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Poberailo
03Research

Writing & Theory

Peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, and the Master's thesis on interactive cinema — from Kharkiv State Academy of Culture and international journals.

Profiles: ResearchGate · ORCID

·14 min

Interactive Storytelling in VR Games: Revisiting Janet Murray’s Legacy

Abstract. This article re-examines Janet Murray’s foundational categories of digital narrative — immersion, agency, and transformation — through contemporary VR game design. It asks how these concepts change when the cinematic frame becomes a navigable space, and where a cinematic approach to interactive storytelling diverges from game-first design. The study argues that Murray’s framework remains productive for VR, provided agency is read not only as choice density but as the quality of embodied presence inside an audiovisual world.

VRInteractiveTheory
·16 min

Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Interactive Cinema: Systematising the International Discourse

Abstract. The article systematises international theoretical approaches to interactive cinema for art studies and audiovisual research. Competing definitions, historical genealogies, and analytical methods are organised into a coherent map of the discourse, with attention to how Ukrainian scholarship can enter comparative dialogue. The work proposes a clearer conceptual vocabulary that distinguishes interactive cinema from games, installations, and hypermedia while acknowledging their productive hybrid zones.

TheoryInteractiveMethodology
·15 min

Interactive Cinema: The Analysis Model in the Context of Audiovisual Format

Abstract. The aim of the article is to develop a model of analysis of interactive cinema that accounts for its specificity as an audiovisual work. The model evaluates four interrelated layers: the story implementation mechanism; interaction mechanisms; the viewer experience; and the connections among interactive, audiovisual, and dramatic elements. Extending the Master’s thesis framework, the paper offers a practical analytical toolkit for researchers and makers of interactive narrative.

InteractiveMethodologyTheory
·12 min

Branched Narrative: From Technical Device to the Art of Modeling the Future

Abstract. Branched narrative is often reduced to a technical fork in the plot. This chapter reframes branching as a cultural technique and an art of modeling possible futures — not only a software pattern. Tracing the path from early branching devices to contemporary audiovisual practice, the author argues that multi-path storytelling participates in how culture imagines contingency, choice, and the image of the future.

NarrativeInteractiveTheory
·13 min

The Evolution of Cut Scenes in Interactive Audiovisual Narrative: Classification of Functions and Characteristics

Abstract. Co-authored with O. V. Bezruchko. The article classifies the functions and characteristics of cut scenes in interactive audiovisual narrative — from cinematic insert to a grammar of gameplay. It tracks how the cut scene evolved between cinema and games, proposing a typology useful for both art-historical analysis and design practice.

CraftInteractiveNarrative
·14 min

Interactive Cinema on DVD in the Discourse of Audiovisual Art

Abstract. This study offers a systematic art-historical analysis of interactive DVD cinema (late 1990s–mid-2000s) as a short-lived but formative artistic phenomenon. Using case studies and formal analysis, it argues that interactive DVDs were a unique format whose lessons — menu as dramaturgy, limited agency, hybrid viewing — still matter for contemporary interactive cinema and digital distribution.

HistoryInteractiveAnalog
·12 min

The Genre Specificity of Interactive Cinema

Abstract. The article investigates the genre specificity of interactive cinema by analysing how traditional cinematic genre conventions transform under audience agency. It asks what “genre” can mean when the viewer enters the system, and how interactive works inherit, break, or recombine noir, thriller, romance, and other generic codes.

GenreInteractiveTheory
·10 min

Immersive Interactive Storytelling: The Role of the Cinematic Approach

Abstract. Conference paper on how a cinematic approach — framing, duration, montage, and light — shapes immersive interactive storytelling. It argues that immersive systems remain narrative when they preserve cinematic craft inside navigable space, rather than dissolving film language into pure simulation.

ImmersiveInteractiveCraft
·11 min

Interactive Cinema: Montage as a Tool for Creating a Variable Narrative

Abstract. Montage in interactive cinema is not only a linear cut between shots — it is a mechanism for assembling variable narrative paths. The paper examines how editing grammar supports reconfigurable story structures and how the cut becomes a site of interaction rather than only of continuity.

CraftMontageInteractive
·11 min

Game-Films as a Progressive Form of Interactive Narrative

Abstract. Game-films sit between cinema and games. This conference paper treats them as a progressive form of interactive narrative rather than a failed genre or marketing label — hybrid works that borrow cinematic experience while permitting structured audience entry into the system of the film.

Game-filmInteractiveNarrative
·10 min

Interactive Storytelling: Current Status and Prospects of Research

Abstract. A status report on interactive storytelling research: key schools of thought, unresolved definitional problems, and prospects for further work in art studies and media theory. The paper outlines open questions for the field and positions interactive cinema within the broader interactive narrative landscape.

SurveyInteractiveTheory
·45 min

Interactive Cinema: History, Typology, Artistic Techniques

Abstract. Master’s thesis (Kharkiv State Academy of Culture). The work defines interactive film within the modern media landscape, proposes identification criteria, and builds an analytical methodology covering history, typology, and artistic techniques. An interactive film is framed as a medium with seamless gameplay that permits passive plot exploration while prioritising cinematic experience over gamified interaction. Honorary diploma — National Academy of Arts of Ukraine.

ThesisInteractiveMethodology