First Workshop on the History of
Expressive Systems

November 14, 2017, at the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.

Schedule

09:10–09:40 James Ryan: "A Garden, A Forking Path: Interactive Branching Narrative in The Lady of May (1578)"

09:40–10:00 Ron Martínez: "A Q&A with Ron Martínez"

10:00–10:30 Mark Bernstein: "Historical Notes on Story in Narrative Automata"

10:30–10:45 Coffee break

10:45–11:00 William L. Benzon: "Abstract Patterns in Stories: From the intellectual legacy of David G. Hays"

11:00–12:30 Exhibition:

• Nick Montfort and Ariane Savoie: "'Exquisite Corpses' Unearthed from French Newspaper"
• Warren Sack: "HOXs: Histories of Software Systems, Textbooks, Translations and Miniatures"
• Erik T. Mueller: "An Update on DAYDREAMER, a Computer Model of Human Daydreaming"
• Liza Daly: "SAGA III: A creative reimplementation of SAGA II, created by Douglas T. Ross and Harrison R. Morse"
• Hugo van Kemenade: "Love Letters from a House of Dust"

Call for Papers

We invite researchers interested in the history of expressive systems to participate in the first Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems (HEX01), to be held at ICIDS 2017 in beautiful Funchal, Madeira, on November 14, 2017. The purpose of this workshop is to improve the historical understanding of our field, both to ensure an accurate historical record for its own sake, but also to bring the history 'into the present' by understanding lines of research and their implications for current work in this rapidly expanding area.

By 'expressive systems', we broadly mean computer systems (or predigital procedural methods) that were developed with expressive or creative aims; this is meant to be a superset of the areas called creative AI, expressive AI, videogame AI, computational creativity, interactive storytelling, computational narrative, procedural music, computer poetry, generative art, and more.

Important Dates

• September 15, 2017: Full-paper submissions due.
• September 29, 2017: Submission notifications sent.
• November 1, 2017: Camera-ready copies due.
• November 1, 2017: Abstract submissions due. (Extended.)
• November 14, 2017: Workshop held.

Submission Types

HEX01 will be accepting submissions of the following kinds:

• Abstracts: Papers up to two pages in length, with unlimited additional space for references and appendices (e.g., supporting visual materials). Accepted abstracts will be invited for oral presentation at the workshop.
• Papers: Papers of any length. Accepted papers will be invited for oral presentation at the workshop. Additionally, accepted papers will be invited for publication in the workshop proceedings, which will be made freely available online.

Scope

For this first iteration of the workshop held at ICIDS, we prefer a focus on systems within the usual scope of ICIDS, i.e. historical computational narrative systems, videogame narrative, story generation, expressive natural language generation, text bots, e-literature, story understanding, computational narratology, etc. Additionally, histories of the field itself (or specific eras, approaches, etc.) would be a great fit for HEX.

Here are some examples of potential contributions:

• Portraits of forgotten or relatively unknown expressive systems.
• Histories of specific research labs, such as the Yale AI Project led by Roger Schank in the 1970s.
• Overviews of the careers of unheralded researchers or practitioners, especially those from groups not well represented in the standard histories of the field.
• Reimplementations of early expressive systems, such as Montfort's reimplementation of Strachey's 1952 love-letter generator.
• Rational reconstructions and rethinkings of historical expressive systems, such as Skald or Wide Ruled.
• Reappraisals of conventionally disregarded systems, such as Wardrip-Fruin's extensive overview of Tale-Spin's underlying processes.
• Reframings of known historical systems as expressive systems, or specifically as narrative systems — for example, mainframe war simulations of the 1950s.
• Discussion of obscure computer games as early examples of interactive storytelling, such as Don Daglow's 1973 Star Trek game that extensively featured character dialogue.
• Bringing history into the present: borrowing old techniques for new settings and architectures.
• Bringing the present into history: applying new techniques to old settings and architectures.
• Many more. Not sure if your project is a good fit? Reach out and ask us!

How to Submit

Submissions may be sent via email to contact@expressive-systems.org. Submissions should be in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) format (the same format used by ICIDS), and should be submitted as PDFs. Additional materials may be submitted as subsequent attachments on the email including the submission. All submissions will undergo peer review, but it is not necessary to anonymize your paper. If you have any questions about the submission process, or about the workshop more broadly, please feel free to email us!

Program Committee

Organizers:

• Mark Nelson, Falmouth University
• James Ryan, University of California, Santa Cruz

Committee:

• Espen Aarseth, IT University of Copenhagen
• Gabriele Ferri, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
• Hartmut Koenitz, HKU University of the Arts Utrecht
• Jonathan Lessard, Concordia University
• Judy Malloy, independent
• Michael Mateas, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Nick Montfort, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Rebecca Rouse, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Warren Sack, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Gillian Smith, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Alexander Zook, Riot Games

Part of the History of Expressive Systems Workshop Series.