TEACHING
Upcoming Classes:
TBA, 3 weeks, Spring 2024Recent Classes:
Narrative Constellations: Exploring Choice, Time, and Location-based Storytelling
With assistant teacher Lee Beckwith
March 15 - May 17, 2023 (10 classes)
online at the School for Poetic Computation
A class for artists and writers wanting to explore storytelling and choice across different mediums, from objects to spaces to sunsets.
From Choose Your Own Adventure books to video games to immersive theater, we’ll be exploring stories that change and adapt according to the player’s choices. We’ll be creating our own interactive narratives through a series of small projects, with a final project to play and share.
Lecture topics will include a survey of various types of physical and digital interactive storytelling, including narrative installations, immersive theater, mail-based art, immersive audio and phone plays, and location-based game design. We’ll also have an intro to Twine, an open-source tool for creating web-based interactive nonlinear stories. We’ll also cover safety and taking care of your audience, how to prime your audience before a work begins, choice and story structures, how to construct endings, and various ways of documenting interactive choice-based work.
Class Listing: https://sfpc.study/sessions/spring-23/narrative-constellations
Class Recap with Student Work: https://sfpc.study/blog/narrative-constellations
Student Testimonials:
“April's class was more than just informative, it was inspirational and challenging. Her teaching style fosters a beautiful balance of clarity and experimentation for her students. I would leave each session with a sense of wonder and a drive to expand my artistic toolkit. The session topics and assignment prompts helped me recalibrate my comfort zone, reframe my practice and have a whole lot of weird, creative fun. I think about that class, no exaggeration, every dang day.” - Andy Crocker, SFPC 2023
“As an artist interested in developing interactive and participative performances but without a strong writing practice, Narrative Constellations gave me the gentle (and yet necessary) little push that finally helped me start *somewhere*. The resources and content shared among the cohort still help me shape my projects today, conceptually but also poetically and critically.
During the 10-week program at sfpc, my creative writing practice grew slowly, consciously but also confidently: April is a wonderful and thoughtful teacher, capable of nurturing a space where everyone feels safe to share bodies of work and generous feedback. Through her weekly prompts, reading assignments and office hours, she especially helped me explore what writing can be, while also challenging my self-imposed barriers.” - Esther Bouquet, SFPC 2023
Previous Classes:
- Interactive Storytelling class, Portland Community College, Winter & Spring 2021
- Products, Environments, Materials class, Pratt Institute, Spring 2019
- Installation/Showcase class, School for Poetic Computation, Fall 2018 & Spring 2019
Previous workshops have included Intro to Sound Design, Developing an Artist Portfolio, Documenting Your Work, Intro to Making Physical Objects