Inanimate Alice

Inanimate Alice is an interactive multimodal fiction, a born-digital novel ^[1][2] relating the experiences of Alice and her imaginary digital friend, Brad. The series is written and directed by Kate Pullinger and digital artist, Chris Joseph from an original idea by series producer Ian Harper. Episode 1 was released in late 2005.^[3] There have been four consecutive episodes created to date with a fifth in production, from a planned story arc embracing a total of 10 episodes spanning Alice's life from age 8 through to her mid-twenties. The viewer experiences a combination of text, sound and imagery and interacts with the story at key points.^[4]

Inanimate Alice has been used as an exemplar of a digital literacy resource^[5] and incorporated into literacy and digital curricula, particularly in the United States and Australia.^[6][7] It has also been widely recognised as an early example of transmedia^[8] storytelling.

In 2012, Inanimate Alice was named a Best Website for Teaching & Learning by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL).^[9]

Synopsis

Episode 1 - China

Alice is eight years old and living in a base camp in far north China. Her dad, John, scouts for oil. He is two days late in coming home from his latest trip. Alice and her mom, Ming, haven’t heard from him. They are worried. While she and her mom go out searching for her dad, Alice turns to her ba-xi player and her virtual friend Brad for comfort. They drive for a long time. Suddenly, Alice hears Brad’s voice in her head to ‘go that way.’ And they find her dad.

Episode 1 runs for approximately five minutes and includes simple interactions with Alice.

Episode 2 - Italy

Alice is ten years old and on a skiing vacation in the Italian Alps. It is evening, and Alice is alone at the chalet. The ski lifts have shut down for the day and there is heavy snow falling. Her parents haven’t arrived back yet. Alice is worried. She turns to her ba-xi player for comfort. First, Alice shows you a puzzle she has created on her player (which you play). Then, Alice makes a call on her player to Ayisha, her tutor in Saudi Arabia. You learn more about Alice’s life in Saudi Arabia. During Alice’s conversation with Ayisha, she remembers that she was supposed to go the ski school at the end of the day. It’s getting late so Alice gets dressed (with your help). Alice heads out in the thick, blinding snow. She has no idea where she is going, and she’s scared. Suddenly, she falls. She hears Brad’s voice telling her to keep calm. As she gets up, she hears her parents talking. They go back to the chalet and eat pizza and talk. Alice is relieved and happy.

Episode 2 runs for approximately 10 minutes and includes slightly more complex interactions and games than Episode 1.

Episode 3 - Russia

Alice is thirteen years old and has been living in an apartment in Moscow, Russia for a couple of years. Her dad is away a lot, working in Siberia. Her mom and dad have begun to argue regularly. Alice was supposed to attend an international school in Russia, but her dad won’t allow it because of the risk of kidnapping.

Alice’s dad has been dealing with some shady characters in the oil business. The episode begins with Alice hiding out in her bedroom closet. There are men in the apartment arguing loudly with her dad. She hears her mom shouting. Alice’s dad is being blamed for a big oil leak, even though it’s not his fault.

As Alice hides out in the closet, her virtual friend Brad keeps her company. She plays a game that she created called Matryoshka. With Alice still hiding in her closet, her mom tells her to get her coat because they are leaving. Alice and her parents hurriedly pack and take off into the night to leave Moscow. Alice is scared, but finds reassurance with Brad. As they approach the airfield, they are unexpectedly stopped at a check-point. Alice’s dad says that the guard will want a bribe. What the guard wants is Alice’s player. Alice refuses to give the player to him. Instead, she shows him the Matryoshka game, and he waves them on.

In this episode, there is an option to ‘read only’ or to ‘read and play the game.’ In play mode, the Matryoshka game drives the outcome of the story through audience participation. Run-time is approximately 15 minutes.

Episode 4 - Hometown

Alice is fourteen years old and living in a small town in the middle of England. Her friends have dared her to climb to the top of an abandoned building. They claim that the view from the top is the best view in town. Alice accepts the dare. As she climbs to the top, the stairs give way. She narrowly misses falling, but is now stuck at the top of the building, and must find her way out. Alice is frightened.

At this point, Alice begins relating her journey to this new home from Moscow. Her dad is no longer in the oil business. He is teaching, and the family has a lot of debt. Her mum has had to take on a job too. They rent a small narrow house in town. Alice’s parents continue to argue regularly. Alice is the only one who likes living here. She is able to attend a regular school for the first time. And she has made friends her own age.

Back to the abandoned building. Alice needs help. By playing the game (a labyrinth), the audience can help Alice find her way out of the abandoned building. Otherwise, there is a read only option. Run-time is approximately 30 minutes.

Episode 5 - Hometown 2

Alice is 16 years old and has been living in England for almost three years ("a lifetime record"). She spends time hanging out with friends, roaming the city and going to night clubs. Alice's dad is trying to get back in the oil and gas business without luck. (He has outstanding debt with some unsavory types.) Her mum is doing well though. Alice is not doing well in school, except for Art & Tech class.

One day on the way home from school, Alice is followed by two men in dark glasses. Get your skateboard ready... Episode 5 is the most complex yet.

Inanimate Alice in the Classroom

Although Inanimate Alice did not start out as an educational tool, it became one as teachers discovered its intrinsic value as a platform for promoting multiple literacies. Classrooms around the world are now using Inanimate Alice, which offers an across-the-curriculum approach to teaching and learning.

Multimodal Literacy

Inanimate Alice reflects the multimodal literacy that children develop naturally during play. In play, children instinctively combine speech, text, sound, games, music, and art.^[10] Inanimate Alice does the same by combining text, images, music, movie elements and games.

Digital Literacy

To promote digital literacy, lesson plans have been developed that are aligned to the Common Core State English Language Arts Standards for Reading: Literature. These can be requested via the project’s web site.^[11]

Problem Solving Literacy

Problem solving is also a natural part of child’s play. Whether solving a puzzle, building a bridge with blocks, or engaging in pretend play, a child is learning to solve problems through trial and error, feedback and strategy changes.^[12] The embedded games that Alice has created, and that later drive the story, provide opportunities for practicing problem solving skills. The increasing complexity of the games helps develop game literacy—literacy of problem solving.^[13]

Cultural Literacy

Inanimate Alice can be used as an educational tool for cultural literacy. Each episode takes place in a different country, and reflects a different culture. Teachers can use Inanimate Alice as a springboard to create guided discovery lessons on the cultures and countries represented. The interactive nature of Inanimate Alice as transmedia storytelling facilitates cultural literacy through role play, which enhances students’ abilities to understand multiple perspectives.^[14]

Social-Emotional Literacy

The themes that run throughout Inanimate Alice inspire lessons that enhance social-emotional literacy. Alice is an only child and a lonely child as she travels the world with her parents from episode to episode. She is often frightened as she faces threatening situations, from her father being lost in episode 1, to being left home alone in episode 2, to the dangers in episode 3. In episode 4, Alice must also deal with peer pressure. Alice’s fears help students create stronger emotional connections with the character, and open up opportunities for conversations about feelings.^[15]

STEM Literacy

Inanimate Alice provides an opportunity to help students develop STEM literacy,^[16] such as the visual spatial skills that are necessary for math learning.^[17] In episode 4, Alice gets lost in an abandoned building, which is essentially a 3-D labyrinth that you must navigate through in order to end the story. To further expand upon that skill as a class, students can build a 3-D maze that replicates the abandoned building.

References

Curriculum Resources

• Inanimate Alice - A Perspective: "This is the day-to-day journey of Shaun Wood and Team 17 as we explored the digital stories of Inanimate Alice. We have documented our learning along with the documents we used and photographs of our work. We hope that you can use our journey as a guide for your own."
• Scootle includes digital resources and activities for Inanimate Alice that have been used in the Australian curriculum. Requires registration.
• MERLOT links you to teaching materials available through the Inanimate Alice web site.
• The Inanimate Alice Pedagogy Project
• Inanimate Alice on Edmodo.
• iTeach with Inanimate Alice Facebook group (public)

Teaching Materials for Language Learning

• Inanimate Alice Journals: Japan
• Inanimate Alice Teacher Guide: Indonesian

Further reading

• Boyd, B. (2013). Alice through the looking glass: An interview with Ian Harper
• Browne, R. (2014).Welcome to the future of reading
• Damon, C. (2008). An exploration into what makes Inanimate Alice an attractive text for educators and learners: Is it a suitable text for the classroom in the 21st century? (Doctoral dissertation, University of Sheffield, Department of Educational Studies).
• Dixon, M. (2012). How can we use plot, character and language to extend our understanding of Inanimate Alice? Metaphor, 1, 25-29.
• Fleming, L. (2013). Expanding learning opportunities with transmedia practices: Inanimate Alice as an exemplar. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 5(2), 370-377.
• Harper, I. (2010, April 30). Alice born digital: How transmedia storytelling becomes a billion dollar business. Publishing Perspectives.
• Horne, D. (2011). This strange torpedo: Impacts of digital technology on creative writing. Wascana Review, 43(1), 157-171.
• Hovious, A. (2014). Inanimate Alice: "Born Digital." Teacher Librarian, 42(2), 42-46.
• Hovious, Amanda S. (2013, October 11). Exploring Inanimate Alice: A playful approach to literacy and learning. Edtech Digest.
• Husarova, Z. (2011). Following paths of electronic literature. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 4(1), 25-36. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/jwcp.4.1.25_1
• Koehler, A. (2013). Digitizing craft: Creative writing studies and new media: A proposal. College English, 75(4), 379-397.
• Moorefield-Lang, H., & Gavigan, K. (2012). These aren't your father's funny papers: The new world of digital graphic novels. Knowledge Quest, 40(3), 30-35.
• Pence, H. E. (2011).Teaching with transmedia. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 40(2), 131-140. doi: 10.2190/ET.40.2.d
• Petrelli, D., & Wright, H. (2009). On the writing, reading and publishing of digital stories. Library Review, 58(7), 509-526.
• Pullinger, K. (2008). Digital fiction: From the page to the screen. In Transdisciplinary Digital Art. Sound, Vision and the New Screen (pp. 120–126). Springer Berlin: Heidelberg. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-79486-8_12
• Roberts, A. M. (2010). Why digital literature has always been “beyond the screen”. In J. Schafer & P. Gendolla (Eds.), Beyond the Screen: Transformations of Literary Structures, Interfaces and Genres, (pp. 153–177). Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
• Skains, R. L. (2010). The shifting author—reader dynamic online novel communities as a bridge from print to digital literature. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 16(1), 95-111.
• Stewart, G. (2010). The paratexts of Inanimate Alice: Thresholds, genre expectations and status. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 16(1), 57-74. doi: 10.1177/1354856509347709
• Stewart, G. (2009). Paratexts: What lessons can we learn from Inanimate Alice and Corporate ARGs? In A conference paper given at Under the Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer.
• Swiss, T., & Burgess, H. (2012). Collaborative new media poetry: Mixed and remixed. In A. Delwiche & J. Jacobs Henderson (Eds.), The Participatory Cultures Handbook, (pp. 73–81). New York: Routledge.
• Thomas, S., Joseph, C., Laccetti, J., Mason, B., Mills, S., Perril, S., & Pullinger, K. (2007). Transliteracy: Crossing divides. First Monday, 12(12).
• Voigts-Virchow, E. (2013). Anti-essentialist versions of Aggregate Alice: A grin without a cat. In K. Krebs (Ed.),Translation and Adaptation in Theatre and Film (pp. 63–79). New York: Routledge.
• Warren, J. (2010), The Progression of Digital Publishing, International Journal of the Book, Volume. 7, Number. 4, pp. 37–53, 2010
• Wright, H., & Petrelli, D. (2007, September). A study of publisher, writer, and reader: different perspectives on digital fiction. In Proceedings of the eighteenth conference on Hypertext and hypermedia (pp. 157–158). ACM.

External links

• Inanimate Alice
• Alice Down Under
• Bradfield Productions
• Inanimate Alice at The Visual Novel Database