FASS Staff Profile

DR ALEX MITCHELL
SENIOR LECTURER
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND NEW MEDIA

Appointment:
SENIOR LECTURER
Office:
AS6/03-22
Email:
alexm@nus.edu.sg
Tel:
(65) 6516 3021
Fax:
(65) 6779 4911
Homepage:
http://www.narrativeandplay.org/~alex
Tabs

Brief Introduction

Alex teaches interactive media design in the Department of Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore. Alex's current research investigates various aspects of computer-based art and entertainment, focusing in particular on interactive stories. This work involves creating digital and non-digital interactive storytelling systems, using these systems to develop creative works, and observing how people respond to the resulting pieces. It also involves theoretical work to understand what is happening in and around this process. Current funded project: "Understanding Repeat Engagement with Dynamic Computational Systems" (AcRF Tier 1 grant). Previous funded projects "Exploring 'Literary Devices' for Poetic Interactivity" (AcRF Tier 1 grant), "Communication Strategies in Real-time Computer-Mediated Creative Collaboration" (HSS Seed Grant, with A/P Lonce Wyse and Dr. Jude Yew), and "Authoring Paradigms and Representation in Interactive Storytelling Tools" (FASS Startup Grant).

Before joining NUS, Alex was a lecturer at the School of Interactive Digital Media, Nanyang Polytechnic, where he taught and developed projects in interactive media and games. Alex has also worked as an interaction designer at IDEO, London, and at I2R, Singapore. He has a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, and recently completed his PhD at the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, where he was attached to the Partner Technologies Research Group.

His creative work has been shown at Graphite 2004 (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore); the Creative Curating Lab (Singapore Art Show 2005); the Displacements exhibition (13 Wilkie Terrace, 2013); Passports: Through the Red Dot Into Other Worlds (Lorong 24A Shophouse Series, 2013); Seni Mini (Mi Casa Su Casa, 2014); Print Lab (Grey Projects, 2014); Interstitium (Lorong 24A Shophouse Series, 2015); 50 Obsessions (LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, 2015); Petri #4: Repurposing Nostalgia (42 Petain Road, 2016);  ID: The Body's Still Warm (42 Cambridge Road, 2018); and Climates of Change (ELO/HyperText, 2020). His fiction has been published in Dark Tales, Balik Kampung 2, and in several issues of the Twenty-Four Flavours series, a collection of flash fiction published by Math Paper Press.


Teaching Areas

2022/2023 Semester 1:

  • NM3243 User Experience Design
  • NMC5322 Interactive Media Marketing Techniques

Graduate Supervision

Current students

  • Roe, C., "'I think they did it on purpose': Making Sense of Antimimetic Unreliability in Games", CNM MA (August 2020-present)
  • Zhu, Z., "Continuation Intention In Games" CNM PhD (August 2019-present, co-supervisor)

Previous students


Current Research

"Understanding Repeat Engagement with Dynamic Computational Systems" (AcRF Tier 1 grant)

Much of the motivation to reexperience creative works such as films, novels, or music assumes that although the context of the experience may have changed, the actual work being revisited is still the same. However, when returning to a work where an underlying computational system dynamically alters the surface of the work as the result of the participant’s actions, there is no guarantee that the experience, or even the work itself, will be the same as in the previous encounter. This project explores what motivates people to return to this type of work, what type of satisfaction can be gained by this repeat experience, and how the design of the formal elements of the work impact this experience.


Research Interests

  • Aesthetics of rereading/replaying
  • Poetic gameplay/interaction
  • Collaborative storytelling and storytelling games
  • Authoring tools for interactive storytelling

Publications

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS

  • Mitchell, A., Kway, L., Neo, T. and Sim, Y.T., "A Preliminary Categorization of Techniques for Creating Poetic Gameplay", in Game Studies, 20 (2), 2020. Freely available online here.
  • Neo, T., and Mitchell, A., "Expanding Comics Theory to Account for Interactivity: A Preliminary Study", in Studies in Comics, 10 (2), 2019, pp. 189–213. Published version (requires subscription).
  • Chew, E., and Mitchell, A., "Multimodality and Interactivity in 'Natively' Digital Life Stories", in Poetics Today, 40 (3), 2019.
  • Chew, E., and Mitchell, A., "Bringing Art to Life: Examining Poetic Gameplay Devices in Interactive Life Stories", Games and Culture, 2019 (online first).
  • Mitchell, A., "Monstrous Weathered: Experiences from the Telling and Retelling of a Netprov", in Electronic Book Review, Feburary 2019. Freely available online here.
  • Chew, E., and Mitchell, A., "How Is Empathy Evoked in Interactive Multimodal Life Stories?", in Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, 42 (2), September 2016, p. 125-149. Freely available online here.
  • Chew, E., and Mitchell, A., "The Impact of Interactivity on Truth Claims in Life Stories", in DIEGESIS, 4 (2), 2015.
  • Mitchell, A. "Defamiliarization and Poetic Interaction in Kentucky Route Zero", in Well Played Journal, 3 (2), ETC Press, 2014, p. 161-178.
  • Mitchell, A, "Rereading as Echo: A Close (Re)reading of Emily Short's A Family Supper", in ISSUE: Art Journal, 2013, volume 2, p. 121-129.
  • Mitchell, A. and McGee, K., "Writing in Style: Pattern Languages and Writing Short Fiction", in Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, 3, University of Nebraska Press, 2011, pp. 139-160. Published version (requires subscription).
  • Mitchell, A., "Narrative Production and Interactive Storytelling", in Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media, 13, 2008.
  • Mitchell, A., "Blogs and Collaborative Learning", in Experiments in Pedagogy, 2, 2007.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

  • Mitchell, A., "Encouraging and Rewarding Repeat Experience of Storygames", in The Digital Gaming Handbook, ed. Roberto Dillon. CRC Press, 2020. 20 pp.
  • Chew, E., and Mitchell, A., "'As Only a Game Can': Re-creating Subjective Lived Experiences through Interactivity in Non-Fictional Video Games", in Subjectivity across Media Interdisciplinary and Transmedial Perspectives, ed. Maike Sarah Reinerth and Jan-Noel Thon. Routledge, 2016. 19 pp.
  • Cheong, K., and Mitchell, A. "Helping the helpers: Understanding family storytelling for domestic helpers in Singapore", in Mobile Communication and the Family - Asian Experiences in Technology Domestication, ed. Sun Sun Lim. Springer, 2015.
  • Posner, I.R., Mitchell, A., and Baecker, R.M.,"Learning to Write Together", in Groupware and Authoring, Rada, R. (ed.), Academic Press, 1996, pp. 161-185.

THESES/DISSERTATIONS

  • Mitchell, A. Reading Again for the First Time: Rereading for Closure in Interactive Stories, Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 2012.
  • Mitchell, A. Communication and Shared Understanding in Collaborative Writing, Unpublished Master's Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, 1996.

VIDEOS

  • Baecker, R.M., Glass, G., Mitchell, A., and Posner, I.R., "SASSE: the Collaborative Editor", 8 minute refereed video tape presented at CHI '94; also published in SIGGRAPH Video Review 97, 1994.

Other Information

Group Exhibitions

  • "Monstrous Weathered", Climates of Change: A Virtual Exhibition, part of the "Fall for the Book Festival", online (19 October 2020)
  • "Monstrous Weathered", Climates of Change: A Virtual Exhibition, at ELO 2020/HyperText 2020, online (13-15 July 2020)
  • "'Don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t... call me call me baby' (reach out and touch someone)", ID: The Body's Still Warm, 42 Cambridge Road, Singapore (October 2018).
  • "Re-collection", Petri #4: Repurposing Nostalgia, 42 Petain Road, Singapore (January 2016).
  • "Surrender", 50 Obsessions, LaSalle-SIA College of the Art, Singapore (December 2015).
  • "This Place Meant", Interstitium, Lorong 24A Shophouse Series, Singapore (March 2015).
  • "This Place Meant", Print Lab at Singapore Art Book Fair, Grey Projects, Singapore (November 2014).
  • "This Place Meant", Print Lab, Grey Projects, Singapore (May-June 2014).
  • "Confinement", Seni Mini, Mi Casa Su Casa, Singapore (April 2014).
  • "Listen to the Story II", Passports: Through the Red Dot Into Other Worlds, Lorong 24A Shophouse Series, Singapore (August 2013).
  • "Listen to the Story" (with Karen Mitchell), The Displaced, Arts House, Singapore (July 2013).
  • "No Due Date" (with Karen Mitchell), Displacements, 13 Wilkie Terrace, Singapore (June 2013).
  • "Passages" (with Ng Wen Lei and Patricia Lim), Singapore Art Show 2005, Citilink TickleArt showcase, Singapore (October 2005).
  • "PixelTouch" (with Ng Wen Lei and Lee Wee Na), Graphite 2004 Digital Art Show, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (June 2004).

Published Fiction

  • "Fascination", in Twenty-Four Flavours: Chicken Rice, Math Paper Press, Singapore, 2014.
  • "This Favour Cannot Be Returned", in Twenty-Four Flavours: Duck and Salted Vegetable Soup, Math Paper Press, Singapore, 2014.
  • This Place Meant: Stories from 13 Wilkie Terrace, self-published book, Singapore, 2014.
  • "Forgotten", in Balik Kampung 2A: People and Places, Math Paper Press, Singapore, 2013.
  • "Enclosure", in Twenty-Four Flavours: Dolphin Meat, Math Paper Press, Singapore, 2013.
  • "Century Egg", in Twenty-Four Flavours: Century Egg, Math Paper Press, Singapore, 2013.
  • "Kaiten", in Twenty-Four Flavours: Sushi, Math Paper Press, Singapore, 2013.
  • "The Pillowcase", in Dark Tales, National Library Board, Singapore, 2013.

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