Week 5 Question

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.

 

I don’t think anyone imagined or anticipated the effect hypertext and the world wide web has had on our society. It has become essential and so much a part of our lives that I wouldn’t be surprised if access to the internet would become a right in the future. Its impact is manifold, and we’re still discovering just how deep and widespread the ramifications of this creation has gone. Man was never meant to be solitary, and while the internet creates links between people, it has also severed traditional notions of what it means to interact and socialise. The context in which society evaluates itself has shifted, and the world can never be the same again.

FLAG

Today I finally got down to watching my backlog of anime (Bleach 95, Black Lagoon 11 and 12, Welcome to the NHK and after that I was still bored, so I watched FLAG 1 and 2.

It was absolutely FANTASTIC and amazingly relevant.

The storyline, of course, is of no consequence (But I won’t give it away, anyhoo), but the way the anime is shot is nothing short of incredible – it’s something which is… difficult to animate, but I thought it’d be frustrating to watch it if it were actually filmed live-action.

The narrative techniques used here are really quite stunning – for an anime. I’m positively bowled over. The last time I was bowled over by animation was the opening sequence of Ergo Proxy, which was literally graphic art in motion.
So *grins* I just had to share it. I found links to it on youtube (it’s cut into 3 parts, 1, 2, and 3) and put a copy up on Sendspace. It definitely looks better if you download it (170mb though!), but unless you’re a regular anime watcher, there’s a chance that you won’t have the codecs to play it. It’s just episode 1. Episode 2, the narrative “angle” changes (different cameras!) slightly (as does the story, naturally, it’s more heartwrenching, to an extent), but it’s up to you to watch, really : D! I absolutely LOVE the way the story is told. It’s really different! *grins!* Not at all the Speedgrapher ripoff I thought it’d be.

Next on the list – Night Head Genesis 1 – 4.

Week 4 Questions

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. What this essentially does is force a certain portion of responsibility on the reader as an author, and the original author becomes more of a facilitator. When this occurs, the story is essentially the same, but the narrative, the discourse, the slant/angle/point of view changes. Depending on how much flexibility the now-facilitator gives the consumer, the story itself may change as well.Narrative transmission, then is not from the author to the reader, but instead, the reader develops the narrative on his/her own – it becomes an internalised process.
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.We’re trying to decide between redoing Run Lola Run from Manni’s point of view, with different options, and a court case of Snow White, based on Neil Gaiman’s short story, Snow, Glass, Apples. We chose Run Lola Run because the class was already familiar with it (Snow White too!) and for both pieces, we thought presenting different viewpoints on the same issue would be an interesting way of reframing the story.

   For Run Lola Run, we hope to make it interactive by letting the reader choose Manni’s actions, and for Snow White, for the audience themselves to decide which narrative to believe, either the prosecution (Snow White) or the defense (Stepmother).