Abstract
This paper discusses the application of decolonial thinking to Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) with the goal of creating a decolonial framework. We provide motivation for this endeavor, and report on a workshop we conducted called Time for Repositioning, aiming to start a decolonizing process in the EU COST Action INDCOR (Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations). Then, we analyze several exemplar IDN works which embody decolonial thinking. Finally, we offer some concrete steps for scholars to decolonialize their work which also provide the foundation of our ongoing work towards a more developed decolonial framework.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Living Colors can be played at: https://historias.interativas.nom.br/coresvivasgame/
- 2.
When Rivers were trails can be played at https://indianlandtenure.itch.io/whenrivers-were-trails
- 3.
Holy Fire can be played at https://abrahamfalcon.itch.io/holy-fire
- 4.
References
Moyo, L., Mutsvairo, B.: Can the subaltern think? The decolonial turn in communication research in Africa. In: Mutsvairo, B. (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Media and Communication Research in Africa, pp. 19–40. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70443-2_2
Couldry, N., Mejias, U.A.: Data colonialism: Rethinking big data’s relation to the contemporary subject. Television New Media 20(4), 336349 (2019)
Bettocchi, E., Klimick, C., Perani, L.: Can the subaltern game design? an exploratory study about creating a decolonial ludology framework through ludonarratives. Cep 36036, 330 (2020)
Risam, R.: Decolonizing the digital humanities in theory and practice. In: The Routledge companion to media studies and digital humanities, pp. 78–86. Routledge (2018)
Mohamed, S., Png, M.T., Isaac, W.: Decolonial ai: decolonial theory as sociotechnical foresight in artificial intelligence. Philos. Technol. 33(4), 659–684 (2020)
Philip, K., Irani, L., Dourish, P.: Postcolonial computing: a tactical survey. Sci. Technol. Human Values 37(1), 3–29 (2012)
Wilson, K.B.: Selling the White Savior Narrative: The Help, Theatrical Previews, and US Movie Audiences. Mobilized Identities: Mediated Subjectivity and Cultural Crisis in the Neoliberal Era, pp. 22–41 (2013)
Hoffman, D.M.: White savior or local hero?: conflicting narratives of help in haiti. Georgetown J. Int. Aff. 23(1), 99–104 (2022)
Jennings, P.: Narrative structures for new media. Leonardo 29, 345–350 (1996)
Koenitz, H., Di Pastena, A., Jansen, D., de Lint, B., Moss, A.: The myth of ‘universal’ narrative models. In: Rouse, R., Koenitz, H., Haahr, M. (eds.) ICIDS 2018. LNCS, vol. 11318, pp. 107–120. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04028-4_8
Jayanth, M.: White Protagonism and Imperial Pleasures in Game Design #DIGRA21. https://medium.com/@betterthemask/white-protagonism-and-imperialpleasures-in-game-design-digra21-a4bdb3f5583c (2021)
Gray, K.L.: Deviant bodies, stigmatized identities, and racist acts: examining the experiences of African-American gamers in Xbox Live. New Rev. Hypermedia Multimedia 18, 261–276 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1080/13614568.2012.746740
Mukherjee, S.: Playing subaltern: video games and postcolonialism. Games Cult. 13, 504–520 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412015627258
Trammell, A.: Decolonizing play. Crit. Stud. Media Commun. 39, 239–246 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2022.2080844
Quinn, Z.: Crash override: How gamergate (nearly) destroyed my life, and how we can win the fight against online hate. PublicAffairs (2017)
Gray, K.L., Leonard, D.J.: Woke Gaming: Digital Challenges to Oppression and Social Injustice. University of Washington Press (2018)
Peckham, E.: Confronting racial bias in video games. https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/21/confronting-racial-bias-in-video-games/. Accessed 13 Oct 2022
IDG: MultiVersus Debuted as the Best-Selling Game in the US Last Month. https://nordic.ign.com/elden-ring/59311/news/multiversus-debuted-as-the-best-selling-game-in-the-us-last-month. Accessed 13 Oct 2022 (2022)
Banhot, K.: Decolonise, not Diversify. Media Diversified. Retrieved 21 Sep 2022. https://mediadiversified.org/2015/12/30/is-diversity-is-only-for-white-people/ (2015)
Hopkins, J.P.: Indigenous education reform: a decolonizing approach. In: Indigenous philosophies of education around the world, pp. 129–147. Routledge (2018)
Campbell, J.: The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Harper & Row (1949)
Gopal, P.: On decolonisation and the university. Textual Pract. 35(6), 873–899 (2021)
Wa Thiong’o, N.: Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. East African Publishers (1992)
Quijano, A.: Coloniality of power and Eurocentrism in Latin Americas. Int. Sociol. 15(2), 215–232 (2000)
Bettocchi, E., Klimick, C., Perani, L.: Ludopoética e didática ludonarrativa para ensino e criação de jogos decoloniais. In: O lúdico em redes: reflexões e práticas no Ensino de Ciências da Natureza [recurso eletrônico]/Joaquim Fernando Mendes da Silva (Org.). Porto Alegre, RS: Editora Fi (2021)
LaPenseé, E.: Placing stories, stories of place: writing when rivers were trails. In Reyes, M.C., Pope, J. (eds.) Texts of Discomfort: Interactive Storytelling Art (2021)
Falcon, A.: Creating discomforts: game design and personal reflections on authoring Holy Fire. In: Reyes, M.C., Pope, J. (eds.) Texts of Discomfort: Interactive Storytelling Art (2021)
In 90 Days: https://kayaconnect.org/course/info.php?id=3149. Accessed 13 Oct 2022
Mignolo, W.: Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton University Press (2012)
Schlesinger, A., Edwards, W.K., Grinter, R.E.: Intersectional HCI: Engaging identity through gender, race, and class. In: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 54125427 (2017)
Bardzell, S., Bardzell, J.: Towards a feminist HCI methodology: social science, feminism, and HCI. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 675–684 (2011)
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support of the EU COST Association in the form of the COST Action 18230 INDCOR (Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations). https://indcor.eu.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Silva, C., Reyes, M.C., Koenitz, H. (2022). Towards a Decolonial Framework for IDN. In: Vosmeer, M., Holloway-Attaway, L. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13762. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-22297-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-22298-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)