J. Nathan Matias Creative Portfolio, December 2010
Academic
Philadelphia Fullerine (documentary)
Philadelphia Fullerine (research)
Comparing Spatial Hypertext Collections
Tragedy in Electronic Literature
Ethical Explanations
Operational Media Online
Syntagmatic Browser
Tinderbox Web Viewer
Truth, Trust, and the Textual Camera
Web Art Science Camp London 2010
E-LitCamp Boston 2009
Accordion for the World
The Hacktatus: Wittgenstein Design Project
Academic Integrity Marketing
Literary Choice in Interactive Fiction
Non-Portfolio Academic Work
Business
Emberlight: Visual Notes Online
Scaling for kgb's Super Bowl Television Ad
kgb Multiroom Web Chat Interface
Dr. Johnson: A Rapid Prototyping Framework
Dressipi Sibyl
TouchType
Harbour Coffee Online Sales Interface
Elizabethtown College Admissions
Etown.edu Information Architecture
Texperts and the Knowledge Generation Bureau
Performance Testing & Instrumenting Web Applications
kgb Web Application Interface Integration
Workstation Status Dashboard
Back of the Envelope
Design & Art
Swift-Speare: Statistical Poetry
Stretchtext Authoring System
Recital: Notes from an Itinerant Mind
Exhibit: Abolitionism in Britain
Sculpture: Read for the Sky
Visual Summaries Project
Design: Competetive Debate
Radio Show: Echoes of America
Design: Edward Tufte at Intelligence2
The Normative Decisionmaking Model
Card Storytelling Software
Projects with Tinderbox
Other
Libyan Higher Education Documentary
World University Documentary Prototype
The University Lives Collection
The Ministry of Stories
Timelines for Citizen Case Management
Cambridge Union Society E-Voting Policies
Literary Choice in Interactive Fiction
April 2008
Cambridge English dissertation
Moral Choice in Interactive Fiction, slide from talk by J. Nathan Matias

A dissertation proposing literary criticism of choice in Interactive Fiction. This project has also resulted in:

  • A talk on "Moral Choice in Interactive Fiction" at Web Art Science Camp 2011
  • A new project to develop a web-based microwork narrative psychology research framework. Literary scholars and psychologists could use this framework to gather metrics on their readers' choices
  • A formal technique for citing and accessing cited "interactions" in interactive fiction

In the big picture, my dissertation established an approach to literary criticism of interactive fiction which is compatible with criticism of plays and other non-interactive forms. The dissertation

  • provided an overview of choice in interactive fiction
  • explained the value to criticism of literary choice
  • outlined the value to psychology and philosophy of an experimentally-valid approach to literary choice
  • proposed a definition for "Literary Choice" in iteractive fiction
  • provided sample criticism to demonstrate the explanatory power of literary choice
A slide from "Moral Choice in Interactive Fiction" by J. Nathan Matias

Since the time of my dissertation, three major developments have had a significant impact in its area.