Everyday is lalala...

RE: Image/text sequences

1. When readers can select and organize the frames into a linear sequence, they engage in what Legrady calls "authorship"; the readers are no longer purely receivers of information as established by the author, but also encoders and decoders simultaneously. That is to say, the role of the reader is to codify language (determine the signifier - from "assembling of /.../ modular information elements"), which was used to be done by the author, as well as to decipher codes (interpret what is signified - from "the sequential sum of viewed selections"), all happening during the viewing process. So that the readers themselves establish the narrative through their perceptual filters - they "write" their own story as the story unfolds.

Does that mean that the role of the author is diminished? Personally, I think that the role is instead enhanced! Take Slippery Traces as an example, Legrady could have just thought of one storyline and let the readers perceive the narrative as such. Instead, he went through great lengths to set up the context for interactivity, classify each image, and determine the linkages between these classifications. Hence the role of the author is made more difficult since he/she has to come up with a network of fragmented elements that somehow has some "pre-defined relationships". I likened the role of an author as the person laying the foundation and setting the boundaries, so that readers can build their narrative on the foundation laid and within the boundaries placed. Rings a bell? Well, this reminds me of play!

Thus, I think that interactivity and play goes hand in hand and that the roles of the reader and author become more involving and interconnected - without the author to come up with the frames and set the rules for unfolding the narrative or without the reader to assemble and create a meaningful picture out of the selected frames, there can be no narrative transmission using this approach.

2. I really can't upload the images... I've tried for almost 2 hours... Even when the blog says "successfully uploaded the image"... the image doesn't appear in my post... AGRRRR WHY?? Sorry I only managed to upload the first 2 pics... YES after much fixing... I've finally uploaded all 6 images at 12.28am!! HURRAY!! Hope it's not too tiny...

3. After a gruelling 3 hour session (7-10pm) of discussion this evening, we've finally narrowed our choices to 2! We can't decide so pls vote! For the first idea, we will be using snapshots; we were thinking along the lines of having decision points where the user can choose which branch to follow and consequently change the endings, hence the narrative and experience of unfolding the narrative. The narrative that we've chosen was Run Lola Run - something that the whole class watched before so that they can better appreciate the mechanisms behind re-configuring the work from a linear to an interactive narrative. We all agree that this idea lacks creativity and is abit too simplistic, hence we could possibly mix snapshots from other movies or create unexpected endings for the narrative(s) of Run Lola Run. Other modifications can include unfolding the narrative through Manni, rather than Lola. That is to say, the user is Manni and the choices he/she makes as Manni will affect the narrative. For this idea, the degree of control is high because the user can change the kernels but the possibilities are limited and pre-determined by us!

For the second idea (Christie is totally mad about it!!), we were thinking of combining play (oh yes... Oscar-winning performance) and still images to make it an interactive piece of work. The narrative we're going to use is Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, with a twist :) ; Is Snow White really such an angel while the Queen is the devil? Did Snow White really live happily ever after? YOU, the audience, decides! We intend to stage a courtroom scene where Snow White and the Queen will try to defend their case in front of the jury (the audience). The interactivity part comes in when the audience gets to participate not only by choosing who to win i.e. which narrative to believe, but also has a chance to choose which witness to re-examine again and judge the evidences (the still images) shown. All these choices and judgements will require the audience to "uncover" details and "fill in" missing portions of the evidences in order to unfold the narrative. This idea is definitely more fun to work with but requires more than just coming up with different possibilities; it requires us to connect our evidences, scripts of witnesses and co. and what the audience may respond together. We're afraid we can't execute it the way we wanted to 'coz of time constraints.

Given these 2 ideas, which should we go for? hmm...

sung by lalala @ 9:24 AM