Ongoing Doctorate work: Scripting for Computational Drama
Research AbstractMay 2006
The purpose of my Doctor of Arts research is to identify and develop interactive storytelling genres. The work collides genre rules and conventions of drama, and especially comedy, with the rules and ontologies of the software structures.
What kind of narrative rhetoric works in reconfigurable drama where media elements are organized in real time according to user input? And on the other hand, what kind of metadata and algorithms should one assign to media elements of interactive storytelling? These questions are partly answered through the research production Accidental Lovers (Sydän kierroksella), and approached theoretically through the combination of drama studies, new media theories and applied information technology studies and standards.
Chatterbots
MA-thesis (2001): Chatterbots: Crash Test Dummies of Communication
My final work for Master of Arts degree is a practice-based research of graphical multi-user communication environments. By creating two chatterbots Laban and Cupid I studied the interactive behavior of and between humans and chatterbots.
The aims were twofold: On the other hand I wanted to understand Computer Mediated Communication: what is actually happening in virtual communities and other online communication platforms? On the other hand, as a designer and scriptwriter I was trying to discover what makes a good interactive character.
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-reviewed article, Comedy Machine: Interactive Comedy as Rule Based Genre. Journal of Digital Creativity. 2007, vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 143–150. [abstract]
Häikiö P. Saarinen L. and Tuomola M. 2005. Production-Description Part 7: Accidental Lovers. EC Report NM2 D2.3 – Deliverable. [ist-nm2.org]
Saarinen L. 2005. Yllätä mut! Varaatiota Vahinkolaukauksista. Lume 5-vuotta juhlajulkaisu. Mediakeskus Lume: Helsinki.
Häikiö P. Saarinen L. Accidental Lovers and the new genre for television. Lume 5-vuotta juhlajulkaisu. Mediakeskus Lume: Helsinki.
Peer-reviewed article, Imagined Community and Death. Journal of Digital Creativity, Volume 13 No 1, Swets & Zeitlinger, 2002. [abstract]
Conference Proceedings
Saarinen L. (2007). Accidental Lovers' Text Messages. Mobile Nation. Toronto, March 2007.
Saarinen L. (2006). Developing New Genre for iTV, Case Accidental Lovers. CHI2006. Montreal, Canada, April 2006.
Saarinen L. (2006). Scripting for Computational Drama. Peer reviewed extended abstract and poster proceedings to EuroITV Doctoral Consortium, Jan 2006.
Saarinen L. Interactive Comedy as Rule Based Genre. Abstract to Computational Narrativity proceedings. Feb 2006.
Scripting for Participatory Television Drama at Bodies in Play summit Banff New media institute, Can. May 2005.
Metadata synteettisen henkilön muistina?, I Kulttuurintutkimuksen päivät. Helsinki 2003.
Digital Publications
Luokkajakoa Koulukaverit.comissa - Vanhaan kouluyhteisöön voi nyt palata internetissä, review, Mediumi 2.2. 2003.
Näyttöruudut huurussa - Onko internetistä iloa erotiikannälkään?, review, Mediumi 1.2. 2002.
Vekkulitamagotchi pussaa limat irti - Pumpui on virtuaalilemmikki tekstiviestin päässä, review, Mediumi 1.1. 2002.
Leikkisää kommunikointia Hotelli Kultakalassa - visuaalisesta chatista kasvoi toimiva sosiaalinen ympäristö", review, Mediumi 1.0. 2001.
Facing the unexpected - field notes from the limits of net discourse. Cultural Usability webiste. 2001.