[-empyre-] liquid narratives

["Jim Andrews" <jim@vispo.com>]

i recall lucia santaella saying that as long as there is temporality and
agency, there is narrative. i think the important thing in her statement is
that it proposes a simple and generalized notion of narrative. not so much
whether it is 100% correct. for instance, winfried nöth said that this def
of narrative does not let us distinguish between narrative and description.

but i think that the direction she is going is the right one. when
non-euclidean geometry arose, it was via loosening the def of the straight
line. keep the notion that a straight line is the shortest distance between
two points and scrap the rest. on the surface of a sphere, the shortest
distance between two points is an arc along an equatorial/great circle.

we can take the shortest path between two points in a narrative and still
have narrative.

tonight i saw a music video i liked. which is a bit like seeing a blue moon.
the song was "it's alright" by ricky martin. the video used urban space in
an interesting way and there was voice without lyrics. just as there was
narrative without story. the video unfolded on different urban surfaces,
like sides of buildings, bus ad spaces, cellphone screens, etc. not so much
the new flesh as the new page. liquid narratives where the screen is
flexible and of the resolution of water.

the video was telling the recent story of story.

"beneath the surface, is there depth or more surfaces?" - erin mouré

ja
http://vispo.com