Supervisors and affiliated institutions：
Primary Supervisor: Dr Marco Pellitteri (XJTLU)
Co-Supervisors: Dr David Herold (XJTLU); Dr Paolo Ruffino (Department of Communication and Media, University of Liverpool)
Email address:
Hanxue.Zhang21@student.xjtlu.edu.cn
Research topic:
The critic Vincent Canby 1987 described ‘the fourth wall’ proposed by the 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot as an invisible barrier that permanently separates the audience from the stage (Canby, 1987). Later, in games, films, plays or television, creators would devise ways for actors to directly address or greet the audience, an act that could be called ‘breaking the fourth wall’ (Bell, 2008; Abelman, 2013). We suggest an alternative way of telling stories. Adding specific qualities to a typically framed film or TV series will allow the audience to become more immersed in the story. As the audience becomes more self-aware, they demand more material in film and television.
In interactive movies and series, the audience will be positioned in a way that leads to different interactive experiences, including plotting directions and endings depending on the choices they make while watching. This research mainly takes the audience as the core, producing an in-depth understanding and exploration of their feelings and experiences and discussing the interplay of the interactivity mechanism in interactive films/series and the audience perception. Interactive films/series have different ways of dealing with the notion of storytelling in space-time, trajectory, concentric space and divergent space. I will explore the dialectic between audience agency and the interactive narrative mechanisms in this particular interactive narrative context. Meanwhile, these films or series’ philosophical and internal logical mechanisms, including the structural systems of interactive films/series, such as narrative branching, choice setting, gameplay, etc., will be examined in depth to understand how they integrate with the audience’s perceptions in various ways.
References:
Abelman, R. (2013). Reaching a critical mass: A critical analysis of television entertainment. Routledge.
Bell, E. (2008). Theories of performance. Sage.
Canby, V. (1987). Film view; sex can spoil the scene. New York Times.
Research areas:
Interactivity; interactive mechanism; agency; audience engagement; participatory media archaeology
Academic achievements:
Paper and abstracts were accepted and given at the following conferences:
- 2021: “To play or not to play: the spiritual ecology of games”, Interdisciplinary Seminar-workshop about games hosted by Tongji University and East China Normal University (Shanghai)
- 2021: Chinese DiGRA Conference (Hong Kong)
- 2022: Chinese DiGRA Conference (Suzhou)
- 2023: International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative (via Zoom)
Teaching experience:
- 2023-24: Teaching assistant for MA COM415 “Visual and Communication” (Semester 1)
- 2022-23: Teaching assistant for MA COM415 “Visual and Communication” (Semester 1)
- 2022-23: Teaching assistant for MA COM406 “Research Methods in Communication” (Semester2)