Teaching Interactive Digital Narrative Through Found Photography

Abstract

One challenge teaching the creation of interactive digital narratives to humanities students is engaging with programming/scripting. For students without any familiarity of code, even simple(r) tools (game engines) like Twine and Unity can present major challenges. Fortunately, it has been suggested that found objects can enhance the classroom experience of learning in unfamiliar ways: found objects allow students to anchor their new experiences to the everyday. This paper recounts the experience of creating a class – called ‘Introduction to Digital Storytelling’ – with the aim of giving students freedom to create interactive digital narratives through game engines while grounding their experience in the theory and practice of ‘found photography’. We present the background and findings gathered after the course’s first year. We believe found objects and Found Photography in particular, have the potential to ease some of the challenges of STEM skill acquisition, enabling students’ digital creative practices.