i am brain dead

1. Montfort argues that interactive fiction is distinctively different from hypertext fiction, stating:
“There is… nothing in the nature of the lexia or the link, those fundamental elements of hypertext, that allows the reader to type and contribute text or provides the computer with the means to parse or understand natural language. […] Hypertext fiction also does not maintain an intermediate, programmatic representation of the narrative world, as interactive fiction does.”
In terms of understanding how these two forms relate to/differ from narrative, is this distinction significant? Or are they more closely related that Montfort would like to admit? Discuss.

in my opinioin, interactive fiction (in the form of text-based adventure narratives) and hypertext fiction are more closely related than what montfort suggests. it is true that interactive fiction lacks certain components like the lexia or link, but there are close replacements for these. the blocks of narrative in interactive fiction are similar to the lexia and the "links" of interactive fiction come in a different form of jumping from one scene to another via the user's input. moreover, the structures of interactive and hypertext fiction are the same. both constitute blocks of narrative that will be eventually uncovered and linked up by the user. both structures are interestingly volatile, allowing the user to "choose" which parts of the narrative to read first. i put the word "choose" in commas because in both cases you don't really get to choose what you want to see first. there is an element of luck or skill involved to get the more interesting links or type the correct commands.

there is however, more flexibility to the user in hypertext fiction. there is generally no right or wrong answer, and the user doesn't experience a "game over" while in interactive fiction certain commands or procedures of commands must be input from the user else he will face death... i mean virtual death like in the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. in other types of interactive fiction like photopia, the user simply gets stuck at a particular scene if he doesn't type the correct commands.


2. Espen Aarseth defines cybertext as a perspective on textuality, which considers a work as a textual machine, and sees the reader as having to make a non-trivial effort to traverse the text. Discuss whether Scott McCloud’s “Carl” comic strip can be considered a cybertext.

a property of cybertext is that it gives room for user control. in the case of "carl", though one may initially think that the different paths provides choices for the reader, the eventual case may be so that the user actually explores all the possible endings. thus, it gives an illusion that the user has control over them. however, whether intended or not, the different endings of "carl" somewhat correlates. this further emphasizes that there is no "one ending" and and the user cannot really just choose one path. practically he could, but that story told will be pretty boring. thus, i wouldn't totally consider "carl" to a cybertext.


3. Does a potential narrative such as Paul Fournel’s “The Tree Theatre: A Combinatory Play” satisfy Crawford’s definition of interactivity? Could it be considered an example of interactive media? Why/why not?

paul fournel's "the tree theatre" can be nicely considered to be interactive. crawford's definition of interactivity involves 3 processes: listening, thinking and speaking. these 3 components are satisfied in fournel's play.

listening: both the actors and audience listen to each other. the actors take heed of the audience response to what choices are made and the audience listens to the narrative acted out by the actors.
thinking: this is an internal process. the audience goes through the choices made available to them and decides upon a course of action while the actors takes the input from the audience and decides the corresponding narrative.
speaking: the audience have the power of choice. they communicate their choices to the actors. the actors in turn delivers the narrative to the audience.

but evidently, the interactivity part is more on the audience than for the actors. the actors can be simply viewed as machines that will respond to the audience input, thus carrying out the commands of the audience. this argument may appear superficial as some may argue that the actors may emotionally and intellectually interact with the audience. for instance the actors may perform the scenes with slight disgust if the audience keep making immoral or sadistic choices, like "the king will kill his wife" and "the ending will be unhappy". such interaction is not trivial, but should be observed on the micro-level. the macro-level interaction, which i personally feel is more important, would be that in the progress of the narrative. how both parties are involved and whether the audience is participative will also determine the interactivity of the play.

hypertext and non-linearity

In "Hypertext, Hypermedia and Literary Studies: The State of the Art", Landow and Delany suggest that “hypertext can be expected to have important institutional as well as intellectual effects, for it is at the same time a form of electronic text, a radically new information technology, a mode of publication, and a resource for collaborative work… Hypertext historicizes many of our most commonplace assumptions, forcing them to descend from the ethereality of abstraction and appear as corollary to a particular technology and historical era. We can be sure that a new era of computerized textuality has begun; but what it will be like we are just beginning to imagine."

This passage was written in 1991, at a time when hypertext systems were available in somewhat limited forms such as Hypercard and Intermedia, use of the Internet was largely confined to academic institutions, and the term “World Wide Web” had only just been coined. Now, 15 years later, comment and reflect upon the impact hypertext has had on the world.

there are huge differences between the hypertext and the use of the internet 15 years ago and now. in the past, the internet is used for the purpose of sharing exclusive information within the academic institutions, and accessing information only relevant to the individual or department. however, in today's internet, vast sources of information are available. one, at many times, may get access to information not relavant to him, like product information via advertisements, emails and pop-up windows.

another difference is that the internet today may be viewed as something of an 'ordered mess'. in the past hypertext systems are used for categorization purposes, providing '"virtual" rearrangement and retrieval', thus resulting in a more orderly and systematic classification of the institution's database. such hypertext systems may still exist in library catalogues, but more often than not, the websites for these catalogues are overwhelmed with other purposes and functions like links to other libraries and bookstores and may even act as a portal for communication between its users. the idea of an 'ordered mess' is depicted here. the internet on the whole is a messy establishment of links between websites, and the relationship connected by the link may be mild or strong. thus, when searching for information on the web, one may not always get what he wants instantly. however, orderliness of the internet is seen in the smaller modules of the internet. websites of schools, government institutions or subsidaries of large companies have an internal order within them. for instance, take the local research organization a*star. the organization has its main website, and its various institutes like ime, simtech and i2r have their individual links from this main site. and within each institute there is a further breakdown into various institutional departments. this order makes logical sense due to the hierarchical nature of the organization. finally, this order is interlinked to external websites, like websites of research institutes in other parts of the world or websites of universities, creating a massive network in the internet.

other implications of the hypertext today will be privacy issues, copyright issues, freedom of speech and internet crimes. the interconnectivity of the network enables the spread of both good and bad very quickly. viruses, bugs and malwares are easily disseminated across the internet, obtaining private information of individuals or damaging servers and computers. copyright issues also arise when information becomes extremely accessible. these, in addition to incidents of defamatory comments on the internet also propelled the establishment of internet laws. an interesting point to note is that new laws are often introduced because of the volatile and changing nature of the internet. due to the rapid advancement of technology, people can quickly come up with new ways to get round the existing laws.

image and text sequences

1. In his paper “Modular Structure and Image/Text Sequences: Comics and Interactive Media”, George Legrady states: “Meaning in the interactive work is a result of the sequential selection of components that the viewer assembles in the viewing process. The viewer can then be considered as someone who actively constructs the narrative through the assembling of fragmented or modular information elements. The sequential sum of viewed selections becomes the narrative.” This approach to interactivity is reflected in his work Slippery Traces. Discuss how this approach to constructing a narrative changes the roles of the reader and the author in the process of narrative transmission.

in this approach, the author only provides the backbone for the possible narrative that is to be constructed by the reader. like in the case of 'slippery traces', the author predetermines the links from one 'hotspot' to the next picture. thus, the author constructs the 'multidimensional network of connections', forming the backbone of the narrative.

however, the role of 'telling the story' is passed on to the reader. as legrady says, the viewer is involved in 'active participation', 'as the assembler of one variation of the story'.

this is a novel method of presenting a narrative, and it does so interactively. no longer is the telling of a story unidirectional. the author provies options for the reader, and the reader responds with choices that construct that narrative. in this approach, the author loses his sense of authority, from one that tells the reader what is happening to one that guides the reader in deciding what will happen. this balance between control and choice is fairly adequate, because the reader still risks constructing a bad narrative out of the image or text sequences.


2. Choose a set of 5-10 images that you feel form a narrative. If they are not digital images, scan them into the computer (there’s a scanner available in the USP multimedia lab). Arrange them in a linear sequence on your blog. You may or may not want to include text captions with each image.

Bring a physical copy of your images to class on Thursday. We’ll be using them as part of an in-class exercise.

3. Write about the narrative that your group has chosen for project 1. Why have you chosen this work? How might you approach the task of re-configuring it as an interactive piece? Be prepared to discuss your group’s choice of work in class on Thursday.

in our narrative for project 1, we will construct a game based on a narrative. the narrative will be a combination of many fairytales. these fairytales will include sleeping beauty, snow white, little mermaid, cinderella, little mermaid and rapunzel.

we decided to incorporate a few stories because when transposing from narrative to game, we need an increased variability to maintain the game players' interest. and as for why fairytales in the first place, we feel that these stories have simple plots and thus will be easy for us to construct game kernels out of them.

in the game, the player can play as the charming (hopefully) prince who will choose a mission to save one of the above princesses. he will go through dangerous scenarios, in which he may have to make decisions, like to choose to go right or left. he player can also choose to play as other characters, and see how the actions of these characters may change the events of those typical fairytale stories.

okay that's all. i cannot reveal too much... :P