Re: [-empyre-] multilinear narratives

Adrian Miles <adrian.miles@uib.no> · Tue Jun 25 12:22:43 2002

At 18:48 +1200 22/6/02, helen varley jamieson wrote:

 >dont' have answers, just problems there, and would be very interested

in what others think about multilinear narrative and narrative
pleasure.
i don't know how you define "multilinear narrative", but i enjoy work that
allows me to assemble my own interpretation rather than be spoonfed. it
seems to me that there is a lot more potential for this in interactive
media than we are seeing yet, & i wonder if that is because of the
perception that the masses want to be spoonfed & that is where commercial
interests are focussed.

yes but this applies to any medium, yes? and there is a lot of 
content out there that isn't about spoon feeding (any of the early 
hypertext fictions from eastgate spring to mind) and the general 
experience of these outside of a small group is a profound 
displeasure. unlike computer games for instance.
so i do think there is an issue here which could be rather unfairly 
characterised as "art" versus "popular culture" and the art side can 
validate difficult work but it will always be minor. but there is 
certainly interest from a lot of people/developers in working out how 
to make multilinear work that is as sophisticated as multilinear work 
could be, but is also read/used. games have it figured out. most of 
the others haven't. and i think part of the issue is very simply 
around narrative pleasure and closure.
cheers

adrian miles

--

+  lecturer in new media and cinema studies 
[http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/vlog]

+  interactive desktop video developer  [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/]

+  hypertext rmit [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au]

+ InterMedia:UiB. university of bergen [http://www.intermedia.uib.no]