2. The project
Ontology of a Computer
*Bring computer ontology into cultural space.
*Borrow from art history, cinema,…
Software Objects:
1-Data Structure
2-Algorithm
3. Goal
• Could digital medium be a fully
expressive medium?
- express deeper truth about…
4. What is New Media?
Digital/Interactive
Narrative:
1. Database
2. Virtual Space
6. What is a Narrative?
Why Do we need Narrative?
•The story form is a transparent window on reality. Jerome Seymour Bruner
•We also cling to narrative models of reality and use them to shape our everyday
experiences. Bruner, Jerome S
In Poetics (335 BCE), Aristotle states that narratives are best
produced when “they follow cause and effects.”
H. Porter Abbott, the narrative theorist, asserts that “narrative
is the representation of an event or a series of events.”
The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative.
beginning +ending + sequence/logic
• An experience is not a narrative:
• Paul Ricoeur, “the concern of narrative is coherence and structure, not the
creation of a particular kind of experience.” Atkins 2003.
7. Database & Narrative
Goes back to hypertext and narrative theories
• DB Narrative:
– no beginning, or ending, no thematic development (218)
– Additional material could be added without changing the logic Database
• DB as a “cultural form”
• A new way to structure our experience
• Dominance of DB form
– (museum images on CD-ROM)
• Collection of items that don’t tell stories
• database and narrative are natural enemies
8. Database & Narrative
1- Game (narrative) vs. database(oppose narrative)
*Games have some type of database embedded in them.
*A db has to be accessed by an algorithm to function.
Ex. Bio of artist on a CD-ROM vs. a narrative bio
CD-ROM database use is a basic use of database
what about having a more sophisticated algorithm…
Manovich divides DB from algorithm to examine its characteristics but he doesn’t bring algorithms back to the
discussion to examine db function.
A db can not work without algorithm and algorithm can not function without db.
C -> The possibility of creating narrative in db lies in algorithm design + db
9. Navigable Space & Narrative
Spatial design in creating narrative.
Games like Doom & Myst create a spatial
journey. Navigation through the 2D/3D
Digital environment is the key to such
games.
Focusing on Navigability but doesn’t talk
about the Image, quality and characteristics of this
Space
Henri Jenkins(Spatial Storytelling):
1- “environmental storytelling creates the preconditions for an immersive narrative experience.” Design as Narrative
Architecture (2004)
2- embedding “narrative information within [the] mise-en-scène”.
C-> people “… who are most often schooled in computer science or graphic design, need to be retooled in the basic
vocabulary of narrative theory.” Jenkins 2004.
10. Interactivity & Narrative
The navigable space is an interactive space. Interactive Narrative moves forward
through interaction of the player with the environment.
Manovich argues that versus traditional mediums of storytelling, modern literature, theatre, cinema which story moves forward
through physiological tensions between characters, the plot in a computer game is moved forward by the interaction of the
user, as the main hero (game character) travels through the digital space.
Game-> is interactive->has narrative
What can interactivity do to narrative?
Interactivity can reduce a narrative to an experience…
Satisfaction of reading a novel/ watching a film is in
author’s sequence of events
Ernest Adams:
Interactivity is almost the opposite of narrative; narrative flows under the direction of
the author, while interactivity depends on the player for motive power.
Adams, Ernest. "The Designer's Notebook: Three Problems for Interactive Storytellers."
11. Navigability & Subjectivity
• According to Lev Manovich, The navigable space is a
subjective space as its architecture responds to the subject
movement and emotion.
• Ex. Subjectivity of the flâneur is determined through
interaction with the group.
Navigating the virtual space(the Net)
as an anonymous observer creates the
position of the flâneur, data flâneur.
Playing a computer game, navigating
though a computer game space creates the position
of the explorer
12. New Media is NEW
• One school of thought (Ludology):
Espen Aarseth, Gonzalo Frasca, Markku Eskelinen, and Jesper Juul
• “games are not narratives.”
• In Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology (2003), Gonzalo Frasca writes: “The
storytelling model is not …not accurate [to use in new media because it]…limits our understanding
of the medium and our ability to create even more compelling games.”[1]
• For Ludologists, new media should be categorized as a branch of game theory. Espen Aarseth, video
game theorist, argues that interactive environments are better understood as “cybernetic systems”
whose function follows user intervention, rather than storytelling systems. Aarseth coins the term
“ergodic literature” as a brand- new way to describe the type of works that are dependent on
reader intervention. In Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (1997) Aarseth writes:
This phenomenon I call ergodic, using a term appropriated from physics that derives from the
Greek words ergon and hodos, meaning “work” and “path.” In ergodic literature, nontrivial
effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text.[2]
13. On the Opposite side
• Murray, Janet:
The visual space replaces the creative
expression in film and literature.
Janet Murray, media theorist, writes that
“games are always stories, even
abstract games such as checkers or
Tetris, which are about winning and
losing, casting the player as the
opponent-battling or environment-
battling hero.” Murray, Janet. "From Game-Story to Cyberdrama." First Person:
New Media as Story, Performance, and Game.
Janet Murray: games are "as a metaphorical
enactment of a life experience,” Murray, Janet H. Hamlet on the
Holodeck
Janet Murray Espen Aarseth
14. Conclusion
*There is the process of gradual narrative
development within a medium’s
Development.
Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895) by The Lumière Brothers
