DIKULT105 / IDEAS, CODE & RESEARCH
Alan Turing's Library Lab.
Games, stories, art, sound, code, data and power. Bring something you want to understand. Start with one shelf and follow your curiosity.
Start library lab: make, notice, research, connect →Play with the room
You can combine subjects. A genre is a useful starting point, not a box.
← Original lab map · Project workbench
Meet the ideas behind the laboratory
Charles Babbage: his designs for calculating engines connect this room to the history of programmable machines. See the Science Museum's Analytical Engine trial model.
AI: a tool and a research question. Who contributes, whose material is involved, and how do you evaluate what it produces?
TURING'S LIBRARY / LAB MODE
Make first. Find meaning.
Bring one part of something you made. Try it, notice what it does, then find research that helps you understand it. Your making can lead the research.
Already looking for a source? Go straight to the shelves →Four rooms to explore. Start anywhere; return whenever it helps.
ROOM 01 / THE MAKING TABLE
Start with something you made.
Open one scene, screen, sound, text or interaction from your project. It can be unfinished. Choose one small part to explore.
Try that part of your work, or let a neighbour try it. Watch what actually happens.
Open the project workbench →Nothing ready yet? Try a tiny browser prototype.
THE LITTLE ROOM
A closed door. A little light underneath.
This is a tiny browser prototype. After trying it, ask what changed and what the action meant.
ROOM 02 / THE OBSERVATION DESK
What is your creation doing?
Choose something you noticed. These are possible research leads; you can combine them. You can find the genre name later.
What changes when someone interacts with your work?
Try searching for digital interaction. You can edit the words in the next room.
Still unsure? Use the longer research finder, or continue with a word from your project.
ROOM 03 / THE SHELVES
Find one idea worth spending time with.
Look for something that helps you investigate what you noticed. A useful source can support your idea, complicate it or challenge it.
Open the book card for its publisher and Oria links. Read the source and decide whether it fits your question.
From Oria to a real shelf
- Search a title, author or topic in UiB's Oria. Open the physical book record.
- Find Get It / Finn og bestill. Check the library, availability and complete shelf mark. Keep that information on your phone.
- Follow the signs and compare the shelf mark with the book's spine. Ask staff with the record open if you cannot find it.
Check which library holds the copy before walking there. Closed-storage items need requesting. You can borrow with your student card or student ID app.
UiB's guide: find and borrow the book ↗Find something you can actually read
Try Google Scholar's [PDF] or All versions links. Search Sikt's NVA for a title or researcher, or use UiB's Oria for library access.
Check the publication type, author and context. A search result or PDF alone does not establish peer review. If access is blocked, keep the record and ask the library for help.
Open the fuller article-search guide →A BOOK HAS ITS OWN MAP
Find your theme. Follow an author.
The contents show the chapters.
Look for a chapter connected to your work or theme. Use it to get your bearings, then read the relevant argument in context.
The index points a theme to pages.
Look up a word such as agency, identity or play. Follow its page numbers. Try related terms if your exact word is missing. Not every book has an index.
Read around the passage. Finding a word is the beginning of understanding what the author means.
The bibliography points to other sources.
Recognise an author, or spot a title connected to your theme? Take the full reference and search for that title in Oria or Google Scholar.
Follow it to the original work and read it before citing it as a source you have read. Use the bibliography as a lead to your next source.
Find a passage that helps you see your work differently. What is the author arguing, and what evidence or examples do they use?
ROOM 04 / BACK AT YOUR CREATION
What can you see now?
Return to the part you made. Use one idea from your reading to understand it, question it or try a change. The meaning can develop through making and researching.
A source does not have to confirm your first idea. Let it help you look again.
Keep the author, year, title, edition and the page you actually used. For an article, keep its journal details and DOI when available.
Format it in Chicago author-date →See Ingrid's Pride Park example and ways to combine subjects
You can stay in the lab, visit the library or combine both. This is a practice route, not an extra assignment.
Explore the rest of Turing's shelves: books, genres, sources and writing help
Find my researchDescribe it. Get search words.5 minOpen
START HERE / WHAT RESEARCH DO I NEED?
You do not need to know your genre yet.
Describe what your project does. Choose what sounds like your work. Then answer any questions you can. We will suggest what to search for and why. Choose “not sure” whenever you need to. There are no right answers or points.
A project can be a game, electronic literature and an artwork at the same time. A choice button does not automatically make something a game. Text on a screen does not automatically make it electronic literature. Use the result as a starting point to investigate.
YOUR POSSIBLE RESEARCH ROUTES
Where you could start
Use this in your writing: “My project uses ____ to let the participant ____. I am investigating ____ through ____.” Fill this in after reading and testing your project; it is not an automatic genre verdict.
See more kinds of digital work in the table ↓ · Explore the academic sources ↓DIKULT105 / FROM IDEA TO SOMETHING PEOPLE CAN USE
Make it. Try it. Understand it.
Choose a route from the collection. Build one small part, find research that helps you question it, and use what you discover to improve it. You can return to any stage.
What will I learn, and where do I practise it?
Choose an experience
Who is it for? What can that person do? Start with one screen, scene or task.
Find a making routeMake it respond
Connect an input to a visible or audible result. Learn the code or design tool through a working example.
A first JavaScript interactionBuild and play in ConstructShape the experience
Use conventions for your form. Compare how type, colour, sound, pacing or movement changes its meaning.
Try the aesthetics benchInvestigate a choice
Use a relevant source to question your design. Examine the tools and industries behind it: ownership, labour, access or representation.
Find and read a sourceTest and work together
Watch someone try a real task. Revise what gets in the way. In a group, agree responsibilities and negotiate changes.
Use the Test LabCheck access and alternativesShare and explain
Export a working artefact. Use examples, sources and test evidence to discuss your choices, limitations and contribution in a critical report.
Export and publishRead and cite accurately
This practice route connects to UiB's official DIKULT105 learning outcomes. These are lab suggestions. Your assignment brief and course reading list are in MittUiB.
Can a podcast, film or useful app belong here too?
Yes, these forms belong in digital culture research. Whether one meets your assignment depends on the brief. Ask what your digital design contributes: a listener can choose a route, a viewer can compare accounts, or an app can help someone participate.
A button alone does not make a work a game or electronic literature. Explain what the interaction does for the experience. You can prototype the idea with the web and Construct skills from the labs; some forms need other tools.
The collection mixes genres, media, techniques and making practices, and labels which is which. Accessibility, aesthetics, ethics and collaboration matter across the collection. You do not need to try every route.
Genre explorerWhat kind of work is it?5-10 minOpen
RESEARCH LAB / EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS
What would you like someone to do?
Play? Read? Listen? Explore a place? Start with the experience you want to make. Pick a shelf, then open a card that sounds close. You can mix shelves and change your mind. Or start from the research made in Bergen →
44 forms and practices to explore
The small builds below are ideas to practise with, not assignment requirements. A genre can combine several shelves. Start with one action you can make and test.
Play and gameworldsInteractive fiction / literary gameReaders choose actions or enter commands that affect a story.Open the making + research route
Start small: Give a character two choices with visibly different consequences.
Try it out: Can a player explain what their choice changed?
What kind of label? Overlapping genres.
Research question: What makes a choice meaningful rather than merely available?
Fields you could connect: Game studies + literature + philosophy of action.
Search words: interactive fiction agency literary games choice
Play and gameworldsVisual novel / multimodal narrativeText, images, sound and choices tell the story together.Open the making + research route
Start small: Build one short scene with dialogue, an image and a choice.
Try it out: Try it without sound. Is the choice still understandable?
What kind of label? Genre + broader analytical category.
Research question: How do image, language and sound distribute perspective?
Fields you could connect: Game studies + visual culture + literary studies.
Search words: visual novel multimodal narrative branching narrative
Play and gameworldsDigital games: puzzle, platform, simulation and other game genresPeople play through challenges, puzzles, movement or a simulated world.Open the making + research route
Start small: Build one playable loop: act, receive feedback, then try again.
Try it out: Watch a new player. Can they discover the action and understand the feedback?
What kind of label? Broad family / subgenres.
Research question: What do the rules let someone do, and what do those rules value?
Fields you could connect: Game studies + design + psychology.
Search words: game studies puzzle games platform games simulation player experience
Play and gameworldsAlternate reality game (ARG)Clues and characters spill into everyday places, websites or messages.Open the making + research route
Start small: Build a tiny fictional trail with two linked clues and a clear entry point.
Try it out: Can someone distinguish the fiction from a real message and leave the experience?
What kind of label? Game / cross-media practice.
Research question: Where does the fiction end and everyday life begin?
Fields you could connect: Game studies + performance studies + media studies.
Search words: alternate reality game pervasive play transmedia ethics
Play and gameworldsExploration game / walking simulatorExploring a place matters more than winning or scoring.Open the making + research route
Start small: Connect two rooms and place a story clue in each.
Try it out: Can someone return to the start and explain what the space revealed?
What kind of label? Game genres.
Research question: How does moving through space tell the story?
Fields you could connect: Game studies + spatial narrative + phenomenology.
Search words: walking simulator environmental storytelling exploration games
Play and gameworldsSerious game / educational game / persuasive gameA game helps people learn, discuss an issue or practise a task.Open the making + research route
Start small: Create one playable decision about a topic you have researched.
Try it out: What can someone explain after playing? A score alone does not demonstrate learning.
What kind of label? Purpose-based game categories.
Research question: What does playing teach or argue, and how could you test that?
Fields you could connect: Game studies + education + rhetoric + ethics.
Search words: serious games educational games procedural rhetoric
Play and gameworldsInteractive simulation / critical modelPeople change values and see a model respond.Open the making + research route
Start small: Use a slider or button to change one variable in a deliberately simple model.
Try it out: Change an assumption. Can someone see why the result changes?
What kind of label? Computational / explanatory practices.
Research question: Which assumptions are built into the model, and where does it stop representing the world?
Fields you could connect: Software studies + systems thinking + philosophy of science.
Search words: critical simulation procedural rhetoric model assumptions
Words and storiesHypertext / hypertext fictionReaders follow links between fragments.Open the making + research route
Start small: Link three short fragments so there are two possible reading orders.
Try it out: Ask a reader to tell the story back. What changed with the order?
What kind of label? Form / genre.
Research question: Who chooses the order, and how does that shape meaning?
Fields you could connect: Narratology + literary studies + interface design.
Search words: hypertext fiction reader agency nonlinear narrative
Words and storiesGenerative poetry / generative literatureCode combines words or produces changing texts.Open the making + research route
Start small: Combine words from three small lists into a changing poem.
Try it out: Compare several outputs. Which effects come from your rules rather than chance?
What kind of label? Genre / computational practice.
Research question: Who or what contributes to the text: author, rules, data, reader?
Fields you could connect: Poetics + software studies + philosophy of authorship.
Search words: generative poetry computational creativity authorship
Words and storiesDigital poetry / kinetic typographyWords move, change over time or respond to interaction.Open the making + research route
Start small: Make one line of poetry change on a click or after a pause.
Try it out: Compare it with a still version. What does timing add, and can the reader control it?
What kind of label? Genre + expressive technique.
Research question: How do timing and movement change the experience of reading?
Fields you could connect: Poetics + visual art + phenomenology.
Search words: digital poetry kinetic typography temporality
Words and storiesCodework / code poetryCode and ordinary language form a creative text together.Open the making + research route
Start small: Mix readable language with a small piece of code.
Try it out: Read it as text, then run the code if it is executable. What changes between those readings?
What kind of label? Literary practices.
Research question: What becomes readable or unreadable when code enters the poem?
Fields you could connect: Poetics + software studies + philosophy of language.
Search words: codework code poetry software studies
Words and storiesConversational narrative / literary chatbotTalking with a bot or character is the main experience.Open the making + research route
Start small: Write a character with a few scripted replies before adding any AI.
Try it out: What happens with an unexpected question? Make the character's limits visible.
What kind of label? Narrative form / interface.
Research question: How does the character invite trust, and what are its limits?
Fields you could connect: Literary studies + conversation analysis + AI ethics.
Search words: literary chatbot conversational narrative AI authorship
Words and storiesDatabase narrative / archival narrativeReaders explore records or fragments to build an account.Open the making + research route
Start small: Let someone explore a small collection of labelled, sourced fragments.
Try it out: Can they work out where a fragment came from and what is absent?
What kind of label? Narrative structures.
Research question: Who collected these fragments, and what has been left out?
Fields you could connect: Narratology + archival studies + digital humanities.
Search words: database narrative digital archive narrative fragments
Words and storiesWebcomic / digital comicPanels, drawing and scrolling tell a story.Open the making + research route
Start small: Draw three panels and use scrolling or a click to reveal them.
Try it out: What changes when you change the spacing or order?
What kind of label? Sequential art forms.
Research question: What does the screen or scroll change about the sequence?
Fields you could connect: Comics studies + visual culture + literary studies.
Search words: webcomics digital comics scrolling multimodal narrative
Words and storiesDigital zine / web essay / digital essayA digital publication combines essays, artwork or personal writing.Open the making + research route
Start small: Publish one short argument with an image, a source and clear navigation.
Try it out: Can a reader find the claim and distinguish your words from someone else's?
What kind of label? Publication forms.
Research question: Who can publish here, and how does the format shape the voice?
Fields you could connect: Publishing studies + rhetoric + cultural studies.
Search words: digital zines web essays self publishing digital rhetoric
Words and storiesDigital life writing / autobiographical narrativeA digital work presents the maker’s life or a personal memory.Open the making + research route
Start small: Turn a short personal memory into a linked or interactive scene.
Try it out: Which details involve other people, and how will you handle their perspectives?
What kind of label? Narrative practices.
Research question: How do you represent other people who share your memories?
Fields you could connect: Literary studies + memory studies + ethics.
Search words: digital life writing autobiography memory identity
Images and screensDigital visual art / generative artThe image, artwork or visual experiment is the main experience.Open the making + research route
Start small: Write a rule that changes colour, shape or composition.
Try it out: Compare outputs. Can you connect the rule to an aesthetic effect?
What kind of label? Art practices.
Research question: How does the process of making an image affect its meaning?
Fields you could connect: Art history + software studies + aesthetics.
Search words: digital art generative art computational aesthetics
Images and screensInternet art / browser artThe work depends on the internet, a browser or online connections.Open the making + research route
Start small: Make a small artwork that uses links, scrolling or browser behaviour.
Try it out: What would be lost if the work were only a printed image?
What kind of label? Art practices.
Research question: How does the network become part of the artwork?
Fields you could connect: Art history + media studies + platform studies.
Search words: internet art browser art network aesthetics
Images and screensDigital video / animation / video essayPeople watch moving images, a short film or an argument made through video.Open the making + research route
Start small: Edit a short sequence where image and sound support one clear idea.
Try it out: Show it once. What idea does the viewer take away?
What kind of label? Formats / practices.
Research question: How do editing, image and sound make an argument or tell a story?
Fields you could connect: Film studies + visual culture + rhetoric.
Search words: digital video animation video essay audiovisual essay
Images and screensAI-assisted art / synthetic mediaGenerated images, voices or video become material for a work.Open the making + research route
Start small: Compare a handmade variation and a generated variation of your own material.
Try it out: Explain your contribution and the material's origin. What did the tool add or limit?
What kind of label? Production practices / media.
Research question: Who contributed to the result, and whose work or perspective is missing?
Fields you could connect: Art history + critical AI studies + labour studies + ethics.
Search words: AI art synthetic media authorship dataset bias
Images and screensGlitch art / software artErrors, compression or software behaviour become expressive material.Open the making + research route
Start small: Transform a copy of your own image using a repeatable visual rule.
Try it out: Compare before and after. Can you describe the process as well as the appearance?
What kind of label? Art practices.
Research question: What becomes visible when a system stops behaving as expected?
Fields you could connect: Art history + software studies + media archaeology.
Search words: glitch art software art materiality digital aesthetics
Images and screensMachinima / virtual productionA game engine or virtual world becomes a place to shoot a film.Open the making + research route
Start small: Stage a short scene in a game engine or virtual space and record it.
Try it out: How do camera position and editing change its meaning? Attribute reused assets.
What kind of label? Filmmaking practices.
Research question: How do the engine and virtual camera shape what can be shown?
Fields you could connect: Film studies + game studies + production studies.
Search words: machinima virtual production game engines cinema
Images and screensInteractive film / 360-degree videoViewers choose a film sequence or look around a filmed scene.Open the making + research route
Start small: Connect two short clips with a choice, or storyboard a look-around scene.
Try it out: Does the viewer know what they can control and what they might miss?
What kind of label? Audiovisual forms / techniques.
Research question: What happens to framing and authorship when viewers direct their attention?
Fields you could connect: Film studies + narrative theory + interaction design.
Search words: interactive film 360 video viewer attention narrative
Sound and performancePodcast / audio narrative / sound artPeople listen to a story, conversation, soundscape or sound artwork.Open the making + research route
Start small: Make a short listening piece with a beginning, a change and an ending.
Try it out: Ask what created the sense of place. Provide a transcript for spoken material.
What kind of label? Formats / art practices.
Research question: How does listening create a sense of place or another person?
Fields you could connect: Sound studies + media studies + musicology.
Search words: podcast audio narrative sound art listening
Sound and performanceInteractive music / adaptive soundPeople change or move through a musical or sonic piece.Open the making + research route
Start small: Make a sound or musical layer change in response to one action.
Try it out: Can someone notice the change? Also communicate essential feedback without sound.
What kind of label? Sound practices.
Research question: How does sound respond to action and guide attention?
Fields you could connect: Sound studies + musicology + game studies.
Search words: interactive music adaptive audio game sound player experience
Sound and performanceLive coding / algorithmic performanceCode is written or changed as part of a live performance.Open the making + research route
Start small: Change one rule during a short live code or music demonstration.
Try it out: Can the audience connect the edit to what they hear or see?
What kind of label? Performance practices.
Research question: What does showing the making process add?
Fields you could connect: Performance studies + music + software studies.
Search words: live coding algorave algorithmic performance
People and networksNetprov / networked narrativePeople perform or write a story together through a network.Open the making + research route
Start small: Let two participants add short messages to a fictional conversation.
Try it out: Can both participants tell what they may change and how to leave?
What kind of label? Genre / participatory practice.
Research question: How is responsibility shared between participants and platforms?
Fields you could connect: Performance studies + sociology + literary studies.
Search words: netprov networked narrative collaborative authorship
People and networksTransmediality / transmedia storytellingThe story develops through several platforms or media.Open the making + research route
Start small: Put one story clue in a web page and a different clue in a playable scene.
Try it out: Does each part add something, and can someone find the connection?
What kind of label? Cross-media approach.
Research question: What does each medium contribute that the others do not?
Fields you could connect: Media studies + adaptation studies + narrative theory.
Search words: transmedia storytelling worldbuilding participation
People and networksSocial media storytelling / memes / livestreamingPosts, memes, streams or online communities are central.Open the making + research route
Start small: Prototype a sequence of posts or a stream overlay for an imagined audience.
Try it out: What changes when the platform crops, ranks or hides part of the message?
What kind of label? Platform-based cultural forms.
Research question: Who can participate, and how does the platform shape what is seen?
Fields you could connect: Media studies + sociology + cultural studies.
Search words: social media storytelling meme studies livestreaming participatory culture
People and networksFan fiction / remix / participatory culturePeople rewrite, remix or expand an existing fictional world.Open the making + research route
Start small: Remix a short passage or image you made or have permission to use.
Try it out: Can someone recognise what your changes question or add?
What kind of label? Genres / cultural practices.
Research question: What changes when readers become creators?
Fields you could connect: Literary studies + fan studies + copyright ethics.
Search words: fan fiction remix transformative works fandom
People and networksDigital activism / civic mediaA digital project invites people to act on a public issue.Open the making + research route
Start small: Prototype a public information page with one meaningful action.
Try it out: Can someone identify who is speaking, the evidence and what the action will do?
What kind of label? Cultural / political practices.
Research question: Whose participation has consequences, and who carries the risks?
Fields you could connect: Political science + media studies + ethics.
Search words: civic media digital activism participation platform power
People and networksAvatar design / digital fashionPeople express identity through digital bodies, clothes or objects.Open the making + research route
Start small: Design a small set of avatar customisation choices.
Try it out: Whose self-expression do the options support or restrict? Ask rather than assume.
What kind of label? Design / identity practices.
Research question: Which bodies and identities can be represented, and on whose terms?
Fields you could connect: Fashion studies + game studies + queer studies + philosophy.
Search words: avatars digital fashion identity embodiment representation
People and networksOnline community / social virtual worldPeople meet, create or organise in a shared digital space.Open the making + research route
Start small: Prototype a shared space with a welcome screen and a few participation rules.
Try it out: Can a newcomer understand how to join, contribute, get help and leave?
What kind of label? Social spaces / cultural practices.
Research question: Who sets the rules for belonging, visibility and participation?
Fields you could connect: Sociology + platform studies + game studies + ethics.
Search words: online communities social virtual worlds moderation governance
Places and immersive worldsLocative media / locative narrativeA place or physical route shapes the experience.Open the making + research route
Start small: Connect three places on a map to a short memory or story.
Try it out: Try the route. What changes when the story is connected to that place?
What kind of label? Medium / narrative practice.
Research question: How do bodies, places and memories shape what can be experienced?
Fields you could connect: Geography + cultural memory + phenomenology.
Search words: locative narrative place memory spatial storytelling
Places and immersive worldsInteractive documentary / digital documentaryPeople explore real events, interviews or documentary material.Open the making + research route
Start small: Offer two paths through a small set of clearly sourced documentary material.
Try it out: Can someone distinguish evidence, interpretation and missing information?
What kind of label? Documentary forms.
Research question: Whose account is presented, and how can the audience judge its evidence?
Fields you could connect: Documentary studies + history + journalism.
Search words: interactive documentary documentary ethics co-creation
Places and immersive worldsData visualisation / data storytellingPeople read or explore a chart, dataset, map or data story.Open the making + research route
Start small: Visualise a small, attributed dataset with labels and units.
Try it out: Can a reader explain one finding without being misled by the scale?
What kind of label? Communication / analytical practices.
Research question: What does the visualisation show, and what does it leave out?
Fields you could connect: Design + statistics + geography + ethics.
Search words: data visualisation data storytelling critical data studies
Places and immersive worldsVirtual reality / immersive experiencePeople enter and look around a virtual space.Open the making + research route
Start small: Prototype one navigable space on screen before considering a headset.
Try it out: Can someone find their way and choose when to stop? A screen prototype is not a VR build.
What kind of label? Medium / experiential form.
Research question: What creates the feeling of being there?
Fields you could connect: Media studies + interaction design + phenomenology.
Search words: virtual reality presence embodiment immersive narrative
Places and immersive worldsAugmented reality / mixed realityDigital material appears over a physical place or object.Open the making + research route
Start small: Mock up a digital layer attached to a real object or place.
Try it out: Can someone tell which material is physical, digital or uncertain? A mock-up does not need AR hardware.
What kind of label? Technologies / media.
Research question: How do digital layers change the way a place is understood?
Fields you could connect: Design + geography + heritage studies.
Search words: augmented reality mixed reality place narrative
Places and immersive worldsInteractive installation / digital performanceBodies, sensors, a performance or a physical installation matter.Open the making + research route
Start small: Make one physical or on-screen action change an image or sound.
Try it out: Can a visitor discover the interaction and participate in another way if needed?
What kind of label? Art practices.
Research question: How does bodily participation become part of the work?
Fields you could connect: Performance studies + art history + human-computer interaction.
Search words: interactive installation digital performance embodied interaction
Places and immersive worldsDigital heritage / virtual exhibitionVisitors explore cultural objects, memories or a virtual exhibition.Open the making + research route
Start small: Curate three objects with captions, provenance and a route through them.
Try it out: Whose account do the captions privilege, and what would another curator change?
What kind of label? Cultural and curatorial practices.
Research question: Who gets to interpret the objects, and whose history is missing?
Fields you could connect: Museum studies + history + design + archival ethics.
Search words: digital heritage virtual exhibition museum interpretation
Places and immersive worldsPhysical computing / wearable interactionA button, sensor or handmade object connects the physical and digital.Open the making + research route
Start small: Make a physical button trigger a screen response, or prototype the connection on screen.
Try it out: Can someone discover cause and effect? Offer an alternative input.
What kind of label? Making / interaction practices.
Research question: How does the body or physical material change the interaction?
Fields you could connect: Interaction design + craft + disability studies.
Search words: physical computing tangible interaction wearable technology
Apps, tools and servicesWebsite / app / digital servicePeople use an interface to get something done.Open the making + research route
Start small: Prototype one useful task, such as finding an event and opening its details.
Try it out: Can someone complete it with a keyboard and recover from a wrong turn?
What kind of label? Products / design practices.
Research question: Whose needs shape the task, and who cannot complete it?
Fields you could connect: Interaction design + sociology + accessibility.
Search words: human computer interaction service design usability
Apps, tools and servicesCreative tool / software instrumentPeople make something using a tool you designed.Open the making + research route
Start small: Build a small tool that lets someone combine shapes, words or sounds.
Try it out: Can another person make something you did not already demonstrate?
What kind of label? Software / creative practices.
Research question: What does the tool make easy, difficult or impossible to express?
Fields you could connect: Software studies + design + arts education.
Search words: creativity support tools software studies creative coding
Apps, tools and servicesGamified service / learning interfaceAn everyday activity uses challenges, rewards or progress to encourage participation.Open the making + research route
Start small: Add one optional challenge to a useful task, with a way to skip it.
Try it out: Does it help someone do the task, or distract them? Compare with a plain version.
What kind of label? Design approach, not automatically a game.
Research question: Does the design support a meaningful activity or pressure people to keep clicking?
Fields you could connect: Game studies + education + psychology + ethics.
Search words: gamification motivation autonomy learning design
MIX YOUR OWN ROUTE
A genre label is a starting point, not a box.
A Pride Park project might be an exploration game about belonging. If reading and digital language are central, e-lit research may also help. If it unfolds across a game, social posts and a physical event, investigate transmedia storytelling too.
Say what is actually present in the work. A topic you care about does not, by itself, decide the genre.
| Question | Examples |
|---|---|
| What form does it take? | Game, poem, documentary, comic, podcast. |
| How does it work? | Branching paths, generated text, simulation, live participation. |
| What is its tone or story tradition? | Horror, romance, comedy, fantasy, science fiction, memoir. |
| What do you want to investigate? | Belonging, climate, gender, memory, power, accessibility. |
For games, narrow the search when useful: action, adventure, role-playing, strategy, simulation, puzzle, rhythm, sports or racing. These can overlap too. A horror story might use a puzzle game, a podcast or a visual novel.
Build a search: one form + one question. Try exploration games belonging, podcast identity or digital poetry memory. Start broad, then follow terms you find in scholarship.
See actual works before choosing a name.
Electronic Literature Collection: works and tags · Rhizome ArtBase: digital artworks · MIT Docubase: documentary experiments · Living Glossary: unfamiliar terms · Ars Electronica: art, technology and society
These collections help you discover works and terms. Use academic scholarship to support your argument. Older digital works may need emulation or may no longer run in your browser.
This is a broad, expandable teaching map, not a claim to list every digital-cultural genre. Suggested combinations are from the lab; the reference collections use their own categories.
Browse the academic books →Made in BergenResearch from your own university.5 minOpen
RESEARCH MADE IN BERGEN
Use the research that happens around you.
The University of Bergen is one of the world centres for this research. Scott Rettberg leads the Center for Digital Narrative ↗, and Jill Walker Rettberg leads the AI STORIES project and led the Machine Vision project. Start with the question that fits your project.
Electronic literature · Scott RettbergWhich electronic literature genre is yours?Five genres from Electronic Literature (Polity 2019). Each opens a making and research route.Open the research route
- Combinatory poetics · Rules recombine words, so the text changes. Route: Generative poetry →
- Hypertext fiction · Linked pieces; the reader's path makes the plot. Route: Hypertext →
- Interactive fiction and other gamelike forms · The reader acts in a world of text and rules. Route: Interactive fiction →
- Kinetic and interactive poetry · Words move and respond; timing makes meaning. Route: Digital poetry →
- Network writing · Writing with and through networks, platforms and many voices. Route: Netprov →
Try it out: Name the closest genre, then one way your project breaks it.
Find works: ELMCIP Knowledge Base ↗ · Electronic Literature Collection ↗
Machine vision · Jill Walker RettbergDoes your work see?Cameras, filters, tracking, or a story about a seeing machine.Open the research route
Read: Machine Vision (Polity 2023), open access ↗
Find works: Machine Vision in Art, Games and Narratives ↗, a database of 500 artworks, games and narratives from her ERC project (2018-2023).
Research question: Who is seen, who is doing the seeing, and who decided what the machine should recognise?
In Construct: the User Media object uses the camera. Test it with consent, and say what you do with the image.
Search words: machine vision art games narrative
AI and narrative · AI STORIESDid an AI help write it?Language models, generated text, vibecoding and authorship.Open the research route
The project: AI STORIES ↗, led by Jill Walker Rettberg (ERC, 2024-2029), asks whether the story patterns in training data shape what large language models tell us.
Research question: Which story patterns did the model fall back on, and which choices were yours?
Also read: The Routledge Handbook of AI and Literature on this shelf.
Two ideas for your textEffort and actionConcepts that help you explain what your work is, not only how it looks.Open the research route
Ergodic: Espen Aarseth (Cybertext, 1997) calls a text ergodic when the reader needs nontrivial effort to get through it. How much work does your visitor do?
Genre as social action: Carolyn R. Miller (1984) treats genre as what a form does for people in a recurring situation. What does your work do for the person who meets it?
Ready-made Chicago author-date references
- Rettberg, Scott. 2019. Electronic Literature. Cambridge: Polity.
- Rettberg, Jill Walker. 2023. Machine Vision: How Algorithms Are Changing the Way We See the World. Cambridge: Polity.
- Aarseth, Espen J. 1997. Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Miller, Carolyn R. 1984. "Genre as Social Action." Quarterly Journal of Speech 70 (2): 151-67.
Check the details against the edition you actually read.
Open the full comparison table: all 44 routes
WHAT KIND OF PROJECT AM I MAKING?
What are you making? Find a useful name.
Start with what the reader or player actually does. Use the table to find possible terms, then search the research. You can belong to several rows at once. A tool such as Construct is not a genre.
This is a starting map of digital culture, not a complete list of everything people make. The digital narrative terms draw on the Living Glossary of Digital Narrative, not one official classification system. It brings genres, techniques and approaches together while keeping their differences visible.
44 routes into research
| What happens in my project? | Possible terms / type | Search for research | Fields to combine | A philosophical question to try |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Readers follow links between fragments. | Hypertext / hypertext fictionForm / genre | hypertext fiction reader agency nonlinear narrative | Narratology + literary studies + interface design | Who chooses the order, and how does that shape meaning? |
| Readers choose actions or enter commands that affect a story. | Interactive fiction / literary gameOverlapping genres | interactive fiction agency literary games choice | Game studies + literature + philosophy of action | What makes a choice meaningful rather than merely available? |
| Code combines words or produces changing texts. | Generative poetry / generative literatureGenre / computational practice | generative poetry computational creativity authorship | Poetics + software studies + philosophy of authorship | Who or what contributes to the text: author, rules, data, reader? |
| Words move, change over time or respond to interaction. | Digital poetry / kinetic typographyGenre + expressive technique | digital poetry kinetic typography temporality | Poetics + visual art + phenomenology | How do timing and movement change the experience of reading? |
| A place or physical route shapes the experience. | Locative media / locative narrativeMedium / narrative practice | locative narrative place memory spatial storytelling | Geography + cultural memory + phenomenology | How do bodies, places and memories shape what can be experienced? |
| People perform or write a story together through a network. | Netprov / networked narrativeGenre / participatory practice | netprov networked narrative collaborative authorship | Performance studies + sociology + literary studies | How is responsibility shared between participants and platforms? |
| The story develops through several platforms or media. | Transmediality / transmedia storytellingCross-media approach | transmedia storytelling worldbuilding participation | Media studies + adaptation studies + narrative theory | What does each medium contribute that the others do not? |
| Text, images, sound and choices tell the story together. | Visual novel / multimodal narrativeGenre + broader analytical category | visual novel multimodal narrative branching narrative | Game studies + visual culture + literary studies | How do image, language and sound distribute perspective? |
| People play through challenges, puzzles, movement or a simulated world. | Digital games: puzzle, platform, simulation and other game genresBroad family / subgenres | game studies puzzle games platform games simulation player experience | Game studies + design + psychology | What do the rules let someone do, and what do those rules value? |
| The image, artwork or visual experiment is the main experience. | Digital visual art / generative artArt practices | digital art generative art computational aesthetics | Art history + software studies + aesthetics | How does the process of making an image affect its meaning? |
| The work depends on the internet, a browser or online connections. | Internet art / browser artArt practices | internet art browser art network aesthetics | Art history + media studies + platform studies | How does the network become part of the artwork? |
| People watch moving images, a short film or an argument made through video. | Digital video / animation / video essayFormats / practices | digital video animation video essay audiovisual essay | Film studies + visual culture + rhetoric | How do editing, image and sound make an argument or tell a story? |
| People explore real events, interviews or documentary material. | Interactive documentary / digital documentaryDocumentary forms | interactive documentary documentary ethics co-creation | Documentary studies + history + journalism | Whose account is presented, and how can the audience judge its evidence? |
| People listen to a story, conversation, soundscape or sound artwork. | Podcast / audio narrative / sound artFormats / art practices | podcast audio narrative sound art listening | Sound studies + media studies + musicology | How does listening create a sense of place or another person? |
| People read or explore a chart, dataset, map or data story. | Data visualisation / data storytellingCommunication / analytical practices | data visualisation data storytelling critical data studies | Design + statistics + geography + ethics | What does the visualisation show, and what does it leave out? |
| Posts, memes, streams or online communities are central. | Social media storytelling / memes / livestreamingPlatform-based cultural forms | social media storytelling meme studies livestreaming participatory culture | Media studies + sociology + cultural studies | Who can participate, and how does the platform shape what is seen? |
| People rewrite, remix or expand an existing fictional world. | Fan fiction / remix / participatory cultureGenres / cultural practices | fan fiction remix transformative works fandom | Literary studies + fan studies + copyright ethics | What changes when readers become creators? |
| People enter and look around a virtual space. | Virtual reality / immersive experienceMedium / experiential form | virtual reality presence embodiment immersive narrative | Media studies + interaction design + phenomenology | What creates the feeling of being there? |
| Digital material appears over a physical place or object. | Augmented reality / mixed realityTechnologies / media | augmented reality mixed reality place narrative | Design + geography + heritage studies | How do digital layers change the way a place is understood? |
| Bodies, sensors, a performance or a physical installation matter. | Interactive installation / digital performanceArt practices | interactive installation digital performance embodied interaction | Performance studies + art history + human-computer interaction | How does bodily participation become part of the work? |
| Clues and characters spill into everyday places, websites or messages. | Alternate reality game (ARG)Game / cross-media practice | alternate reality game pervasive play transmedia ethics | Game studies + performance studies + media studies | Where does the fiction end and everyday life begin? |
| Exploring a place matters more than winning or scoring. | Exploration game / walking simulatorGame genres | walking simulator environmental storytelling exploration games | Game studies + spatial narrative + phenomenology | How does moving through space tell the story? |
| A game helps people learn, discuss an issue or practise a task. | Serious game / educational game / persuasive gamePurpose-based game categories | serious games educational games procedural rhetoric | Game studies + education + rhetoric + ethics | What does playing teach or argue, and how could you test that? |
| Code and ordinary language form a creative text together. | Codework / code poetryLiterary practices | codework code poetry software studies | Poetics + software studies + philosophy of language | What becomes readable or unreadable when code enters the poem? |
| Talking with a bot or character is the main experience. | Conversational narrative / literary chatbotNarrative form / interface | literary chatbot conversational narrative AI authorship | Literary studies + conversation analysis + AI ethics | How does the character invite trust, and what are its limits? |
| Readers explore records or fragments to build an account. | Database narrative / archival narrativeNarrative structures | database narrative digital archive narrative fragments | Narratology + archival studies + digital humanities | Who collected these fragments, and what has been left out? |
| Panels, drawing and scrolling tell a story. | Webcomic / digital comicSequential art forms | webcomics digital comics scrolling multimodal narrative | Comics studies + visual culture + literary studies | What does the screen or scroll change about the sequence? |
| A digital publication combines essays, artwork or personal writing. | Digital zine / web essay / digital essayPublication forms | digital zines web essays self publishing digital rhetoric | Publishing studies + rhetoric + cultural studies | Who can publish here, and how does the format shape the voice? |
| People change or move through a musical or sonic piece. | Interactive music / adaptive soundSound practices | interactive music adaptive audio game sound player experience | Sound studies + musicology + game studies | How does sound respond to action and guide attention? |
| Code is written or changed as part of a live performance. | Live coding / algorithmic performancePerformance practices | live coding algorave algorithmic performance | Performance studies + music + software studies | What does showing the making process add? |
| Visitors explore cultural objects, memories or a virtual exhibition. | Digital heritage / virtual exhibitionCultural and curatorial practices | digital heritage virtual exhibition museum interpretation | Museum studies + history + design + archival ethics | Who gets to interpret the objects, and whose history is missing? |
| A digital work presents the maker’s life or a personal memory. | Digital life writing / autobiographical narrativeNarrative practices | digital life writing autobiography memory identity | Literary studies + memory studies + ethics | How do you represent other people who share your memories? |
| People use an interface to get something done. | Website / app / digital serviceProducts / design practices | human computer interaction service design usability | Interaction design + sociology + accessibility | Whose needs shape the task, and who cannot complete it? |
| People make something using a tool you designed. | Creative tool / software instrumentSoftware / creative practices | creativity support tools software studies creative coding | Software studies + design + arts education | What does the tool make easy, difficult or impossible to express? |
| An everyday activity uses challenges, rewards or progress to encourage participation. | Gamified service / learning interfaceDesign approach, not automatically a game | gamification motivation autonomy learning design | Game studies + education + psychology + ethics | Does the design support a meaningful activity or pressure people to keep clicking? |
| People change values and see a model respond. | Interactive simulation / critical modelComputational / explanatory practices | critical simulation procedural rhetoric model assumptions | Software studies + systems thinking + philosophy of science | Which assumptions are built into the model, and where does it stop representing the world? |
| Generated images, voices or video become material for a work. | AI-assisted art / synthetic mediaProduction practices / media | AI art synthetic media authorship dataset bias | Art history + critical AI studies + labour studies + ethics | Who contributed to the result, and whose work or perspective is missing? |
| Errors, compression or software behaviour become expressive material. | Glitch art / software artArt practices | glitch art software art materiality digital aesthetics | Art history + software studies + media archaeology | What becomes visible when a system stops behaving as expected? |
| A game engine or virtual world becomes a place to shoot a film. | Machinima / virtual productionFilmmaking practices | machinima virtual production game engines cinema | Film studies + game studies + production studies | How do the engine and virtual camera shape what can be shown? |
| Viewers choose a film sequence or look around a filmed scene. | Interactive film / 360-degree videoAudiovisual forms / techniques | interactive film 360 video viewer attention narrative | Film studies + narrative theory + interaction design | What happens to framing and authorship when viewers direct their attention? |
| A digital project invites people to act on a public issue. | Digital activism / civic mediaCultural / political practices | civic media digital activism participation platform power | Political science + media studies + ethics | Whose participation has consequences, and who carries the risks? |
| People express identity through digital bodies, clothes or objects. | Avatar design / digital fashionDesign / identity practices | avatars digital fashion identity embodiment representation | Fashion studies + game studies + queer studies + philosophy | Which bodies and identities can be represented, and on whose terms? |
| A button, sensor or handmade object connects the physical and digital. | Physical computing / wearable interactionMaking / interaction practices | physical computing tangible interaction wearable technology | Interaction design + craft + disability studies | How does the body or physical material change the interaction? |
| People meet, create or organise in a shared digital space. | Online community / social virtual worldSocial spaces / cultural practices | online communities social virtual worlds moderation governance | Sociology + platform studies + game studies + ethics | Who sets the rules for belonging, visibility and participation? |
The field combinations and questions are suggestions for your analysis, not definitions taken from the glossary. Compare the glossary entry with scholarship before deciding how to describe your work.
ELMCIP: find creative and critical works · Read about transmediality in the glossary
Research deskFind one real article.10 minOpen
THE RESEARCH DESK / FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY
Go looking. The books here are a starting point.
Google your idea. Try unfamiliar terms, follow an author's name and look at what an article cites. You do not need to know the perfect search words before you begin.
Find the words
Try two or three terms: game interfaces, podcast identity or accessible app design. Too few useful results? Drop a term or try a synonym. Put an exact article title in quotation marks.
In Google Scholar, try Related articles and Cited by to follow the discussion. A search result can be a thesis, preprint or review as well as a journal article.
Google Scholar's search helpSearch Norwegian research with Sikt
Open NVA, the Norwegian Research Information Repository, at nva.sikt.no. Search a topic, title or researcher, for example Kristine Jørgensen. You can search without logging in.
Use the filters to narrow by institution or result type. To look for downloadable material, use the uploaded-file filter. Open a record and check whether a file is available; some records contain information without full text.
Search NVA at Sikt ↗Sikt's step-by-step search guideOpen and check the article
Check the author, year, journal and article type on the publication record. If peer review matters for your task, check the journal's policy and the type of contribution. A PDF or a search ranking does not establish this.
Try a Scholar [PDF] link, All versions, NVA or your library's Oria access. Read beyond the abstract: what is the question, argument, evidence and limitation? Does it help with your particular design choice?
Find the article through your libraryUse it and cite itTry it now: find one relevant article, read the part that helps you, then return to one decision in your prototype. Cite the article you read, rather than Google, Scholar or Sikt.
Book archive17 books to start from.browseOpen
Browse the full shelf: 234 notes and 33 lab picks →
17 sources
01 / Game interfaces and player experience
Gameworld Interfaces
MIT Press · 2013
A study of how game interfaces communicate the information players need to interact with gameworlds and rules.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
What tells a player what they can do, what changed and what to try next?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
Read the short paper: GWI: The Gameworld Interface (2013, PDF)
The short paper presents a version of the book’s central argument, not the full book.
02 / AI and literature
The Routledge Handbook of AI and Literature
Routledge
Literary approaches to AI and AI in literary practice.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
For the vibecoding workshop: what choices did you make, and what did the machine contribute?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
GAME STUDIES / Narrative and games
Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds
MIT Press · 2005
Juul examines real rules and imagined fictional worlds. Which rule supports your fiction, and where do they pull apart?
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
How do rules and fiction work together?
A lab prompt, not a quotation. Read and cite the passage you use; check the year and pages of your edition.
Compare research perspectives →GAME STUDIES / Design and participation
Critical Play: Radical Game Design
MIT Press · 2009
Flanagan examines games that question cultural assumptions. Which familiar convention does your work challenge, and how?
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
Which convention could your game question?
A lab prompt, not a quotation. Read and cite the passage you use; check the year and pages of your edition.
Compare research perspectives →GAME STUDIES / Narrative and games
Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames
MIT Press · 2007
Bogost studies how rule-based processes make arguments. What does your system reward, prevent or demand?
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
What argument do your rules make?
A lab prompt, not a quotation. Read and cite the passage you use; check the year and pages of your edition.
Compare research perspectives →03 / Narrative and games
Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace
MIT Press · updated edition, 2017
Digital environments and the possibilities of participatory narrative.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
For Construct: what does the visitor do that changes their experience of the story?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
04 / Media history
The New Media Reader
MIT Press · 2003
A collection of foundational writings in the history of new media.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
Connect a historical idea about computing to one interaction you are building.
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
05 / Design and participation
Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need
MIT Press · 2020
Design, power and community-led practice.
Read open access ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
For your interface: who gets to take part in deciding what the project should do?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
06 / Data and power
Data Feminism
MIT Press · 2020
An intersectional feminist approach to data science and data ethics.
Read open access ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
For your project: whose experience is represented, and whose perspective is absent?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
07 / Data and power
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
NYU Press · 2018
A critical study of search engines, racism and discoverability.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
For research and AI use: how does a platform influence what you can find?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
08 / Digital art and aesthetics
Digital Art
Thames & Hudson · 4th edition, 2023
An introduction to digital art, its histories, media and artistic questions.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
What does your medium or process contribute to the experience of the artwork?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
09 / Sound and listening
The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening
NYU Press · 2016
A historical study of race and the cultural politics of listening in the United States.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
How might listening habits shape the way a voice is interpreted? Connect the historical argument carefully to your context.
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
10 / Software and creative tools
Software Studies: A Lexicon
MIT Press · 2008
An edited collection that treats software as a cultural object and a field of practice.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
Choose a relevant entry. What does examining the software help you notice about your creative choices?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
11 / Film and documentary
Introduction to Documentary
Indiana University Press · 4th edition, 2024
An introduction to documentary forms, evidence, perspectives and ethical questions.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
How does your selection and arrangement of material shape the account you present?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
12 / Platforms and communities
The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World
Oxford University Press · 2018
A study of how platforms relate to public values and social institutions.
Publisher record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
Who controls visibility, participation and data on the platform your project uses?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
13 / Electronic literature
Electronic Literature
Polity · 2019
A survey of the main genres of electronic literature, from combinatory poetics and hypertext fiction to interactive fiction, kinetic poetry and network writing, in their historical and technical contexts. Winner of the 2019 N. Katherine Hayles Award.
ELMCIP record ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
Which of the genres is closest to what your visitor does? Name it, then explain how your work changes it.
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
14 / Machine vision
Machine Vision: How Algorithms Are Changing the Way We See the World
Polity · 2023
How cameras, filters, surveillance and image recognition change how we see, with examples from art, games and science fiction.
Open access: read it free ↗ · Search Oria ↗
Take a question into your project
Does your work see the visitor, or show a seeing machine? Who is seen, and who decides what the machine sees?
Connect this to your project →These are suggested questions from the lab, not quotations from the book.
Make it, study itBuilding and research together.5 minOpen
MAKE SOMETHING / INVESTIGATE SOMETHING
Building it and studying it can work together.
A game, app or company website can be both a practical project and something you study. “Game studies” is a research field. “Game development” is a making practice. An app is a type of product. None of these tells us the whole genre or purpose.
Game studies
Ask: how do rules, stories, players and communities make meaning?
Try: closely analyse one playable moment or observe how players understand it.
Search: game studies player agency, game aesthetics, Kristine Jørgensen game interfaces.
Game development
Build: mechanics, levels, dialogue, feedback or a working prototype.
Ask: does the design produce the experience you intended?
Try: change one mechanic, playtest both versions and compare what players do.
Search: game design playtesting, level design player guidance.
App and web development
Build: an app, website, interface or useful tool.
Ask: can the intended users complete the task, including people using assistive technology?
Try: watch someone attempt a realistic task. Check keyboard access, feedback and errors.
Search: human computer interaction usability, accessible interaction design.
Interactive work for a company or organisation
Build: a visitor experience, event guide, training tool, exhibition or digital service.
Ask: whose problem are you solving, and does the solution work for those people?
Try: turn the brief into a testable task. Compare what the organisation wants with what participants need.
Search: participatory design, service design user research, design justice.
You can combine these routes. For example: build a game for an organisation, study its interface and investigate inclusion. Follow your assignment requirements when deciding what to document.
Aesthetics benchSame task. Different mood.3 minOpen
AESTHETICS LAB / HOW DOES IT FEEL, AND WHY?
Aesthetics is part of how the work communicates.
Colour, shape, type, images, sound, movement, pace and space can make an experience feel welcoming, tense, playful, confusing or calm. Aesthetics also asks how people experience and judge a work. It is more than adding decoration.
Same task. Different mood.
Switch the style. The words and destination stay the same. Notice what the visual treatment suggests.
PRIDE PARK / VISITOR GUIDE
Find your place.
Explore the park and discover the people who make it feel like home.
Open the map workshop →Calm: quiet colours, generous space and a simple type style.
This is a teaching example, not a screenshot of Ingrid's Pride Park game. These are possible design effects, not findings about what every person feels.
Look and listen
What do colour, contrast, type, images, sound and timing suggest? Do the parts support each other?
Search visual rhetoric, sound aesthetics or game feel.
Connect to meaning
Why is this treatment appropriate for this story, audience or organisation? “I like it” can start the discussion, but explain what the choice does.
Search aesthetic experience, phenomenology or affect digital media.
Test the experience
Make two versions of one screen or scene. Keep the task the same. Ask someone what the style suggests, then watch whether they can use it.
Separate “it looks welcoming” from “I can find the next step”. Appearance and usability can interact, but they are not the same.
Include different people
Check readable text, keyboard focus, captions where needed and reduced-motion preferences. Never use colour alone to carry essential information.
Connect aesthetics to accessibility →Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Aesthetic Judgment · Research: appearance and usability as distinct factors
Take it into your project: change one aesthetic choice, keep the interaction the same and compare the experience.
Next: choose a source for your question →Across fieldsMix subjects. Make it precise.5 minOpen
WORKING ACROSS FIELDS
Combine reading lists. Make the connection precise.
Your project does not have to sit inside one subject. A map story can draw on literature, geography and philosophy. A game can connect ethics, history and visual art. Reading across fields becomes useful when you can show what each source helps you understand.
FROM INGRID'S OWN PROJECT / DIKULT216
Work, study and something you care about.
When I worked for Bergen Pride, I made a Pride Park game in DIKULT216. I could combine work and university, and explore what I care about: belonging and inclusion.
Ingrid Ormevik
Your experience can be a starting point for academic work. For a project like this, you could combine game studies with queer studies, cultural studies and ethics. That is a possible research route, not a claim about the sources used in Ingrid's project.
Try the connection: game design + belonging + inclusion. Ask who feels welcome, what makes participation possible and how the rules express those choices.
Search for queer game studies belonging, inclusive game design or participation ethics. Use relevant readings from different courses, then explain what each contributes.
- Choose a form: what does someone do in your project? Find one or two terms in the table.
- Choose a question: memory, identity, agency, power, place, knowledge or responsibility.
- Combine sources: take one source about the form, one about your question and, if useful, one from another course's reading list. Check that each source actually fits.
- Connect the argument: explain where the sources support, complicate or disagree with each other. Keep their different meanings of a term visible.
Example: a campus story about belonging
Describe it as a locative or hypertext narrative if those terms fit the work. Use narrative theory to discuss the reader's route, cultural geography to investigate place, and philosophy to ask whose experience is recognised. Search combinations such as locative narrative belonging and place memory phenomenology.
This is an example research plan, not an assigned interpretation. Read the sources before making the claim.
Philosophy is a way to sharpen the question.
Agency asks what it means to act or choose. Epistemology asks what counts as knowledge and evidence. Ethics asks about responsibility and consequences. Phenomenology examines experience. Philosophy of technology investigates how technologies shape human life and practice.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Philosophy of Technology · Computer and Information Ethics
Transmedial is not the same as interdisciplinary. A story can unfold across media; a study can combine academic fields. Your project can do both. Several media on one page do not automatically make a transmedia story: ask how each part contributes to the story.
Return to the genre table ↑ · How to read and cite your sources ↓
Writing deskCite, figures, front page.10 minOpen
THE WRITING DESK · CHICAGO AUTHOR-DATE
Write it like a researcher. Simply.
Tap the numbers on the paper. Alinta’s instructions always win.
… the archive answers only when the water rises (Jørgensen 2013, 42).
Fullbright. 2013. Gone Home. Windows. Fullbright.
Jørgensen, Kristine. 2013. Gameworld Interfaces. MIT Press.
Murray, Janet H. 2017. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. Updated ed. MIT Press.
1Front page. Title of your work, a subtitle, DIKULT105, Final assessment and the date. No page number here.
2Name or number?. Inspera exams are usually anonymous: write your candidate number, not your name, unless Alinta says otherwise.
3The two links. Clearly labelled on the front page: Interactive work: and Video walkthrough: Copy them from the browser and test them in a private window.
4Word count. 2000 words, 10% over or under. Ask Alinta if the reference list counts.
5Margins. About 2.5 cm on every side. A plain font in 12 pt. Chicago papers are double-spaced; follow Alinta’s template if she gives one.
6Page numbers. Every page after the front page, in the same place: top right or bottom centre.
7Citing in the sentence. (Jørgensen 2013, 42): author, year, page. No comma after the name. It goes before the full stop. Name in the sentence? Jørgensen (2013, 42) argues …
8Figure 1. Your screenshots are figures. Number them in order. The caption goes under the image: Figure 1. The flooded archive room. Screenshot by the author. In the text: “(figure 1)”.
9Block quote (innrykk). A quote of 100 words or more (about five lines) gets its own indented paragraph, with no quotation marks. The citation comes after the final full stop. Shorter quotes stay in the sentence, “in quotation marks”.
10References. Heading References. Alphabetical by surname. Hanging indent: the first line sticks out, the rest is indented. Every citation in your text is here, and nothing else.
CITATION BUILDER
IN YOUR TEXT (Jørgensen 2013) or Jørgensen (2013) argues …
REFERENCE LIST Jørgensen, Kristine. 2013. Gameworld Interfaces. MIT Press.
Italics: book, game, journal and artwork titles. “Quotation marks”: article, web page, lecture, video and sound titles. Check the details against the source itself.
SPOT THE MISTAKE · 0 XP
1/6 · Which is Chicago author-date?
No comma between author and year.
2/6 · You quote page 42. Which is right?
Author, year, page. The year is never left out.
3/6 · Where does the figure caption go?
Figure 1. What it shows. Source. Under the image.
4/6 · A 120-word quote. How?
100 words or more: its own indented paragraph.
5/6 · How is the reference list ordered?
Alphabetical. Then the reader finds any source fast.
6/6 · Where do the links to your work go?
The examiner should find them first.
WRITING ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK
What happens?
“In my work, the visitor … When they …, the room …”
(see figure 1)What does it mean?
“Juul (2005) describes rules as … In my work, the rule that … makes …”
cite a sourceWhat did you learn?
“I chose … because … When I tested it, … so I changed …”
“I” is fineWrite it yourself. AI may only do light editing if you write in English. Draft your four parts in the Final quest →
Use the idea. Show where it came from.
- For an article, use the abstract, introduction and conclusion to judge relevance, then read its argument and evidence in context. For a book, locate a relevant chapter and identify its author.
- Read the passage in context. Separate the author's claim from your own interpretation.
- Record the edition and actual page or locator you used. Cite a chapter by its author, not automatically by the book's editors.
- Use the idea to question a design choice, compare two approaches or develop an argument.
CITATION BENCH / CHICAGO AUTHOR-DATE
A short citation in your text. The full article in your reference list.
Chicago author-date uses parentheses in the text and an alphabetical reference list. Cite paraphrased ideas too. Follow your assignment's instructions.
In your text
When referring to the article as a whole: (Jørgensen 2012).
For a passage you have read on page 142: (Jørgensen 2012, 142). Use the page you actually discuss. Quoted words also need quotation marks.
In your reference list
Jørgensen, Kristine. 2012. “Between the Game System and the Fictional World: A Study of Computer Game Interfaces.” Games and Culture 7 (2): 142–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412012440315.
This is a real journal article. The citation demonstrates the format; it is not a quotation or a claim about a particular passage. Check the publisher's record.
Build the reference from your article's details
Pattern: Surname, First name. Year. “Article Title.” Journal Title volume (issue): full article page range or article ID. DOI link.
The article title uses quotation marks; the journal title is italic. Give the whole article's pages in the reference and the passage's page in the text. Prefer a DOI link when available.
In the text, name both authors for a two-author work. For three or more, use the first surname plus et al. Check the official guide for reference-list names.
No stable pages? Use an appropriate section or locator. Check generated citations against the record. A DOI identifies a work; it does not establish quality.
Official Chicago author-date examples, including journal articles
For library access, choose your institution in Oria and check the actual record. A publisher page may offer a preview or require purchase; it is not automatically free full text.
Chicago author-date examples. Follow your assignment instructions and cite the edition you actually read.
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