Interactive Digital Narrative as a Medium for Complex Times: An Interview with Hartmut Koenitz

Abstract

This interview with Prof. Hartmut Koenitz establishes IDN as a computationally grounded medium requiring distinct theoretical frameworks. Drawing from cybernetics and systems theory, Koenitz argues that interactive feedback loops fundamentally distinguish IDN from traditional narrative forms. His SPP (System, Process, Product) model conceptualizes IDNs as dynamic systems generating meaning through participant interaction. He advocates IDN's particular capacity to represent complexity through multiple simultaneous perspectives, contextual decision-making, and consequence visualization. Koenitz positions generative AI as a tool for expanding procedural narrative design while maintaining authorial control. He emphasizes the need for globally inclusive IDN research, particularly formalization of non-Western narrative structures, to advance culturally diverse expressive forms suitable for twenty-first-century complexity.