Regurgitated thought

Back to basics

2007-03-13T12:36:00.000Z

And a bit more research on interface design for PDA's. Still having trouble with it...
Interesting article on "Guidelines for handheld mobile device interface design here.
Obviously some more research into Shneiderman's "Goldon Rules of interface design" however this is very limited. For my head here is the list of rules that are applicable to mobile devices:
* Enable frequent users to use shortcuts
* Offer informative feedback
* Design dialogs to yield closure
* Support internal locus of control

Enable Frequent Users to Use Shortcuts
As the frequency of use increases, so does a user's desires to reduce the number of interactions
and to increase the pace of interaction. Because time is often more critical to a mobile device
user. Reducing the number of operations needed to perform regular (i.e., repetitive) tasks is a key factor in the ease of use of mobile devices.

Offer Informative Feedback
For every operator action, there should be some system feedback, such as a beep when pressing a key or an error message for an invalid input value. (This also relates back to reserach carried out a while ago on the timing of page changes. Too long and the user gets bored too short and the user doesn't realise that anything has changed.)

Design Dialogs to Yield Closure
Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. Users
should be given the satisfaction of accomplishment and completion, no matter whether they areusing desktop computers or mobile devices.

Support Internal Locus of Control
Users want to be in charge of the system and have the system respond to their actions, rather than feeling that the system is controlling them. Systems should be designed such that users initiate actions rather respond to them. This guideline is applicable both to traditional desktop
applications and mobile device applications.

The limitations of mobile design
"Mobile device interface design is more restrictive than desktop interface design because of relatively limited computing and communication power, smaller platform sizes, an always-changing context, and smaller amounts of user attention" I did at one point reserach Holland and Morse investigated on audio interface that leaves a user’s eyes and hands free for other purposes. However this is going against my need for visual design.

2007-02-28T13:23:00.000Z

"It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes."

Douglas Adams

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Back to the problem of design. Now I have sorted out the interfaces - well in that they work... and should do the trick and I've spent the week trying to make them look asthetically as pleasing as possible. And as I'm sure were all getting bored of hearing, and I'm certainly bored of typing/thinking/pondering; the screen size, this is the problem. Again. Its just too small to work with. When designing a web page, or an illustration, or whatever, you make the window size whatever size you want, size is no object (over the constraints of the screen size obviously). I keep getting drawn back to how I would design this piece in a perfect world. First off the general design I would make the background fancier - a Victorian style border, torn edges, different papers, materials, animated elements. I would use animated transitions between pages and use more illustration to show this. For the user input screens I would use a typewriter, and have the input sections as an old book - make the paper fly away when you submitted your answer. I would have the question screens with the animated elements also in a book - instead of blunt page changes I would make the viewer turn the pages of the book (yes its been done and is slightly 'passe' but still.. I like it)I would use a time machine a bit more - could have it flying around or teleporting through the pages. Maybe a Doctor Who effect - fuzzy blending with some interference to the picture. The possibility's are endless. I need to think this through more........

2007-02-28T12:07:00.001Z

2007-02-13T17:25:00.000Z

2007-01-30T19:31:00.000Z

Conversation between me and I (Well more like an argument)

So I’ve just come back after having a cheese and tomato sandwich and a cup of strong instant foreign Nescafe coffee (It’s cheaper but I’m sure stronger) after writing the last post. To save time and wastage of worry time, I’ve tried to put into words or thoughts what I’m worried about and tried to resolve them.

So what’s your first worry?
The structuring of the flash document. Up until now I wasn’t quite sure how this worked. As it is Tom’s job to put together the final programme on the IPAQ’s I’ve kind of left this thought behind however it keeps coming back usually late at night. The reason it came back this time was after writing about the hourglass animation.

So how does it work?
Well to begin with I assumed that there would be one long continuous flash document which would work like a normal one with buttons and a navigation system, using Action Script etc. However it came to me while getting the components of the sandwich together on the chopping board – Bread, cheese, Tomato, Pepper that this is not the case. Each hotspot that you walk into will obviously call up a separate SWF, JPEG, WAV, file. There is no need to panic about the programme navigation or coding as it is actually very simple.

So what’s the problem then?
This got me thinking about the remembering part of the game. The toolkit does have simple programming, whether we use this or HTML I am not sure, however the programme does need to remember certain parts. For example did you get all the clues right, did you even try them all, were have you been, etc. It then needs to store the information obviously now in a database. I am not a database kind of person. Especially not making flash work with a database system…… And if this is the case I will also have to make some of the SWF’s have multiple versions. If you have solved this this and this then you get this if not you get this etc.

And what else?
My original idea of the drag and drop for the clues might have to be abandoned also. When you make text an object you are essentially making the text a picture. A picture can no longer have words read out of it. To explain: In Photoshop when you flatten or rasterised text you are essentially flattening it. When you put the text cursor over it you can no longer edit the text; it is now a picture. It works on the same principle as Flash. To allow the letters to be dragged and dropped into the right position you have to make it an object. Therefore Flash will no longer be able to read what it says. IE we won’t be able to put it into a database because there won’t be anything there. Or can it?????

Right…. Well you need to think about that then.
Yes….

So what’s this about the hourglass then?
Well, as I have previously mentioned the hourglass will be on the screen when ever there is nothing else. Originally I wanted it to be true to time at the beginning of the game the sand is all in the top and as the game goes on the sand falls down. As I said there are already problems with the coding, in that I can only do it using JAVA. No idea how this all works on the IPAQ’a, I should but I don’t… However while congratulating myself on the realisation that there will be separate SWF files it dawned on me that to have a consistent time lapse ie one hour, the hourglass would have to be running constantly. Now I might be able to allow the SWF to know when it has being turned off, and therefore re-start at the same point however I do not know how to make the SWF think it has being running the whole time.

Oh dear….
Yes. However this got me thinking that maybe Mobile Bristol can be playing a file the whole time, yet does not display it on the screen the whole time???? I DON’T KNOW………………………………………………..
Ah ha! Tom has just come back and informed me that you can be playing files constantly without them showing. Now I just have to work out how to make the Java work……………………….

Right well what else?
The map. While thinking this through and pondering how to show it on screen I started thinking about how it shows you where you have being. This will all have to be done using multiple flash files. The Mobile toolkit will then have to do all the leg work in knowing where you have been and directing the right SWF to the screen. So I started to think how many SWF files this will entail and I worked out about 25. This does not cause problems in itself; however I’m beginning to worry about the Toolkit that is going to be directing them. Will we be able to do this? Basically without being able to work out Databases and Flash, and the programming on the toolkit were screwed.

2007-01-30T19:25:00.000Z

Current Investergation

We have decided on a few aspects of the game which is my chosen route of investigation over the next few weeks:

* We need a map for the player to be able to see at any time, or at least some of the time. Due to the constraints of the screen I need to find a way in which the viewer can just view segments of the map. Need to think about the best way in which to achieve this segmentation. As there is no keyboard the usual method of pressing minus and plus cannot be used.
* The screen of the IPAQ needs to be looked at. The size 5.5cm/7.5cm does not leave much to be worked with. The colours will be important as well the contrasts. As the game will be played at night (to reduce sunlight problems, reflections etc) this is also something which might possibly cause issues.
* All of the clues will have to be entered into the programme by the player. This means setting up a ‘password’ style flash page. This in itself is not a problem however the way in which the player will do this is. Again lack of keyboard means that there will have to be another way around this. First thoughts are drag and drop, but then there’s the screen limitations etc.
* The Hourglass animation which will be on the screen when nothing else is, to show the passing of the time and to remind the player that there is a limited time span. Have figured out how to time it so it can last an hour however it relies on JAVA which I’m not sure the mobile Flash can support. Have no idea where this information can be found. Another way would be to not use JAVA and find another way around the time issue. A clock would be simply, however the animation of the sand running out is causing me sleepless nights. I might have to resort to just using a simple timer/clock which is going against the original design. Or simply having an animation of the hourglass which bares no resemblance to the actual passing of time. Every 15 minutes a ‘real’ timer will flash up as well as a voice file telling you that you only have such and such time left.
* Illustrations of the ‘other reality’. Due to the screen being so small, and the design verses sound issue which I will go into again at a later date, there is only going to be a few drawn illustrations. Although I agree with this (The viewer can hardly run around and be staring at the screen at the same time) I would have preferred less movement and more design and narrative but that’s just me! Most people will be interested in the puzzles and not how it looks (How people disappoint me…) However going back to the main issue; these will be drawn from taking the surrounding landscape and changing the buildings and the way it looks. I need to research this and decide what is going to be in these drawings. Preferably I would take my inspiration from the narrative, but the narrative is not going to cover aspects like this. So for example we want an illustration of the docks while you are walking along. The river will be there and the walkway but everything else can change. Have being toying with a few ideas. Pirate ship on the river, boats coming and going (easy to animate) People walking past etc (Mostly using stop frame animation – Simple drawings put in a sequence to represent time passing) Anyway need to research this.
* Film aspects: we won’t be filming the people speaking for a while however I want to look into effects to make them blend in more with the illustrations. Was very very briefly toying with the idea of rotroscoping them, which would be great, but having already done this before, and nearly driving myself mad in the process, plus there simply isn’t enough time, this has being abandoned. But like I mentioned I would still like the style to be vaguely similar. The original idea was to have them filmed on a mobile phone. This was to give the viewer the sense of the urgency in which they were made and the general DIY feel of the game. I would still like to keep this idea- however make slight changes so it can fit in more with the general design. Possibly just a Victorian border or simply a ‘browning’ or sepia mask to keep the colour schemes generally the same.

This is where I have got to. All this work, apart from the illustrations will hopefully be resolved in the next few weeks. Once I have gathered rough SWF files of all my ideas I will try them out on the IPAQ and see how it all works.

I will report my findings.

2007-01-30T11:30:00.000Z

Illustration style: experiments

The Hourglass: Has been made into an animation, although is not time set as the only way I can figure out how to do that involves Java and I'm not convinced the hand held can accomidate this....

Illustration style of people: I have currently being messing around with the levels of colour, in the next few days I will put them on the IPAQ and determine which ones are the easiest to see at night time, the effect of street lights of the screen (reflections etc).

LIFE A users manual: Georges Perec

2007-01-10T12:43:00.000Z

The ultimate truth of jigsaw puzzles:

"Despite appearances, puzzling is not a solitary game: every move the puzzler makes, the puzzle maker has made before; every piece the puzzler picks up, and picks up again, and studies and strokes, every combination he tries, and tries a second time, every blunder and every insight, each hope and each discouragement have all been designed, calculated, and decided by the other."

A wonderful book and its made me cross. Such an amazing idea and although the idea is not a new one its still blows my mind! It uses the 'Knights Tour' which I did look at last year for my fairy tale project. I'm still at the moment looking into this as it is how I plan to write my interactive novel but more about that when I finish this MA. The Knight's Tour is a mathematical problem involving a knight on a chessboard. The knight is placed on the empty board and, moving according to the rules of chess, must visit each square exactly once. There are several billion solutions to the problem, of which about 122,000,000 have the knight finishing on a square from which it attacks the starting square. Such a tour is described as closed. Otherwise the tour is open Many variations on this topic have been studied by mathematicians, including Euler, over the centuries using:

differently sized boards
two-player games based on this idea
problems using slight variations on the way the knight moves.

The pattern made by a Knight's Tour has often been used as a literary constraint. The earliest instance of this is found in Rudrata's Kavyalankara written during the 9th century. (Wiki)

Obviously Alice through the looking glass is a fine example although I'm not sure if it would be under the rules of the knights tour. Alice is simply a chess game played out with narrative, I did recently recreate the game to see if it would work and it does. Another idea which I'm jelous of....And along the same lines as Alice, Italo Calvino The castle of crossed Destinies - My favourite of Calvinos (Apart from his short stories) Which is written using tarot cards. The narrator of the book is a traveler who arrives at an enchanted castle where all who enter are struck mute. After a silent dinner, the host spreads the Visconti-Sforza Tarot deck on the table and the guests lay out cards as a means of relating their adventures and telling their life stories. The Tavern of Crossed Destinies is Part 2 of this book. The device is the same - mute travelers who tell their stories with tarot cards, this time using the Tarot de Marseilles by Grimaud. Instead of laying their cards out in rows, they arrange them in irregular blocks with much overlap from one story to the next. As you can see there is scope for this to be made into an interactive narrative or at least use the idea of the cards - tarot or not tarot. Amazing.

The Hourglass

2006-12-06T13:44:00.000Z

As the game is an hour long I have been thinking of how to show the players time running out. I came up with the hour glass - known as the hour glass as it was difficult to make one that could go on longer then an hour! Weirdly after a bit of research they were actually invented the same time as the mecanical clock. They can only be used as a basic means of telling the time. If you were to mark off five minutes on the hourglass each time you ran it, it would be slightly different. They can only tell you when the hour is up.

"Two technologies, one simple, one complex, running side by side -- the clock making a continuum of time, the hourglass segmenting it -- the clock speaking of timelessness, the hourglass showing us finality -- the clock evoking things celestial, the hourglass reminding us of base earth. They are Yin and Yang"

The hourglass, whose sands run out, was a thing of this base earth. It became a metaphor for the running-out-of-sands we all inevitably face. It became, and it remains, a universal symbol of death. This is interesting because I've been thinking of using one in the mechanical heart also. The persons life expectancy dependent on your class, IQ etc is all set when the heart is first placed inside the person. This can be terminated at any time - a simple flick of a switch and thats it your gone. Within our story the rebals have infiltrated there hearts they are no longer on the system.

Drawing of the mechanical heart - research

2006-11-30T12:57:00.000Z

Am currently trying to design the mechanical heart. I envisage cogs, hammers, levers pulleys some sort of clock work or maybe an hour glass? Victorian obviously! Would like to animate it in Flash to have as part of the introduction while the GPS is loading. Really need to have the narrative now to be able to start properly.... Designing when you don;t fully know what your designing for is tricky. But I can work on aspects of the animation which I know will be in there. Have started on the logo design as well as the general design. The characters will have to be done at a later date when the narrative is fully constructed and the relevant parts are split up into their relevant sections. How many drawings will there be? How many animations? How much written text? How much video? How much will need to be on one page or screen? Audio how much written text will images go with this also - will they be imperative the story or merely an extra should the viewer take the time to find them? Hidden parts? Extra bits of information for the more enquisative? The website? How much back information? The list is endless....

Neptune/Poseidon

2006-11-27T15:43:00.000Z

Prehistory

In Greek mythology, Poseidon (Greek: Ποσειδών) was the god of the sea, as well as horses earthquakes. He figured as Rodon in Illyrian, Nethuns in Etruscan, and Neptune in Roman mythology. and, as "Earth-Shaker", of

In Mycenean culture, Poseidon's importance was greater than that of Zeus. At Pylos he is the chief god, if surviving Linear B clay tablets can be trusted; the name PO-SE-DA-WO-NE (Poseidon) occurs with greater frequency than does DI-U-JA (Zeus). A feminine variant, PO-SE-DE-IA, is also found, indicating the existence of a now-forgotten consort goddess. Tablets from Pylos record sacrificial goods destined for "the Two Queens and Poseidon" and to "the Two Queens and the King". The most obvious identification for the "Two Queens" is with Demeter and Persephone, or their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods. Poseidon is already identified as "Earth-Shaker"— E-NE-SI-DA-O-NE— in Mycenaean Knossos ^[1], a powerful attribute where earthquakes had accompanied the collapse of the Minoan palace-culture. In the heavily sea-dependent Mycenean culture, no connection between Poseidon and the sea has yet surfaced; among the Olympians it was determined by lot that he should rule over the sea (Hesiod, Theogony 456): the god preceded his realm.

Demeter and Poseidon's names are linked in one Pylos tablet, where they appear as PO-SE-DA-WO-NE and DA-referred to by the epithets Enosichthon, Seischthon and Ennosigaios, all meaning "earth-shaker" and referring to his role in causing earthquakes. Poseidon was a major civic god of several cities: in Athens, he was second only to Athena in importance; while in Corinth and many cities of Magna Graecia he was the chief god of the polis.

According to Pausanias, Poseidon was one of the caretakers of the Oracle at Delphi before Olympian Apollo took it over. Apollo and Poseidon worked closely in many realms: in colonization, for example, Apollo provided the authorization to go out and settle from Delphi, while Poseidon watched over the colonists on their way, and provided the lustral water for the foundation-sacrifice. Xenophon's Anabasis describes a groups of Spartan soldiers singing to Poseidon a paean - a kind of hymn normally sung for Apollo.

Like Dionysus and the Maenads, Poseidon also caused certain forms of mental disturbance. One Hippocratic text says that he was blamed for certain types of epilepsy.^[2]

Homeric Hymn to Poseidon

The hymn to Poseidon included among the Homeric Hymns is a brief invocation, a seven-line introduction that addresses the god as both "mover of the earth and barren sea, god of the deep who is also lord of Helicon and wide Aegae^[3], and specificies his two-fold nature as an Olympian: "a tamer of horses and a saviour of ships."

Role in society

Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a safe voyage, sometimes drowning horses as a sacrifice. In his benign aspect, Poseidon created new islands and offered calm seas. When offended or ignored, he struck the ground with his trident and caused chaotic springs, earthquakes, drownings and shipwrecks.

In art

Poseidon's chariot was pulled by a hippocampus or horses that could ride on the sea. He was associated with dolphins and three-pronged fish spears (tridents).

He lived in a palace on the ocean floor, made of coral and gems.

In Rome

Neptune was worshiped by the Romans primarily as a horse god, Neptune Equester, patron of horse-racing. He had a temple near the race tracks in Rome (built in 25 BC), the Circus Flaminius, as well as one in the Campus Martius, where on July 23, the Neptunalia was observed

Have been doing some research on Neptune. Am currently working on the logo, and design of the piece. Wanted to know what he was excitly. Obviousy taken from Wikipeda so not the most reliable but its somewhere to start.

Images will be posed soon

I'm not shallow

2006-10-09T20:22:00.000+01:00

Thought I should mention what I intend this thing to look like. It being my main concern.
So Victorian. Maybe a bit of Edward Gorey thrown in, in that I mean maybe keep traditional dress or some aspects of tradictional dress so I could have a skateboarder drawn in a victorian style with a cap on but still keep aspects of Victorian-ness.

I want to look into Victorian typography and also there graphics. Due to my interest of books this is where I started.

The black and white line drawing that cunjures Victorian in mind was mainly down to the cost of producing in colour. "As printing developed from a hand craft to a technology during the Victorian era, so book illustration also changed to satisfy the demands of a growing readership eager for 'thousands of copies to be multiplied without any deterioration'." Images in books became a central feature of Victorian culture, and today we still learn from there typography and design. They were at once prestigious and popular, a kind of entertainment, but also a place for pondering fundamental questions about history, geography, language, time, commerce, design, and vision itself.

By the late nineteenth century the process relief line block could achieve a deeper black and purer white than any obtainable previously in the hand press era. Its often easy to forget the different styles that they used. The problem is, is that I want people to instantly recognise that it is Victorian. It will play a large part in setting the scene for the game - Victorian England, Fog, Haze, Smoke, Industry, Slavery, The Rich vs the Poor etc.

"Start at the beginning"

2006-10-06T18:01:00.000+01:00

Right need to start doing something first off we need to decide what needs to be done and then in what order, will be making a Gant chart as instructed, but this is different if you don't know where to begin.
Things to be done}
GAME:-
Narrative
Interactivity
Interface
Design
Gaming
Codes/puzzles
Location
IPAQS
Sensors, GPS, RFID, Infa Red
Speech

WEBSITE:-

Design
Structure
Content
Separate puzzles?
Links to games
Databases/HML
Flash?
Interactivity
Video?
Speech?

After talking through things today we've got to start on the structure. Once we have this we can move onto the other parts. Obviously my concern is the narrative. Breaking it up so that it works. One thing were thinking of is IF statements. However I kind of feel that this cheating. This isn't working out the interactivity, its simply programming to make it all work. The structure works in triangles. Each point of the triangle is a part of the narrative or a clue. You have to make up the triangles in order to make the final shape. The viewer will be shown there path as they walk around. This will become clearer once I post the map with the triangles on it. The problem were having is that depending on your path you might complete three or four triangles at the same time. This will mean that your bombarded with narrative and clues. We don't want this.

Notes to start things off

2006-10-06T17:50:00.000+01:00

Right things are going to be differ rent this year. No point thinking that this blog can be used to show my research mainly, and politely because people don't have time to read it..... So it will be used for me to write on and get my ideas across to myself. This way I can cut and paste when I need something for my sketch book, or essays or reports. Also to keep websites that have been and will be again useful. Will also keep notes to myself on it, rather then sticky notes which fall off things and get stuck to the bottom of my shoe, and generally get ignored, or my diary which again gets ignored..... Or my various "Things to do" notebooks.... Or my Calender......

Conversation between Me and I

2006-10-04T13:40:00.000+01:00

So what have you been thinking about?
I've been thinking about the problems that a joint project might create

In what way?
The problem of basically creating 2 separate projects essentially from one. I'm worried that were both be doing the same things.... It will get messy and will be hard for us to prove or differentiate which parts or sections that we personally have done.

Any ideas on how to get around this?
Well, I need to talk this through with some people, but I'm thinking that Tom gives me a brief. I'm basically being Sub-contracted. The project is Tom's idea - I will be visualizing the idea.

So you won't come up with any ideas?
No, this is the problem. I've got ideas to help with the narrative. I've studied interactive narrative/modular narrative/non linear narrative/ hypertext narrative. It is in fact my primary interest and reasons for doing this MA

So why aren't you doing an interactive narrative then!?!
Well there's a reason for that! I did an interactive narrative for my first year project which I thoroughly enjoyed. However I'm no writer... I used fairytales last time which really worked.. What I'd like to do is use the work of Madeleine De Scubery but what with it being about 72 volumes, in French and only available at the Bodleian Library this can't happen not at the moment anyways. But going back to this project I want to feel like I've accomplished more then a website essentially. Combining narrative and a new technology is exciting and will stretch me more then a website could.

So why this project?
I can combine narrative, illustration, design, web-design yet stretch myself on a technical level using databases, GPS and IPAQS.

So why not do the project yourself, in that I mean on your own?
I consider myself a designer I'm interested in aesthetics. When I started this course this was my aim - to work on a joint project, let someone else worry about the nitty gritty and I can draw and illustrate things! This way I get to use an interesting technology, learn how to design for a new medium but not let my slight lack of technical skills hold me back. I always find with new technology's that there made purely to use a new technology, they have great ideas but to put it simply look crap.... As I mentioned on a review on the bath abbey exerpition the idea was great you walked in front of screens and videos would play - the characters would turn and look at you etc. This was all very well but the design was awful, The idea behind these videos was awful, in sort the whole concept of the project was.. Awful. We want to make something which yes is playing around with a relatively new process and medium but how it looks will be just as important.

Starting things off - 2nd year final project.

2006-10-04T13:38:00.000+01:00

Neptune’s Trident: The project title
Brief Overview: 120 years ago inventor Moses Nebo (anagram) invented a time machine which went wrong. Splitting reality into three. A group in the other reality is trying to bind ours. This would lead to our reality slowing down, stopping, and then running backwards. There are spies in our reality, but also a group of us in the other. There are 1 hour windows to communicate/ help. Clues, puzzles, anagrams feature heavily.
Group Project: Myself and Tom Bennet
What it is and Aims: To create a fully functioning interactive game to last for one hour/or series of one hour games to be played in the centre of Bristol on IPAQS. Also to create a website/interactive novel linked to the game.

Websites

2006-10-04T13:07:00.000+01:00

Never- ending story

2006-09-22T20:13:00.000+01:00

2006-06-01T13:10:00.000+01:00

Assignment six:

Make a proposal for the future development of your practise in which you identify the following:

Key themes and interests.
An articulation of the domain in which you are working with reference to selected practitioners.
Proposed strategies for the development of your work
Bibliography

"A book is more than a verbal structure or series of verbal structures; it is the dialogue it establishes with its reader and the intonation it imposes upon his voice and the changing and durable images it leaves in his memory. A book is not an isolated being: it is a relationship, an axis of innumerable relationships."

Borges -- Essay: "A Note on (toward) Bernard Shaw"

“One of my key interests is what happens to texts when they are put on the Internet and “The effect of new media on the transmission of various narrative forms.” For example Fairy Tales, Comics, and ghost stories - the list is endless. Within narrative, the Internet represents a return to the manuscript style (or even oral culture) where the reader is expected to interact rather then just be a passive recipient. The examples I gave previously are all forms of storytelling that require a certain level of interactivity, for example when reading comics you navigate your way through them, in an almost intuitive way. Fairy Tales and Ghost Stories started as an oral form of storytelling and weren’t in fact recorded until the late 18th century when obviously their style, and therefore meaning, were changed and subverted. New Media and the enhanced ability to interact with the piece in front of you has again changed meaning and context, and imposes questions on whether these ‘new’ versions have dramatically changed these examples as well as questions on the best way in which to demonstrate and transcribe these narrative and illustrated texts.”

This was and is my proposal for future research and practise. Along the way I have researched various practitioners in the field of narrative, immersion, hypertext, digital storytelling, and illustration with symbolism. Narrative has been my key field of interest for reasons I’m going to illustrate.

At the start of this project I set myself the afore-mentioned question: “The effect of new media on the transmission of various narrative forms” in particular fairytales, and it was from here that I branched out and tried to see what other subsections I would need to examine in order to answer this question. These became my five criteria and have moderately stayed the same. These are: Narrative, Immersion, Illustration, Navigation, and Design. These five criteria are very diverse and it was hard to focus on one without forgetting the others. As this evaluation is intended to review what I have been pursuing in the last few months, I feel it important to state my dissatisfaction at having to create these criteria. Within all of these words that I have chosen there are sub categories leading off into other categories having their own sub categories.

My first port of call was narrative, this being the densest of my criteria as well as my working practise, one of the subcategories being non-linear narrative or modular narrative or, per say, “normal” narrative. I’ve always found the art of constructing a good narrative a hard one. Maybe, not being a writer, I find it quite overwhelming how people manage to achieve this successfully. To add into the mix a non-linear narrative is particularly difficult and a hard thing to get one’s head around. Writers I have looked at include theorists as well as practitioners including Madeleine De Scuderie, Hester Pulter, Borges, Edgar Ellan Poe, Scott McCloud, with theorists such as Murrey, Manovich, Miller, Hillman Curtis, Susan Miller, Racheal Greene, James Elkins and Christiane Paul. Most of these were just for the non-linear narratives, interesting narratives, and theories on narrative not just non-linear ones, and how to get narrative onto the web, although some were reused for my other criteria. I also had to examine specifically fairytale writers and theorists to help me with my actual working practise. These include: Basile (including various translators of his work), Grimm, Perrault, Angela Carter, Apuleus, Kenneth Graham, Arthur Conan Doyle, Brian Froud his writings, theorists; Marina Warner, Vladimir Propp, and Max Luthi. As you can see, there are numerous writers’ and critics’ works explored, and as all of these have been mentioned throughout my research journal, I do not feel that it is imperative to discuss them here. I will include specifically the artefacts and writings that I looked at in my bibliography, along with any practitioners that I have neglected to mention here.

For my project of creating an interactive fairytale, I used the work of Basile fairly extensively. I looked at various translations of his work, leading me to my navigation and narrative structure. I found four translations of Basiles work, all of them very different in content and meaning. I derived my narrative structure by using a linear narrative combining multiple versions as the way in which the user gets from start to finish. The idea is that you still travel in a linear fashion, however by navigating yourself through the various versions yourself, almost editing the text according to how you feel you would like the story to progress. For example, you might start at a grittier Basile version of a fairytale, and then decide you want something a bit lighter for a while and travel down the Grimms’ version of events. Towards the end of the narrative you might wish for a bit more fantasy and imagination so you travel into Perrault’s version. As you are creating the same fairytale, the beginning is always the beginning and the end is always the end, how you get there is your choice. From reading theorists’ work, as well as reading every single fairytale that I could get my hands on, I began notice the apparent migration of characters from one fairytale to another. For example, the wicked stepmother originally started off as a wicked wife. In the original Perrault version of Sleeping Beauty it does not end when the heroine wakes up but the story continues, with the evil step-mother of the prince trying to kill her to reclaim her son. However, in the preceding Basile version (which is the one Perrault, Grimm, Walt Disney etc. use) it is in fact the wife of the prince who tries to kill her. It is plausible that in later versions it was deemed too risky to have bigamy within these tales, and so this character was changed to a step-mother. But it gets more complicated then that! In the Grimm version we do not see this chain of events as it ends before all of this can happen. But Grimm, liking this ‘evil step-mother’ character decided to put her into Cinderella, in which the original Basile version does not contain. FOOTNOTE: SOURCE

The central idea of the project became to combine Vladimir Propp’s observations on character and storyline, while showing the migrating characters from the various versions. So, you could have all versions of all the fairytales. All the narratives could be based on the characters, where a character changes or metamorphoses into a different one, the current fairytale would change. I decided against this due to its prohibitive complexity but it is an idea I would like to go back to and extend. Not necessarily just within fairytales, but as an idea for another type of interactive narrative. The idea that an interactive narrative can still have a linear structure and be successful is what I am most pleased with, and this idea I will take with me for my concluding practical project, and is what I have gained from this module personally.

I’ve continually looked at what is available on the web in terms of interactive narrative and one thing struck me: the type of narrative that is used. Writers in this genre often (and I say this with caution, as not always) use a very ‘poetic’ type of prose, (this could lead me on to a discussion of whether poetry is narrative - something which has always been a bone of contention amongst theorists - but I will resist). The prose can be obscure and/or very confusing (I sometimes suspect, in a hope to make you not notice the bad narrative flow!) and, using a terrible expression, “airy fairy”. I do not like this type of prose (not in books, never mind on the web) and this was something I wanted to work against. I like fantasy, I like to escape, and this was my reason for choosing fairytales, even if it would give me problems later on.

How I am going to progress with this I am as yet unsure. As I have mentioned previously in this journal, Madelaine De Scuderies ideas on narrative are what I really want to research, explore and ultimately “copy”. She used fantasy, and the relationships between the chapters that you decided to read was what led you to your own personal ending. This really fascinates me and if the funding was available, I would like to get hold of a copy to put on the web. Unfortunately, I do not think that this is possible.

Next I looked at “navigation” and I will combine this with my “design” criteria, and as I have already mentioned this I will be brief. The navigation of my piece comes from the narrative, which is how it should be. By researching fairytales, and reading a great deal of them, I came up with my navigation system. Although I am not completely happy with it, and as of yet am not sure if it really works, it has certainly led me into how I will complete my next project. The design came from the structure, generally speaking. I wanted the navigational design to be part of the piece. I didn’t want the way the user interacts with the piece to be an after thought from the design point of view. Again from reading, researching, and looking I noticed that navigation structures were often on the outside of the image or words. In contrast, I wanted and I feel that I have achieved, the design of the navigation to fit with the rest of the illustrations and text. It is an integral part of the piece.

For future study I will go back and look at more ways in which to design navigation, specifically looking at Scott McCloud, whose ideas on interactive comics I did not fully explore. I want to spend time going through his online comics and working out the parts that really work and the parts that don’t. Although he has written a book, which I have read, outlining his theories and ideas, I feel that the only way to implement his ideas into my own projects is by experimenting with what works and what doesn’t. Like Vladimir Propp’s writings on structure, some ideas work in practice and some don’t and I don’t wish to use an idea just because it has been written down: sometimes these ideas work in theory but not in practice. By using these ideas I will be able to see how to progress my own ideas on navigation, design, and navigational design.

Illustration is quite a small part of my research conducted so far. I have looked at artists such as Paula Rego, who specifically looked at fairytales for a series of portraits. I like her rather “dirty” analysis of them, they’re modern yet still true to the tale she is wishing to depict. This was something which I wanted to do on my own illustrations and it was interesting to see how she achieved this through body language and expression. Other artists such as Kiki Smith, Terry Winderling, Brian Froud and Alan Lee also look at myth and fairytales.
Immersion is also a key part of my research, and something which I am going to continue to develop;

Hypertext systems should take about 1/4 second to move from one place to another. If the delay is longer, people may be distracted; if the delay is much longer, people will stop using the system. If the delay is much shorter, people may not realize that the display has changed
Arkinsons Law.

As you can see there is a very fine line in keeping the user stimulated and happy. Came across Arkinsons Law quite late on in my project, and although it was written in 1993 which is terrably out of date I still think its important to look at in more detail. I think this gives me a reason to learn databases and how to impliment them into Flash. Databases can carry much more imformation, and allow you to have a quicker retrieval of the information. At the moment my interactive fairytale runs much too slow and I wouldn’t even wait for it. This is my key problem which has to be addressed for my final project.

My proposed strategies are as follows:-

(1.) To Learn HML and Databases.
(2.) To read more theory on navigational design, as well as experimenting with some of Scott McClouds theorys and ideas.
(3.) Completely finish my interactive fairytale and get it published at the “Eastgate Serious Hypertext” website
(4.) Start to write my own narrative based on ideas by Madeleine De Scuderie and Vladimir Propp.
(5.) Research Mobile technologys and the implications that this will have on the general design of the page.

Bibliography: Key texts and articles that I have looked at. Throughout my online journal I have also stated other sources and images.

Books:

(1.) “The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm”(Norton Critical Editions). Jack Zipes.
(2.) “From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers.” Marina Warner.
(3.) “The Classic Fairy Tales: Texts, Criticism” (Norton Critical Editions). Maria M. Tatar.
(4.) “The Blue Fairy Book” (Dover Storybooks for Children). Complied by Andrew Lang
(5.) “The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales”. Brothers Grimm
(6.) “Faeries” (25th Anniversary Edition). by Brian Froud (Illustrator), Alan Lee (Illustrator)
(7.) “Paula Rego” (Paperback). John McEwen.
(8.) “Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace” (Paperback). Janet Murrey
(9.) “Digital Storytelling : A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment.” Carolyn Handler Miller.
(10.) “Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling” Chris Crawford
(11.) “Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction”
Andrew Glassner
(12.) “Digital Art (World of Art).” Christine Paul
(13.) “Complete Tales & Poems (Vintage)”: Edgar Allan Poe

Websites:

New Media Lab:- http//nml.ru.ac.za
Wikipedia:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Fad interest:- http://www.fadresearch.com/about.html
Interactivity pdf:- http://dag.idi.ntnu.no/interactivity.pdf
Scott McCloud:- http://www.scottmccloud.com
A 24 hour digital comic:- http://castlezzt.net/24hourcomic.cfm
A 24 hour digital comic:- http://members.aol.com/opheliab/24hour1.html
Online comics:- http://www.webcomicsnation.com
Fairytales:- http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/index.html
Word Power:- http://www.word-power.co.uk/catalogue/0748617701
Illustrated Borges:- http://www.themodernword.com/borges/kernan/kernan.html
Serious hypertext:- http://www.eastgate.com/Guidelines.html
Flash help:- http://www.flashkit.com/index.shtml
Ernest W Adams:- http://www.designersnotebook.com/
Paula Rego:- http://library.thinkquest.org/17016/frames.htm
Janet Murrey Links:- http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~murray/
Neil Gaimon:- http://www.neilgaimon.com
Madeleine de Scudery’s:- http://www.femspec.org/samples/salon.html
Lev Manovich:- http://www.manovich.com
Kiki Smith:- http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2003/kikismith/
Mark Stephan Meadows:- http://bore.com/
Ed Rusca:- http://www.crownpoint.com/html/home.html
Edward Gorey:- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/gorey.html
Vladimir Propp:- http://www.brown.edu/Courses/FR0133/Fairytale_Generator/propp.html
Borges:- http://www.themodernword.com/borges/
Virginia Woolf:- http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1455/is_200505/ai_n15061943
Doris Lessing:- http://lessing.redmood.com/
Dave McKean:- http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/
Brian Froud:- http://www.worldoffroud.com/index.html
Terri Winderling:- http://www.endicott-studio.com/bios/bioterri.html
Marina Warner:- http://www.marinawarner.com/stories.html
Ted Nelson:- http://xanadu.com.au/ted/
Alan Key:- http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/GASCH.KAY.HTML
HML help:- http://www.3schools.com/index.asp
Databases help:- http://www.oreilly.com/
Macromedia:- http://www.macromedia.com
Six principles of narrative:- http://www.kleene-star.net/sixprinciples/authorship/index.html
Use of narrative in interactive design:- http://www.kleene-star.net/sixprinciples/authorship/index.html
Interactive narrative podcast a look at technology:- http://www.odeo.com/channel/6803/view
The book is dead:- http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472111140-01.pdf
Authoring tool for non linear narratives:- http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472111140-01.pdf
Bad hypertext novel:- http://www.unknownhypertext.com/trip.htm
Network performance:- http://www.maryflanagan.com/articles/navigatingnarrative.pdf
Database of virtual art:- http://www.virtualart.at/common/recentDocument.do
IN-DUCE, INTRO-DUCE:- http://www.in-duce.net/intro/
Designer:- http://www.soulbath.com/main.html
Designer:- http://www.hardcandymovie.com/experience/
The dark crystal official comics adaptation:- http://www.lauraknauth.com/MovieCollectibles/Marvel.html
Fairytale narratives:- http://www.public.iastate.edu/%7Elhagge/newpage3.htm
The Endicott studio journal:- http://www.endicott-studio.com/
Fairytale research:- http://www.skyehidesigns.com/mainbook.html
Tate gallery:- http://www.skyehidesigns.com/mainbook.htmlBasile fairytales:- http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/index.html

Force of totality revisited

2006-05-30T16:22:00.000+01:00

Have previously mentioned Poes force of totality but I found this extract of the article particually interesting:

Here then the poem may be said to have had its beginning- at the end where all works of art should begin- for it was here at this point of my preconsiderations that I first put pen to paper in the composition of the stanza:

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil- prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us- by that God we both adore- Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore- Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore." Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

I composed this stanza, at this point, first that, by establishing the climax, I might the better vary and graduate, as regards seriousness and importance, the preceding queries of the lover, and secondly, that I might definitely settle the rhythm, the metre, and the length and general arrangement of the stanza, as well as graduate the stanzas which were to precede, so that none of them might surpass this in rhythmical effect. Had I been able in the subsequent composition to construct more vigorous stanzas I should without scruple have purposely enfeebled them so as not to interfere with the climacteric effect.

RESEARCH MODULE: plans for the future

2006-05-28T12:15:00.000+01:00

Where will I take this research and my plans for the future

I am not completely sure where I will go in the future. I'm still interested in interactive narratives- mainly because I see that anything, in anything I mean websites, online portfolios, etc would benefit from a bit of narrative. Why should a website be so informative? Websites are generally there to sell things, whether that be a person, a product, a book, a CD, a company etc ( obviously there are some exceptions online banking being one) advertisements on the television usually have a plot, a short story, a narrative flow why should websites be any different?

Over the summer I plan to completely finish my interactive fairytale and try and get it published on the web, as well as creating a new online portfolio that has a narrative. A narrative about me. You will go on a journey- see various pieces of work along the way and navigate yourself around my working practice. I want to make my portfolio an experience, you might miss some of my work on a first visit but it will be there for you later, should you come back. I'm going to go back and look at Scott Mclouds ideas on interface design.

My final project next year will again be a interactive narrative using mobile devices and GPS. I also want to include XML databases mainly so I can learn how to integrate this into Flash. This project has been a tester, its made me see what I need to concentrate on, as well as testing them as I go through, something I lacked during the last few months. I also want to include speech- I spend a lot of time listening to audio tapes and podcasts something which I love to do. Have been thinking of making an audio story combining interactivity, image, animation and text. You can spend your time sat on the bus listening and watching a story on your phone. Maybe this is only something I am interested in but I think it has scope. As I have previously mentioned I would love to transcribe a 17th century authors work Madelaine DeScubareys work- her novels and salon plays are far to long for anyone to read and as I have already mentioned they are perfect for the web. I don't think this is plausible for a eight month project its simply too large maybe for a PHD in later life! I do plan to go to Oxfords Bodlian Library and see some of her work in the flesh. I would like to use a famous authors work for this type of project, Terry Prachatt has a lot of audio material, and as fantasy is my preferred choice of genre he is perfect, maybe I can get him to write me an interactive story!!!! That is where I have got for next year we will have to see..........

Brain ticking over and Akscyn's law.....

2006-05-28T11:38:00.000+01:00

Have been working hard the last few days and it would appear that however well prepared you are, something always comes alongs and bites you in the back or your foot or your armpit- somewhere unexpected.

Hypertext systems should take about 1/4 second to move from one place to another. If the delay is longer, people may be distracted; if the delay is much longer, people will stop using the system. If the delay is much shorter, people may not realize that the display has changed

As you can see there is a fine line- a very fine line..............................

DESIGN:Back to the design a few more problems have come along. It all takes far to long to load. At this late stage there is very little I can do, however this is something which I have to address on my next project. Another problem which has presented itself- which I was aware of but have been ignoring is that there is simply too much text on each page. If we go back and look at my navigation structure you can vagly see that there are 6 sections to each narrative strand- anymore and the text doesn't corralate. This is fine for some of the strands but others have got two pages worth of text that all have to fit on a page. As I have mentioned was going to have text coming up as the reader reads but I didn't really want to have to include this. I can read much quicker then these techniques ever cater for and on the other side of the coin some people might not be even to read a really slow driven one. I came a cross a wonderful website for which I can't find now in which it went completly on how you clicked ie sometimes people are quite clicking mad and click adhock, other people are more restrained. Sorry that goes off the point... The point is maybe you could click on the text to get to the next part of text?????????? This is making it more complicated though for the reader to get there heads around??? Would you need to be able to navigate back on yourself? I didn't want this to happen.... Might have to do the text appearing thing damn really didn't want to do that..... more later on this subject when its done.

Two More Characters

2006-05-25T15:47:00.000+01:00

Wise Man

The Great Lord

2006-05-23T14:27:00.000+01:00

Can't find the illustrators name, I found them in an old book thats gone slightly moldy but thought they were beautiful. Such definition of line and style.

Don't know who there by

2006-05-23T14:26:00.000+01:00

Sleeping Beauty- Paula Rego style.

2006-05-22T09:46:00.000+01:00

Signs

2006-05-20T11:40:00.000+01:00

Typography

2006-05-20T11:35:00.000+01:00

The art of book making...

2006-05-16T13:34:00.000+01:00

2006-05-15T16:29:00.000+01:00

For the Illustrations:

(!) Character Assassinations (!)

Prince Charming:

By anyone’s standards a rather despicable character. Bigamist, Rapist and as the name overtly suggests rather a charmer. I want to depict a rather slimy, man about town, larger lout.

Queen Mother:

I’ve gone for an older woman, mainly due to her taking so long to get pregnant as well as using spells to conceive. Rather drab, grey spiteful women who lacks life and vitality. Main interest is reading Mills and Boom- plans to write one.

King/ Lord:

Again I’ve opted for an older man. I’m thinking much more approachable in mannerisms, loud and pompous with an almost manic, drunken smiling expression. I think he’s verging on alcoholic and narcotic tendencies, as well as having a Freudian view of his daughter.

Sleeping Beauty + Thalia:

A bit of a slut even aged 13, virginity still in tact doubtful. Brassy, loud, spoilt and beautiful in a cheap kind of way, lots of red lipstick. Sexual to the extreme, manipulator and strangely large thighs….

Evil Fairy:

An ancient, arthritic, hacking hag could be three hundred or nine hundred. A 50 a day habit and skin to match. Preferred drink is Gin. Good sense of humour. On benefits, makes a bit of money on the side organizing Frog racing.

Good fairy:

Very slight, elfish, rather plain- nothing to write home about. Middle to late twenties, a terrible suck up with an irritating high pitched soprano voice. She blends into the background and has terrible clothes sense.

Children/ Sun and Moon:

Over-weight children, rather charming and boisterous.

Evil Wife/ Step-mother:

Evil which is what one imagines! Thin lipped, common in appearance- lots of nylon, smokes thin cigars and addicted to valium.

Ticking over

2006-05-15T16:25:00.000+01:00

As you can see I’ve rather neglected this blog the last few weeks. Have been concentrating on sketches and the final images although the time is now to sit back and reflect on what is working and what isn’t….

First off notes on a discussion recently had: DESIGN: I feel I’ve rather neglected this part of the project the biggest issue at this point of the course is narrative. How to successfully create an interactive, immersive and satisfying narrative that…In simple terms “Works”. Although I’m pleased with the images that I’ve already created this is not a graphic novel, comic, book this is supposed to be a different experience combining movement- organic movement ( which was what I originally wanted) progression of design and simple graphical animation. I sometimes feel that I look at this project in a traditional print way I need to find new ways to apply traditional strategies of appreciation. Form, Balance, colour, light, surface, space, iconography, representation these and other components are our customary understanding of art and design. I need to think of these and other elements to create a successful digital piece of design. Not sure if that makes sense but it does in my head. I can see what I want but how to accomplish this is proving most difficult. As was pointed out this is a prototype and all these issues do not have to be resolved right now. I think what I’m finding most difficult is working on the illustrations and then putting it all together with the moving text, various pages, the “organic” navigation system, the zoom and drag function and now I’m writing this the actually design in flash. One such question is when you zoom into the page and then drag yourself around does the navigation system disappear so the user has to zoom out to be able to progress to the next section of narrative? Will this effect immersion? Will people understand this? Should I just not bother with the zoom and drag? (While were on this its very difficult designing in Photoshop and thinking of the grander scheme while doing it. Very difficult indeed. I have been doing tests with the zooming- to which point does the illustration look crap- and therefore how big does the hidden images have to be? (Again I’m not happy with my results) All of these questions should have already been resolved however they haven’t. I’ve reached a point where I don’t know what to do. I’ve decided against drawing the images in flash mainly because I know I can do this- but it takes time, too much time as well as limiting what the piece can look like. For my final project I will have to come back to this issue.

I have come to terms with this project not being that aesthetically pleasing- something which grates to someone who’s main concern in anything and everything (rather shamefully) is the design. I’ve also come to the conclusion that I am not going to be able to complete all strands of the narrative. I’ve chosen two and specifically four illustrations that will use movement and action script. As long as I can give a basic idea of what I want to achieve I feel this is plausible.

Navigation: A stroke of genius came my way one evening whilst hanging up a picture: A gallery. The navigation is a gallery- multiple sized picture frames with sections of the illustration that comes with its specific segment of narrative. As I’ve already mentioned and illustrated the navigation is on a grid like structure you as the participant goes from left to right- the normal order of westerners reading. However I wanted to jazz this up a bit- going back to my first project I thought of mirrors and then came up with the gallery idea. The reason this is good is that I want to the navigation to move and change depending on what page you are on. I wanted the navigation to blend in with the design and look like it was meant to be there, not just plonked to the side or bottom of the page. It is in fact an integral part of the design and I wanted to illustrate this. This gallery will change shape and size depending on which page you are at. The image or frame that you choose will “grow” and take up much of the page, the remainder space will have the rest of the navigation, other illsutations and some of the text. This does present problems though- as the frames will be all different sizes and shapes from experimentation it’s sometimes difficult to see which the next frame is, that you’re supposed to look at. Have thought about blending out the images that you can’t look at, but this feels like too many constraints for the viewer. Although I am in charge of the narrative, I’m in control, through constraints I’ve manage to make this text resemble something of a narrative, but I didn’t want to have to spell it out quite so blatantly to the viewer. I think at this late stage I’ve just got to decide something and go with it; however this will be my first question asked when I start my final project. Even as I write this is a few more problems has presented themselves as well as a few answered. My original idea was to have the navigation system the design of the page but I seemed to have lost this idea through the process and it has answered a few of the problems stated here. I don’t need to design the illustrations with the text. This is separate- in a frame…. The text will mostly be outside of the frame. More on this later I will go and see if this helps!

Review

2006-05-04T13:55:00.000+01:00

“Hosts” is an exciting project shown at the prestigious and famous Bath Abbey, and has been inspired by the ladder motif on the west front of the abbey. Martin Rieser, professor of Digital Arts at Bath Spa University, has hung five giant screens at strategic points of the abbey space. Wearing special ultrasound-emitting badges and wireless earphones the participants in Hosts trigger the presence of a variety of characters. These "hosts" are a wide range of ages, gender, social types and races, and always appear singly to the participant.

The general premise is a 3D audio landscape of footsteps, tonal voices and breathing sounds which accompany the visitor between the screens and form a tangible changing audio landscape. If a visitor stands for more than a few seconds in front of a particular screen, the figure will turn in the direction of the viewer and return the visitors stare. The video’s character look’s the visitor up and down, or turns away in distraction. The characters then speak a series of poetic phrases, also seen as animated text on the screen. A character follows you around so to speak, you move the character moves which give the viewer a real feeling of authorship- or a feeling of being involved in what is happening.

All of this can be as interesting for a spectator who has not purchased the electrical devices as those who has; although you will not have the ability to hear the speech just watching other people, watching the characters on the screen and the movement that is generated, can be just as interesting and strangly hypnotic. People wondering around a Cathdral with there eyes pointing upwards to the heavens is surely something that can be experianced everyday!

On the last screen of the installation, which is always there, is pictured two vertical ladders, placed on opposite sides of the space, and disappearing beyond the screen edges. On one ladder the characters are continuously climbing upwards and vanishing. On the second ladder they are climbing downwards from the top of the frame and walking off screen. Personally this was the most interesting part. Although the technologies used for this section of the space, are at its most basic, simple video and audio, on such a scale and such a setting, it is the most poignant and resonant part of the whole installation.

Sounds impressive? It certainly looks impressive; the large screens are overwhelming, towering up between the arches to monstrous proportions. The audio sounds coming from the headphones are loud, and uncompromising. This piece screams look at me, listen to me, and for that reason alone deserves a seeing.

I did find the content of the piece rather grating after a while, and as with all new media pieces there is a certain element of using technology for the sake of it. Should technology dictate what the artworks looks like? Or should the artwork dictate which technologies should be applied? Rather like the Chicken and the egg, there is always this question. I suspect that the technologies here dictated what the artwork looked like.

Although not completely successful in its attempt; it is an enjoyable, interesting experience. This exhibition shows us what to expect in the future, if you think of it, if you will as a practice, give this genre another ten years and the results will be spectacular. An engaging, multi sensory experience which defies your imagination, and expectations.

Horoscopes

2006-04-19T11:11:00.000+01:00

Illustration????????????????

2006-04-19T10:51:00.000+01:00

I'm abit stuck..... Have started the illustrations but I'm worried there going to take far too long. I could spend the next 2 months doing them and still not be happy. It seems its going to have to be quantity over quality. I am beginning to think that I might have to just concentrate on two of the chosen narratives. Thsi way I will be able to show how the piece will look without having to sacrifice design and style.
I want to include multiple illustrations in my peice but these all need researching as I'm looking at symbolism. The previous mentioned observations on sleeping beauty hold a lot of weight however there very difficult to "show". Have been looking at horoscopes and "The book of hours"- a book designed to help its owner with pious devotions at different times of day. The introduction was always a calender, usually illustrated to show activities appropriate for each month.

Board Games

2006-04-18T13:05:00.000+01:00

Came across a Victorian board game book in Clifton's Oxfam the other day. It was interesting to look at the narratives and how the player navigated themselves around the board. Found this interesting blog on board games. One could say that interactive narratives a different type of board game- your trying to get from A to B (usually), there's a narrative (usually), if you miss something you have to go back (usually). Haven't really thought this through but I think its something to look into.

2006-04-15T16:40:00.000+01:00

First Plan:( Click on it for a more detailed view)

You travel from left to right. The actual navigation design will look very different but so I know the exact plan. As you can see there are problems in the Grimm version. I did anticipate this. I think I will just have images in the two vacant pages, however the rest of the stories aren’t going to fit with the ending of Grimms. Not sure what to do about this yet? It too late to start trying to find another version, as well I think it is important to have a Grimm version within the piece...

Symbolism in sleeping beauty

2006-04-14T14:41:00.000+01:00

"More than a fancifully stylized love story that portrays a young maidens retreat into herself and the breaking of the spell by a youth in love; ... The tale depicts the endowing, threatening, paralyzing, and redeeming of not only some girl or other but of mankind in general"

- Max Luthi

Have finally started the illustrations and so have been looking at symbolism, like I have mentioned previously I would like to include some of this using imagery and text (hidden within the images). This link I have included is especially good as it looks at all the versions that I have decided to use. Obviously you cannot take every thought as gospel and some of the ideas seem quite extreme- I have been trying to find text that was written by the authors on there tales but this seems to be impossible. I think I will take some ideas that I like and disregard others.
Observations On Grimm:

Since the curse is one of the dominant features of the tale, it is reasonable that many psycho-analytical symbolisms have been drawn from it. The most reasonable of these metaphors is that the curse represent new restrictions imposed on a female at puberty. Thirteen, the age of Brier Rose in some of the versions, was traditionally the age when menstruation started, so it can be seen as the beginning of womanhood. This line of thought leads to another of the symbolisms. The underlying cause for the curse results from the realization that Brier Rose has the potential for becoming an object of desire. Her potential sexuality threatens men and makes women jealous. Because of jealousy, the old/evil fairy wishes to stop Brier Rose from ever taking her place as a woman and to die before she can experience the "joys of courting and marriage."
The frog's proclamation is supposed to represent that wishing alone can cause a pregnancy. While this reasoning is weak, the other symbolic interpretation of this event in the story is even weaker. Some scholars see the proclamation as a manifestation of the King's desire for a daughter but his reluctance to sleep with his wife.In several of the Grimms' tales, Bettelheim sees frogs and toads as symbols of sex. In this particular instance, that metaphor is more precisely defined to represent conception. Water is also included in this metaphor.
The curse itself has another intriguing symbolic meaning. It can be interpreted as the onset of menstruation. Bettelheim elaborates on this metaphor. The thirteen good fairies represent the thirteen months of the lunar calendar. The twelve that are good also represent the twelve months in the traditional calendar. The thirteenth fairy, since there is no thirteenth month in traditional calendars, represents menstruation. In addition, since the curse came from an old woman, there is the added significance of the "curse" being passed from woman to woman and originating with the oldest woman, Eve.- This might be interesting to illustrate could have a calendar or a watch. The sun and Moon= Time passing. Could have the light changing through certain pages, symbolizing time passing.
Another analysis suggested other motifs behind the Father's action. By banning spindles, he can prevent Brier Rose from ever having to engage in onerous tasks not "befitting a princess." (McGlathery, p 98) The King also takes away Brier Rose's chance to dream, since spinning is associated with dreams- This is interesting as it was an observation I made myself. Like I have mentioned I wondered at the choice of "evil object"not just in Grimms but in all versions.
Spinning has several general symbolisms. Spinning, and especially the spindle itself, is associated with dreams of "building romantic castles in the air," (McGlathery, p 98) which in Brier Rose's case are taken away by the King's ban on spindles. It is also seen as a passage to sexual adulthood. The spindle, according to Bruno Jockel, can also be a male symbol directly implying sex. Appearing to following the same line of thought, Bettelheim interprets the distaff, the part of the spindle which rotates and collects the thread, as a penis. Weaving and spinning are also commonly associated with women
Bettelheim, in one of his non-sexual interpretations, also focuses on the absence of Brier Rose's parents when she pricks her finger. He claims this represents the parents inability to help children through the various trials of growing-up.
The interpretation of Brier Rose's long sleep has progressed along two lines. The first is sexual, like most psychoanalytical interpretations of this fairy tale, and comes from Bettelheim. Its reasoning is based on the assumption that the sleep is symbolic of the wait for sexual fulfillment. It comes at the end of childhood and is a way to prepare Brier Rose for a later "sexual union." (Bettelheim, p 232) She spends these years withdrawn and in inner reflection. The sleep may delay her eventual sexual maturity, but in the end, it will happen and with as much glory as ever.

Bettelheim also asserts that this long sleep is the only way to avoid change and development. McGlathery adds that it allows Brier Rose to remain a maiden for a hundred years. She is also reduced to passivity since she can not actively persue a prince while she is sleeping. Bettelheim does add that this shutting out of the world is unhealthy and that it must be broken by the transformation of the girl into the woman.- Have been wondering how I can show the princess sleeping, she must have dreamt- and I would like to include imagery of her dreams.
Several interpretations see the Prince as a father substitute since in many versions the Prince arrives in the story only after the Father leaves it. McGlathery goes on to say that the Prince's actions are what the Father would like to do, but is prevent from by incest taboos.

The Prince's arrival at the appropriate moment marks Brier Rose's sexual awakening and/or the birth of the higher ego, according to Bettelheim. The Prince also makes a "more appropriate object of curiosity and desire" (McGlathery, p 118) than the spinning wheel which is what fascinated Brier Rose when she fell asleep. Bettelheim sees two significances in the transformation. The first is that Brier Rose is finally ready for a sexual encounter. The other, which is actually not sexual, is a general life lesson. Do not worry about a seemingly "impossible problem." (Bettelheim, p 233) When the time is right, it will solve itself.
If one assumes that the curse is symbolic of menstruation or bleeding during sexual intercourse, then Brier Rose's awakening carries a very reassuring connotation. Although this bleeding must be taken seriously, which might be represented by the heroine's hundred year sleep, one should not be frightened of it. It "does have the happiest consequences." (Bettelheim, p 235)

Am finding it difficult to find critical analysis on my other versions: Am going to re-read Marina Warners pages on Sleeping Beauty to see if I have missed something there. One problem is that I planned to use two versions of Basiles- but these will have the same symbolisms which means the illustrations will be very similar. More on this at a later date.......

Arthur Conon Doyle- you have to laugh

2006-04-14T11:47:00.000+01:00

Arthur Conon Doyle not only accepted these photos as genuine, he even wrote two pamphlets and a book attesting the genuineness of these photos, and including much additional fairy lore. His book, The Coming of the Fairies, and some people still believe the photos are authentic. Doyle's books make very interesting reading even today. Doyle's belief in spiritualism, convinced many people that the creator of Sherlock Holmes was not as bright as his fictional creation.

Some thought Conan Doyle crazy, but he defended the reality of fairies with all the evidence he could find. He counters the arguments of the disbelievers eloquently and at great length. Over the years the mystery persisted. Only a few die-hards believed the photos were of real fairies, but the mystery of the details of how (and why) they were made continued to fascinate serious students of hoaxes, frauds and deceptions. When the girls (as adults) were interviewed, their responses were evasive. In a BBC broadcast interview in 1975 Elsie said: "I've told you that they're photographs of figments of our imagination and that's what I'm sticking to."

Edgar Allan Poe

2006-04-11T12:10:00.000+01:00

"FORCE OF TOTALITY"

More research- Flash

2006-04-11T11:15:00.000+01:00

I am finally going to start the final images on Thursday which I am rather looking forward to. Have been continuing with my research in all areas especially on design and flash design. Would love to make this project animated or at least include some movement however I worry that this again is slightly ambitious. Good use of motion graphics- Hillmancurtis webdesigners

Narrative:~
Have been going through in my head how it is going to work and one problem that has presented itself is the text. Some of the narratives there is nearly two pages of text on others there is only a short paragraph. This presents problems for the design- So I've come up with an idea of having changing text- you read a bit and then more text appears. I would like to have changing illustrations with the text but as the brain cannot process images and read text this seems slightly pointless. Have been reading James Elkins book "Why are out pictures puzzles? On the modern origins of pictorial complexity" To give myself a base in which to use image, illustration, design to represent thoughts and ideas- as well it has been useful in understanding certain aspects of fairytales. Fairytales often use everyday objects and then good or evil is projected onto them ie The needle, the glass slipper, a basket, a sword, a mirror (Narcisstic reflections on self reflection??!!) The list is endless. I want to know why a piece of flex or in the changed versions a spinning needle was used as the object to cause harm. There must be some reason for this??? These are all types of things that I want to include in the graphics. I hope that each page, as well as the original narrative that goes with it, will have at least four other parts of text explaining things etc. But I need to find what to explain first!

Navigation:~
Again more problems with this aspect of the project. Although I have the basic outline of the structure I'm still not convinced that its going to be obvious and that people will understand what they are doing. Have been thinking of having a short animation detailing the rules, so to speak, showing examples of the paths you can take etc. But again not convinced by this. Its seems like that is giving the reader too many constraints- were going into authorship here will write more on this at a later date.

Faeries

2006-04-02T19:35:00.000+01:00

The words 'Fey' and 'faerie' come from the French and started to replace the old English 'elf' during the Tudor Period. Spencer and Shakespeare popularized the change. 'Elfland' and 'faerieland, 'Elf' and 'Faerie' were and are still interchangeable words. The spellings of Faerie are numerous: fayerye, fairye, fayre, faerie, faery, fairy. Faerie refers to the world of faerie as an entity ( noun), as a geographical location, as a general name for its inhabitants (faerie, faeries) and as an adjective to describe its attributes. I've been researching all of this obviously due to the name given to my chosen study: fairy tales. I've been looking at dates and trying to figure out what Perrault was doing putting fairy's into his tales????? Faeries aren't nice creatures, they can have good attributes, but have never been trusted and surely would not have been given the role of godmothers. Given that, they do not have particularly magical powers and surely would not have been able to deliver the gifts that Perrault sets out in his version. The Blue fairy ( Sleeping Beauty is in the blue book) - " is favourably disposed towards humans, or, at least, towards humaniod toys who wish to become human. The wooden puppet Pinnochio sought her help to become a real boy. Similarily, the Mecca (mechanical lifeform) David sought out the Blue Fairy, who he thought could turn him into a real boy - a transformation which he believed would enable the human named Monica Swinton to love him as she loved her human son Martin. Tragically, the Mecca David failed in his quest to find the Blue Fairy as he was waylaid by a plaster cast made in her likeness which, unbeknownst to David, did not have the ability to help him which the real Blue Fairy would possess.". Have been re-reading Shakespeare and have enjoyed actually being able to understand some of the more obscure faerie references:

"Where the bee sucks there suck I,
In a cowslip's bell I lie"
ARIEL: The Tempest Act 5.

This gives reference to the faeries love of cowslips. There love is due to their power to find hidden faerie gold and are also known as 'Culvers Keys' (Keys to unlock the way to treasure) in the West of England. Again time is important here as well as different countries ideas and/or methodology's of faeries. Maybe in Italy faeries are nice creatures?? Will have to look into this. Its not really relevant but my interest in faeries has been re-awakened.
Here is a link to a site on Welsh Faeries- my interest is in the Green Lady of Caerphilly, she takes on the appearance of Ivy and I've always found this tale interesting.

I have been reading or trying to "The coming of the fairies" by Arther Conan Doyle.

2006-03-28T16:13:00.000+01:00

"A book is more than a verbal structure or series of verbal structures; it is the dialogue it establishes with its reader and the intonation it imposes upon his voice and the changing and durable images it leaves in his memory. A book is not an isolated being: it is a relationship, an axis of innumerable relationships." Borges -- Essay: "A Note on (toward) Bernard Shaw"

Secret Images:- Unpublished Borgesian photos by Sean Kernan. Really beautiful imagery. Have been researching styles in particular using photographs. Need to cut down the amount of time I'm spending in illustrator and photoshop so thought as well as including illustration I will also use photos. Want to create a really colorful mix of imagery taken from a range of disciplines. I like his use of books. The idea of showing imagery of books on a computer screen particually in the context of a hypertext novel makes me feel somewhat sad, maybe sad is the wrong word, uneasy? No thats a even worse word, unsettled.

The death of the book is not yet here, but one day it might become extinct.

thinking

2006-03-28T13:43:00.000+01:00

Have been researching getting my interactive narrative onto the web and here is somewhere that might be a possibility.

Vladimir Propp

2006-03-27T13:09:00.000+01:00

An idea intitally put to one side, has come back around and made itself relevant. One of my first ideas was to use the devised structure of a fairytale by Vladimir Propp, to use as my own structure for the narrative. I put this idea to one side thinking it was to complicated and due to the fact that most of Propps theories seem to not work in the real world, or at the very least seem to have small flaws within them, that make the whole idea unusable. But recently I seemed to have got drawn back to them.

Vladimir Propps observations on Fairytales:

1.	Functions of characters serve as stable, constant elements in a tale, independently of how and by whom they are fulfilled. They constitute the fundamental components of a tale.
2.	The numbers of functions to the fairy tale is limited. Freedom with this sequence is restricted by very narrow limits which can be exactly formulated.
3.	The sequences of functions is always identical. Since we are studying tales according to the functions of their dramatis personae, the accumulation of material can be suspended as soon as it becomes apparent that the new tales considered present no new functions.
4.	All fairy tales are one type in regard to their structures.

You can see from this the obvious link between Propps theories and what I am trying to do. To create a database of paragraphs that go with each other, or in better terms have paragraphs of a fairytale that match up with the linear structures of other tales. Using Propps ideas, or functions you can split the narrative into 31 sections. Each section corresponds with the same section in a different fairytale.

Another idea I was thinking of using was his Dramatis personae (Seven roles which any character might assume in the story)

1. The Villain: Who struggles with the hero;
2. The Donor: who prepares and/or provides hero with magical agent;
3. The Helper: who assists, rescues, solves and/or transfigured the hero;
4. The Princess: a sought-for person (and/or her father) who exists as goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain;
5. The Dispatcher: who sends the hero off;
6. The Hero: who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and weds at end;
7. The false Hero: who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like A real hero.

My idea was use these seven roles and split the narrative accordingly. So there would be seven sections for each narrative strand, the interaction would come by choosing a certain character. I have been put off this idea as I don't believe that a generated narrative of this nature will give me the complete narrative that I am looking to produce, I like to feel closure in narratives I don't think this will give me that.

However, like I mentioned I seem to be coming back to ideas by accident almost, so it seems relevant to read through his theories and find out more why they don't quite seem to work. Found this site which generates narrative structures using Propps theories. In some of the cases they work, in others they don't. I think by looking at his theories and the pitfalls within them I can learn more about why my own ideas can't and won't work in a grander scheme.

Have started to read Morphology of the folktale by Propp to further my understanding.

Ask it any question

2006-03-25T18:08:00.000Z

Wonderful website: Flash Kit- to help with Flash and Action script.

Recap

2006-03-25T12:24:00.000Z

Thought I should recap on whats been happening so far. Have just been reading through this blog and I don't think its very clear...

So the general idea: An interactive narrative based on the fairytale Sleeping Beauty, combining multiple versions, which the viewer has control over. So for example someone might be happily going through Perraults versions and then decide that they want something a bit more gritty and swop to Basiles version, and then if they want a happy ending, end on Grimms. I think of it kind of like an editors version of a fairy tale. You edit the narrative yourself. I think that's clear??? What I would like to include is where characters have migrated within the original texts, you as the viewer could move fairy tale with your chosen character. ( Example: The wicked Stepmother originally started off as a wicked wife (Basile) in that the prince was already married, but it was decided to shorten Sleeping Beauty so the ending was when she woke up, so the wicked Stepmother was no longer needed, it was decided to plonk her into Cinderella) However I think that might be making the project slightly ambitious for the time allowed as well as making everything else ie programming, design, navigation eight times harder then its already going to be.
Navigation: Have finally come up with a navigational structure that I'm happy with. Have settled on a grid of circles. You travel from left to right choosing your circle. Will post some diagrams of the new structure with notes on how it is going to work. Have figured out how to program it all in Flash, the navigation will be the main page, depending on what circle you press that will load in the background image. I want to use Photoshop and Illustrator for the designs instead of my proposed use of the Flash drawing tools. This has meant I've had to re-think the structure of the piece. People won't wait for something to load, it needs to be quick and seamless. Hopefully my new idea will enable this.
Design: Have come up with a design that I'm happy with. I am going to keep the same style, however use different colours to indicate which authors version you are on. Like I previously mentioned the navigation system will be on the page at all times, with the text and images fitted in around the outside. The navigation system will always be on a layer above the main image, so the background behind the navigation system will change also. To make this project relevant not just for this module but also my own development using Flash I would like to include a zoom in/out function as well as the ability to "drag" yourself around the screen. In this I mean you will be able to move around the screen yourself. This will be needed for some aspects of the design. I would like to include quotes as well as meanings that are not relevant to the narrative, but should the viewer wish to learn more about the background of the narrative strand they are on, they can. This will mean the viewer will have to zoom in and out and really hunt for the text. Should they not want to, they can take the page at face value and continue onto the next chosen narrative section.

Why databases.

2006-03-21T22:08:00.000Z

Article from Eastgate: Explains my need for databases- Speed is of the essence. If not in this project but for the next.

ASSIGNMENT 2: Research Methods

2006-03-21T19:49:00.000Z

Create a set of five criteria which you feel could be used to describe the nature of your practice.
(Not sure if I've done these right. But these are the things that I feel are my interests and therefore my criteria.)

Narrative- Interactive Media

The Internet and the possibilities of narrative

Artists/Illustrators/Graphics

Designing interactive pieces.

Using your set of criteria, research a long list of at least 20 practitioners whose work meets at least three of your five criteria.

Have included links for web pages. These might not necessarily be the best links for them in general, but they have been useful to me. They are in no order simply as my mind remembered them. For a more indepth look at these practioners read the rest of my blog, where most have been mentioned.

Ernest Adams:His work includes original design, game analysis, creative writing. Am interested in him because of his interactive writing.

Scott Mcloud: theorist/comic writer who has written comics on how to make comics. Also examines interactive comics and the approaches needed.

Paula Rego: Artist who explores narrative through her paintings.

Janet Murrey: Theorist, among other topics, looks at narrative and the internet in general. She is also an interactive designer.

Neil Gaimon: Writer. Writes novels and comics. Good to look at as his graphic novels which are obviously illustrated. Makes me see who narrative can be made into images.

Madeleine De Scuderie: 16th Century Writer. Explored interactive narrative for books
Hester Pulter: Another 16th Century Writer.Like Madeleine wrote interactive novels in book form.

Lev Manovich: Theorist among other things. Looks at narrative and the internet in general.

Kiki Smith: Artist who again explores narrative with painting.

Mark Stephan Meadows: A theorist, and interactive artist. Good to look at as he implements his theories into his work.

Ed Ruscha: Artist. My particular interest in him, is his graphic prints of words. He takes a word any word and trys to illustrate it and show meaning, just using the typography

Edward Gorey: Illustrator, writer, again meaning through image.

Vladimir Propp: extended the Russian Formalist approach to narratology (the study of narrative structure). Where, in the Formalist approach, sentence structures had been broken down into analyzable elements - morphemes - Propp used this method by analogy to analyze folk tales.

Borges: Writer. Interesting narratives as well as descriptive writing. (Creatures etc)

Virginia Woolf: Writer. Her novels like to explore memory and uses different linear approaches. Not my favorite author but good for her use of narrative structure.

Doris Lessing: Writer. Like Virginia she explores narrative structures in her novels.

Dave Mckeen: Illustrator, Designer. I find his work very descriptive even without the text that comes with his work. My favorite illustrator.

Brian Froud: Illustrator. Good to look at for mystically and fantasy art work. Another of my favorite illustrators

Terri Windling: Artist. Again explores fantasy and myth

Marina Warner: Writer and theorist (Feminist) Has studied the fairy tale.

Ted Nelson:Theorist.

Alan Key: Theorist.

Having selected the longlist, make a shortlist of five whose work closely reflects the spirit of the criteria you identified.

This is really tricky. I would not say that there are five people that fit my criteria. Mainly because my criterias are very different to each other. These are simply people that inspire me, or help to inspire me. Again in no order:

Dave Mckeen

Brian Froud

Scott Mcloud

Vladimir Propp

Mark Stephan Meadows

Random thought patterns

2006-03-21T16:40:00.000Z

Have been reading through the requirements of a "journal" and I don't think I have been very good at organizing my thought patterns. Now unfortunately my thought patterns aren't terribly organized ether, things come to me and random times of the day, at random places not necessarily in the order in which a project will/should/does develop. For example I already know how I am going to structure the actually Flash document in that I plan to load in the different elements of the page, thus keeping down download time, as well as that I plan to transfer the template into a blog-mainly because I cannot afford more web space and secondly because I want to try to make blogger work in this way. It will allow viewers to leave comments and maybe information that they know about that I have not included. (Although it might not let me and this therefore will have to be changed). Now I've written this down I really don't think that it will work. Unless its specifically set up right- which is against bloggers rules. But that is another post surely!

They want us to personally record our journey through our research and project, including all the hurdles and negative thoughts.... I have a lot of negative thoughts in general never mind on work that I'm doing but I will try to express them as I go along from now on.

more on this later....

XML and Flash (8)

2006-03-21T15:52:00.000Z

THE XML STUFF
Components:
XML Connector:
Drag onto to the screen:
Parameters- define whats going in and whats going out.
Schema-define the XML file
Action Script-Trigger the XML file: select the frame:Behaviours:Data:Trigger Data Source: Select the data XML connecter.
THE INTERFACE:an example for a simple interface (One box for menu, one text box for text, one loader for picture.)
User Interface:Combo box:name it
Select the XML component
Binding:link the combo with the XML
Select the properties that you want:Direction ie out:bound to ie the xml file:formatter:rearrange fields:formatter options
Componets:Text area:drag to screen:name it:
Select XML connecter:add another binding:formatter options
For more then one option you need to set the index:Combo:change relivant sections
Componets:Loader:Drag to screen:Bindings:choose:

XML

2006-03-21T15:39:00.000Z

Links for XML and databases:
www.3schools.com
www.oreilly.com
www.macromedia.com: Look at Flash/Data Intergration: Bike Trips Sample is a good one!
XML: Displaying XML Data in Web pages.

Should really have a specific blog for this....

2006-03-15T14:23:00.000Z

here is a really good link for textures ( So I don't forget it)

Navigation and Structure

2006-03-14T11:50:00.000Z

In a muddle

2006-03-14T10:49:00.000Z

After a couple of chats with various people, my problem has become clear. Basile was Italien, throughout history people have transcribed his texts into English and depending on the time in which they were transctribed certain elements were changed with changing attitudes of the time. Like Grimm etc stories were changed to fit with ideals of the time, and very irratating so did transcribers. That is why I have now found three versions of Basile's Sleeping beauty and I'm sure I will find more. From re-reading sections of "From from the Beast to the Blonde" It would appear that Warner took the second translation as her port of call, and her basis for writing about it ( I think this was due to it being a lot more interesting then the first version) What to do? Do I use all the versions or pick one?

More Brian Froud because I love them

2006-03-12T16:29:00.000Z

Brian Froud my hero

2006-03-12T15:57:00.000Z

Have loved Brian Froud's work for some time now, well no one could say since I first saw the laberinth aged about 7 and is still to this day my favorite film (which gets a few raised eyebrows) I could babble on about it for ages but I'll spare you. His work helped in my idea/creation/interest for this project. The drawn sketch below was included in the back of Marvel's Officia l Dark Crystal Comics I remember as a child having his fairy books as well as the squished fairy books, which for some reason have completely disappeared from my book shelves............

Terri Windling on ShapeShifters

2006-03-12T15:55:00.000Z

More research......

2006-03-12T15:33:00.000Z

Have spent the last few days continuing with researching fairy tales. Just found this
which has proven most usefull. Have come up against a few more problems though. There are different versions written by all of the various writers. They too changed and subverted their own texts and therefore I have found two versions of Sun, Moon and Talia both written by Basile that are very different, not slightly but completly. People keep suggesting more and more writers and I am trying to explore as many as I can find, although I worry that I am getting to absorbed in the stories to be thinking about the structure. I have come up with some ideas for the structure as I mentioned previously and I will post the diagrams soon. Whether they could or would work I am not sure yet.

A few more links that have been of use
The Endicott Studio
Once upon a time

More thought......

2006-03-06T18:50:00.000Z

Have just spent all afternoon trying to find a tie between one fairy tale to another. Decided on Sleeping Beauty for today. After an entire afternoon trying to find a link between Perrault, Glambattista and Grimm versions (And succeeding I discover it has already been done and written down so there was a wasted afternoon)

My idea is to create an interactive narrative, that uses all of the versions:
Sleeping Beauty and the enchanted wood
Sun, Moon and Thlia
The Glass Coffin
The Ninth Captains Tale
Little Briar Rose

My particular interest goes into the Perrault, Grimm and Glambattista versions, Sleeping Beauty etc, Little Briar Rose and Sun, Moon and Thlia. Glambattista (really not sure if I'm spelling this right....) being my main interest.

As things stand my idea is to create a multiple version, combining all the differences that these authors used. Thus the interaction will come about by leading you off into various versions and making you combine the versions to create your finished narrative. Also thinking of including hidden meanings and sub-texts ie Sleeping Beauty was supposable raped, the list of these things are endless.

Not sure if I'll use Sleeping Beauty for my final piece but needed to start looking into the how's and whys of making a fairy tale interactive.

Paula Rego

2006-03-06T16:48:00.000Z

Paula Rego has been one of my favorite artists since I visited an exhibition of hers in 1998. Her paintings always carry an narrative with them, which is what led me to revisit her for this project. I have been thinking of illustration style for this project and I already know that I do not wish to carry with the fairy tale illustration conventions. For starters I have not attempted an etching for years and am not sure if I can remember how to do it, however more importantly I want to show a different side to fairy tales the darker, underbelly side of them.

"Her work often uses imagery from fairy tales with a sinister edge in which there
is a malicious domination, a subverting of natural order or exposes social
realities that are unpolite or polemic like abortion."

Links:
Tate Magazine 8

"Swallows the Poisoned Apple"

In Swallows The Poison Apple, Paula Rego revises the tale of Snow White to expose the fallible value of youth. Dressed in traditional Disney garb, this Snow White isnÂt a beautiful princess, but a middle-aged woman. And put so much better then I could:

"Pictured moments after eating the poison apple, she lays sprawled amidst
overturned furniture, suggesting painful and violent demise. Clutching her
skirts, she alludes to her sexual nature, as if clinging to something slipping
away. Her body lies between a blanket adorned with spring blossoms, and a
sinister backdrop of red and black. Rego illustrates the conflict of reality
encroaching on the socially imposed myths of female worth, construing aging as
both a physical and psychological violation"
"Snow White Playing with her Father's Trophies"

First recorded fairy tales

2006-03-01T13:36:00.000Z

Il Pentameroneby Giambattista Basile

Il Pentamerone is essentially the first full collection of European literary fairy tales. Written by Giambattista Basile and published in 1634-6, the Italian tales predate Charles Perrault by at least 50 years and the Grimm Brothers by 200 years. The book is not as well known today since it was originally written in the difficult Neapolitan dialect and was not translated into English until 1847 by John Edward Taylor.

2006-02-27T16:36:00.000Z

Developing Practice:- Project Proposal 1.

Learning Outcomes:

During this module you will apply your knowledge of research and pre-production developed in your previous modules to develop and realise a completed short project or prototype for an interactive artefact based on a negotiated topic, issue or text.

My initial idea for this project is also what I plan to do for my final practical MA project. My interest lies in interactive narrative or modular narrative, the techniques needed to create an interactive story or novel. My first thoughts on this has of yet not been fully realised, and I am struggerling to come up with the right kind of narrative that would work on this genre. Comics, hypertext novels all try to achieve this, and personally I do not feel that any research I have done has satisfied me on how narrative can be broken up and retold successful in an interactive capacity. Comics obviously have been experimented with for a number of years; however I still feel that they have yet to be implemented on the web in such a way that you are not left feeling like you could have experienced that in book form, whilst lying on the sofa with a cup of tea- instead of been perched on an office chair bolt upright, blinking against the computer screen, and getting an increasingly bad headache. As of yet I don’t feel that interactive narrative on the web is successful and until someone figures out the correct formula for this type of story telling ( which I am in no way qualified to do) I think audiences will continue to be disappointed and left feeling like they don’t know what is going on and did they miss something important on that one hyperlink they failed to link to.

My first thoughts, combined with my research module, “To look at the effect of new media of the transmission of fairy tales.” Is something which has interested me for some time; however I am not sure that there is enough scope or really any point in creating an interactive fairytale? You could look at is there any point in creating anything interactive should I be thinking along those lines. However I feel that fairytales have been retold and retold, and although I would go back to the original source of fairytales, creating an interactive fairy tale might go against the premise and the point of them. That is the moral implications and the lessons that you are supposed to learn. Now that I am writing this down this might be perfect? Could the reader only get to the end of the fairy tale if they take on board the moral lessons that are supposed to be learned? This creates the problem of these tales been so well known that reader will know what they are supposed to be thinking and thus would navigate themselves through the piece with this in mind. One way to get around this would be to write a fairytale that follows the conventions and rules so to speak and not actually call it a fairytale. Thus the reader might get a feeling of the background to the text but would not know for sure.

Within this project I would like to combine narrative and illustration and perhaps a bit of animation to create a kind of hypertext novel/comic/romance. Romance being the 16th century preferred form of reading in which the novel was broken up into segments, in which the reader could choose which parts they read and which they missed. They were broken up in such a way that the reader could finish at any point and still feel a sense of closure, they were not copyrighted so should I go down this route the only problem is getting hold of a copy. Due to there excessive length apparently no body has ever finished reading one! This makes me think that these texts would be perfect for the internet. I do think studying the techniques used in this type of narrative would be a good starting point, whether I decide to look at fairy tales or some other form of narrative.

Here I’ve enclosed an extract from an essay completed for my BA in which I looked at the works of Madeleine De Scuderie:-

“Romance novels were very long made in volumes and could often extend to 10-12 volumes at a time. You could read them separately and still have a sense of closure at the end of each volume, this obviously was due to the modular structure, and relating back to today’s ‘Interactive narratives’ the use of a modular structure is needed so that you can end the experience at any time without missing the feeling of completing something. However if you read more than one, you realised that they did link together. They could be read in any order apart from the last one, which had to be at the end, which would conclude all the past volumes. As they were so long people didn’t finish them very often, they might read four of the volumes and then the concluding part, one such Romance by Madeleine De Scuderie, ‘The Map of the Kingdom of Tenderness’ is an allegory which distinguishes the different kinds of tenderness, which are reduced to esteem, gratitude and inclination. The map represents three rivers, which have these three names, and on which are situated three towns called Tenderness; Tenderness on Inclination; Tenderness on Gratitude, they are situated at Pleasing Attentions, or Petit Soins.

‘La Carte De Tendre’ or ‘The Kindom of Tenderness’ made its first debut in the first volume of ‘Clelie’, 1654. However it started its life off as a ‘Salon Game’ that was fast becoming all the rage in the 17th century, Parisian salon society. And is in my opinion the predecessor of many board games, and foreshadows certain contemporary computer games, and interactive narratives. The idea was that a group of people met and held these imaginary games. There was always a person in charge who read the narrative, and who usually had written the narrative. Romance novels were perfect for this as they didn’t have to be read in order, so one volume would be read, and on the instruction of the person playing the game would lead to another volume. ‘La Carte De Tendre’ was no exception to this. Each Pretendent, Male or Female began the journey to ‘Tendre’ at ‘New Friendship’, located at the Southern mid- point of the map and then follow one of three routes first travelling north towards ‘Tendre’. One might follow the route of ‘Inclination’, and arrive in ‘Tendre- Sur- Estime’ or the route of ‘Recognition’, and arrive at ‘Tendre-Sur-Reconnaissance’. A person might choose the wrong route, for example, and wonder into the lake of indifference, or into forgetfulness. On the opposite side of the map one might choose more wisely and wander through Submission, Obedience, Sensibility, or Constant friendship and might find oneself arriving in ‘Tendre’ more rapidly then expected. The author was always the one in charge of the narrative, the authorial voice, describing the route that had been followed, and making sure that the path they had chosen would lead to the correct part of the narrative.

Although they neither could change, nor interfere in the main narrative, participants would choose their fate and where they would lead. Participants were encouraged to enter into the realm, to explore the countryside, to dream the authors dreams with them, but the author never let them enter into her dreams. As you can see, the resemblance to interactive narrative is there for all to see. A narrative made to be broken up, yet leading to different points or different endings, memory required to remember the places you have been and the consequences of your actions. All this seems to have the same rules and strategies of interactive narratives. When Scuderie first brought out the book ‘The Kingdom of Tenderness’, there was much debate on the structure of these narratives. Critics disliked this new novel, and like we are doing today discussed whether this was narrative, however they proved to be bestsellers. One does wonder at why they stopped, or that until quite recently this style has only just been adopted again. One suggestion is that people found them exciting and new, but fundamentally a bit of a gimmick, they soon bored of them.

In De Saudrys case, they allowed her to describe her feelings about fellow players without insulting them. Rather then saying that they simply bored her, she could say that they had fallen into the lake of indifference or forgetfulness. This seems to suggest that she did move around narrative to suit her own prerogatives. She was the game master and ultimately the goal was her “friendship”, I put this in inverted commas, however this was actually the prize. Many of her friends were ‘test driven’ through the salon games, if they completed in a way in which Madeline De Saudry thought honourable she made them a personal friend. The game was there to give a lesson of how to treat women, and how to give tenderness without physical interaction. This seems to give the impression that these salon games’ narrative was more interactive than ‘interactive narratives’ are now. She could change the plot when she wanted, to lead her participants where she wanted them to go, she taught them a lesson and if they did not take the hint they were led away from Tendre. Like interactive narratives today you are given a kind of route, your helped along in the direction that would be best, if you wander off this then you come into trouble, or discovered red herrings, or find the really interesting stuff! Like ‘Interactive narratives’ someone was, and is in control however much the word interactive tries to persuade us other wise. There is a structure and if there is a structure then there must be a narrative.”

My thoughts for the next few weeks is to get to grips with the type of narrative I am going to use, and the best way in which to make it interactive. As this project is a lead up to our final project, the mistakes I make and the lessons to be learned will be implemented on the final project when hopefully I will have a better understanding of what makes narrative successful on the web and interactive. My choice of program will probably be Flash using HTML for a database.

Assignment One for Research Module

2006-02-22T20:27:00.000Z

New Semester, new project.

Assignment One

“Prepare a ten minute presentation of your practice in which you identify the key themes and interests evident in the practice, the nature of the practice and practitioners whose work has been of influence.”

My practice is interactive media.oierngoerngoerngoerngoerngojgnjrenognstuff here.......

Think I should start by looking at the practitioners whose work essentially led me to my interest in interactive media. I enjoy the work of various artists all of which has helped me in my development however not all of them are in anyway connected to New Media. The nature of New Media and the internet means that there are no definitions of what is expected or considered the work of this practice. This means that you can push the boundaries and can branch out into various fields while still considering youself a New Media artist.

One of my key interests is what happens to texts when they are put on the internet and “The effect of new media on the transmission of various narrative forms.” For example Fairy Tales, Comics, and ghost stories the list is endless. And this is going to be my basis for this research module, which I will later develop. Within narrative the internet represents a return to the manuscript style (or even oral) culture where the reader is expected to interact rather then just be a passive recipient. The examples I gave previously are all forms of storytelling that require a certain level of interactivity, for example comics you navigate your way through them, by an almost intuitive way. Fairy Tales and Goust Storys started as an oral form of storytelling and weren’t infact recorded until the late 18th century where obviously there style and therefore meaning were changed and subverted. New Media and the ability to interact with the piece in front of you has again changed meaning and context, and imposes questions on whether these ‘new’ versions have dramatically changed these examples as well as questions on the best way in which to demonstrate and transcribe these narrative and illustrated texts.

What is interactive narrative?
Post-modern theories of narrative seem to have changed the relationship between author and reader, bringing to the foreground the importance of the reader in the process of constructing meaning in text. Many post-modern texts are designed to take advantage of the reader’s active role in making the work meaningful. Interactive narratives follow a non linear structure, the readers have to navigate and put story elements in various orders themselves. When the writer includes multiply possibilities in the development of the plot, the reader plays an active role in shaping their own paths through the story. Rather than creating finished works, the interactive artist creates relationships. My interest in interactive narrative originated from seeing Schott Mclouds interactive comics. Which shows the possibilities of narrative forms (not just in this genre) been made interactive as well as combining illustration, which is another of my key interests.

Although I previously mentioned that the reader is important in shaping the path of where they go, this is not neccisarily always the point. If a type of narrative is put on the web, even if its just written down in exactly the same way as it would be in a book, it still changes the meaning and the context. In particular my interst in fairy tales is not just how I could make the viewer shape there path through it but also the effect of just having it on the internet.

Links for Assignment One:-

What is interactive media?

Its very hard to define, and answer the question what is interactive media. Have found one definition which works for some aspects but not all.

“Interactivity is the relation constituted by a symbolic interface between its referential objective, functionality and the subject.”

http://nml.ru.ac.za/maher/?p=7

and from wikipedia, there is this definition:-

"Interactive media refers to media of communication that allow for active participation by the recipient, hence interactivity. Traditional information theory would describe interactive media as those media that establish two-way communication. In media theory, interactive media are discussed along their cultural implications. The field of Human Computer Interaction deals with aspects of interactivity and design of in digital media. Other areas that deal with interactive media are new media art and video game production.
While some traditional (non-digital) mass media would qualify for interactive media the term is usually only applied to digital media. The significant increase in possibilities for interactivity (especially over vast distances) brought by the internet boosted the availability of digital interactive media. Still, e.g. language in face-to-face communication would formally belong to the interactive media.
Interactive media are often designed by information designers. As all media they rely on communication. In the case of e.g. computer games this is visual, acoustic, and haptic communication between the user (player) and the game. In Mobile telephony, the communication happens between two people and is purely acoustic at the first glance. Yet, according to media theory the cultural implications of the medium have to be taken into account. Thus, aspects like constant availability, customisation of the mobile phone and Short Message Service are also part of the interactive medium called Mobile telephony. Media restrain from being translated to technological entities. Wikipedia-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_media

Links of interest

http://www.fadresearch.com/about.html
http://dag.idi.ntnu.no/interactivity.pdf

Comics Research

As I previously mentioned it was the transmission of comic books that led me to this particular field of interest. Although there are many online comics, and apart from a few examples, they often follow a similar approach to that of the printed version. It appears as of yet there is little progress in how online comics could make use of the internet and how hyperlinks and other various tools could be incorperated, to create a new experience that differs from the print, yet is just as viable"

http://www.scottmccloud.com/inventions/24hr/dare/dare.html

Examples of online Comics
http://castlezzt.net/24hourcomic.cfm
http://members.aol.com/opheliab/24hour1.html
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/caseysorrow/feral/series.php?view=single&ID=1918

Fairy Tales Research

At this point, fairy tales will be my specific field of interest. Although fairy tales are on the web, they are not interactive its just th text. Can you make fairy tales interactive? Or will that completly rid of the moral and truth messages that fairy tales excist to tell?

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/index.html

http://www.word-power.co.uk/catalogue/0748617701

Sarah Bonner, Manchester University writes:
Her thesis examines the recent resurgence in the use of themes and tropes from fairy tales in contemporary visual culture in Europe and America. She argues that this resurgence is linked to an interest in rethinking gendered identity.
Re-Inventing / Re-Claiming Red Riding Hood
Approaching the question ‘In what ways have texts and images responded to one another?’ this paper proposes an investigation into the visual responses to the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. Taking this as a starting point, I will discuss how the vital and repetitive use of symbols has settled, through extensive textual and visual dissemination, into the collective consciousness of the Western world. In addition, the recent visual revisions that are challenging the established fairy tale tradition will also be explored.
Visual illustrations of fairy tales have served to reinforce the tales’ moralistic message, and have captured the main thrust of the texts through carefully selected and repeated images. More recently, there has been a shift in visual responses to the Grimm’s fairy tales from a tendency to comply with the basic parameters of the myths to an attitude of parody or critique. Increasingly fairy tales are being visually appropriated in order to subvert the nineteenth-century cultural values expounded in the Grimm’s tales, reflecting a shift in cultural attitude. The visual responses to ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ explore the relationship between girl and beast interrogating the implicated behaviour patterns presented by the symbols of traditional texts.
In the case of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, it is the red cape and the wolf that instantly identify the tale to the reader/viewer. Artists such as Paula Rego and Kiki Smith have responded to the text as well as to recent cultural pressures, commenting on gender roles through visual subversions of the traditional fairy tale. These artists’ responses to ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ create a dialogue of identity and discrimination, engaging the Grimm’s concept that appearances aren’t always what they seem.

"Bitch- A feminist response to pop culture"

2005-12-26T15:38:00.000Z

Notes on the article "Beyond the valley of the geeks", and the website "Women Gamers".

Gender and gaming:
Its a stereotype, but its based on truth: Despite increasing numbers of female players and women working in game development, electronic games are still largely made for men, by men. Of the 145 million people that play video games, 43 percent are female. When it comes to console games, which dominate industry sales, only a quarter of the players are women. Women do however, make up 60 percent of the 6.3 million purchasers of games played on mobile phones.

US gaming companies are reluctant to disclose their percentage of female employees. But we do know that merely 10-15 percent of members of the international Game development Association are women. In the UK, just 17 percent of electronic gaming workers are female, and only 23 percent of those women have jobs that include designing or having creative input.

The reason this interests me from a designing point of view is that as we are designing an educational tool, it cannot be gender specific. One of the main aims is to create a game which not only educates, but also enjoyed from a purely non-educational way. I've realised that this might be hard. Girls in this case, might not be as interested to play as the boys. Research has shown that girls tend to choose games with short play and quick rewards, rather then Byzantine universes that require months to learn to navigate. One game to look at though which has been successful with women is The Sims created by a 60 percent female team and played by an audience that is 50 percent female. This seems to suggest that as women we are simple creatures purely wanting quick gratification and a pat on the back every five minutes.....

I think the way forward will be in the characters and also what platform the game should be played on. Could have a sims type character (obviously not to be made by me..) and a reward scheme. On her blog, Frag Doll team member (Female game team) Jinx writes:

"Within certain boundaries of reason, I think no one can argue that attractive game characters are awesome. Outside those bounds, well I often find myself cocking my head and wondering how physics engines can support the paradoxes of some female models... Usually there's an inverse relationship between the size of a character's breasts and her character development.... Developers, I'm trying to help you. If you're going to put a female character in the game, put her in for a reason... Being buxom is not a reason, it is an excuse."

As the characters in my game will be the character in the film that they are looking at I do not feel that it is important to look to closely at character assassination! However, the importance of female characters' physical appearance to female gamers is not well understood by male game developers. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that identifying with game characters is less important to many male gamers? Male gamers see that most male characters are portrayed as unrealistic, muscle-bound Rambo-types, but they simply are not that affected by this. Many female gamers, on the other hand, are irritated when they can not identify with their female character. Additionally, males seem to miss the significance of the fact that female characters are not simply portrayed in a physically unrealistic manner, but are overly sexualised as well. As Sheri Graner Ray of Sirenia Software pointed out, male characters' sexual organs are not exaggerated in the same way as female characters' sexual characteristics are exaggerated-we do not see male game characters with huge penises, for example.

This next part is not really in contrast to my own problem or concerns as far as "Mr Benn for a modern world" goes but is rather interesting! In "Strong=Sexy," an essay published by WomenGamers.com, game critic Damon Brown muses on what male gamers get out of manipulating virtual vixens. His argument seems to vaguely state that this sexing up of women is about power differentials and has something to do with men's "phobias, desires and repression". He then goes on to say that male lead characters- Rambo, Bond, etc,- offer the player the chance to experience power by killing. Then he tries to establish a parallel by attempting to figure out what kind of power female leads proffer to male game players.......: "Man will never be able to stop his fascination of the womb, the place from where he came.... Women have this power. He does not." By this power I presume he means the ability to give birth. He reasons that male characters allow players to have power over others by killing them, and female characters allow players to have power over others by..... having babies??? He does slightly redeam himself by going down the path of : There's a difference between what male and female characters, as currently constructed, offer players, and it does have to do with power. What these female characters offer to the largest market share of game players- heterosexual men- is the chance to be aroused while going about the business of destroying bad guys or stealing cars. What more could a man want.....?

It has been suggested and I'm not utterly convinced, however that it is the "male geeks" who create them, that makes the medium prone to characterising women as sexual objects. " Many of the heterosexual geek boys in this industry have a deep resentment of women because they haven't had as much access to women as they would like." Therefore they can skip asking a women to go on a date and just create a character instead.... I dread to think what these people have created in their bedrooms....

For my head:- the objects

2005-12-13T17:31:00.000Z

Objects??????
Am having problems with the objects. You reach an object and at the moment to indicate that the object is active it spins. I can make the object then follow the character however I am unable for the character to then let go of an object should the user change their mind. One possable way out of this is when the character reaches an object the description comes up and you then have the choice of sending the object to the mirror. Should the viewer send more then one object to the mirror they then have the choice of which object to pick up and walk through with. Could have a shelf with them all lined up on. But how do you take one with you????

As the whole point of this game is that your choice of object indicates where you go in the next level, so to speak then this is really quite important.......

2005-12-05T21:21:00.000Z

Useful site on game theory;

?????????????

2005-12-05T12:52:00.000Z

Well, I somehow need to make my room have some resembulance to this----->
Now there are loads of free 3D models out there you can get anything..... even down to a used condom. But blood soaked medical instruments, torturous looking devices, and severed limbs isn't so easy. And the electrical thingy which made the monster come to life is proving most difficult. Thats what today is for to finish the room, and try and figure out how to make the viewer be able to pick up objects.

Navigation (red is now Tuesday!)

2005-11-28T16:44:00.000Z

Have been thinking through the navigation system and use of cameras today, while constructing my room. Very difficult finding 3D objects that would work in Frankensteins Room......

So.......
Have decided that the camera will be mostly just behind the head. Could have certain points where the camera moves, however as this is supposed to be a kind of exploration for the viewer I want to keep the view point quite restricted. When you pick up an object the camera will change to a P.O.V shot ie first person. When you reach the mirror I want the camera to be inside the mirror looking back at the character. Will apply some sort of translucent material infront of the camera to appear like your looking through glass. When the character moves forward it will be once again a P.O.V shot.

Objects needed:-

Bookshelf
Desk/chair
Curtains
Lamp
Bed- or wooden bench?
Couch
Pictures
Bottles/jars/things with body parts in
A spade
Mirror
Chair
Bench for objects
Books/pens etc

Need to find out which objects are going to be used to transport the viewer into another genre. The idea at the moment is that for example you pick up the spade, a seperate window will appear giving the viewer a choice of four spades each "looking" like they belong to a different genre, you then choose which one. Not sure how I'm going to keep an object with the character it might have to just spin around the character, find this annoying in computer games however the character won't be able to keep hold of it and reach for different objects at the same time. Need to think this through. more tommorow.

PD stuff

2005-11-24T15:42:00.000Z

Here is Martins introduction to PD

So I can find them again

2005-11-23T20:56:00.000Z

Just found these, and I'm writing them here so I don't forget.
Charmin' Cleary
Him
Dispossesion
Sand Loves

all these and more can be found here

A link that might not work!

2005-11-23T15:45:00.000Z

Here

is my final, very badly written php script.
The narrative was the least of my problems.
I will make it look pretty tommorow.
Will post the report here when it is written.....................................

Green is for Thursday

2005-11-17T22:24:00.000Z

"To create a short interactive program
using PHP and HTML to construct an interactive program that explores the issue
of authorship. The piece therefore should allow users to create or participate
in the creation of an interactive text the content or structure of which PHP
allows users participation. It should also employ PHP to allow users to
comminicate with a central server using the a web browser."

I think this means create a simple interactive text based along a narrative. Giving the users options in which way they go using PHP and HTML??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Have decided to base the narrative around various places; a mountine, a wood, a river, and a town. With the user haveing a list of options along the lines of "Continue along the path or take the boat downstream towards the town". Also have to include some sort of object that the user will have to have with them to get into the concluding part of the narrative.

More tommorow.

Php Crib Sheet

2005-11-17T21:37:00.000Z

Just in a case I lose yet another bit of paper.

Model:-

User requests a page with a URL
If that request was sent by a form, variable data may be sent to the server along with the request.
Web server receives request for object located at the URL
If that object (e.g. index.php) is a php file, the php code segment gets executed and replaced with the result of the code
Server sends the new, freshhly available file to the browser

Things to check:-

Am I accessing the right URL?
Did I upload the lastest version to the live server?
Did I type everything correctly? (Everything is case sensitive, spaces are not allowed in URLs or filenames)
Do I have a code segment starting with
Does every line of php code end with a semi-colon (;)?
Do I have an ending bracket for every open bracket? ( "(", "[", "{")
Did I mistakenly type letter '1' instead of digit '1'?
Did I mistakenly type letter 'o' instead of digit '0'?
Did I remember that variable names start with '$'?
Did I remember that arrays start with index 0, not index 1?
If I get a message saying "error parsing line 101", did I check that line 100 is correct? Does it end with a semi-colon (;)?
Did I try debugging by using "echo $variable" in critical places in the php code?

Alice through the looking glass.

2005-11-14T12:50:00.000Z

Mirrors: The navigation is going to rely on mirrors. Every time the viewer moves from one space to another it will be through a mirror. The viewer will take an object with them which will determine which room they end up in. They can take characteristics with them, so for example they can keep the lighting or music and see how this effects the experience in another Genre.

continued

2005-11-07T15:34:00.000Z

Mr. Benn for a Modern Day- an Educational Tool
(Work in Progress)

INT. HALL OF MIRRORS. DAY OR NIGHT

The user finds themselves in front of a carnival-type hall of mirrors room. Above each mirror is a MOVIE GENRE. In this instance only HORROR and ??? genres work.

Below Horror are the words ‘FRANKENSTEIN’ and ‘MONSTER’; the user chooses which mirror to walk through. Both MIRRORS lead into the same scene.

As FRANKENSTEIN
The user is teleported into Frankenstein’s Laboratory.
The design is of a typical 1930’s expressionistic film set with an accompanying, relevant, Non Diegetic SOUND TRACK which continues in some way shape of form throughout this episode.
The camera shot is initially of an Establishing Shot type until the user moves the character; when this happens the shot is Over the Shoulder.
The LIGHTING is typical 1930’s HORROR.
On a table directly in front of him is his MONSTER.
On the walls of the laboratory are bottles of body parts in formaldehyde; ONE is lit. Inside is a (human?) heart. By clicking on the bottle the heart pumps, with diegetic sound, and the user may explore the bottle. An explanation of the heart in terms of creating a life form and its relevance to the genre is given by way of a Voice Over by Dr. Frankenstein (in character). The user clicks to return to the laboratory.
Near the Monster’s table is a box with electric current dials on it connected to the monster. By clicking on this the user is given an explanation by Dr. Frankenstein of the importance of the electricity and its magic (in story telling the monster has to be awoken by magic).

Returning to the Point of Entry the user is given the option to either return to the HALL OF MIRRORS or to see the scene with
· Different lighting
· Sound
· Costume
· Make Up
· Camera Work
· Or specific Genre

When the user makes his choice he is teleported back into the environment with the appropriate changes
OR he might choose to see the scene in a particular genre, as a reconstruction of, for example, the laboratory in ‘The Man with Two Brains’ or ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’

A link to the full text of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein.

PHP game idea

2005-11-03T09:09:00.000Z

For this first PHP project we have to think of a simple game in
which to make.................................................
??????????????????????????????????
Am thinking hang-man, snap, chess, ludo, connect-4, these types of games seem to be a easy way to look at this brief. Would like to make a simple interactive text in which the viewer simple uses hyperlinks to reach the next part of the story. However, am not yet sure that this is what they wanted for this brief.

Blue is for Tuesday

2005-10-31T13:26:00.000Z

"Mr Benn for a modern world"
For the project within Virtools (bastard programme...) we have decided to make a learning and creative tool for anyone in the field of cinematography eg A-Level students. Its purpose is to help the user explore the elements of genre and style within the main frame of cinema. The process will take the shape of an associative narrative to begin and as the user progresses he will develop a more linear approach.

At ‘start up’ the user will have gender control of a character and given a brief introduction to the shape of their proposed journey in the form of an interview or something.
At the end of the interview (or whatever) the user’s character will be teleported via a Mr. Benn type door into a Virtools generated environment that relates specifically to a certain movie genre (e.g. Film Noir, Western, Love Story etc.). The environment will be location specific, lighting specific, prop specific etc. and as the user journeys around the space he will find information about that type of genre i.e. important films, directors and future influences on film etc. The character might travel through a bank of mirrors.

As an example we will say that the user arrives first in a film noir environment. As the user scrolls around he will attain various physical, emotional attributes required by characters in film noir of which he will be able to keep say three, before he steps through another door into another genre. With this choice of characteristics he will also be able to retain (if he chooses) other aspects of the genre e.g. music, lighting style, character clothes, characteristics to take into the next world/environment randomly chosen by the program. So, for example, the user might choose to retain the lighting set up and the characteristic of ruthless and if the next genre environment was Martial Arts the user would have the initial imagery for a mixed genre movie.
As the user becomes more aware of the parameters of the product/game he will begin to learn ways of controlling the character through the hyperspace between worlds and therefore enhance his understanding of genre and the mixing of genres i.e. ZomCom, RomCom, Love Story/Road Trip, Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror. Also the product will help define for the user each genre so that he will have more confidence breaking the established rules of genre.

The more advanced user will be able to save environments and cross match at their leisure knowing the fundamentals of each genre (according to me) before developing their new world for their new protagonist.

Since we've written this, things have changed. The mise-en-scene is too big a "thing" to look at, as well as including films use of, sound, lighting and camera angles. We might just look at the use of sound and lighting so for example Diegetic and none Diegetic sound, the way horror films and film Noir exploit lighting to convey mood and set the scene. We have yet to fully think everything through yet! Never mind making the bloody thing!

Its all bloody random

2005-10-26T11:44:00.000+01:00

Just looked on three different computers and this blog looks different on all of them. It doesn't like the changing sizes. From this computer the text has all overlapped in various sizes looks rather good. Can't read it. But being a purely asthetic kind of person it doesn't matter!

and people say I'm not organized....

2005-10-25T16:13:00.000+01:00

Ok. So. Ummm. Stress. Right. Yeah. Why am I here? Got it. Have decided to use this blog to facilitate (?) all parts of M.A. Mainly because its easier then having four.I will colour code the text so that I know which post is in relation to what project. This of cause being dependent on the "man who can" coming on thursday to fit phone line.

So.........
Tuesday afternoon will be blues, Tuesday evenings will be reds,

Thursday afternoon will be greens, and Thursday evenings will be

shades.

2005-10-03T16:04:00.000+01:00

Douglas Engelbart

Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart is best known for inventing the computer mouse. And as a pioneer of human-computer interaction who in addition was part of a team who developed hypertext, networked computers and precursors to GUI’s. He relates his first knowledge and interest to Vannevar Bush’s article

“As we may think”. Engleburt reasoned that the state of our current technology controls our ability to manipulate information, and that fact in turn will control our ability to develop new, improved technologies. He decided to set himself the task of improving and developing computer-based technologies for manipulating information directly. This, with a lot left out and major skimming, is why and how the mouse was born. (Have read some interesting articles on how the knee might also be used, more a kind of leaver, which would leave the hands free to carry out other tasks using the keyboard) The mouse was and is primarily the whole tool behind interaction. Without the mouse we are left stationary, unable to move in different realms apart from up, down, across. He came into criticism later on, with his view of computers and their role being just for large corporations, business, and much less for general use, as well as he general theories and use of the computer.

“The way we had been thinking about it was sort of Doug Englebart's view that the mainframe was like a railroad, owned by an institution that decided what you could do and when you could do it. Englebart was trying to be like Henry Ford. A personal computer as it was thought of in the sixties was like an automobile.”

Ryan, Bob “Dynabook Revisited with Alan Kay” 1991

Ted Nelson

Theorist, philosopher, invented the term “hypertext” (debatable, H.G Wells might contest that, as well as Bush’s ideas (1945) of which has been said Nelson simply re-literates) in 1965 he also coined the words hypermedia, transclusion, virtuality, interwingularity (!) and teledildonics. His main object and incentive is to make computers accessible to ordinary people. (While I’m here Interwingularity, anyone who makes up a word like that, I like.)

In the context of interactivity it would appear that he was instrumental in its thought and birth so to speak. First coming up with the idea, what would then become project Xanadu: a word processor capable of storing multiple versions, and displaying the differences between these versions. This led to Nelson wishing to facilitate “nonsequential writing”, where the user could choose their own paths through an electronic document. Not a new idea, one could relate that back to the 16^th century, especially looking at the way in which they tried to organize information within libraries, which failed due to its complexity, but a new concept in the digital age where anything is relatively possible. He called this new idea “Zippered lists”. These zippered lists would allow compound documents to be formed from pieces of other documents, an idea he would later refer to as transclusion.

One could argue that is wasn’t until Tim Berners-Lee (and Robert Cailliau) actually invented the internet that any of this became relevant, although Nelson is dismayed by the World Wide Web, believing it to be a “gross over-Simplication of his own work” and believes

“HTML is precisely what we were trying to prevent- ever breaking links, links going outward only, quotes you can’t follow to their origins, no version management, and no rights management”

Everyone can’t but agree with this statement, some might say it is blindingly obvious when it is pointed out. But how, is a lot harder to answer. Project Xanadu as I mentioned previously is where Nelsons ideas “live” Many of Nelson’s ideas although very good ideas in theory have their problems. Complexity vs. Simplicity; project Xanadu allows documents to contain any part of any other document, whereas the web merely allows linking to complete documents. There is the fact that the web is compatible with existing file systems, transclusion would need an entire new system requiring the use of complicated databases, which may be difficult to maintain being that the web is ever expanding and growing. Then there is copyright, Xanadu’s model of transclusion has proven unpopular with authors and consumers. Despite the facilities for authors of documents to be paid when part of their work was transcluded into another, there is no guarantee that the authors of these documents would receive proper credit in the transcluding work. Then there is the point of making us pay for everything, I don’t like the sound of that…… All in all it would seem he is prolific in the expansion of the World Wide Web and where we are heading. Whether his ideas ever get fully materialised or used in part, is yet to be seen or made possible.

Alan Kay "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

An American computer scientist, who joined Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research center (PARC) in 1970. Here he helped develop network workstations, and by some, the creator of the modern graphical user interface. And most famously came up with the Dynabook, the concept which defined the basis of the laptop computer.

Yet even before his years at Xerox PARC, Kay had envisioned the Dynabook, which he described as "a portable interactive personal computer, as accessible as a book." The Dynabook would be linked to a network and offer users the ability to use text, visuals, animation and audio.

“Just as the book was an extension of the oral medium, so is the computer an extension of the print medium.”

Kay drew an initial pen and ink sketch of this device, which is widely considered the prototype for the notebook computer. Today, most portable computers contain all the technology his vision would require, yet Kay has insisted in his talks and writings that the Dynabook “remains a dream”. Not yet made or even properly imagined."

He is currently in the process of writing a new computer language that constructed simulated intelligence within the computer so as to allow the machine to tell itself what to do. He envisions a “computer that can learn from the user and adapt to the user's needs.” Should be interesting…….

ello

2005-10-01T04:50:00.000+01:00

Can everybody hear me????????? or see me????
You will have to excuse the font changery its one of my....

few pleasures in life.

Regurgitated thought

Back to basics

LIFE A users manual: Georges Perec

The Hourglass

Drawing of the mechanical heart - research

Neptune/Poseidon

Prehistory

Homeric Hymn to Poseidon

Role in society

In art

In Rome

I'm not shallow

"Start at the beginning"

Notes to start things off

Conversation between Me and I

Starting things off - 2nd year final project.

Websites

Force of totality revisited

RESEARCH MODULE: plans for the future

Brain ticking over and Akscyn's law.....

Two More Characters

Don't know who there by

Sleeping Beauty- Paula Rego style.

Signs

Typography

The art of book making...

Ticking over

Review

Horoscopes

Illustration????????????????

Board Games

Symbolism in sleeping beauty

Arthur Conon Doyle- you have to laugh

Edgar Allan Poe

More research- Flash

Faeries

thinking

Vladimir Propp

Ask it any question

Recap

Why databases.

ASSIGNMENT 2: Research Methods

Random thought patterns

XML and Flash (8)

XML

More links

Should really have a specific blog for this....

Navigation and Structure

In a muddle

More Brian Froud because I love them

Brian Froud my hero

Terri Windling on ShapeShifters

More research......

More thought......

Paula Rego

First recorded fairy tales

Assignment One for Research Module

"Bitch- A feminist response to pop culture"

For my head:- the objects

?????????????

Navigation (red is now Tuesday!)

PD stuff

So I can find them again

A link that might not work!

Green is for Thursday

Php Crib Sheet

Alice through the looking glass.

continued

PHP game idea

Blue is for Tuesday

Its all bloody random

and people say I'm not organized....

Alan Kay "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

ello