Course Layout

This is an ongoing project based course that started 3 years ago at Stanford (in my Interactive Narrative course) and migrated to SFU (now in its 3rd year). We take on a innovative ground breaking project which cuminates in some significant event ( a website, a online drama, a fashion show, a game...). There is only one project that we ALL work on. Therefore this class is very much like a real world creative production group. In so, we will group into production teams with some organization hierachy and roles.

Past Projects

Lets look at the past projects for this course. All work ( websites, performances, documentation) was created by myself and the students. We usually colaborate with signifacant experts or artists in their field (note that "past propossal" to read the letters that started these projects)

links to the past work:

2002:Stanford Interactive Narrative "Chasing Alice": Performance Site
2003: SFU-FIT-Adobe's Fashion World "Ratava's Line": Ratava's Line Website
2004: SFU with James Burke"K-Worlds" Game: Not Online
2005: Tryptek Disconnected: Interactive Graphic Novel: Here
2006: Digital Nowhere multimedia poetry: Here

more details and site, press below: (by year)

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Stanford Interactive Narrative Project "Chasing Alice": (2002)

This intensive studio art course focused on developing interactive digital narrative skills by exploring real-time dramatic performance art in virtual environments. The class delved into how the definitions of author and audience are blurring (as well as fiction and non-fiction) by exploring collaborative narrative environments. The course culminated in a class conceived virtual performance within an online narrative environment. Based on skill set and interest, the class was divided into three interconnected teams:

As a full team, the class integrated all these parts into a public interactive narrative performance that combined environment, online audience and actors, dramatic structure and social community dynamics.

Class Site

Performance Site

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SFU FIT s "Ratava's Line": (2003)

This was a collaborative design / e-learning research project between two universitys from two different countries working with and about online virtual tools for design.
The project had it's start in the fall of 2002 when Daria Dorosh at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, was invited by Steve DiPaola, at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada to participate in an university collaboration between their students in the disciplines of design, interactive computer graphics, virtual collaboration for design and learning. An industry partner was enlisted to complete the collaboration process -- Adobe and their beta software Adobe Atmosphere, a 3D virtual environment system. The goal was to explore how collaboration systems and virtual environments can be used practically, for learning, design collaboration, virtual portfolios, virtual fashion and cross cultural online/physical events. This then was an interdisciplinary, cross-institutional, international effort in collaborative design, distance learning and virtual environments

The students at SFU and FIT worked via several online collaboration systems in an iterative process. Collaboration took place at many levels of the project:

Original fashions for the event called "Ratava's Line" were designed and drawn by students at the FIT in NY. The drawings were then translated into 3D using a variety of software and tools by students at SFU in Vancouver. The fashion performance event included a narrative look of what is real and what is virtual (i.e. the fashion industry, computer graphics, media events, ...) so the students also collaborated on the character design, and the story writing, as well as the specific roles needed to put on an international, online and two city event.

Collaboration occurred entirely via virtual online systems -- no-one from FIT and SFU (including the faculty) ever met physically during the project. New design and learning skills The researchers looking to understand how technology can help provide new design and learning skills, by guiding and documented the students as they learned to work with new design and learning skill including:

Collaboration tools were used in the teaching, planning, design and execution of the final event. Online collaborative tools included:

The learning/research hybrid culminated in a live fashion opening, interactive cyber-mystery event on April 23rd, 2003. The audience was invited to attend physically at either NYC or Vancouver; or online via the created 3d worlds. This was a simultaneous international and online event, that displayed original fashion designs using 3D avatars, demonstrated how virtual collaboration can work and included an interactive cyber mystery where fictional characters in the fashion show were played by online actors on both coasts. Earlier in the day a seminar for academics, the press and industry was held with participants and speakers from SFU, FIT, NYU (Ken Perlin), the game industry and the press. Student physically at FIT and via a webcam and via online 3d avatars participated at SFU. Ratava’s Line and the seminar garnered much press from diverse publications as the fashion industry trade newspaper "Women’s Ware Daily", to the academic Chronicle of Higher Education. Several additional seminars continue this collaboration on the future of virtual collaboration. See the downloads for more details

Ratava's Line Website (from here go to the online worlds)

Document Site created FIT

Academic Paper on the class called "Ratava’s Line:
Emergent Learning and Design Using Collaborative Virtual Worlds"

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SFU with James Burke"K-Worlds": (2004)

Here is the colaboration project we did last year with the Scientist and "Connections" TV show host James Burke. Following is the actual press release ( created by students that went out to the press on the class:

Simon Fraser University (SFU)
School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT)
Vancouver, Canada

Media Contact:
Steve DiPaola; Email: SDiPaola@sfu.ca
Michael Kiktavy; Email: mkiktavy@sfu.ca
Karam Khan; Email: kkhana@sfu.ca

For Immediate Release

SFU SIAT STUDENTS RIDING WAVE OF INNOVATION

Vancouver, BC, March 29 2004. A team of SFU students is working on a project that revolutionizes philosophy of education and delivery of learning content within the academic world and overlapping applications to the corporate learning systems.

The team of SFU students is led by a professor and internationally recognized expert and researcher in the areas of interactive and collaborative knowledge systems, Steve DiPaola.

The SFU project is code named Knowledge World (K-World). It borrows and extends a philosophy of the original Knowledge Web (K-Web) project, led by the UK authority in areas of innovative learning, James Burke. The idea is based on the premises of learning that provides context rather than idle learning and exploration of massive amounts of text and data. By combining the efforts of both teams, the project will provide a concept for learning systems that explore information in highly interconnected, interactive and holistic ways, allowing for an almost infinite numbers of paths of exploration among people, places, things, and events. The environmental technological platform was provided by Adobe Systems, another partner supporting SFU SIAT team.

The K-World prototype promotes use of innovative thinking, whether in an academic or organizational context. It provides users with interesting and appealing ways of thinking about learning material in terms of relational connections and interdependencies. Newly built associations support alternative modes of thinking, which help to satisfy the need for innovation applied to learning, organizational issues, environmental and other problems. The applications and possibilities are literally limitless.

The SFU team created collaborative international links, utilizing the latest communication technologies. SFU students proved that cost effective development methods can be applied to global teams. Besides mastery of the latest technological skills, SFU SIAT students are praised for their soft core skills showcasing effective practices demanding professional teamwork, communication and project management competencies.

The prototype of the pilot K-World project is planned to be released in the mid-April. For more information, please visit http://www.sfu.ca/~kweb

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Tryptek Disconnected: Interactive Graphic Novel (2005)

Tryptek Disconnected began as a fourth year interactive arts course with over 40 SFU Surrey university students. The purpose of the course was to create an innovative design project together as a class. In the past the course had produced projects that built immersive environments and interactive works. This year the class was larger than ever before, and the resulting project was entirely student managed, designed, and produced.

From the original ideas our class produced, we had two main goals: to explore different narrative and interactive structures, and play with the graphic novel style in a new media format. We were influenced by many different areas in a variety of media, such as: Red Vs Blue “machinima” episodes, multi-perspective radio shows, feature films like “Waking Life” and comic to movie transitions such as “Spider Man”. We combined the stylized visuals from these movies with a graphic novel framework, and built it around a multi-perspective narrative. In this way we hoped to create an original work that was innovative and interesting.

See the work, credits, about page and the trailer and gallery at:

http://www.tryptekdisconnected.com

The work: here

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Digital Nowhere": (2005)

Digital Nowhere is multimedia poetry that explores what is meant by the notion of "meaningful experience" and what does this mean in the virtual context? Increasingly, our possessions do not have or require a physical presence, but instead they exist as a digital substance. Through poetry and visual compositions, we comment on the seemingly transient nature of today's technology and how the lack of considerate design perpetuates the dullness of digital experiences. We do not hate technology; rather we love it. The purpose of Digital Nowhere is to explore a middle ground between both the virtual and physical experience and ask questions:

How can technology work with the physical world? What impact does technology have on social norms. How can we navigate the in-between stage where new social norms have yet to be standardized? Where should technology step back or move forward? How can technology cause us to feel, live, love, and experience?

Technology is without question extremely beneficial and it is here to stay. Nonetheless,
the experiential value of technology has largely been ignored by those who have created it. We are not putting forward answers as to how we can change technology for the better. Only, we put forth questions that hopefully will provoke individuals to look past the initial fascination of virtual technology, and start recognizing the implicit consequences that may result in implementing them. Our goal is to make the readers question the way technology has & is affecting their own lives.

http://www.sfu.ca/bluebox/projects/dn