Space in interactive fiction is purely conceptual. The player never sees the room he’s in, but it is described.
Games have rules that are sometimes contrary to the rules in the real world. Within those rules, when playing, we must suspend our regular expectations, morals, etc.
To demonstrate the importance of architecture to New Media, we played Half Life 2 for a bit. Then we took a look at the editing program called Hammer, and were able to navigate through the same world that we played, but we were able to see the keyframes and triggers that set off events.
The building blocks of Half Life 2 are modular. They work together, they’re customizable, and they’re interchangeable.
Compared to a game like Pong, Ring King is more sophisticated graphics-wise, but is still primitive. The size of the characters in proportion to eachother doesn’t change when the fighters move around in the ring.
Blackboard Notes on Ring King
Boxing - 2 players (or 1 player plus computer)
Background effects (crowd)
Color
Movement
Iconic Representation
Gun.Smoke for the NES. The game moves you forward, whether you want to or not. Compared to the “confines” of the ring in Ring King or the “table” in Pong, Gun.Smoke has a much bigger world to explore. It’s akin to first person shooters, but without the perspective or the ability to wander wherever you want. Blackboard Notes on Gun.Smoke
boundary — all games have boundaries, rules to play by
complexity — in games, complexity is often hidden
emergence — the way that game designers set the player up along the way
goals — all games have goals and are goal-driven
Interactive Fiction
a/k/a
IF
Text Adventure (Game)
Computer-Mediated Narrative
This type of fiction has been around since the 1980s. They were the first “commercial” computer games. Most authoring systems and older works of Interactive Fiction have become freeware.
Zork was one of the first and best known interactive fiction games. In order to really get anywhere in the game, the player had to create a map. As the game is played, the map is drawn out.
This reminds me a lot of Harold and his Purple Crayon. He created his world, made his choices, and drew his own damn map. He controlled the outcome of his story. Now, of course, Professor Timmons brings up Harold and the Purple Crayon. Let it be noted that it occurred to me before he mentioned it. I’m learning dammit!
Simple definition of interactive fiction: Reading text and pressing keys on your keyboard.
The programmer of the game controls the boundaries.
Playing Pong. We have some visual boundaries, which are the borders of the screen. We have the paddles. There are feedback elements. The annoying buzz/beep noise is one form of feedback. The score shown on the screen is another element of feedback. Feedback is obviously an important part of the game.
Keyframes
–Sort of like plot points
–significant events that happen in a story
Professor Ersinghaus is taking photographs at 7 megapixels. Now he’s asking what to do with the pics. Put the SD card into the slot. Open the folder, and view the pictures in thumbnail format in a folder. He copied the pictures into a folder named “Tunxis” on the computer, which he could do because they were recorded in a digital format.
He opens the picture in photoshop, and resizes it from 3k pixels wide to 450 pixels wide. Saves it back into the Tunxis folder. Opens FireFox, logs into WordPress, uploads the picture and then previews before publishing. Voila, here it is:
We discussed three act structure in class, but instead of reinventing the wheel, I just reposted the lecture from Professor Timmons’ online Film Art class at this link.
Key frames are the decision points. Like in a basketball videogame, if the digital ball hits the digital basket, a point is registered and the ball is shown going through the basket.
In class demonstration of Macromedia Flash Professional 8.
In class demonstration of Adobe Photoshop.
(Some things just aren’t conducive to note taking)
Identifying relationships, and the first one that we’re identifying is reality.
Real Space and Fictional Space.
We exist in reality and we cannot physically go into the story, the world of the story. We want to, and while we’re experiencing the story we “get into” it and forget about the real world. We actually believe that the events taking place in the story are real. We suspend disbelief and buy into the story world being real. A story creates its own reality.
For example, the Julio Cortazar (I may be spelling his name wrong, I forgot my texts at home!) story creates a story space within a story space.
These things happen in the real world within the story space:
Signs Power of Attorney. Gives someone joint ownership of his estate. Goes to his study to read. Sits in a green chair. He’s in the final chapters of the book. Starts to read, metaphorically moving into it. The characters take over.
These things happen in the story space within the story space:
The man and woman character meet in the cabin. The woman patches up the man’s cut on his back. They both leave the cabin, and split up. Man goes to estate. He goes through the house and finds another man sitting in a green chair reading a book and kills him.
Is it possible for a character in the story to kill the person who is reading the story? Only if the events in the story by some coincidence mirror the events in the readers life exactly.
The narrative of the Cortazon story is linear, because it was written by a typewriter.
We’re checking out Microsoft Word, which is just a digital transcoding of a typewriter. Across the top are several icons, some of them outdated (like the floppy disk for saving files). MS Word is a good linear representation of a typewriter. It makes sense, and is usable. Microsoft Word is a linear environment.
Information Explosion
You can’t easily or practically deal with massive amounts of information in a linear way.
Memex may have been the first hypertext machine. Vannevar Bush article in the Atlantic called As We May Think.
Cross-referencing systems are non-linear, and as such the memex is proto-hypertext (according to Wikipedia).
The Limitations of Technology
1. The amount of information that you can see on the screen at one time.
Shitty Software (David Winer’s term) is always under development, and is never complete. It always asks for user input to make it better. By his definition, all software is shitty.
According to John Timmons, most people use 10% or less of Microsoft Word’s functions.
Hypertext - Deena Larsen’s Nine Vicious Little Hypertexts
We check out a hypertext story called Firewheel, and click arbitrarily. The text window that pops up has a passage with four hyperlinks. Is it the beginning of the story? It is now, because it’s where we begin. If we want to find out where we are, we can check out the storyspace, which is a map of the non-linear hypertext story. In hypertext, we traverse the text. We traverse the text by using the links as paths.
In the course of traversing the the text, we are editing the story. Every link we choose to follow is an edit. We can find our own meaning in whatever path we take.
In hypertext there is always an origin and a destination.
The origin is the text box that you begin in (in a web browser, the origin is the home page). The destination is the place you go when you click the hyperlink.
We’re looking at 2Advanced.com. Where is the eye first attracted when looking at the main page there? It’s a non-linear open system.
Is it the old and the new? I think it looks like the little guy on the screen is checking out the big picture.
Oh, and the words are floating over the town, which I’m quite sure means something. And the words do mean something, the words are links which represent paths from the home page.
The 2Advanced site incorporates quite a few of the New Media principles. According to Prof. Ersinghaus, Flash is the new media platform because you can use it to do most anything.
On to Ch. 2 in Understanding Comics. The Icon.
Two types of icons are pictorial and non-pictorial
Some examples of non-pictorial icons: 1 # w
Some examples of pictorial icons:
Page 46 in the McCloud book breaks down the progressions that we want to note:
Complex to Simple
Realistic to Iconic
Objective to Subjective
Specific to Universal
Objective is static, and subjective is flexible or changing–open to interpretation.
Page 51 in the McCloud book has a detailed diagram of the Reality/Language/Picture triangle.
The more iconic, the more we identify with it. The more realistic, the less we identify with it.
—————–
Reading the comic is panel reading. In animation, panels are called cells.
There are six types of transitions between panels:
Moment-to-moment
Action-to-action
Subject-to-subject
Scene-to-scene
Aspect-to-aspect
Non-Sequitur
The panels have to form a narrative.
Narrative — A sequence of events with a cause and effect relationship happening in space and time
There is some suggested action going on outside the panels, between the panels, but we just can’t see it. Time is either progressing or being shown simultaneously.
—————–
Watchmen
From the perspective of this cover, the viewer is involved. We pushed the smiley face out the window (or are involved in whatever way we can infer from the elements of the image).
And there’s a clear passage of time between that image of the cover and this one:
We’re looking at a page with 7 panels. Three panels on the first two rows, and one panel in the third row that spans all three columns. What’s striking (and what was pointed out to us by Prof. Ersinghaus) is that the page is made up of panels, but the page itself is unified as a single panel by the hidden structure.
In future pages, the red tinted panels indicate speculation about past action, and the cooler colored panels indicate action occurring in the present. The action is the detectives speculating about the crime.
—————————
When we’re analyzing, we need to be looking for patterns. Do they tell us about space? Moment to moment?
Posted on February 22nd, 2007 in Notes by spazeboy
Two-Dimensional Narrative Space
**I’m audio recording this lecture using my new iTalk Pro. I’ll embed the audio later, which will hopefully serve as a helpful supplement. A backchannel? Anyway, to be honest the lecture section here is very difficult to make notes on, so the recording will have to suffice.**
Update: Here’s the audio. The first minute or two is mostly silence (or anything but substance), and I should have cut it. Oh well.
Professor Timmons is guiding us through a powerpoint slideshow/timeline of “written” communication.
Something very stylized can hold more meaning than something very detailed.
Iconography/Icons = Simplicity
Humanism - alludes to the fact that artists were looking at the world in a more realistic way.
Iconography is more static vs. Humanism which is more dynamic.
An image of the Madonna, wherein the figures around the Madonna are all gazing into space, and the only way that we can tell that the Madonna is the most important figure is because she is placed in the center, she’s bigger than all the other figures, and she’s drastically different from the others.
An image of the death of Christ, where Mary is holding her dead son in the bottom left of the frame. We’re guided to the most important part of the image–the dead guy–because all of the gazes and the lines that are implied by the other figures that lead us there.
There’s a lot of symbolism here. Mound of beauty (she’s not pregnant). The dog represents fidelity. The lone flame on the candelabra represents the presence of god. The mirror reflects the witnesses to the wedding, but not the painter–making the viewer a witness to the wedding.
Perspective and Point of View
We discussed Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, 1656. It gives viewers the POV of royalty. So the painting makes no sense unless you realize that you’re in it.
Digital technology allows us to take this one step further. Now, we can virtually enter the space and explore it.
Posted on February 15th, 2007 in Notes by spazeboy
Relationships (parallels)
Same vs. Different
Compare + Contrast
Criteria - the things we use to judge something
For example, size, texture, color, or surface are criteria we use to judge something.
These criteria mean different things when we use them to judge virtual versions versus dead-tree versions (ex. USA TODAY)
Surface in the print version is something to put ink on, and surface in the online version is something to put graphics on.
In order to find the relationships between old and new media–and to describe them–we need to define the criteria.
Aesthetics are a collection of criteria.
Use the terms that we’ve defined in class. Is the newspaper linear? Is the online version transactional? The five principles of new media. Static. Narrative.
When writing for the class start with the subject, say, USA TODAY. Then say “I think this is a linear communication model. Then define the term, linear communication model and then see if it matches. If so, explain why.
What do you think?
What do you know?
Does it match?
Why?
Perception Discussion Perception - The act of achieving understanding. It’s the gap between “what is” and what we know.
“We don’t see things as they are
We see things as we are.”
–Anais Nin
We perceive the world through our five senses (plus intuition?).
The Perception Process
Selection
First stage in the perception process in which some data are chosen to attend to and other are ignored.
Organization
Stage in the perception process that involves arranging data in a meaningful way.
Interpretation
Process of attaching meaning to make sense of data.
Context affects our perception. The letter “i” in Tim is pronounced differently than the letter “i” in time Or “Take a bow.” versus “The bow of the ship.” versus “This is a bow and arrow.”
Influences on Perception
Physiological
The senses, age, health, fatigue, hunger, and biological cycles.
Social
Roles of gender, roles of occupation, our self-concept, and shared narratives.
Cultural
Every culture has its own way of looking at the world.
Something to think about…
When looking at optical illusions, how important are relationships to those optical illusions (effects)?
The Window Exercise
We observed a photograph of the hallway as projected onto the classroom screen. We were encouraged to do so from many angles and as many perspectives as possible.
In the photograph, I was able to observe quite a few hallway objects such as filing cabinets, soda machines, an open door, a recycling bin, a bulletin board, four ceiling lights, the corner in the hall, the guiding arrows on the wall, the black on the back of the screen, the 200 building, the courtyard through the door, the handicap ramp, and a chair hidden behind the trash bin.
Then we observed the view through the narrow vertical window on the classroom door, again from as many perspectives as possible.
I saw the ramp (from a different perspective of the photo), the door across the hallway, another bulletin board, the floor outside the door, the wall across from the room, and some student who walked by.
Lastly, the doors were opened and we were told to go out and explore. So I walked around. I saw all the classrooms in the 200 building, some unused furniture stacked in the hallway, saw that it was cold outside, some artwork display cases without any artwork, the men’s and women’s bathrooms, and the water fountain.
All of my observations above were very superficial.
In part one, we were limited by what the camera recorded for the photo. When we got close to the picture, we were not able to see more detail necessarily (after a certain point).
In part two, the size of the window was quite limiting, but as we moved what we saw moved with us. We were looking through a frame so as our vantage point changed what we could see changed.
In part three, we could see whatever we wanted. Having free reign over the hallways allowed us to observe everything. We were immersed into the environment. Once we got outside of the room, we had removed the frames that served as editors of the world.
The window frame “edits” the world that we see, as does the photo that we look at.
The print edition contains content that cannot be changed. Once it’s printed, it’s done. Though the physical paper can be ripped or mutilated, that doesn’t change the facts of the story or how it ends.
The online edition is dynamic content. A customized version of USA TODAY utilizes the new media principles of variability, digitalization, and transcoding. It’s called a personalized newspaper but it’s clearly not a paper.
Technology can be identified as an extension of the body. The pencil is technology because it extends the ability of the hand. The telescope is an extension of the eye. Automobiles extend the legs.
Technology tries to extend every sense.
Digital technology attempts to work in the same way, extending senses.
Digital technology struggles to appeal to all five senses, and there’s a question as to whether appealing to more senses increases the immersion.
If newspapers ever go out of print, and everything were to go all digital, we would lose some of the alternative uses (lining birdcages, washing windows, kindling, flyswatting, etc.) of the physical paper. Contemporary Philosophy
“Readerly” and “Writerly” Author vs. Writer
No such thing as right or wrong, valid and invalid, true or false, or intended and unintended.
There is however such a thing as good and bad.
What is “author”?
–Performs a FUNCTION
–”I” centered
–Works with standard codes and structures
–But the structures are hidden
–meanings are fixed (every time we watch Gladiator, the same meanings are present)
Think of “Author” as “authority”
What is “writer”?
–Performs an ACTIVITY
–”de”-centered
–structures are revealed
–allows the reader to manipulate the codes and structures (a Web 2.0 principle)
–meanings are not fixed, but are transferred to the reader
Authored or Written?
1+1=2 and 2+2=4
These are examples of fixed or authored statements.
Stories, movies, paintings, photographs, music, etc. that speaks to us in different ways each time we experience them are authored but have a written aspect.
Is Harold an author or a writer?
Harold is a writer, but the book is authored.
What the hell is “readerly”?
–a stable text
–assembled out of familiar signs (we know how to read it and interact with it)
–the reader passively decodes
–combines into a cohesive meaning
–meets the expectations of the reader
– 2+2=4 or Two plus Two Equals Four (both fixed meaning examples of readerly)
What the hell is “writerly”?
–makes the reader a producer of the text (a la CYOA)
–the reader actively controls the codes and structure
–has plurality (implicit meaning that varies depending upon who experiences it)
–is networked
–is decentralized
Plurality - Writerly supports connotation (multiple associations beyond literal meanings) rather than denotation (fixed meanings).
Networked - Writerly allows the reader to navigate their own course along the body of the text, freely and repetitively experiencing the text making it possible to read a text from point to point not just straight through
Decentralized - Writerly removes any hierarchy of meaning but is a galaxy that has no beginning and can be accessed from multiple entrances none more dominant than the other
A calculator (virtual or physical) is an example of a writerly text or item because we can use it and manipulate it to find sums and products etc.
Another example of writerly text is Caveman’s Crib, an interactive room.
After break, we watched this video:
Barths makes a distinction between the work and the text. The work just sits there (the physical book) and the text is what we read (what we interpret and experience).
The readerly work will never change. We will change, so if we come back to the work in 10 years, the text may change.
In hypertext, the writerly work can change. Every time you go back to the hypertext novel, the work changes and the text changes.
In new media, everything is a text. If we can read it, interpret it, design it, and learn from it, it’s a text.
On some form of writing surface, draw a map of the interior of an architectural interior, describing the layout of the space from the crow’s view (top down). Here are a few guidelines. Before you attempt a map, complete a walkthrough of the space. Walk around and make notes. Try to note as many features of the space as you can, including entrances, exits, rooms, passages, and halls.
Editing is the joining of two shots.
Some examples of pictorial icons:
And there’s a clear passage of time between that image of the cover and this one:
There’s a lot of symbolism here. Mound of beauty (she’s not pregnant). The dog represents fidelity. The lone flame on the candelabra represents the presence of god. The mirror reflects the witnesses to the wedding, but not the painter–making the viewer a witness to the wedding. 
