• Immersive Storytelling (Minor)

  • Overview

    The Immerisve Storytelling minor is offered through Parsons School of Design.

    How can we craft narratives drawing on the dynamics of interaction and visual and sonic immersion? What design strategies exist to shape character, plot, drama, time, space, data, and event within linear and non-linear interactive fictions? This minor takes a close look at the mechanics of immersive storytelling within dynamic media and equips students with tools and technologies to make their story an immersive experience.

    Students in this minor explore experiential and immersive storytelling in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality, data visualization, 360 spherical film, and interactive theater.

    Students are exposed to various thought processes, design strategies, and production pipelines such as narrative design, systems and new technologies of interaction, and digital asset creation and implementation. Many of the skills used in film, video, game, 3D modeling, and computer animation production can be adopted for this new ground. Students learn to apply their knowledge to a variety of hybrid practices at the intersection of traditional, computer-based, and commercial and noncommercial design and art practices. Students have an opportunity to design the minor according to their personal interests and orientations. The contributions of students of many different backgrounds will create a productive incubator for innovation in media viewing and experience design.

    Immersive storytelling encompasses the creation of motion for animate and inanimate objects and visual patterns. With these new technologies, we create the opportunity for participants to interact with and affect immersive worlds, characters, and stories with physical (smell/touch), visual, and sonic multi-modal experiences.

    Curriculum

    Subject AreaSample CoursesCredits
    Framing Conceptual Ideas Through Visual Media*PUFY 1005 Critical Studio
    PUFY 1030 Drawing/Imaging
    PUFY 1202 Drawing: Ideation/Imagination
    PSAM 1800 Exploration in Drawing
    PUFY 1221 Games 101
    0-3
    Introduction to Main Concepts, History, and TheoryULEC 2960 Immersive Storytelling3
    Current and Historical Professional PracticesPLVS 2016 Film Aesthetics
    PLSD 2003 History and Theory of Temporary Environments
    3
    CraftPSAM 2211 Digital Asset Creation: 3D
    PSAM 2210 Digital Asset Creation: 2D
    PSAM 2605 CG 1
    PSAM 3606 CG 2
    PSAM 2301 Animation I
    PSAM 2204 Sound Design
    PSCE 2110 Kinetic Modeling
    PNNY 2206 Digital and Physical Model Making
    3–6
    Storytelling & World BuildingPSAM 3533 Illustration in Performance
    PSAM 3263 Projected Environment
    PSAM 3742 Exploration as Narrative
    LCST 3460 Post-Cinematic Aesthetics
    PSAM 3274 Digital Dev: Extended Reality
    3–6

    *Students who have already completed one of these courses, or will do so for their major, should instead select another course in the subject area "2D/3D/4D Techniques and Processes".

    Learning Outcomes

    A student who has completed this minor should be able to

    • Immersive Experiences (Main Concepts) - Develop an understanding of narrative principles and systems, and experiment with these findings to create interactive immersive experiences on the designated technology and media platforms.
    • Current and Historical Professional Practices - Demonstrate an understanding of the history and theory of media technologies and the creation of immersive experiences in virtual spaces, theater, cinema, and emerging hybrid/augmented forms.
    • Craft - Competently use various media production pipelines to craft and design digital and analog scenes such as sets, landscapes, and architecture including audio/music/sound FX and projection techniques to create interactive digital and analog imagined and immersive realities.
    • Storytelling - Tell compelling stories through principles of engagement, interaction, navigation, narrative strategies, dynamic characters, and the invention of visual and sonic cues and devices to copy and advance cinematic continuity for 360-degree immersion.
    • World Building - Develop user experience and interaction design skills for digital immersion (surround projection and head-mounted displays) and haptic (clothing, gesture, gloves, tangible interfaces, brain interfaces) technologies as well as eye tracking and develop skills and knowledge of production pipelines for sound, dramatic performances, digital 3D asset modeling, rigging, animation, and exporting files and materials to appropriate hardware and venues.

    Eligibility

    Minors are available to all undergraduate students at The New School. For questions regarding this minor's curriculum, including requests for course substitutions, please contact Kyle Li, associate professor, at [email protected].

    How to Declare or Change a Minor

    General guidelines for declaring a minor are available here. Current students can declare or change a minor by logging in to my.newschool.edu, clicking on the Academics tab, and then clicking on the link to Major/Minor Declarations.

  • Take the Next Step

    Contact your Student Success advisor to discuss how a minor will fit with your degree requirements.

    Declare or change a minor on my.newschool.edu in the Academics tab. Note that some minors require an application.

  • Take The Next Step

Submit your application

Undergraduates

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

Undergraduate Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Graduates

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

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