1. interactive stories rhizomes

2. announcement Cine Manifest
doc about radical, political, progressive, indie, regional filmmaking
screening: Tues. Oct. 10; 7pm Comm Studio C
talk: Wed. Oct. 11; C8 301
speaker: Judy Irola, ASC, Chair of Cinematography, USC; activist in Cine Manifest

3. “Mobile Figures” reading
corrected url on website
also, instructions for reading it: the editor’s intro, author’s and designer’s statement, and then ‘launch project’

4. rhizome

5. rhizome

6. rhizome

7. rhizome botany: a stem root system: networked and distributed
philosophy: term used by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari as a preferred model for thinking about networked connections; opposed to the more hierarchical ‘tree’ model (derived from botanical meaning)
art: one of the main websites dealing w/ digital art (derived from Deleuze & Guattari)

8. rhizome analogy made to the Internet and web
also important to the spatial structure of hypertext narrative, a structure that challenges conventional linear cause/effect narrative structures (consequential [Barthes])

9. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
fundamental ideas, but not for an introductory audience;
I will cover some of the
difficult passages and concepts
references and assumed knowledge, especially connected to film and literary theories of narrative

10. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
who’s who & what’s what
structuralism
Russian formalists
montage
Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov, Vsevolod Pudovkin
Das Kapital
Roland Barthes

11. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
structuralism
refers to theories about the structure and organization of society and its artifacts
based on the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure
and the anthropological theories of Claude Levi-Strauss
individual human beings are nodes within a larger structure; positioned within it
structure of language is fundamental to the structure of society
people are “spoken by” language
Keith Obidike

12. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
Russian formalists
literary and film theorists, working roughly from in Russia/Soviet Union
developed influential theories about the form, structures, patterns, and dynamics of narrative
prototypes of “multimedia” theories
part of the heated, vibrant debates in early Soviet Union about artistic form and politics
Lev Manovich carries on the Formalist torch

13. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
Russian formalists
fabula: events, characters, background, etc. that make up a narrative; diegesis
sjuzet (syoo zhet’): the re-arrangement of the fabula material, especially its sequential ordering
architectronics (structuring; information architecture)
editing; linking; juxtapositions
we imagine that the fabula exist outside of the sjuzet, but really we only gain access to it through the sjuzet

14. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
montage
Kuleshov experiment:
takes a “neutral” reaction shot of a face from a film and edits it with
a corpse
a baby
a plate of food
the juxtaposition causes people to give different meanings to the face
implications for hypertext narrative?

15. Kuleshov effect
from interactive.usc.edu

16. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
montage
Kuleshov experiment:
cause/effect
spatial relations

17. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
Roland Barthes ( ); French cultural theorist
2 orders (types) of narrative event:
functions: doing; temporal, cause/effect; how do things motivate and sustain action or development; consequential linearity
indices: “a functionality of being”: metaphorical; e.g., psychology, atmosphere, mood
narratives combine these, and sometimes emphasize one over the other

18. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
spatial (indices)
good
innocence
light
virtue
evil
knowledge
dark
sexuality
temporal (functions) x
this causes this causes this causes this…
dual axes: Double Indemnity

19. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
narrative as a structuralist/structured space
hypertext:
spatially arranged information
navigating a database
users “map” the narrative (but don’t they also put it together chronologically?)
shape or “contour” (Michael Joyce) of narrative
instead of linear causal model of narrative, “we are invited instead to explore a space” (Dovey 142).

20. John Dovey, Hypertextual Theory of Narrative
hypertext narratives
Janet Murray: “violence hub” structure to some hypertext narratives
part of the hub (lexia)/link spatial organization (moving spatially over moving temporally; pacing, or lack thereof)
violent event at the heart of the story (fabula)
told (sjuzet) through different character and/or time perspectives

21. spatial narrative Olia Lialina
My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (1996)
interactive story, breaking into frames
read through associating different spatialized parts
Last Real Net Art Museum: variations on My Boyfriend
democratic potential of being able to transform works

22. ‘screening’ As American as Apple Pie
Michelle Citron, 1999 [disk 1676, MERC]
CD-ROM
combines database of image, sound, and text to provide portions of a narrative that we have to piece together
uses anachronism: old fashioned recipe card
plays off of expectations produced through the title and the imagery
expectations in part based on gender, sexuality, and race

23. ‘screening’ As American as Apple Pie
Michelle Citron, 1999 [disk 1676, MERC]
spatial organization:
space of the screen itself: pie shape (and recipe format)
moving cursor across space
rolling-over links
links trigger: sound (2 per link); image (1 per link); text (2; word than slice)
metaphorical space: space of the home, with apple pie at its symbolic center; an index but also functional

24. ‘screening’ As American as Apple Pie
Michelle Citron, 1999 [disk 1676, MERC]
spatial organization:
what are the “indices”? (psychological/mood elements)
the personal relationships
the violence [or trauma] hub?

25. ‘screening’ As American as Apple Pie
Michelle Citron, 1999 [disk 1676, MERC]
spatio-temporal organization:
fabula / sjuzet: can we discern the chronology of the fabula?