Literature review : Mark Stephen Meadows Interactive Narrative

Literature Review 
A literature review post about Mark Stephen Meadows that he discussed interactive narrative inside his written book, "Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative".

Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative - "Perspective is a critical characteristic of narrative, but there are at least two kinds of perspective:emotional (or cognitive) and dimensional(or visual)."(Meadow,2002:6)

Meadow has addressed an emerging art form that relies heavily on the role of perspective. He examined traditional narrative has tools such as foreshadowing and epiphany. The visual arts rely on point-perspective and foreshortening. Iconography and expanding menus are used in digital interactivity. All narrative that has similar aspect which they all convey perspective. Interactive narrative is the most impressive art form existing today because it combines traditional narrative with visual art and interactivity. Perspective is a critical characteristic of narrative. There are two kinds of perspective, which are emotional and dimensional. Sometimes, the dimensional perspective affects emotional perspective which putting viewer in to author’s own emotional perspective. If perspective painted are both of the author and the subject. Thus, the author was both inventing and interpreting. 

From there, this might be apply in the case study which is "Ramayana" interactive narrative website from Google Chrome Experimental project to implement the ideas of dimensional perspective and emotional perspective. The perspective in here has putting users to involve into the dimensional on what author has inventing and interpreting and create emotional perspective for users. In contras, another case study is “Wayang Authoring”. An interactive narrative in web-based that enable users to enhance their creative imagination and self-expression by authoring or modified the story of  Wayang Kulit in digitally. In this perspective, user as the author has opportunity to reinventing and reinterpreting on their own study, to create their own dimensional and emotional perspective.

Reference

       Meadows, M. (2002). Pause & Effect : The Art of Interactive Narrative. United States: New Riders.

Roland Barthes Narrative Theory

This is a post that I have further explore and to understand Roland Barthes narrative theory, it might help in my essay and building my final year project which is an interactive narrative website.

In Paul Ironstone, Cara Leitch, Annabel Onyango, and Courtney Unruh of an article about Roland Barthes: Understanding Text. This article has noted when analyzing texts, Barthes makes a distinction between a traditional work and what he calls “the Text.” He argues that traditional texts (works) render the reader passive because the author has control of the narrative. Unlike the work, the Text enables the reader to actively engage in its production because it is not restricted by conventions of genre, linearity, or author control.

Barthes has also discussing the 'text' and 'work' in an article From Work to Text. Barthes has using seven proposition: method, genre, signs, plurality, filiation, reading and pleasure to explains the differences between 'text' and 'work'.

Here is the seven proposition that I read From Work to Text.

Method:

"The difference is this: the work is a fragment of substance, occupying a part of the space of books (in a library for example), the Text is a methodological field. " Barthes explains that 'work' is an object that can be handle but text is the composition or the meaning the reader takes from the 'work', it is not a definite object.

Genre:

Text that cannot contain in hierarchical system or genres unlike the rigid classifications applied to the ‘work,’.

Signs:

The work is signified and does not involved any arbitrary in its literal understanding or interpretation. .The work can be categorized and fucntion as a symbol sign to whatever subject it signifies. Text is in reaction to the sign. Text is metonymic, which is incomplete. Texts can build phrases with interrupted meanings and produce overlapping ideas and make multitude of  associations.  Its ambiguity causes it to become extremely symbolic and makes its signifiers arbitrary and undetermined. 

Plurality:

Text is plural. Barthes says the text is like a ‘woven fabric’ that comes with known codes that are assembled differently and maybe be woven with ‘citations,’ ‘references,’ and ‘echoes;’ it is intertextual in that it is “the text between of another text.”

Filiation:

"The work is caught up in a process of filiation. [Three things] Are postulated: a determination of the work by the world (by race, then by History), a consecution of works amongst themselves, and a conformity of the work to the author." 

If writing is seen as a ‘work’ it is defined by a process of association or authorship. It becomes affiliated and identified with its author and the reader’s knowledge of the author and previous works may become the key to its understanding. If writing is viewed as a text, then it is not limited and confined to a genre and the reader does not expect it to fit into a category of type since it is part of a grid and free to be interpreted beyond the author’s signification.

Reading:

The ‘work’ is a commodity—an object of consumption in that the reader tends to be passive and is expected to be fed and entertained when reading. If the reader approaches a text as writing and not as a ‘work,’ then the reading experience becomes interactive.The text narrows the distance between reading and writing by replacing consumption with the free play of collaborative reading.When interacting with a text rather than a ‘work,’ the reader questions and thinks about the writing instead of taking it for granted. If readers passively consumes words, they will tire from reading; as Barthes puts it: “to be bored means that one cannot produce the text, open it out, set it going.”

Pleasure: 

The pleasure of reading classic literary works may feel like consumption since the reader cannot rewrite those texts and thus a distance is created between the reader and the ‘work.’ If viewed as an accessible text, however, a piece of work arouses feelings of pleasure because there is no feeling separation between the reader and the writer and the text transcends any language or social barriers.

Barthes suggested that there will be one or more of the 5 codes that describe the meaning of a text.
The following are the research that I found. There are 5 codes, which are Hermeneutic, Proairetic, Semantic, Symbolic and Cultural code. The article below are found in the link that given, it is helpful for me to have a better understanding on the codes and how does it works. 

Image printscreen from : http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/700_701_web/BarthesLO/f/codes_flash.html

Hermeneutic Code (HER)

In literary theory, hermeneutics refers to the theory of textual interpretation. Originally used as a tool to reveal the meaning of Biblical text, hermeneutics is also used to interpret secular works. While the philosophical nature of hermeneutics has changed over time, Barthes uses the term in its sense of revealing meaning present in the text but hidden from the reader. The Hermeneutic Code contains anything in a story that is mysterious or that isn't explained right away. Hermeneutic elements are like a trail of clues that lead the reader through the story. They maintain tension by posing question but only hinting at the answers. It is up to reader to resolve this tension by deciphering the clues that will reveal the truth about an enigma. Like the Proairetic Code, the Hermeneutic Code is structural in nature. Because they pose and answer questions, Hermeneutic elements must be read in order if they are to make any sense.

Image printscreen from : http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/700_701_web/BarthesLO/f/codes_flash.html

A Hermeneutic Code is something that is unexplained and which creates an unanswered question, often appearing at the beginning of the story, thus creating a tension that engages the audience. Hermeneutic codes are at the root of all mysteries. A coherent story will eventually explain and hence tie up all loose ends.

Most of the detectives stories are built almost entirely on hermeneutic code.

Enigma / Proairetic Code (ACT)

The Proairetic Code refers to elements of action in the narrative. Hermeneutic elements make the reader wonder what will happen next; the Proairetic Code uses the sequential nature of action to propel the reader through the story. Every action in the story implies that there will be another action. The reader anticipated this and reads to find out what will happen next. Proairetic elements are similar to cells in a comic strip; each cell stands alone but also acts as the culmination of an action in a previous cell and / or the motivating force behind action in subsequent cells. Like the Hermeneutic Code, the Proairetic Code provides the narrative with structure. Just as cutting up cells from a comic strip and putting them back in random order would disturb the integrity of the story, Proairetic elements must be read in sequence.

Image printscreen from : http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/700_701_web/BarthesLO/f/codes_flash.html

A Proairetic Code is a plot action that does not directly raise particular questions, it is simply an action that is caused by a previous event and which leads to other events. It is not inherently mysterious. 

The Proairetic Code also builds tension, referring to any other action or event that indicates something else is going to happen, and which hence gets the reader guessing as to what will happen next.

The Hermeneutic and Proairetic Codes work as a pair to develop the story's tensions and keep the reader interested. Barthes described them as:

"...dependent on ... two sequential codes: the revelation of truth and the coordination of the actions represented: there is the same constraint in the gradual order of melody and in the equally gradual order of the narrative sequence."

Semantic Code (SEM)

Bathes purposively refuses to supply a concrete definition of the Semantic Code. This is fitting since the Semantic Code is made up of elements, called semes, that connote rather than denote. These semes are words or phrases that contain an extra-literal layer of meaning. For instance, instead of writing, "Jane was a rich women who loved fast cars," an author can use the connotative value of Jane's Ferrari to convey the same message. Or an examples of a rose suggests romance.

Rather than attempt to impose an organizational structure on elements of the Semantic Code, Barthes prefers to "allow[the semes] the instability, the dispersion, characteristic of motes of dust, flickers of meaning". Unlike elements of the Hermeneutic or Proairetic codes, semes do no have to be read in any order. A collection of semes taken entirely out of context could still convey a sense of meaning about the text.

Image printscreen from : http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/700_701_web/BarthesLO/f/codes_flash.html

This code refers to connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word.

It is by the use of extended meaning that can be applied to words that authors can paint rich pictures with relatively limited text and the way they do this is a common indication of their writing skills.

Symbolic Code (SYM)

Like the Semantic Code, the Symbolic Code is also concerned with connotation rather than denotation. Elements of the Symbilic Code are organized systems of semes. The two symbols Barthes considers most significant are antithesis and paradox. In an antithesis, two opposing semes, such as a young girl (life) and an old man (death), are placed in opposition with each other. The struggle between the young girl and the old man is a symbol of the struggle between life and death. A paradox occurs when two opposing semes are brought together through the mediation of the narrator. The Symbolic Code, like the Semantic and Cultural Codes, does not have to be read in any specific order.

Image printscreen from : http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/700_701_web/BarthesLO/f/codes_flash.html

This code might link to Binary Oppositions ?

Cultural Code (REF)

Elements of the Cultural Code refer to bodies of knowledge that exist outside of the world of the text. Our understanding of culture, history, science, common sayings and folk wisdom influences how we interpret the Cultural Code. Barthes often rely on a sense of shared knowledge when they incorporate cultural elements into a text. Meaning can be lost when what the author assumed was common knowledge is, rather, culturally or historically specific. Like Semantic and Symbolic Codes, the Cultural Code is not dependent on order for its meaning.

Image printscreen from : http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/700_701_web/BarthesLO/f/codes_flash.html

This code relies on audience that having existing knowledge. For example: Statue of Liberty, we know that is one of New York landmark.

References

Arts.uwaterloo.ca, (n.d.). Learn More About the Five Codes. [Online] Available at: http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/700_701_web/BarthesLO/codes_click.html# [Accessed 3 Oct. 2014].

Changingminds.org, (n.d.). Barthes' Five Codes. [Online] Available at: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/articles/barthes_five_codes.htm [Accessed 3 Oct. 2014].

Ironstone, P., Leitch, C., Onyango, A. and Unruh, C. (n.d.). Introduction :: Introduction to Barthes's Theories of the Text. [Online] Arts.uwaterloo.ca. Available at: http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/700_701_web/BarthesLO/intro.html [Accessed 3 Oct. 2014].

Lanir, L. (2013). Roland Barthes: "From Work to Text" Linguistic Terms Explained. [Online] Decoded Science. Available at: http://www.decodedscience.com/roland-barthes-from-work-to-text-explained/28252/2 [Accessed 3 Oct. 2014].

Quigley, T. (1977). From Work to Text - Roland Barthes. 1st ed. [Ebook] New York: Hill and Wang, pp.1 - 10. Available at: http://timothyquigley.net/vcs/barthes-wt-annot.pdf [Accessed 3 Oct. 2014].