEast Festival, 2021
  • Official Selection - S&I Media, 2021

Nightsss – a sensual VR experience of poetry, dance and nature (2021)

(by Weronika Lewandowska & Sandra Frydrysiak)

 

* The lack of subtitles is a conscious artistic choice affecting the perception of Nightsss.

VR piece Nightsss is a virtual erotic poem. A few minutes of artistic animation with ASMR and interactive elements immerses the viewer in the sensual experience of poetry and dance. Nightsss's script was based on a piece of the spoken word poet Weronika Lewandowska. The artist uses sounds characteristic of the Polish language, creating onomatopoeic landscapes that cross language barriers. The spatially composed poet’s voice takes the immersant to a virtual night environment in which one meets a dancing character. The dancer's organic movements blend with her virtual body.

The character is once a poem and loses its materiality, and in a moment splits into other forms. Other times – it condenses so that hundreds of drops can illuminate the flora and bring out the color from the night scenery. Still another time – it takes on a human form that "passes" through the body of the immersant, and then disintegrates into particles of fluidized substance with unreal behavior.

The night pulsates with a rhythmic space of sounds and movements, it is looped in words. Immersant sees his/her hands in the created world which serves as an anchor, allowing for small interactions.

Nightsss explores the possibilities of VR storytelling and dance in the context of the changing perception of technologically created spatial experiences and the development of the kinetic empathy of the immersant in the embodied experience of virtual space. The animation was made in 6 DOF on Oculus Rift S as part of vnLab projects at the Film School in Łódź.

The project was financed under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education programme within the framework of the “Regional Initiative of Excellence” for the years 2019-2022, project number 023/RID/2018/19, funding sum PLN 11 865 100.

Duration: 7 min

  • Official Selection – Sundance, New Frontier, 2021
  • goEast Film Festival, 2021
  • Melbourne International Film Festival, 2021
  • Bucharest Dance International Film Festival, 2021
  • VR Pavilion at Resilienze Festival in Bologna, 2021
  • Cinequest Film Festival (Best VR Sound Design), 2021

VR-Hub Augsburg (2020)

 

The State Theatre Augsburg was able to produce seven productions in 360° Video – dance and monologues – during the lockdown, effectively keeping in touch with its audience. To take this knowledge a step further, they tried an even bigger experiment: Coming together remotely to put on a play live and with co-presence, but entirely virtual and only connected through the headsets. A social-VR space designed for theatre, if you will.

Duration: several short films

Immersive Garden (2021)

(by the members of Creative Technology Hub of MOME Innovation Center)

 

In the installation, researchers from the MOME Creative Technology Hub present their self-developed Augmented Reality application. While wandering around the exhibited living plants in the space, different layers of information can be accessed in mixed reality, by the help of generative animations and spatial visualizations. The surrounding lights, sounds and the digital interface reveal hidden connections between the plants and our everyday environment.

VENUE:

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest
1121 Budapest
Zugligeti str. 9-25
UP_301-302

The event is free, but registration is required.

The event is specially supported by

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Mika Johnson

Mika Johnson is a multimedia artist interested in dream-like narratives, mythos, ritual, and biodiversity. While his concentration is designing XR experiences, Johnson also works in many other mediums, including as a director for fiction and documentary projects. Present works include The Republic of Dreams: a website and traveling installation produced by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, which adapts the work of Bruno Schulz, and The Infinite Library: a virtual library, produced by the Goethe-Institut, New Delhi, which uses nature and evolution to weave together various knowledge systems from around the world. Projects in production include the companion pieces Lost Forms and Found Forms. Produced by Expanded Focus in Leipzig, the former will allow users to interact with a fully scanned iceberg off the eastern coast of Greenland. Its companion piece, Found Forms, will allow users to travel beneath a virtual point cloud forest, where users can interact with the complex relationships formed between mushrooms, trees, plants, and the mycorrhizal network. Together with Marcel Karnapke, Johnson is also the creator of Sonic Feather: a feature on the Dawn Chorus phone application which allows users to create visual art using bird songs.

keynote:
The Remythologization of Nature through art, science, and immersive storytelling

Shringi Kumari

Shringi Kumari is a seasoned game designer with 14 years of experience in games, making games for companies including EA, Zynga, Bigpoint, and Wooga. Shringi turned researcher four years ago, wondering how game designers can take inspiration from other creative fields like stage magic. She has recently finished her PhD in the IGGI Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence and awaiting formal confirmations. She is now lecturing at University of East London and continuing her research on how stage magic can be translated to games for creating believable illusions of choice and moments of surprise. Being a poet and artist, Shringi has keen interest in transdisciplinary aspects of game design and development. In addition to that, she constantly works towards finding innovative ways to reduce entry-barrier in game development and craft cross-disciplinary knowledge exchange kits in a way that challenges perspectives. Her latest projects are exploring how game mechanics can foster inclusivity in the society and are being made in collaboration with creative writers, performance artists and film-makers.

Shringi has talked about her practice and research at several respected industry and academic conferences and wants to continue to work knowledge transfer in different fields of design.

keynote:
Magician's Tools and Techniques for Game Designers

May Abdalla

May Abdalla works with technology to create sensory stories that help us to reimagine the world and our place in it. In 2013 she co-founded Anagram, an award-winning creative studio specialising in thought-provoking interactive storytelling and immersive experience design. Their work has toured internationally at festivals, public space and museums.

Door Into The Dark, a blindfolded experience about being lost won the Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes Award. The Collider, a VR installation about power dynamics was selected for Best of VR at Venice Film Festival and Best Immersive Art Award at Sandbox Festival in China.

Her project A Face To Open Doors, an encounter with an AI border guard from the future is currently at the Imperial War Museum in London.

A preview of their latest project Inside Goliath about schizophrenia and gaming that explores how we create our reality is being shown at the Tribeca Film Festival this June. She is also working on an AR narrative journey for two people in a park about plant intelligence.

keynote:
A very strange walk in a very familiar place

PROGRAM

DAY 1 30 September, 2021, Thursday

  • 9.00 - 9.40
    Registration
  • 9.40 - 10.00
    Welcome by MOME
    Ágnes Karolina Bakk, researcher and founder of Zip-Scene; Dániel Barcza, Vice-Rector; Lāsma Ivaska, Director of Innovation Center

  • Panel

    Transdisciplinarity in Immersive Storytelling

    Chair: Ágnes Karolina Bakk

  • 10.00 - 10.25
    Kick-off keynote
    Magician's Tools and Techniques for Game Designers (online)
    Shringi Kumari (game designer, UK)
  • 10.25 - 10.45
    How Covid-19 Advanced the Chinese "script murder" Formula? (offline)
    Mátyás Hartyándi (Corvinus University, Budapest, HU)
  • 10.45 - 11.05
    Shadow University: ARGs as Playful Learning Environments for First-Year Students in Higher Education (offline)
    Richárd Fejes (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, HU)
  • 11.05 - 11.10
    Q&A
  • 11.10 - 11.20
    Break

  • Panel

    Cross-conteminations

    Chair: Mátyás Hartyándi

  • 11.20 - 11.40
    VR-Hub Augsburg – Infrastructure for a Virtual Stage (offline)
    Tina Lorenz (State Theatre of Augsburg, DE)
  • 11.40 - 12.00
    The Role of Empathy in Enacting Behavioural Change. An Eco-curriculum perspective on Youth Community Engagement (offline)
    Teddy Florea (EcoManka, RO) & Eline Charles (EcoManka, BE)
  • 12.00 - 12.20
    Using Mozilla Hubs for Arts and Research Activities during the Covid Pandemic (offline)
    Elisabetta Modena & Alessandro Costella (Università degli Studi di Milano, IT)
  • 12.20 - 12.40
    Non-deterministic Ludo-Narrativity (offline)
    Bendik Stang (Norwegian Film School / Snowcastle Games, NO)
  • 12.40 - 12.50
    Q&A
  • 12.50 - 14.00
    Lunch Break

  • Panel

    Methods for Engaging

    Chair: Natália Fábics

  • 14.00 - 14.20
    All the World’s a Stage: Game Engine Manifestations in the Built Environment (online)
    Dave Gottwald (University of Idaho, US)
  • 14.20 - 14.40
    A Faceless Hero Against a Deadly Disease – The Interactive Storytelling Method in Resident Evil: Village (offline)
    Klaudia Jancsovics (University of Szeged, HU)
  • 14.40 - 15.00
    K-pop Goes Virtual: Performed Narratives and the SMCU (offline)
    Zsófia Nemesi (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, HU)
  • 15.00 - 15.10
    Q&A
  • 15.10 - 15.30
    Break

  • Panel

    Legacies Re-Interpreted In Immersive Storytelling

    Chair: Richárd Fejes

  • 15.30 - 15.50
    Montage of Attractions: Building bridges between multiple interactive and immersive media to explore the legacy of Sergei Eisenstein (online)
    Tatiana Brandrup and Alexander Walmsley (Film University Babelsberg, DE)
  • 15.50 - 16.10
    The Unbearable Lightness of Cirque Danse Goes Online (offline)
    Natália Fábics (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, HU)
  • 16.10 - 16.30
    Traveling into the Happy Digital or the Enchantment of the Spectator. The Blue Bird Story (offline)
    Gabriella Ágnes Nagy (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, HU)
  • 16.30 - 16.40
    Q&A
  • 16.40 - 17.00
    Break

  • Panel

    INDCOR Special Track

    Chair: Hartmut Koenitz

  • 17.00 - 17.15
    INDCOR Special Track
    The Complexity of Uncertainty: Towards Interactive Digital Narratives of Prehistoric Intangible Cultural Heritage (offline)
    Jonathan Barbara, Hartmut Koenitz & Mads Haahr (Trinity College/IR &Saint Martin's Institute of Higher Education/MT)
  • 17.15 - 17.30
    INDCOR Special Track
    A Conceptual Framework for the Role of Emotions on Infodemic and Information Disorders (offline)
    Helena Martinez (University of Murcia, SP), Dren Gërguri (University of Prishtina, XK) and José Manuel Noguera (Catholic University of Murcia, SP)
  • 17.30 - 17.45
    INDCOR Special Track
    Using storytelling on TikTok to reduce complexity on political topics: an exploratory study of visual communication strategies from Spanish political parties (offline)
    Rocío Zamora-Medina (Universidad de Murcia, SP) and Shahira Fahmy (American University of Cairo, EG)
  • 17.45 - 18.00
    INDCOR Special Track
    Making COVID Connections: Designing Interactive and Intra-disciplinary Stories for Viral Worlds
    Lissa Holloway-Attaway (University of Skövde, SW)
  • 18.00 - 18.15
    INDCOR Special Track
    Narrative self-recreation in Virtual Reality
    Iva Georgieva (Institute for Advanced Studies, BG)
  • 18.15 - 18.30
    INDCOR Special Track
    Using Digital Humanities Methodologies in Analyzing Critical Game Retellings (online)
    Digdem Sezen and Tonguc Sezen (Teesside University, UK)
  • 18.30 - 19.00
    Q&A
    (during the Q&A we will also discuss the presentation by Julio Daniel Suárez Espinosa, University of Murcia (SP), María del Mar Grandío, University of Murcia (SP) and José Manuel Noguera-Vivo, Catholic University of Murcia (SP): Success indicators of Interactive Digital Narratives for the representation of complex themes: The use of Plague INC. during the COVID-19 pandemic among Spanish gamers * officially part of the INDCOR Special track, presented during INDCOR meeting)
  • 19.00 - 20.00
    Wine session at MOME
    Welcome by József Fülöp, Rector of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design & Ágnes Karolina Bakk, researcher, founder of Zip-Scene

DAY 2October 1, 2021, Friday

  • Panel

    Immersive storytelling, psychology and ethnography (hybrid, not-streamed)

    Chair: Ágnes Karolina Bakk

  • 9.30 - 9.50
    First-and third-person Perspective in Non-fiction CVR. The Case of “Whispers” (2019) (hybrid, not streamed)
    Michał Pabiś-Orzeszyna (University of Łódź, PL), Pola Borkiewicz (VNLAB/Lodz Film School (PL), Paweł Kobyliński (VNLAB/National Information Processing Institute, PL), Grzegorz Pochwatko (VNLAB/Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL)
  • 9.50 - 10.10
    Social Virtual Reality Spectatorship: A Perspective of Narrative Comprehension and Engagement (offline, not streamed)
    Kata Szita (University of Nottingham Ningbo China), Wyatt Moss-Wellington (University of Nottingham Ningbo China), Eugene Ch’ng (University of Nottingham Ningbo China)
  • 10.10 - 10.30
    Ethnographic and Empathetic Audiences in VR (offline, not streamed)
    Maud Ceuterick (University of Bergen, NO)
  • 10.30 - 10.40
    Q&A
  • 10.40 - 11.00
    Break

  • Panel

    Experimenting with VR

    Chair: Dan Barnard

  • 11.00 - 11.20
    Virtual Reality Museum (online)
    Michael Barngrover (Koç Üniversitesi KARMA Gerçeklik Laboratuvarı, TR)
  • 11.20 - 11.40
    New Technology Tools Extending Culture (offline)
    Otilia, Armean (Hungarian University of Transylvania, EMTE, RO)
  • 11.40 - 12.00
    The Role of Voice in Virtual Reality Interactive Narratives (offline)
    Jonathan Barbara & Mads Haahr (Trinity College/IR & Saint Martin's Institute of Higher Education/MT)
  • 12.00 - 12.10
    Q&A
  • 12.10 - 13.30
    Lunch Break

  • Panel

    Video games and IDN’s

    Chair: Kata Szita

  • 13.30 - 13.50
    From Press Start to Prologue: An Analysis of Game Opening Titles (offline)
    Güven Çatak and İpek Torun (Bahçeşehir University, TR)
  • 13.50 - 14.10
    Environmental Storytelling: Poetics and Practices (offline)
    Francisco Merino (Universidade da Beira Interior, PT)
  • 14.10 - 14.30
    Adventures with Anxiety: Transformative learning with Interactive Digital Narrative (offline)
    Christian Roth (HKU, NL)
  • 14.30 - 14.50
    As We Have Watched: what now arises from a reconsideration of the concept of interactive digital narrative (online)
    Roy Hanney (Solent University, UK)
  • 14.50 - 15.00
    Q&A
  • 15.00 - 15.20
    Break

  • Panel

    The Role of Theatre in Immersive Storytelling

    Chair: Péter Kristóf Makai

  • 15.20 - 15.40
    Curtain Call for the Digital: Voices from Theatre Practice in Postdigital Culture (online)
    Rebecca Rouse (University of Skövde, SW)
  • 15.40 - 16.00
    Analysing Player Behaviour in Anonymised Online Durational Performance: a case study of Fast Familiar’s Smoking Gun (offline)
    Dan Barnard (Fast Familiar, UK)
  • 16.00 - 16.20
    Critical Co-creation: Critical Consent in Immersive, Participatory and Game Performances (offline)
    Samee Haapa (University of Art Helsinki, FI)
  • 16.20 - 16.40
    Real-Time Collectivity: Speculative Design, Storytelling and LARPing (while remote) (offline)
    Ash Eliza Smith (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, US)
  • 16.40 - 16.50
    Q&A
  • 16.50 - 17.20
    Break

  • Panel

    Environment, biodiversity and immersive storytelling

    Chair: Dimitar Uzunov

  • 17.20 - 17.40
    Arctic Transmedia Storytelling: PostDigital and/or PostCovid Imaginaries and ArtsLInK methodology (offline)
    Olga Zaslavskaya (IACC/NAKKA, RU/HU)
  • 17.40 - 18.00
    Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Innovation Center's Panel
    Data Gardening (offline)
    Ágoston Nagy (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Innovation Center, HU)
  • 18.00 - 18.20
    Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Innovation Center's Panel
    Metamaterials and Tangible Computing (offline)
    Esteban de la Torre (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Innovation Center, HU)
  • 18.20 - 18.30
    Q&A
  • 18.30 - 19.00
    Break
  • 19.00 - 20.00
    Keynote
    The Remythologization of Nature Through Immersive Storytelling: connecting art, science, and biodiversity in the era of mass crisis (offline)
    Mika Johnson (VR-creator, CZ)

DAY 32 October, 2021, Saturday

  • 9.00 - 12.00
    Workshop organized by ifs internationale filmschule köln, led by Jimena Aguilar and students of the MA Digital Narratives (Rianne Cox, Eliane Eid, Cathal Kerins, Alexandra Tamayo, Changzhen Zheng) Moving with Nature (offline, not streamed)
  • 12.00 - 13.00
    Lunch Break

  • Panel

    Cultural heritage in interactive storytelling

    Chair: Elisabetta Modena

  • 13.00 - 13.20
    Co-creation of a Digital Narrative Building Platform for Cultural Heritage sites (offline)
    Gergő Paukovics (Pro Progressione, HU)
  • 13.20 - 13.40
    Hybrid-interactive Museum-based Game. Case study of the Palace Museum puzzle book (online)
    Shiqi LIU (Chinese Museums Association)
  • 13.40 - 14.00
    An Approach to Creating ‘Virtual Tours’ - opportunities for heritage sites to increase engagement (online)
    Russel Stearman (Joi Polloi, UK)
  • 14.00 - 14.10
    Q&A
  • 14.10 - 14.30
    Break

  • Panel

    Case-studies from VnLab, Lodz Film School

    Chair Dimitar Uzunov

  • 14.30 - 14.50
    Whispers - case study (online/hybrid)
    Pola Borkiewicz, Jacek Nagłowski (VR/AR Studio, VNLAB/Lodz Film School, PL) (hybrid)
  • 14.50 - 15.10
    Nothing Exists and Everything Exists (online)
    Krzysztof Grudzinski (VNLAB/Lodz Film School, PL)
  • 15.10 - 15.30
    How Sensory Aspects of Virtual Experiences Affect Public Live and Online Presentations During Pandemic Time (offline)
    Weronika Lewandowska (VNLAB/Lodz Film School, PL)
  • 15.30 - 15.50
    Being or Not Being (offline)
    Michał Stankiewicz (VNLAB/Lodz Film School, PL)
  • 15.50 - 16.10
    Control Negative (offline)
    Monika Masłoń (VNLAB/Lodz Film School, The Maria Grzegorzewska University, PL)
  • 16.10 - 16.20
    Q&A
  • 16.20 - 16.40
    Break

  • Panel

    Case studies & labs

    Chair: Jonathan Barbara

  • 16.40 - 17.10
    Affect and AI - Human-AI Symbiosis through Artistic Co-Creation (online)
    Michaela Pnacekova (researcher, producer, SK/York University, CA)
  • 17.10 - 17.30
    Storytelling in the “Immersive Media Lab” with Special Focus on the Use Case “Intermedia Motion Tracking in AR/VR (online)
    Christian Munk & Markus Wintersberger (ST. Pölten University of Applied Science, AT)
  • 17.30 - 17.50
    What Are the Medial and Narrative Possibilities of a 3D-scanned Object Compared to the Created 3D object and the Recorded Images - what effect does it have on the VR genre?
    Botond Tobai (independent creator, HU)
  • 17.50 - 18.00
    Q&A
  • 18.00 - 18.30
    Break
    (last chance to visit the Vektor VR exhibition)
  • 18.30 - 19.30
    Keynote
    A Very Strange Walk in a Very Familiar Place (offline)
    May Abdalla (Anagram, UK)

ORGANIZERS

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME) is one of the most significant European institutions of visual culture due to its traditions and intellectual background. In its effort to visualize its professional concepts MOME compounds its own character and traditions with the most up-to-date trends. Its educational structure comprises architecture, design, media, as well as theory. Therefore, MOME has a great international potential considering its broad field of education and synthesis of students. The three-cycle study structure (BA/MA/DLA) provides adequate flexibility and mobility for its students. MOME’s definite ambition is to further broaden its international relations. It welcomes every professional co-operation which inspires its educational and artistic work. MOME on the one hand is a university which educates professional designers, and on the other hand an intellectual workshop with the aim of setting up creative process in order to enhance design consciousness in Hungary.

mome.hu

ARDIN

The Association for Research in Digital Interactive Narratives, a community of academics and practitioners concerned with the advancement of all forms of interactive narrative – including narrative video games, interactive documentaries & video, journalistic interactives, artistic installations, XR (VR, AR, MR) pieces and further emerging forms.

ardin.online

Main organizer:

Ágnes Karolina BAKK (1986), researcher at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. She is the founder of the immersive storytelling conference and magazine Zip-Scene (zip-scene.com and zip-scene.mome.hu); the cofounder of Random Error Studio, a lab that supports various VR productions; curator of Vektor VR. She was previously a research fellow at Sapientia – Hungarian University of Transylvania. She is teaching escape room design, immersive&VR- storytelling and speculative design and she is also a board member of the COST Action INDCOR. Bakk presented her research on immersive theatre, science of magic and VR at various conferences and platforms from Moscow (CILECT, 2019) to Montreal (SQUET, 2019). She was also a participant of 5th Wall Forum in 2020-2021.

Design by:

Katinka CSENGE

PRACTICAL INFO

VENUE:

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest
1121 Budapest
Zugligeti str. 9-25
UP_401

HOTELS NEARBY:

We also recommend booking on Airbnb.

FOOD & DRINK

The university has a canteen in the main building with budgetary daily hot meal options. We also serve you fingerfood, coffee and water during the conference.

Nearby restaurants, bistros:

PUBLIC TRANSPORT:

Coming from the airport:

  1. Take bus no. 100 (900 HUF, you can buy it in the ticket vending machine). You can get out at Deák Square and then take the metro line M2. towards Déli pályaudvar and you can get out at Széll Kálmán Square. From here take the bus 22, 22A and get out at Szép Ilona, a 5 minutes walk is required to reach the university building. Or take the bus 222 (it leaves in every 30 minutes) and get out at Moholy-Nagy Művészeti Egyetem.

If you wish to commute by the local city transport we recommend you the following options:

  1. Buying a 10-ticket package, 3000 HUF (in case if you do not wish to commute many times) (https://bkk.hu/en/tickets-and-passes/prices/block-of-10-tickets/)
  2. Buying a 3-days ticket, 4150 HUF (valid for all public transport in the city, except for ships D-11 or D-12 in the weekends) (https://bkk.hu/en/budapest-72-hour-travel-card/)
  3. A single ticket costs 350 HUF
  4. You can buy these at any BKK Ticket vending machines or ticket counters. The vending machines can be found at most of the stations including at Budapest Ferihegy Airport but some stations don't have ticket counters. We would strongly recommend to use bank cards at the vending machines.

For more detailed information about the public transportation, tickets, timetables and trip planning, you can also use the free BKK Futár app available on Android and iOS.

Bike renting in Budapest:

You can also rent bikes in Budapest, please find more info here.

REGIONAL RELEVANCE

Zip-Scene Conference and Vektor Festival in Visegrad region

The organizers of Zip-Scene Conference and Vektor VR-section 2021 are planning to organize a special section dedicated for professionals from the Visegrad region where the work and the research of cca. 40 international researchers and creators can be presented. Our goal is to organize the conference for the third time, and with this edition we propose to offer a special focus on our region. The conference and the VR-section will be a unique scientific and artistic event in Visegrad region and in Central Eastern Europe. The event will bring together practitioners from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and Austria by offering them space to present their work in the frame of the conference and the VR-section. This way they can meet personally and exchange their practice, expertise and best practices especially related to how to fund their work. This is also a good opportunity for networking and starting new collaborations (as it happened at the previous edition as well). By presenting these works in one section we can prove that our region can "also be put on the map" of immersive storytelling and we can also generate more visibility for them. In order to enhance their visibility we are also conducting and publishing English interviews online (on zip-scene.com) with the invited guests. At the VR-focused event there will be a showcase of interactive works including productions by the artists who are delegated by the partner NGO's. This will be a unique event in the region: It is the only artistic/entertainment VR-focused event that has a scientific framework offered by the conference.

SUPPORTED BY

The program is funded by:

International Visegrad Grant

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe

Partners:

Causa Creations (AU)
Institute of Documentary Film (CZ)
Digital Stories Lab / Total Immersion Foundation (PL)
Art Optimists
Sensorium

On the behalf of the organizers:

Artopolis Association / PLACCC Festival (HU)

REGISTRATION / TICKETS

REGISTER HERE