As multimedia creators experiment with narrative form and interactive pathings we are hearing in one ear much hyped promises of a radical change to communication and narrative writings. In the opposite ear critics and consumers grumble about the inability of new media discourses to live up to these promises. The notion of 'interactivity' has become an elusive object of scrutiny. What seems to be at stake is the position of audience engagement. Interactivity is no longer attractive in itself. Rather it is the design of that interactive work which is crucial, how its pathings relate to the content and aesthetics, and more importantly how the choices made by the viewer feedback to them through the text. This paper attempts to propose a craft of "structural aesthetics". A craft which has arisen due to the alternative narrative structures possible which result from new media technology. It utilizes a case study entitled "BOXES" (work in progress) - an experimentation in online electronic narratives using performance and communication in an attempt to establish an "interactivity of affect".
Various mediums of communication focus on diverse aesthetic considerations and specific areas of their craft. Whether that be a painter focusing on the use of colour, a photographer concentrating on the shape of an image or an actor on the style of a performance; Computer mediated communication has brought to the forefront the form and structure of discourse as an important aesthetic for consideration and experimentation. This paper will attempt to clarify the notion of "structural aesthetics" suggesting that a design craft resides in the conceptual process of planning associations between elements and building in textual feedback. Experimentation has transported us to a situation where both creators and consumers alike have moved beyond being interested in interactivity as merely a vehicle for non linearity. Simplistic pathing devices that serve as passageways between information distributed in a non linear format have been received as unsatisfying in all but educational titles. Early approaches have involved rupturing the linear line. fragmenting a piece into sections that can be accessed in a non linear fashion. Although versatile, such a device still holds one prevalent line. However the flip side to experimentation beyond such pathing has been warning cries of vertigo and disorientation as users get lost in the maze of links with no navigational guide. At this point in our cultural history the linear line is perhaps still ingrained into our discursive makeup and when the user is asked to disconnect from the immersive flow of this thread they have been doing just that - disconnecting.
A challenge has been placed at the feet of new media creators: to create a work which in its very nature disengages the viewer from immersion yet at the same time compels them to remain engaged. Amidst cries seeking the multimedia equivalent of the novel or film, creators should hold firm in their experimentation. There will not be an equivalent. Interactive works employ a different system, one in which malleable structuring becomes as much a part of the text as any visual or content consideration. The shape of a work or narrative form is not a new area of consideration or experimentation, but perhaps it is one of the most vital areas of consideration for hypermedia authors. The medium itself is not a transparent medium through which we see a slice of life, nor is it a self reflexive medium where the narrative is subordinated to the vehicle. Rather multimedia has become a medium where the discourse is dimensionalised. It is a space capable of movement and change, and it is the relationship between the audience and this space which has been placed under the stage lights.
We have stumbled across a medium that accentuates and highlights the mechanics behind a work and it is perhaps here where we should be looking for some answers to the range of questions concerning interaction. Within a medium that claims to deliver revolutionary forms of writing, more consideration needs to be paid to mechanics of structural design, utilizing the ability to breakdown stable structures and reassemble new forms from the interplay of fluid elements. Conceptual processes of interactive design can be like a blue print for spatial relations. Care must be taken with the formation of lines, the final shape and the possible flows of travel and circulation.
Designing structural aesthestics will inevitably be context specific, making decisions about why a certain concept should be made interactive and how the degree and levels of interaction contribute to the overall intent. The positioning of interactive elements and the result that each choice of interaction has on the remainder of the text are necessary decisions in designing. One of the unique aspects of interactive design is the ability to create layers of narrative and position elements in such a way so that they influence and affect one another in various ways other than merely where they stand in location to one another on a linear timeframe.
The notion of "Interactivity of affect" is situated within this area of experimentation. 'Affect' may be defined as emotion, influence or to be affected. In 'What is Philosophy' ' 1 Deleuze and Guattari refer to affect as one of the two components of art. Claiming that 'percepts' and 'affects' are what escalate an art work so that it can stand alone. "It should be said of all art that, in relation to the percepts or visions they give us, artists are presenters of affects, the inventors and creators of affects"2 . More specifically however they define affect as an autonomous being having broken free from its human subject. They are sensations encapsulated within an art work independent of a creator or audience. "The work of art is a being of sensation and nothing else: it exists in itself"3 .
However what is unique to multimedia is that the work does not stand alone, independent of its audience. Without active engagement from a user the text does not function and the core of it lies hidden and inert. Just as the sensations of a work have the power to influence an individual, in multimedia the individual has the power to influence a work. If artists are presenters of affects then what they are presenting in multimedia is the interaction. Interactivity is about the way in which the text is structured to respond to a user and without the user there is no art.
If there is no art without a user, then the work needs to be able to summon engagement, providing them with a reason to interact. This reason comes with the creation of desire. A desire to destroy to enemy, a desire to save the maiden, find the answer or to understand the point of view; a desire to act. The text needs to be able to incite the viewer to seek and discover, engaging with the motif of the piece. "That one very important condition is desire. One must have the desire to see, to hear, to feel what ever it is one believes is buried within a CD-ROM....But that I know that there is something hidden in this CD-ROM...that excites me."1 In this way the text is affecting the user by influencing their sentiment and causing them to become an active agent in the unfolding of the piece. Once the user is involved, experimenting with pathways and seeking out what is behind the interface, alternative structures can be activated and revealed.
As the text responds, either overtly or subtly, cycling through its associations, combining them in new ways, it is responding to the chosen path of the viewer. The viewer is provided with navigation, rewards and incentives as it is made apparent how their involvement is causing repercussions in the way in which the work unfolds. The user is 'affecting' the text initializing transitions from one association to another.
Elements of interactive texts can be placed together in flexible associations so that when a user approaches them they can modulate and adapt to the impact of the viewer. It is the formal qualities of a text and the design of pathways between elements that become the craft in interactive works. How does the text react to the 'affect' of the viewer? In what ways does it change? Which associations weave together and how are these changes made apparent? These are the conceptual questions and the basis of the design that underlie an interactivity of affect.
Utilizing BOXES as a case study this section of the paper will explain how the creation of the piece was an attempt - either successfully or unsuccessfully - to employ the notions of structural aesthetics through the design of an "interactivity of affect". Investigating possible structures in hypermedia narratives, BOXES is an attempt to work with textual feedback in an online environment experimenting with communication and the response to that communication.
The aim of this work was to create an "aesthetic" web site where the unfolding of the text relies upon the movements of the viewer. The choices made by the audience within the given constraints gradually reveal themselves in the way the events unfold on the screen. The user is presented with a malleable narrative, the final text dependent upon the paths selected. The user cannot control the destiny of the characters within, but the tone of the experience varies according to the interaction.
There are two pivotal planes of interaction throughout the site. Central to the work is the way in which it unfolds on a structural level. Using the concept of 'contingent links' access to elements within the text is contingent upon paths previously selected. Two main narrative strands are available and a multiplicity of options oscillating between the two. Each web page is based around one distinctive thematic of the overall narrative.
The second level of interaction resides visually within each web page. A range of interactive elements are available. Some of which transport the viewer through the text's structure to other pages, yet additional elements reveal more about that particular page, thereby keeping the viewer within the same page yet revealing new information. One of its central aims was to create a two way dialogue between viewer and text, enabling interaction to cause repercussions within the work. The choices made by the user feedback upon the text so that the path they choose to travel causes the textuality to adjust accordingly.
To this end it embraces the concepts of Forum theatre empowering the "spectactor"5 with the ability to take an active role. The aim of "Boal's Poetics of the Oppressed"6 is to demolish the wall that separates actors from spectators. Its objective is to change passive spectators into active subjects in the theatrical phenomenon. Converting them into actors, transformers of dramatic action. Short scenarios containing a political or social problem with a challenging solution is presented. The scene develops to a point at which the central problem raises a crisis and requires a solution. After the original presentation the skit will be performed again, however this time the audience can stop the performance and offer solutions, intervening to change the course of events. The actors improvise around these alternative approaches. "Spectactors" can intervene by offering alternative ways of approaching a situation (simultaneous dramaturgy) or more preferably, the audience can replace an actor, taking the stage to physically act out their idea (forum).
The audience is presented with an alterable theatrical piece in which they can intervene and change. The aim is to rupture forces of oppression by physicalising and visualizing alternative possibilities and being an active force within such possibilities. The point of the work is not the narrative progression but active involvement from the audience, initiating change and a liberation from oppression.
Boxes draws upon this idea yet altering it to befit the digital medium. It forms three layers of narrative that are interchangeable. The first layer depicts a situation with a negative outcome where communication is debilitated. A third layer offers an alternative to the original, but it can only be accessed if the user travels via a second layer picking up means of communication through performance and colour, importing them into the next 'scene'. Saturations of colour and various styles of performance are used to affect the tone of the narrative by providing tools for communication. In such a way the text responds to the influence of the user responding in content and aesthetics to paths chosen.
The site in its entirety is centered around a narrative exploration of the relationship between depression and communication, addressed through a father/daughter relationship dealing with themes of communication and withdrawal. Exploring depression and its effect on expression, the audience is presented with an alterable piece in which they can intervene and change the tone of the outcome.
Depression is explored as a disorder of affect. One that imposes external and dynamic manifestations of a person's internal state yet depriving him of means of communication. The central character PETER sinks into depression triggered by a disruption to his sense of place. This depressive illness robs him of his ability to communicate effectively and changes the nature of his relationship with his daughter. Four 'scenes' express this downward spiral of depression through the progressive loss of ability to communicate. These being Articulation, Feeling, Movement and Thinking.
Each is focused around a crisis point which can potentially be avoided. These four 'scenes' form the first layer of narrative (present version 1) . Depression is depicted not as something to be cured but as a discourse and a series of rhythms with which to be engaged.The aim for the spect actor is not to bring PETER in or out of depression but to 'colour' him with tools for expression.
These 'tools' can be found in what forms the 2nd narrative layer. Non naturalistic memory scenes from the past explore how various styles of performance and non verbal expression can be used to communicate. Using rhythm, gestures, comedia and sound, scenarios focus in and exaggerate these styles of performance, visually enhancing them each scenario with a saturation of colour. The past becomes a reference point, if the user travels through the linkages to the past, they can then import these elements back into the present.
The tone of the narrative changes if these tools of non verbal expression and performance are imported in to the present stages. This modulation in tone forms the third narrative layer (present version 2).Here the tone of the narrative changes and the original crisis avoided through the importation of communication. Depression is still depicted as a disorder of affect yet the tools of expression imported from the past are used to reach the sufferer.
Therefore there are two versions of the present scenes. One which traces debilitation of communication , through the progressive loss of articulation, feeling, movement and thinking. The other version also traces these stages, yet is enhanced with the colours and means of communication from the past. The tools of expression imported from the past are used to convey the stage of depression that Peter is experiencing.
For example the first version of "feeling" explores PETER's loss of feeling, symbolized as the character becomes black and white. However the second version of feeling (only revealed if the user has previously traveled to the past 'rhythm' scene) uses a repetitive and monotonous rhythm to express this loss of feeling and so a sense of communication is maintained.
This second version can only be accessed if the spectactor travels through the past. If not, they will experience a relatively linear unfolding of the first version only. Rather than making the results of each path overt, Boxes draws upon the nature of "Sims" to find a way in which the paths can be discovered yet not overtly provided.
Distinctive to the sim like structure is that the user's control is moderated, their freedom is made contingent upon their direction of travel. Rather than providing the user with access to all knowledge they are structured in such a way that interaction involves realization and accumulated experience. It is the way in which the user moves through the text that gives rise to the fluid narrative. The user needs to explore the interface in order to discover what is revealed behind the surface.
Within a sim, the choices made within the boundaries presented to the user discern what will be disclosed as the work progresses.The script provided a perfect opportunity in which to create such a structure. As each scene is framed around a particular structure of both houses. The focus of each contingent link became these structural components. If the user clicks on the structure in the present, they will be transported to the same structure in the past. From there they can take the communication and colour from these scenes and affect the tone of the present. If the "spect actor" experiences the scene "Feeling" and chooses to explore the spatial structures of that scene (Window frame) they will find themselves in the corresponding scene from the past (Body movement). When they then return to the present, the following scene will be enhanced with body movement and shades of orange. If the do not discover these alternative methods of expression then the 'movement scene' can still be accessed yet it will be revealed in a duller naturalistic form, not enhanced by the colour and movement of the past.
To begin summing up, one of the central motives of BOXES was to create a two way dialogue between the "spect actor" and the text. This communication between user and text was to affect the way in which the work unfolded on a structural level. Through devices such as contingent links and interchangeable layers of narrative the user is able to alter the scenario by importing styles of performance and colour and in so doing affecting the tone of the narrative.
The structure of BOXES largely came from the content. Depression alters they way in which the sufferer perceives the world around them. As a result the work centers around the same scenario in the same spaces, using the same characters, yet the tone of the scenario can be altered. The aim for the user is to engage with and provide means of communication that are otherwise inaccessible to the characters.
The narrative itself is about emotion; dealing with themes of relationship and communication. An aim of the work was to create the feel that by engaging with the alternative structures of emotion this in return affects the characters on an emotional level, encouraging them to act and engage with tools of expression and performance in order to communicate with one another.
In conclusion, new media technology has delivered a medium which accentuates the position of audience involvement. Interactive discourses enable a system of communication to develop between an audience and a text. It is within this system of communication that an interactivity of affect can be developed. It is a style of experimentation which involves molding the formal qualities of a text in such a way so that it will respond to the impact of a user. The choices made by the viewer within a set of given constraints feedback to them through the textual unfolding. The 'spectactor' can meander between layers of narratives affecting not only the order of events but the nature of the narrative. Finding and designing interesting and complex structures for this dialogue of affectation and discovering ways in which its pathings relate to the content has become a craft of structural aesthetics.
1. Deleuze, G & Guattari F. "What is Philosophy" Verso1994
2. Deleuze, G & Guattari F. Op cit Pg 178
3. Deleuze, G & Guattari F. Op cit Pg 164
4. Wark, M. The New Abstraction " World Art" 3/1995 G&B Arts International LID p 63
5. The term "spect actor" derives from Forum Theatre. In Theatre of the Oppressed Pluto Press, London 1979, Augusto Boal explains active audience involvement as when "the spectator no longer delegates power to the characters either to think or act in his place. The spectator frees himself; he thinks and acts for himselff" p 155
6. Boal, Augusto Theatre of the Oppressed Pluto Press, London 1979.
Melinda Wearne