Drawing of the mechanical heart - research

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

Prehistory

In Greek mythology, Poseidon (Greek: Ποσειδών) was the god of the sea, as well as horsesearthquakes. 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

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"

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

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

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.

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

Never- ending story

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

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

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.....

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

Wise Man

The Great Lord

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

Sleeping Beauty- Paula Rego style.

Signs

Typography

The art of book making...