Academic

I have just submitted my PhD on transmedia practice, which I pursued at the School of Letters, Art and Media, University of Sydney, Australia. I do not identify with a specific discipline, but instead utilise narrative, game, art and media studies to illuminate the transhistorical phenomenon that is occuring globally, in entertainment industries and independent arts.

I have a Bachelor of Arts (in Visual and Performing Arts), Monash University and Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Writing, School of Creative Arts, University of Melbourne.

More info coming, but here is a quick summary of key aspects of my postgraduate academic life:

Available Research?

I’ve written and presented about this area in a number of publications and presentations over the last few years, but here are some samples of some my academic writings:

Dena, C. (2009) ‘Transmedia Practice: Theorising the Practice of Expressing a Fictional World Across Distinct Media and Environments‘, PhD, School of Letters, Art and Media, University of Sydney.

Refereed

• Dena, C. (forthcoming) ‘Participation and Transmedia: How interactivity emerges in non-interactive media’, Routledge Handbook of Participatory Cultures, Ed. Aaron Delwiche and Jennifer Hendersen.
• Dena, C. (2010) ‘The Contributions of Multimodality and Polymorphic Fictions: Beyond Narrative and Games Studies’, New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality, Ed. Ruth Page, Routledge.
• Dena, C. (2008) ‘Emerging Participatory Culture Practices: Player-Created Tiers in Alternate Reality Games’, Henry Jenkins and Mark Deuze (Eds) special issue on ‘Convergence Culture’ in Convergence Journal: International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Vol 14, No 1, pp: 41-57. [PDF] [Also see specially created Online Augmentation Website]
• Dena, C. (2007) ‘Capturing Polymorphic Creations: Towards Ontological Heterogeneity and Transmodiology’, published in Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, Melbourne, Dec. [Google Books]

Non-Refereed

• Dena, C. (2008) ‘[META] The Designer-Academic Problem‘, Electronic Book Review, [invited riposte to Jane McGonigal’s essay: ‘The Puppet Master Problem: Design for Real-World, Mission-Based Gaming‘ in Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin’s edited collection: Second-Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media]
• Dena, C. (2008) ‘Review of Anne Friedberg’s The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft‘, Cyberculture Studies, March
• Dena, C. (2007) ‘Patterns in Cross-Media Interaction Design: It’s Much More Than a URL‘, Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Crossmedia Interaction Design, 22-25 March, Hemavan, Sweden, pp: 4-10. [Note: this paper is just a primer for my keynote speech] [PDF]
• Dena, C. (2006) ‘ARGs & Academia’,  International Game Developers Association Alternate Reality Games White Paper, A. Martin and T. Chatfield (Eds), IGDA Alternate Reality Games SIG: 58-82.(literature review in the IGDA ARG SIG whitepaper) – [PDF]
• The White Cube of the Virtual World Art Space’ (essays on art in Second Life & remediation) – [part one PDF] – [part two PDF]
• ‘Border Art’ (essay/review on Second Life art and the theories of Gregory Ulmer) – [PDF]
• Keyword Poetics (comments on the illocutionary force of keywords in interactive texts)

Educator

I am an accredited workplace trainer who has taught tertiary level education at Universities (and TAFEs) across Australia and overseas. Specifically, I have given guest lectures, co-ordinated an entire subject and tutored PhD, Masters, honours and 3rd year students. Subjects include game design, game theory, interactive storytelling and media theory. My preferred style is to give interactive lectures and then apply concepts in workshops. More info here.

• Artforms: Digital Games, Pervasive Games, Alternate Reality Games, Cross-Media, Hypertext Fiction, Blog Fiction, Bot Fiction, Mobile Fiction, Film, TV…
• Disciplines: Narrative Theory, Media Theory, Game Theory, Art Theory…
• Universities: De Montfort University (UK), Noordelijke Hogeschool (The Netherlands), University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, RMIT, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Western Australia, Macquarie University…

Memberships

• Member of European Narratology Network
• Member of Society for the Study of Narrative Literature
• Member of Modern Language Association
• Member of Rhizome
• Member of International Game Developers Association
• Member of IGDA ARG SIG
• Member of Game Developers Association of Australia
• Member of Association of Internet Researchers

Full Info of Degrees

I completed my Bachelor of Arts (in Visual and Performing Arts) at Monash University in 1994. After seven years of working in the entertainment industry as a producer, writer and performer, I returned to university and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Writing at the School of Creative Arts, University of Melbourne (2002). In 2003 I started a Masters (by Research) in New Media and Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne. I converted the Masters to a Doctor of Philosophy in 2005 and in 2006 transferred to the School of Letters, Art and Media, University of Sydney. I’m in the last few months of the PhD, which is supervised by Professor Gerard Goggin, Associate Professor Anne Dunn and Dr Chris Chesher. Previous to my interstate move and due the reorganisation of departments, I have actually had many other supervisors during my candidacy, including Dr Peter Morse (Melb Uni profile, current website), Dr Peter Hill, and Ms Sari Smith.