Narrating Complexity

Richard Walsh is a member of the Dept. of English and Related Literature in the University of York. He teaches modules in American literature and in theories of story, covering fiction and non-fiction, the earliest years of cinema, and graphic novels, as well as narratives in digital and interactive media. Susan Stepney is a professor of Computer Science in the University of York. Her main area of interest is non-standard computation, in particular bioinspired algorithms, complex adaptive systems, emergent properties, and nanite assemblers.

Introduction and Overview: Who, What, Why.- Narrative Theory for Complexity Scientists.- Complex Systems for Narrative Theorists.- A Brief History of Systems Thinking.- Sense and Wonder: Complexity and the Limits of Narrative Understanding.- The Benefit of Doubt: Embracing Complexity and Uncertainty.- Simple Story of the Complex Mind? A Rhetorical Analysis of Cognitive Science Texts.- When Robots Tell Each Other Stories, or the Emergence of Artificial Fiction.- Plato with a Movie Camera: Visually Thinking of Complexity.- Augmenting Communication: Peering at Narratives and Complexity Through a Digital Arts Lens.- The Secret Life of Civilization.- Our Complex Earth.- Why Do We Trust Computer Simulations?.- Irreducible Complexity and Narrating the Endarkenment.- Gardening Complex Systems, and Other Metaphors.- Analysis of Contributions.- From Simplex to Complex Narrative: A New Model.