The holodeck is all around us—interface dispositifs in interactive digital storytelling

Abstract

This chapter proposes the history of human-computer interfaces as a series of 'interface dispositifs' forming around specific interface technologies. Most of the academic research on interactive storytelling, from the OZ Project until rather recently, took place within PC dispositif. Interactive Storytelling on the PC took on several forms, as the apparatus evolved its powers of visual representation and computational simulation. Interactive Fiction represents the first generation of PC-based storytelling. The network changed personal computing by gradually making it more social, and human-computer interactions became more about relations and communication. The network dispositif does not change much at the apparatus level: it is still a PC and the body is positioned in a similar way. The significant change is in social interaction, in the rising dominance of the pattern of conversation. The chapter discusses the Post-PC dispositif which is the one people have entered into relatively recently, with the popularisation of touch-screen-based mobile devices.