Storytelling

1
Storytelling
Begin at the beginning, the King said gravely,
then proceed straight through to the end. Then
stop. (Alice in Wonderland quoted in Douglas)
2
Seminar Rez

• Is it a simulation?
• How does it work?
• Relationship to other themes in session virtual
  reality, immersion

3
practical info

• Groups in blog?
• Give each other feedback?
• I am on holiday from 23rd to the 30th(no email
  or blog other than Monday feedback but teaching
  on the 28th)
• Please fill in the ITU course evaluation thing

4
dagens menu

• Rez videos
• CONTEXT Aarseth
• Douglas Fibonnacis Daughter
• Ryan Online Caroline
• Mateas Façade
• Øvelser Sketches, task division, detailed
  planning for first iteration

del 1
del 2
5
Blackboard model
6
Context hypertext dominance
"Hypertext is a computer-based structure for
organizing information that makes possible to
connect text units (different sizes, categories
and natures) electronically (links) within the
same document or to external documents. It
requires active manipulation by the reader in
order to be read/wread/used, apart from the
cognitive activity common to all
reading. (Tosca, 1999)
7
some properties of hypertext

• Hypertext users have to take action/decisions in
  order to advance through the text.
• Hypertext lets users perceive processes instead
  of only finite results.
• A hypertext's multilinear structure can be used
  to convey meaning.
• A Pragmatics of links.

(Tosca, 2000)
8
THE LINK
afternoon, a story (Michael Joyce)
9
THE LINK
afternoon, a story (Michael Joyce)
10
THE LINK
afternoon, a story (Michael Joyce)
11
Ideology a historical perspective
Hypertext theory was the dominant approach in
digital aesthetics throughout the nineties, where
other aspects such as multimedia, interactivity,
virtuality etc. were seen as secondary.

• Embodiment
• Liberation
• Canon
• Education

12
the embodiment problem
Hypertext incarnates the notions of
intertextuality of Julia Kristeva, Michael
Bakhtins emphasis on the diversity of voices,
Foucaults idea of power-nets, and the idea of
nomad thinking in a rhizome after Deleuze and
Guattari (Landow, 1994 17) just as Barthes
and Foucaults observations about the death of
the author, Derridas about textuality,
Kristevas about intertextuality and so many
others, the fusion of the creative and discursive
modes simply happens in hypertext (Landow, 1994
59)
13
the embodiment problem
It is true that the computer takes the mystery
out of intertextuality and makes it instead a
well-defined process of interconnection, the
collective act of reading one text in the light
of others. Any sense of mystery that remains is
the residue of the age of writing or printing,
when the technology provided no good way to
embody the movement from one text to another.
(Bolter, 1991 201)
14
liberation
the link simulates the connections in the mind
of the author or reader (Slatin, 1990) We are
faced with a medium that promises to increase the
dynamic nature of reading exponentially with
texts that actually, physically change from
reading to reading, with a range of choices and
reading decisions that seem to offer readers an
autonomy undreamed of in their experiences of
print narratives. (Douglas, 1992)
15
Liberation be careful
While it is salutary to investigate the ways in
which hypertext may illuminate literary theory
and enhance literary practices, to hail its
advent as the beginning of a social and
educational revolution is politically naïve.
(Snyder, 1997)
we must explicitly recognize that any claims to
the subversive potential of hypertext must intend
to subvert not particular groups or individuals
exercising power and authority other others
(Greco, 1996)
16
Education be careful
The studies show that merely illustrating
content structures in the interface is not
sufficient for helping learners acquire that
structure. Rather, it is the nature of the
processing task and goals for learning whilst
interacting with a hypertext that determines the
effects of its use on learners knowledge
structures (Jonassen, 1993)
17
meanwhile... in real life...

• Hypertext as marketing buzzword
• Hypertext as structuring principle for web
  architects usability experts
• Hypertext as near-synonym with WWW
• Plenty of educational, journalistic, personal...
  examples of non-linear thinking
• Hyperfiction limited to a few postmodern
  experiments unknown by the general public
• And so came other interests cybertext,
  distributed narratives, computer games How
  storytelling works in connection with all digital
  texts

18
gaps and lost chances

• Stressing metaphors of dispersion, infinity,
  neverending text, disolution of the author,
  reader as author.
• INSTEAD OF...
• Metaphors of organization (encyclopedias,
  newspapers, database), readers as searchers,
  strong author control.

19
give us a break!!!
20
Aarseth why interesting

• It is about textuality in general
• Non-linearity as the driving force (not
  materiality in computer)
• A new definition of texts
• Suggests a new ontology of texts (called
  textonomy)
• Describes a set of features we can use to look at
  digital texts, useful.
• How critic can face this new kind of texts as a
  participatory anthropologist

21
what is less interesting for you now

• References to a lot of literary theories you
  dont have to know
• References to a lot of literary works you dont
  have to know
• Discussions about the status of text and textual
  integrity
• Ideas of text as potentiality

22
Text

• Described in topological terms a text can be
  chopped up in smaller units
• A text is made up of textons (small units of
  meaning, different in each kind of text).
• The units as they appear to the reader are called
  scriptons.
• There are variables that can be used to describe
  any text according to its mode of transversal
• Ex. Cent mille milliards de poèmes (Queneau) has
  140 textons but 100.0000.000.000,000 scriptons

23
Variables that describe a text
Maneuverability in old model
24
User functions expanded
25
Cybertext

• Hypertext is a useful term when applied to the
  structures of links and nodes, but it is much
  less so if it includes all other digital texts as
  well. I suggest cybertext for texts that involve
  calculation in their production of scriptons.
  (Aarseth, Cybertext. P. 75)

26
give us a break!!!
27
Seminar so what did you think?

• Douglas Fibonnacis Daughter
• Ryan Online Caroline
• Mateas Façade

Lokaler 4A16, 4A44, 4A46
28
Til næste gang

• If you want to post exercise progress on blog you
  will get some feedback on Monday, but it is not
  compulsory.
• Read
• GOBÉ, Marc. 2001. Emotional Branding the new
  paradigm for connectings brands to people. New
  York Allworth Press. (pp. xiii-xxxii, 241-270)
• THYSSEN, Ole. 2003. Æstetisk Ledelse. Om
  organisationer og brugskunst. København
  Gyldendal. (pp. 17-39, 103-111, 130-137)
• Find an example of either really good or really
  bad branding online (it can be a website, a
  promotional game, etc) and prepare a mini-oplæg
  of 2 minutes about why you chose it in relation
  to what the texts say about branding and
  aesthetic communication. Everybody will get a
  spot in class to show it.