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an important form of collective knowledge and can be a basis for ideological
manipulation. NI researchers using this concept of narrative are often inter-
ested in social or collective forms of narrative and in uncovering hidden nar-
ratives. This study of narrative can be reflexively applied to AI research itself,
leading to transformations of AI practices. That is, an analysis of the narrative
structures and metaphors used to tell the story of progress within AI can il-
luminate systematic problems caused by these narratives and point the way to
new research approaches (Agre 1997; Sack 1992; Sengers 1998; Mateas 2001).
In “Writing and representation,” Agre draws on cultural-theoretic anal-
yses of representation to explore unexamined assumptions regarding repre-
sentationinAI.
In “Vital narratives,” Laurel analyses the cultural roles played by different
kinds of narratives. She argues that the inflexibility of certain kinds of narra-
tive, such as fundamentalist religious narratives, creates the potential for a great
deal of unproductive cultural conflict, while in other cases potentially helpful
narratives such as scientific narratives are hindered because they are not made
relevant to people's everyday lives. She argues that we need to make ethical de-
cisions about what kinds of narratives, both interactive and noninteractive, we
are creating, arguing for flexible, inclusive narratives.
In “The recombinant history apparatus presents Terminal Time,” Domike,
Mateas and Vanouse explore the role that ideology plays in the construction of
history by building a system which caricatures ideologically-biased historical
reasoning.
In “The Rise and Fall of Black Velvet Flag: An 'intelligent' system for youth
culture documentary,” Schiffer explores the role of youth culture in the con-
struction of identity. Narrative constructions of youth culture must be respon-
sive to massive change on the part of the subjects (who in turn are the audience)
of this identity formation process.
In “Stories and social networks,” Sack uses tools from computational lin-
guistics to support media-studies analysis of social responses to mass media.
His work is based on an understanding of the importance of narrative in peo-
ple's daily lives, and the agency of social groups in retelling and reincorporating
cultural narratives. A novel part of his approach from a cultural-studies per-
spective is that he creates a tool for cultural studies that is also usable by the
people being studied.
In “Schizophrenia and narrative in artificial agents,” Sengers argues for
the similarity of the perspectives of behavior-based artificial agents and insti-
tutional psychiatry using the tools of cultural studies. She argues that tech-
nical problems in the coordination of behaviors can be traced historically to
