Question 3.2
Write about the narrative that your group has chosen for project 1. Why have you chosen this work? How might you approach the task of re-configuring it as an interactive piece?

The Sandman comic series under Neil Gaiman was a cult hit amongst adults and teens alike. It revolutionised the entire comic genre, giving the comic industry a lot more recognition and favour than it used to in the past when it came out close to the 90s. The comic book came to have the potential to make critics stand up and notice as a graphic novel, worthy of deeper and darker issues like the bestiality, sexuality, morality in Man, life/death and the notion of chance/fate to name a few. When I read two books two days ago, I was hooked immediately and couldn't stop reading. So much blood... depravity.. it's definitely not for the faint-hearted. But seriously, there is some redeeming message woven into the fabric. It makes you think.

Plot-wise, the story revolves around Morpheus, also known as many other names like Sandman and Dream. He is one of the Endliess (Destiny, Desire, Death, Delirium, Destruction, Despair) with the most power in the dreaming realm of course and his adventures centre around maintaining the balance in that domain of his.

The most striking thing about the Sandman novellas are the interweaving of strands of the same story, the lives of the characters, and how this is portrayed in the recurring theme of dreaming - where the distinction between illusion and reality becomes blurred the comic panels seem to drift from one to another seamlessly, or "explode", or invade into the spaces across the page. Time becomes relative, the images are vividly drawn with rich texturing - all these elements reflect the fluidity of dreams,. So by now you should have guessed why we saw the link with the module...

It was teeming with the potential to be converted to the interactive form and we couldn't resist. Muah haha. Hopefully, we of limited techno skills, chooosing one strand of the multiple narratives, can recreate the comic onto the computer screen. We picture the viewer navigating any direction in the story starting from a mid-point through hyperlinks and like the detective, piece together the jigsaw puzzled narrative, going forward or backwards in the linear story. The concept mirrors "the Garden of Forking paths".. with improvements. But I shouldn't give away the whole story. We'd have to sit tight till tomorrow.

Question 3.2
The following pictures were mostly taken from my personal stash. I've tried to incorporate more than one picture genre, drawing inspiration from advertisements, paintings, photos and movie stills. The incorporation of these images as one narrative suggests that despite cultural, societal themes and across different periods of time, the pictures are versatile. I've realised that no matter the order, a narrative can still be inferred given that we humans like things rationalised, and the viewer would still be able to fill in the gaps in the storyline.


She could have been stunningly famous


But for sure, he was as irresistible as a box of chocolates.


People were utterly convinced she was up to no good


The Wedding was charming.


But the in-laws proved a challenge.


Plus, he was extremely jealous of the company she kept.


"Darn you woman! I wanted my eggs easy!"


Having drunk more than usual one night...


She took her life.


But not before she set fire to the estate he and his mistress were residing in.


*THE END..?*

Question 3.1
Discuss how this approach (nteractivitiy in Slippery Traces) to constructing a narrative changes the roles of the reader and the author in the process of narrative transmission.

The interactivity that allows the viewer leeway to manipulate various images framing segmented strands of the same story – so that assembled in relation to past and future frames, they form an integrated and discernable story logic – is revolutionary and thought-provoking. If each image is understood, given meaning in a narrative only when placed side-by-side with another image and another and so on, they cannot exist alone semantically. Pictures and language exists because and for another. In humans the same is true because we are defined somewhat by our relations with others and what we do. Each visual is useless by itself unless there is a story-teller piecing them together by noting relevance between the group of postcards.

The story is told in a 2-fold process. Firstly, the author (Legrady) determines the network of relationships between the images. From a large pool of “anything goes” he has to create a set number of plausible relations by deleting “impossible” narrative sequences that would render the narrative illogical. The second layering comes from the reader’s role in the finalization of which image gets paired up with the previous image from the set that the author has already narrowed down. The author lays down tracks for the reader to “piece” the story together, while the reader has the final decision as to the plot synopsis.

Where previously the reader is the passive participant in the unfolding of the narrative, like the child listening to the elder telling a bedtime story, he does not have a choice in determining how the story ends, how the elder tells the story, or in re-ordering, deleting kernels and satellites. The control of transmitting the traditional narrative is solely left in the hands of the wiser and more experienced elder and the child is left out, drawn into a third-party role wherein he is the unbiased onlooker. In Slippery Traces, however, the reader shares in the telling of the story and based on his world views, personality, imagination, selecting the frame he or she finds suitable to the telling of the story. In non-visual terms, it is paramount to the reader choosing which sentences goes next. Although the roles are not reversed, as the author still has a say in laying the foundations of the story, the reader can now say, “This is how the story should be told…”