This post provide our first impressions of born digital fiction. We are using Inanimate Alice Episode 4: Hometown to discuss the learning outcomes of module 3: transliteracy, effective strategies to navigate born digital work and the difference between digital fiction and hypertext.
To fully appreciate born digital work "readers" need to learn how to navigate the multiple modalities. You must not only read text, but pay attention to absorb sounds and visuals. In the sample screen below the text is climbing the stairs, the lines in the photograph are leading us up along Alice's journey. The harsh gritty sound supports the picture. Transliteracy, like all skills needs to be developed and refined with experience and exposure.
Hypertext and born digital fiction differ by their origin. Hypertext started out as print material and was converted to an online format. Born digital fiction started as a digital format and provides more interaction. Inanimate Alice Episode 4 used sound, video, and incorporated great use of visuals by having the animated text move the reader through the story.Through our experience with born digital fiction, we are realizing the future potential of this type of work.
To truly experience for yourself, check it out: http://www.inanimatealice.com/episode4/
Kathryn Way, Melissa Danileson, Renée LaBoucane
The navigation of the modalities, as Kathryn Way, Melissa Danileson, Renée LaBoucane have described, is often what is most inspiring about digital fiction. The ability of text to wrap around a pole, climb the stairs, and even suggest the doorway the character is thinking of entering, allows for the reader to see the text as a part of the character.
ReplyDeleteIt is this ability to add sound imagery, and animation to text allows for a deeper meaning of the overall story. This is an excellent blog post regarding the effects/ affect a digital narrative can have on all senses and therefore add dimension to the overall storyline.