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Dreams and Interactive Storytelling

While thinking of what I was going to write for this week’s blog post I was considering what would be a “pure” form of interactive storytelling, a method or device that can create stories that are constantly interactive. Looking at this I realized that dreams can be viewed as an interactive storytelling device. Our brains are very powerful; they are able to create seemingly endless amounts of stories while you sleep. During these dreams sometimes the person has the ability to seemingly control what is going on around them, make certain things happen or make certain decisions happen and the brain is always able to fill in the rest of the story. These stories are also truly interactive, you are able to feel, taste, see and hear everything that is occurring in these stories as well as constantly affecting the outcome of what is going on. Virtual reality tries to mimic these effects however, they have not been able to capture the power of the human imagination and brain.
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arturo said…
Excellent insight (pun intended). I suggest reading H.P Lovecraft's "The Oneiric Adventures of Randolph Carter" which appears either as a short story or as part of a bigger body of work by Lovecraft, who himself was a master of the "Dreamland", if a rather terrifying one.

The Statement of Randolph Carter (published in 1920), the short novels The Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath (begun in 1920, posthumously published), The Silver Key (written in 1926), Through the Gates of the Silver Key (written in collaboration with his friend E. Hoffmann Price), composing what may be called the cycle of Randolph Carter, and several short stories, mainly The Doom that came to Sarnath (1919), Celephais (published in 1920), Cats of Ulthar (1920), The Other Gods (1921), The Strange High House in the Mist (1926), may be gathered into a third set which takes place in a slightly different style and atmosphere than the other texts, and which has been called the Dreamlands : though there are references to the creatures and gods of the Cthulhu Mythos, the stories deal about the oneiric adventures of the dreamer Randolph Carter, or refer to the dreamlands he explores, not presenting him. (Source Wikipedia)

You might also like to see the following work by our invited guest Virgil Wong:
http://www.virgilwong.com/films/murmur/
Inspired by Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", this film is a sensory-rich dreamscape where fragments of memory and medicine collide.
July 9, 2009 at 5:33 PM
Minh-Tam Le said…
I am intrigued by the power of dreams. Once I woke up with my eyes wet like I had been crying. I don't remember the dream though. It is also strange how people have a dream and the event happens. Decades ago, my grandmother dreamed that my uncle's truck had caught on fire. The next day, she got a call from him. He needed help, because his car's engine was on fire.
July 9, 2009 at 10:15 PM
janelee said…
I tihnk this is a very good exapmple of interactive storytelling. I have had many dreams when i felt like iw as flaling off a cliff and i always awaken bevause i jump.
July 13, 2009 at 9:34 AM
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