Samantha Gorman is an American game developer known for her combination of narrative, theatricality and gaming in VR environments, and for introducing gestural interactions in touchscreen narratives. She has won multiple awards for her work, both in the field of games and in
electronic literature
Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature encompassing works created exclusively on and for digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones. A work of electronic literature can be defined as "a constr ...
and
new media
New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...
writing. Gorman co-founded the computer art and games studio Tender Claws in 2014
and has been an assistant professor at
Northeastern University
Northeastern University (NU) is a private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in Charlotte, North Ca ...
since 2020.
Education and career
Gorman completed her undergraduate work at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
working in
literary arts
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
and
digital performance
Digital Performance refers to the use of computers as an interface between a creator, and consumer of images, and sounds in a wide range of artistic applications. It is performance that incorporates and integrates computer technologies and techni ...
.
She then earned a master's degree in fine art from Brown University in 2010. She has a PhD. in media arts and practice from the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
.
Gorman first encountered VR narratives at Brown's writing program,
a program where VR narratives and poems were developed from the early 2000s, and she created ''Canticle'' there, combining poetry with a dancer, and exploring the theatricality of VR. She continued to work on VR while at USC.
Gestural interaction in digital narratives
The gestural modes of narrative interaction Gorman launched in the
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, ...
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) fact ...
''Pry,'' co-authored with Danny Cannizzaro and released by the studio Tender Claws in 2014, have been analysed by scholars and reviewed in both literary and mainstream media including ''Vice'' and ''Wired''. A review in the
LA Review of Books
The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012 ...
opened by stating that "Everyone interested in the contemporary state or future of literature as a hybrid tactile mediated experience should experience ''Pry",'' although the reviewer also notes that the novelty of the interaction design eclipsed the narrative itself. Digital poet
John Cayley
John Howland Cayley (born 1956) is a Canadian pioneer of writing in digital media as well as a theorist of the practice, a poet, and a Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University (from 2007).
Education
After moving to the United Kingdom in ...
wrote that ''Pry'' "proclaims (..) that gestures will be an intimate and necessary aspect of the experience of reading, as reading changes for all of us". In an interview with Gorman for his book ''The Digital Imaginary,'' cinema studies scholar and director Roderick Coover describes Gorman as "making a case for new media offering a more complex form of authoring". In an interview after winning the 2014
New Media Writing Prize, Gorman argues against overemphasising technological newness, saying that despite ''Pry'' using "new tool sets, but it is still a very human story".
''Pry'' won the
Electronic Literature Organization
The Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) is a nonprofit organization "established in 1999 to promote and facilitate the writing, publishing, and reading of electronic literature". It hosts annual conferences, awards annual prizes for works of a ...
's award for best creative work, as well as the
New Media Writing Prize, and was listed as one of Apple's 25 best apps of 2015. Pry has been profoundly influential in the fields of
Electronic literature
Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature encompassing works created exclusively on and for digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones. A work of electronic literature can be defined as "a constr ...
and digital narrative. Writing for ''The Cambridge Companion to Twenty-First Century American Fiction,'' Scott Rettberg explains that the "reader's interaction with Pry is primarily about reaching into the protagonist's mind to access his thoughts and emotions. Physical gestures serve as metaphors as well as ways to traverse the text". This pioneered the use of gestural interactions as story-bearing elements in a work of digital narrative. As Janeen Naji writes, "the haptic gestures of tap, swipe and pinch are also imbued with meaning". The work has been taught at at least five universities.
Work in VR
The game ''Virtual Virtual Reality'' won the
Google Play
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sy ...
award for best VR experience in 2017. The online production of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's play
The Tempest, an interactive theatre experience in the VR world
The Under Presents, received the 2020 best narrative experience award from the Raindance Film Festival. The Tempest was a virtual reality theater event was developed during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, when in person theater was not possible. The production was favourably reviewed by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
''
Theater Journal,''
CNET
''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
, and ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
''.
In 2023 Gorman and Danny Cannizzaro and their company
Tender Claws are releasing a VR game for
Stranger Things
''Stranger Things'' is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as showrunners and are executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Produced by Monkey Massacre Pr ...
in collaboration with
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
.
Invited speaker
Gorman has been a keynote speaker or invited speaker at scholarly and industry events including Games for Change in 2021, the 2015 Electronic Literature Conference and the 2019 Immersive Design Summit.
Notable works
* Pry
* Virtual Virtual Reality
*
The Under Presents
References
External links
Tender Claws*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorman, Samantha
Living people
American video game designers
Women video game developers
Video game developers
Video game producers
Brown University alumni
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Northeastern University faculty
American digital artists
Women digital artists
American women writers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Electronic literature writers