See, Hear, Feel, Understand. These are the first four things I ask students to articulate when they look at a film. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel? What do you understand? This method of developing filmmaking skills through screen studies is based in a cognitive/phenomenological approach. It asks about perception, affect, and cognition - in other words: how does a film impact on your body, your emotions and your thinking? When students get used to articulating their insights through this approach (my acronym for it is SHFUA: see-hear-feel-understand-articulate) they are able to articulate something about how a given film works; how films in general might work as active processes that invite audiences to make meaning; and, importantly, how their own films might work.
But 'see hear, feel and understand' just don't quite describe all of the activities of mind and body that interactivity offers. One could add 'participate' or even the obvious, 'interact' but for purposes of analysis and creating work, these become specific to the mechanics of the property one is talking about. They are about how you participate and interact, not why. So, I'd like to kick it up a level and introduce: CONATION.
Here is what wikipedia says the word 'conation' means:
"Conation is a term that stems from the Latin conatus, meaning any natural tendency, impulse, striving, or directed effort.[1] It is one of three parts of the mind, along with the affective and cognitive. In short, the cognitive part of the brain measures intelligence, the affective deals with emotions and the conative drives how one acts on those thoughts and feelings"
Although "The term conation is no longer widely known—it is in "The 1,000 Most Obscure Words in the English Language," it is highly relevant to interactive screen based entertainment and I think it should be brought back into common usage for studying and creating interactive properties.
Mike Jones and I have been teaching interactivity in a series of workshops for the [imi] project and AFTRS students. The workshop starts with asking: "what does an interactive screen story or experience need in order to get people involved?"
The answer proposed in the workshop is:
- motivation
- action
- reward
What motivates an audience to participate? What action do they do or role do they have to play? What is their reward?
What I realised when I learned the word 'conation' is that these three things - motivation, action, and reward - speak to the CONATIVE aspects of mind.
Put together with cognition and affection (understanding and feeling) conation adds volition, will to act, or, colloquially: an itch to scratch.
But 'see hear, feel and understand' just don't quite describe all of the activities of mind and body that interactivity offers. One could add 'participate' or even the obvious, 'interact' but for purposes of analysis and creating work, these become specific to the mechanics of the property one is talking about. They are about how you participate and interact, not why. So, I'd like to kick it up a level and introduce: CONATION.
Here is what wikipedia says the word 'conation' means:
"Conation is a term that stems from the Latin conatus, meaning any natural tendency, impulse, striving, or directed effort.[1] It is one of three parts of the mind, along with the affective and cognitive. In short, the cognitive part of the brain measures intelligence, the affective deals with emotions and the conative drives how one acts on those thoughts and feelings"
Although "The term conation is no longer widely known—it is in "The 1,000 Most Obscure Words in the English Language," it is highly relevant to interactive screen based entertainment and I think it should be brought back into common usage for studying and creating interactive properties.
Mike Jones and I have been teaching interactivity in a series of workshops for the [imi] project and AFTRS students. The workshop starts with asking: "what does an interactive screen story or experience need in order to get people involved?"
The answer proposed in the workshop is:
- motivation
- action
- reward
What motivates an audience to participate? What action do they do or role do they have to play? What is their reward?
What I realised when I learned the word 'conation' is that these three things - motivation, action, and reward - speak to the CONATIVE aspects of mind.
Put together with cognition and affection (understanding and feeling) conation adds volition, will to act, or, colloquially: an itch to scratch.
This notion of an 'itch to scratch' is immediately recognsiable in puzzle games like Tetris. When I see an unfinished line up of squares in Tetris I just want to line the squares up. I have no emotional feeling about them, I don't get any any insight from lining them up, I simply scratch the itch - satisfy my conative urging.
The conative becomes more complex in story driven interactive entertainments like Dear Esther where the aesthetics make you feel haunted, and the story makes you want to uncover the mystery. In this case the affective and the cognitive drive the conative. Your 'itch to scratch' - your will to act - is integrated with dramatic questions and sophisticated feelings states.
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