Postdoctoral position (M/F) - Formal modelling and composition of interactive narratives under a constraint of narrative restraint in mixed reality

Job Description

Missions

This postdoctoral position is part of the ANR project ITS-STORY (*Interactive Storytelling supporting augmented memory in internment camps, Nazi Europe*), led by the Heudiasyc laboratory (UTC-CNRS) in partnership with the Memorial of Internment and Deportation in Compiègne (Royallieu Camp). The project develops interactive mixed-reality experiences (Unity, Meta Quest 3 headset) for memorial mediation, following a regime of **distanced immersion**: the visitor is present in the scene without merging with the internees, and is held in the position of one who comes after — a late witness. The project has formalised a parametric *design space* structured along five design dimensions (perceptual, narrative, semiotic, interactional, epistemic).

Existing computational narrative research (narrative planning, experience and drama management, formal models of suspense or tension), almost exclusively formalises the **intensification pole**: engagement, tension, presence, agency. The project requires the opposite pole, a **narrative restraint**: making events signify through their ellipsis rather than their depiction (the departure of the convoy is not shown, but rendered through the deserted platform and the traces that remain), and keeping the visitor in the position of a late witness. The scientific challenge is to **formally model this effect** and to **compose interactive narratives that realise it**, in a controlled and verifiable way.

Just as formal models represent and generate suspense, the goal here is to represent the events of an action-world together with a *depiction status* (showable / mandatorily off-screen / rendered through trace / reserved for the archive) and the *position of the receiver* (before / during / after the event), and then to **compose**, rather than generate text, the narrative configuration: selection and ordering of units, assignment of depiction statuses, temporal positioning of the visitor, tuning of the free parameters, over a variation space (themes, scenes, sub-scenes, design-space parameters). The "unshown" is not a trivial absence check but a **positive configuration operator**: producing meaning through ellipsis. The system is **non-generative** (no language model), making it deterministic, reproducible and auditable. The narratological framing (emplotment and refiguration, after Paul Ricœur's theory of narrative) is provided by the consortium; the position concerns its computational implementation.

The postdoctoral researcher will pursue four complementary objectives:

- Represent domain knowledge: an ontology of the action-world, events and depiction statuses, the receiver's position, and restraint constraints, as a declarative model (rules, constraints).
- Design and implement a narrative composition engine: selection, ordering and instantiation of pre-established narrative units under constraints, over the variation space, with management of agency and off-screen content (restraint-oriented narrative planning / experience management).
- Define a set of formal restraint operators as signifying ellipsis, mediation through trace and off-screen, late-witness positioning, regulation of the affective relation (understanding without identification), that are composable and analysable.
- Verify and validate: analysis of configurations over the space of realisable narratives, including under the visitor's interactive branchings; ablation comparisons (with / without restraint); targeted studies conducted in coordination with the project's cognitive-evaluation postdoc.

Activity

The postdoctoral researcher will be responsible for the following activities:

- formalising the action-world and the restraint constraints in a declarative model (ontology, rules, constraints);
- designing and implementing the narrative composition engine and its integration into the mixed-reality environment (Unity);
- defining and analysing the formal restraint operators (signifying ellipsis, off-screen, late-witness positioning, bounded affective relation);
- verifying the narrative and restraint properties over the space of realisable narratives and conducting ablation comparisons;
- taking part in expert evaluations (historians, mediators) and in the targeted evaluation studies carried out with the cognitive-evaluation postdoc;
- writing international scientific articles and taking part in the project's coordination meetings.

Your Profil

Skills

The position is aimed at a candidate holding a PhD in computer science or artificial intelligence, with a strong taste for formal modelling. Experience in several of the following areas will be particularly appreciated: symbolic AI (planning, automated reasoning, constraint or answer-set programming (ASP), rule-based systems); knowledge representation (ontologies, knowledge graphs, state machines); formal methods and verification (model checking, property proving, invariants); computational narrative or interactive storytelling.

Strong development skills (Python, and ideally a symbolic reasoning environment: ASP, PDDL, constraint solvers or a model checker). Familiarity with a real-time interactive engine (Unity) is an asset. Good scientific writing skills in English.

The narratological, philosophical and ethical framing is handled by other members of the consortium and provided to the position as specifications: no prior expertise in narratology, philosophy or the humanities is required, although an interest in these questions is welcome. The position does not involve any development of language models.

Your Work Environment

The postdoctoral position is part of a multidisciplinary consortium bringing together Heudiasyc (UTC-CNRS), Borelli (UPC), COSTECH (UTC), CHS (Paris 1), the Royallieu Memorial and Excurio/Emissive. It benefits from the mixed-reality environment, the scenarios and the design space already developed, and is articulated with the research engineer responsible for the computational formalisation of the design space, the SIC postdoc responsible for the narrative grammar, and the cognitive-evaluation postdoc responsible for the effect studies. The position depends little on the volume of collected data: its validation relies on formal analysis, ablations and targeted studies.

Constraints and risks

None

Compensation and benefits

Compensation

€3043.58 gross

Annual leave and RTT

44 jours

Remote Working practice and compensation

Pratique et indemnisation du TT

Transport

Prise en charge à 75% du coût et forfait mobilité durable jusqu’à 300€

About the offer

About the CNRS

The CNRS is a major player in fundamental research on a global scale. The CNRS is the only French organization active in all scientific fields. Its unique position as a multi-specialist allows it to bring together different disciplines to address the most important challenges of the contemporary world, in connection with the actors of change.

CNRS

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