Interactive Storytelling Paradigms and Representations: A Humanities-Based Perspective

Abstract

Interactive Storytelling is an interdisciplinary field in which the humanities meet artificial intelligence. Collaborations between scholars rooted in the humanities and the computer sciences like the one between Brenda Laurel and the OZ group at Carnegie Mellon University have had a major influence on the field. At the same time, there are indications that the relationship is often tenuous, for example, between models of narrative in the humanities and their application in computational research projects. This chapter investigates the relationship, notes challenges, and identifies opportunities for an enhanced collaboration. Additional scrutiny in understanding context and scope of narrative models in the humanities would improve access for AI researchers to the vast space of available models and allow for the codification and re-use of adaptation strategies. Simultaneously, the work of many AI researchers could be recast and recognized as contributions to narrative theory. In this regard, film theory can serve as a potential model for a narrative theory of Interactive Storytelling.