Chapter 1

Chapter 1
1.0 Introduction
In 1961 Digital Equipment Corporation's new model, the PDP-1 minicomputer, arrived at MIT's electrical engineering department in the hope that the students would be able to use the technology to come up with something interesting [1]. Their work resulted in two developments. It was the genesis of the digital gaming culture. Also, it resulted in the non-academic use of a linked network of early computers which, combined with a late 1970's by-product of the ARPANET (US Department of Defence's Cold War project to create an nuclear war-proof communications network) saw the birth of a much more recognisable network: the Internet. Four decades later the primitive blips and whirs of such machines have been replaced by the smooth dulcet tones and the alluring curves of the eMac circa 2003; ultra fast and lightweight Sony laptops; a plethora of mobile technologies. The website address (u (niform) r (esource) l (ocator)) and the art of the videogame have become integral parts of our cultural psyche, which compete for our custom and daily attention. Interestingly however, neither videogames nor the Internet and its native practices have ever been regarded as intelligent or particularly sophisticated creative pastimes, that is, until very recently. The majority of Internet traffic is taken up by email, the other standardised uses are booking flights, hunting down bargains, searching out incredulous news or our old classmates [2].

Technologies unearthed decades ago are still finding utterly new uses. Ever-expanding worlds of imaginative creators adapt them to their own needs. In the early days, these blooming communities centred on software technologies: IRC / MUDS, ASCII, HTML, Flash [3], though conceptually, they communicated a multitude of different concerns. Perhaps more importantly, both the artists and their audiences have taken advantage of the Internet's unique ability to unite people irrespective of geographical location through online forums, links, blogs [4] and email groups. These many cultures share a palpable attitude that is an extension of the avant-garde [5]. Practitioners are interested in the process of creating something new that is independent of established modes of expression. The Internet provided them with a virtual location that was ideal; it was uncharted, unmonitored, unmarketed, where artefacts could be distributed freely. Until very recently, it was not a commercial network. The Internet appears to be a polar opposite of the mass communication model, in that there is often a high degree of intimacy between the audience and the art. For example, participants can view it and use it both in their home and at work; this experience is in the main individualized and unlike elsewhere in media. Such relationships amongst creative peers and responsive audiences can border on the invisible: enclosed and intimate and rewarding. The Internet, in the relatively few years that have passed since its inception, has seen a huge amount of dichotomous development in that both the corporate presence and the development of small, niche and personal practices have significantly blossomed.

1.1 Introduction to the context
My field of interest is screen based and more specifically Internet based digital visual art. Within responsive works the participant uses primarily perceptual and explorative actions: looking, listening, selecting and then interpreting. These types of communication exchanges are unconventional because perceptual and interpretive functions are married with explorative interactions [6]. My interest is the investigation of these actions and their relationship to the seeing and understanding of the narrative artwork. I search out difference and confusion as a main method to entice the participant. The practice as submitted in the thesis utilises the multiple features of:
·	hyperfiction theory's treatment of closure [7],
·	post-modernist notions such as ambiguity and fragmentation [8],
·	and a representational style that offsets these nonconformist agendas by interpretative accessibility in the directness of the visual communication [9].
I propose that these responsive multiple state systems offer new modes of exchange and new, unusual and participant led methods of reading. These systems can be conceptually difficult opposed to the "ease of use" that modern communication exchange continually aspires towards. A long-standing tradition dictates that the interface designer creates systems of clarity and coherence, to ultimately evoke rewarding generalised and intuitive responses from the participant. I propose to react against this insistence by subverting the practice of what is commonly called "interface design" [10]. Interface can then offer the artist a context and an illusionary two dimensional window by which to play with and challenge participant expectations, offering different kinds of responsive experiences unlike commonly found in commercial website and multimedia projects [11].
Literature Review Contemporary Artwork Context Review

1.2 Purpose of study
	"Storytelling is fundamental to society, culture, and communication. Narrative is the basic structure by which we share our ideas and experiences. As we begin to use the Internet to tell stories, the narratives we communicate will have the benefit of interactivity, programmatic behaviours, non-linearity, and physidigital space and multi-user environments -- aspects that traditional media has (sic) never truly understood." Josh Ulm [12].
The aim of the study is to explore the potential, purpose and effects of developing responsive and multiple state systems that refute the commercial Human Computer Interaction (HCI) [10] designated rules of interaction. The research shall challenge conventional methods of constructing meaning from image-based communication such as traditionally offered by the visual artist to the participant. I will clearly concentrate on developing participant responsive systems that utilise multiplicity of form and hybrid aesthetics. This is offered as an alternative to the growing hegemony of new media practice and new media aesthetics. I am interested in the interplay between representation of symbol, icon, cultural metaphors, semi-recognisable opposed to abstracted form and the participants' interactive enquiry.
. The final aim of the research is to offer a theory of what tropes, trademarks and opportunities (social value) this new form of narrative practice offers to participants .
The thesis argument is framed around both positioning and revealing a new form of practice -- the practice of responsive interstitial [13] pictorial based narratives. The argument is constructed through two research questions, which are answered by the practice; commentary texts (made up of practice documentation, self analysis, and analysis of context); as well as using the insights from invited expert participants.

1.3 A word about me
My position is that of a practitioner working with unconventional responsive pictorial narrative and Macromedia Flash. And as such, I have a particular perspective on the various established and emergent fields of practice as situated within the Internet -- that being someone who has always existed on the edges of the major Internet narrative cultures, e.g. populist Flash and literary hypertext fiction.

My first published responsive narrative was RedRidinghood . This project was posted onto the Internet in December 2000. Since then it has been regarded by many as a seminal digital narrative. It has been much used as a curriculum text within the blossoming fields of digital media and hypertext fiction studies [14]. Over the last four years, during which the research has been conducted, I have further investigated the interplay between narrative, image and interaction, developing my practice in search of a compelling and new narrative form. This has resulted in a preparatory project as sketch -- Angel Interceptor ; and two significant projects -- The Bloody Chamber and Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw . These four years were charged by change: firstly the "end of books" debate [15], the digital utopia mindset [16], the resurgence of textual poetics [17], the perceived death or failing of hypertext fiction [18], the rise of Flash art [19], the appearance of new mobile and networked technologies [20], the ascendancy of ludology [21]and finally the publication of the first new media reader anthology [22].

In the act of demarcating this thesis, I have uncovered more of what I am not than what I am. For example I am not a hyperfiction theorist, nor a visual narratologist, nor a games designer. I believe my position is best described as a critical practitioner. For example I use the practice as the significant research method. This is unlike the majority of associated research in my field of study . Such research mainly uses various forms of literary and critical theory to search out new interpretations and structural understanding of the artefacts in question and is not engaged in the practice of producing the work. My practice sits between the main research domains and as such, I can be called an interstitial artist [13]. As a practitioner, my main concern is in the production of a certain kind of digital artefacts. These create specific types of digital and participatory experiences in which the research argument can found. I have discovered that to adequately describe both what my practice does and what issues it addresses I have had to create some new terms. These will aid in the discussion of my artworks in relation to the stated context.
Literature Review Contemporary Artwork Context Review

1.4 The research questions:
This thesis will address the following questions:
A	Which aesthetic techniques can the artist develop within responsive multiple-state systems when they structurally secede from interaction mechanisms learnt within the context of traditional and new media narrative forms?
B	How does the artist develop an interactive style and visual vocabulary, which evokes rich [23] responses from the participants whilst challenging them to counter conventional interaction tropes?

Question A When enquiring into the creation of and phenomena surrounding narrative multiple state systems, the structural premise of the practice is a fundamental aspect as to how the practice communicates to the participant. The research question is set up so that it reveals and illustrates the key structures being deployed in contemporary practices, the most traditional of which being the "dramatic arc". The findings of the research question A will serve as a context which research question B will depart from. . Question B The review of contemporary practice revealed a strong set of prevailing hegemonies, which have interesting parallels with certain camps in hypertext theory. Their claim is that the dissemination of artworks to a broader audience is impeded by a lack of visually aesthetic texts [24]. Thus research question B is set up to test the possibilities and limitations of creating a visual aesthetic which offers a rich and different sense of immersion in the face of the prevailing new media hegemonies. . The combined and concluded outcomes of both research questions are situated in a new artwork, which in turn function as embodiment of the thesis argument. Many of my comments reside within the artwork, though these are externally supported by some commentary texts and the insights from invited expert participants.

1.5 Thesis methodology
I use a mixed method approach, combining in a triangulated manner:
1.	A short historical literary appraisal
2.	A contemporary review of practice
3.	Both of these illustrate the context of screen and Internet based digital visual art practice. From these reviews I established the field of study. From this contextual base I devised the research questions, which are answered primarily by the practice. This critical practice makes up the third point to the triangle. The practical element is further supported by external critical reviews from expert participants. Full thesis methodology

1.6 Terms and definitions
Many of these terms have been loosely used or misconstrued and are often the root cause of many disagreements between various research domains. Adequate terminology has been a major issue within the critique of responsive artworks (especially defining the limits of narrative -- closely followed by defining interactive). Below are a selection of terms and a description of the rationale as to how and why they are used in the thesis. .
Artist or practitioner
In this thesis "artist" or "practitioner" are used instead of author, creator, designer, maker or new media developer. The words "artist" or "practitioner" as used hereinafter refer to a visual artist/practitioner. An artist is someone who uses imagination and skill to create works of aesthetic and cultural value.
Participant vs. user
The term "participant" is used instead of user, reader, interactor, player, viewer, wreader, vuser [25], or audience. I prefer participant as it suggests a more fluid or reflective role. User (the most ubiquitous term from the above) can suggest more aggressive or commercially driven exchanges. Participant suggests a more equal relationship and has appropriate associations with theatre, open dialogues, and group playing. Within my own practice, and many of the other types of online artworks, I see the works as types of performances and not aligned to the historical association of object-based art that is conventionally located in galleries or museums.
Responsive vs. interactive or ergodic
In this thesis, the term "interaction" is defined by the cybertext paradigm as laid out by Espen Aarseth in 1997. Interaction is when "nontrivial effort is required to allow the participant to traverse the text" [Aarseth 1997]. Aarseth posits the term "ergodic" instead of the vague term interaction. I have substituted ergodic / interactive with the term "responsive". This is taken to mean a text / artwork that is structurally intended to respond / react to the participant's enquiry. To use the term responsive indicates the emphasis on both the artwork's inbuilt predilections and the participant's choices. Also to use the words responsive/ respond, allows for a more non-fetishized or un-idealised usage in comparison to the heated discussion around interactive or ergodic texts.
Cybertext
In this thesis, the term "cybertext" is used in a looser form than Aarseth' s definition, that being any instance of symbolic communication significantly mediated by a computational feedback loop [26] e.g. when the system responds instantaneously to every action of the participant, which in turn provokes a new response. This definition is not limited to hypertext (a very specialized form of cybertext) but includes distributed Internet applications, virtual environments, games, simulations, and various forms of generative experimental art forms.
Narrative vs. narrative-like
Traditional narrative media are taken to mean books and films. I subscribe to narratologist Gerald Prince's definition of narrative as "the representation of at least two real or fictive events or situations in a time sequence, neither of which presupposes or entails the other" [Prince 1982; p 4]. This highlights the importance of both temporal and causal exchanges between a series of events. Within the practice as submitted in this thesis, the narrative is significantly open. This openness is sited in part with in the visual ambiguity and in the multiple possibilities of sequencing and accessing the narrative. The participant's rules of behaviour are unconventional and as such the narrative may often initially be obscured or hidden. In this sense the narrative is narrative-like or postmodernly narrative rather than traditionally narrative.
Multiple State Environments
Multiple State Environments, or hereafter MSE's, refers to structures that have not one true static state but have different possibilities, and as such come with implied, designated, or yet to be discovered rules which govern the participant's performance in creating the different structural positions. As the ludologist Gonzalo Frasca illustrates:
	"… there is a very particular kind of toy, known as "Transformer". Based on a Japanese animated television series, the Transformers are robots that can transform themselves into different machines. When you first open a box containing a Transformer, you see a puppet with all the characteristics of a robot. After certain manipulations --which may be tricky and, in certain cases, puzzle-like -- the robot can be transformed into, let's say, a plane. The toy is articulated, made of connected moving parts but at any moment you have to dismantle it into different pieces: the transformation takes place without the toy losing any matter. Obviously, the toy has two different states: robot and plane...Our problem starts when we try to understand the Transformer as a whole. Is it a robot or a plane or both at the same time?" "Imagine that we gave a Transformer to a child who has never watched the television series and is not familiar with its ability to change. If the transformation is not easy to perform --actually, it is quite common that you have to use a lot of pressure to transform the toy -- the child will just use it as a robot and never discover that it could also become a plane. In order to fully appreciate the toy you need something more than the mere object: you need a rule of behavior. In this case, the rule is "if you perform certain movements, your toy will change its state." Without that rule, the toy is simply a robot; with it, it becomes a Transformer, a dual state toy." [Frasca Videogames of the Oppressed 2001].
I have extended Frasca's term "dual state" into "multiple states" and attached the open term "environment" to mean a representation of space instead of worlds, stages, or sets. MSE is used in preference to interactive narratives or digital narratives Further permutations of MSE's: (V) MSEs: Visual Multiple State Environments, unlike text based MUD's or MOO's [3]. (Vec) MSE's: Vector based visual Multiple State Environments, unlike virtual reality caves or commercial games, which often use Bitmaps and 3D renderings. (N) MSE's: Narrative based Multiple State Environments.
Interface
Interface is generally taken to mean a surface forming a common boundary between adjacent regions, bodies, substances, or phases. In this research project the "interface" in question is the onscreen, thus constrained representation as seen via the computer monitor. This interface is the surface of the digital environment.

1.7 My aesthetic
In my practice, "aesthetic" means the pursuit of particular strain of a visual and digital onscreen interface. One that is a hybrid of detailed line art, handcrafting and popular imagery. In addition to this pictorial style I use a post-modern approach to closure and the structural design of the artworks.
A particular quality of my aesthetic is what I would like to term as "fragital". This implies an uncommon pairing of the digital experience i.e. the individualized remote onscreen touch, and the sense of a material and sensitive tangibility which is located in the drawing, movement, composition and the responsive actions of the visual practice.
Another distinctive attribute to my aesthetic is the sense of hybridity. This is found in the visual language and how it is combined with the handling of the narrative -- the sense of movement and anachronism, the total effect being unconventional an un- or semi-reality in relation to the overarching aesthetic poles of the replication of reality and neo-minimalism . This unreality is built upon to create a sense of disturbance, which often fluctuates between a sense of familiarity and the alien. This ideas-in-conflict sensibility as well as the fragital powers much of the aesthetic. The familiar is achieved in the main by the visual language being a mix of popular icons, fashions and the drawn "comic strip" rendering style. The sense of the alien is found in the distortion or subversion of some of the visuals, e.g. physically they are mutilated, or they are in improper historical order and most importantly in the ambiguous non-prompted nature of participants' position. Each project shares the binding signature marks of a central female protagonist, the recurrent dichotomy of blooming and falling down and the hand drawn nature of the rendering. This hybrid of the foreign and the familiar as used to create a sense of disturbance is to be desired within my aesthetic.

1.8 Techniques and technology
The tool I use to construct, render and publish these narrative works is Macromedia Flash (versions 5.0 and MX). This software allows for timeline structuring, drawing and layout, animation, sound manipulation, interaction, programming and most significantly has a uniquely pervasive Internet viewing player [27]. Mostly, I draw by hand with a computer mouse, using this software.
Unsurprisingly, given its ubiquity, using Flash as a production tool is regarded by some artists as being worthy of contention. In his "On the Six Rules Towards A New Internet Art" [Salvaggio 2002], Internet artist Eryk Salvaggio (Salsabomb ), reflects on damage that Flash has on the developing Internet art scene,
	"from 1998/99… The designers began using Flash and Flash began trickling into art, a complete reversal of the traditional exploitation of the avant garde that usually occurs in the marketplace. The artists, looking to reflect the web as they saw it, learned the tools of the corporate media and things began to blur… The (SFMOMA 2001) site has overloaded on itself and become a parody of bad design and in doing so, set up a new expectation of what net.art was supposed to be: sleek, contentless, indecipherable and above all else, sleek. Did I mention sleek?"
He claims this is part of larger and more serious situation where Internet art has become "more about the "Net" than it was about "art."" and although I use Flash as the core tool I do agree in part with Salvaggio's sentiment that the convergent and parasitic nature of the Flash trend saw:
	"the disappearance of aesthetics in "academic" art, and an overbearingly strong aesthetic in "pop" art - the cult of programmer meets the cult of design; and a giant unified goal where every site must look like Josh Davis' Praystation or else it is a failure."

Where I disagree with Salvaggio is with his refutation of the pop aesthetic; fundamentally I support the conceptual premise of pop art (e.g. the return to representational art or tangible objects in a reaction against abstraction -- using materials that are drawn from the everyday world of popular culture-comic strips, advertising etc…), though I suspect that he is referring to the simplified vector style that is easily achieved using Flash. This Flash "pop" style [28] is produced not as a conceptual decision but rather the inbuilt outcome if you use the standardised drawing and colouring tools. Another argument I have with him is that I propose some (not all) of such pop styles will have been the defaulted outcomes of the first generation of outputs. This is mirrored within my own evolution. There is a marked difference in the level of drawing and complexity of shapes in comparison between the RedRidingHood project and the Deviant project. This is because to draw naturalistically or haptically within Flash requires desire, determination and skill to work in a sense against what the software is set up to do efficiently. The proliferation of first generation Flash websites (circa 1998-9) were posted up with excitement and energy, often as a result of the practitioners having created interactive or animated artworks for the first time in their lives. This begat an explosion of immature visuals and conceptually thin styles, but one I feel that has grown up [29]. These first generation Flash works were simply sketches albeit globally distributed. Salvaggio goes on to propose:
	" I don't think it is enough for a programmer to discuss code with his code, much as I believe a camera aimed at itself would not have become the most widespread form of media in the 20th century."
On this latter point I strongly agree. Internet art should engage and communicate ideas that exist in media outside the Internet as well as explore the issues that are revealed from the technology and the specific internal mechanics of the network.
Artists statement for further discussion

1.9 The hegemonies of the new media aesthetic
The points below are observations of the prevalent trends growing within the production of contemporary pictorial responsive forms -- videogames, new media art and commercial interface design. .
The choice of visual representation is relevant when we discuss methods of successful immersion within responsive systems. LeDiberder brothers state that a characteristic of a simulation (a type of responsive system) is that it pays great attention to detail [LeDiberder 1993]. We can see that within the aesthetics of recent computer games (the Playstation2, X Box, Game Cube) opposed to Internet based practices, there is a move towards photo-reality/replication/illusion of reality, which, for many, is seen as a way to improve better human sensations of presence and immersiveness [30].
Although many practitioners and theorists share this belief, there is a growing realisation at least in the practice of game play, that it has become secondary to the graphical appeal. This opinion has been voiced by Hiroshi Yamauchi, the ex-president of the Japanese game giant Nintendo [31],
	"the game industry should be making games, not movies, and that the development of truly new games, new types of having fun, has all but stopped. The situation is, in one sense, alarming, but this also leaves room for those who are able to stop the insane race for more polygons per second and concentrate on making games that are fun to play".
Similarly, Scott McCloud reflects that the simple image enables the viewer to have "universal identification", rather than a specific reality.
	"The cartoon is a vacuum into which our identity and awareness are pulled…an empty shell that we inhabit which enables us to travel in another realm" [Ibid; 2 p36]. McCloud questions why we respond to the cartoon as much or more than to a realistic image, and answers "amplification through simplification" [Ibid; 2 p30].
Being human, he claims, we can assign identities and emotions were none exist. Indeed, I believe it is short-sighted to see the aesthetics of screen based forms as being best when photo-realistic or indeed verbal. We should open our minds to mixed realities, when metaphor, icon and symbol are all employed to create other pictorial worlds somewhere between stylised, abstract and photographic. We do this when responding to the rules of behaviour, both in real life and make-believe. McCloud gives an example,
	"In some comics the split is far more pronounced, the Belgian "clear-line" style of Herges TinTin combines very iconic characters with unusually realistic background, this combination allows readers to mask themselves in a character and safely enter a sensually stimulating world."[Ibid; 2 p43]
LeDiberders' notion of detail can also be applied not only to imagery as well as craft, into detailed levels of interaction, of movement, of smoothness of experience or complexity of content. The detail can be the glue holding our attention in a well-designed system. I am interested in the development of a kind of digital craftsmanship. An example of this new media craft would be the detailed Internet pixel art style, which often relies on a convincing (though not realistic) representation of the source system e.g. Habbo Hotel [32], where each pixel unit of the artificial simulated world is plotted and brought to life.

Another major trend, which sits in opposition to representing reality, is a resurgence of the abstract minimalist style which some have called a "neo-minimalism" [33]. But firstly there existed and to an extent still exists a preoccupation with the mechanical digital, cyborg and the post-human whereby the artworks could be seen to use blinking green pixel type (as seen in the early adventure games), a prosaic use of circuit boards (as a methapor of connectivity and all things computerised) and the appropriation of the syntax of programming -- this could be termed an aesthetics of the technology [34].

Today's trend can be said to be the neo-minimalist aesthetic, which is often a result of programmatic based experiments. In this instance the computer, as instructed by the artist, yields geometric patterns with can either move independently or as a reaction to the participant, or recently, to external sonic input (typified by Insertsilence [35]). This is directly linked to algorithm / trigonometry based equations used within the programming. This resurgence of neo-minimalism is mostly attributed to the Macromedia Flash software and its Actionscript capabilities. As a category, neo-minimalism is often sited alongside notions of post-conceptual (where there is no distinction between works of self-expression and works of social critique i.e. they are part and parcel of the same activity). Other commonly found features of this type of new media work is in the collaboration with post-digital [36] electronic music and the use of the loop/remix as binding metaphors. Rarely are these neo-minimalist projects woven into a sequence or used as a narrative base.

1.10 The short literature review
The history of responsive narrative systems goes as far back as the ancient oral epic [Ong 1982], through role-playing [37], from Choose Your Own Adventure books [38], from early games, from postmodernist / modernist literature [39] down to today's digital opportunities -- whereby responsive systems can come in a multitude of shapes and sizes [40]. Contemporary digital responsive or interactive narratives have many manifestations, each of which offer different qualities to the participants' experience. It can be said that the first instance of digital interactive storytelling appeared in the form of textual games (Adventure on ARPA net 1967, Donald Woods, Will Crowther). Then by the early 1990s digital hypertext narratives [41] had established themselves as another and new literary form [Joyce 1987+ ]. Alongside these verbalized hypertexts came the development of the Internet art (Entropy8zuper! , Alexei Shulgin ), Flash art (circa 1999), commercial videogames [Miller and Miller 1993], cybertexts, MUDS and MOOs. For all intents and purposes, digital and Internet narrative practices look set to continue to expand.

What follows is a summary of the most influential voices and positions in the recent study of interactive narratives and how each of their contributions relate to my practice and approach.

Brenda Laurel -- Aristotelian Poetics
Brenda Laurel is a designer, researcher and writer. Her work focuses on interactive narrative, human-computer interaction, and cultural aspects of technology. Her career in human-computer interaction spans over twenty years. Her doctoral dissertation was the first to propose a comprehensive architecture for computer-based interactive fantasy and fiction. Recent work has seen her research focus on teen and female groups in the videogames industry. Within the ensuing debate amongst academic circles, Laurel's Computer as Theatre [Laurel 1991; 2nd edition 1993] stands as an early serious attempt to look at computers as a medium. She makes two distinctive claims: first, that software design can learn and develop from "Aristotelian Poetics"; second that both videogame design and software design alike can benefit from the principles of drama in that, unlike narrative, it focuses on user performance. She views the user as a performer and not an audience member. The title of the book draws the analogy between constructing theatre experiences and those that involve sitting and interacting with a computer. Yet, it seems that this perception of computers as theatre is not established as securely as the comparisons with traditional narrative forms. During the last decade, researchers such as George Landow or Jay Bolter [Bolter 1991; Landow 1992; Landow 1994] have concentrated on the textual hypertext form. They linked this expression of storytelling and poetry to existent post-structuralist and other literary theories rather than to the performative, theatre lineage as posed by Laurel.

Some aspects of Laurel's perspective are appropriate to my approach in that I regard the audience as a participant rather than a user. For example, the role of participant is akin to the role of a performer. Visually, my project Deviant uses onscreen space in a way that suggests parallels with the theatre. Its narrative visual contents are set immobile in a tableau-like composition, then sometimes short, sometimes looping animated bursts of movement occur after the participant explores the objects.

Janet Murray -- Narratologist
Janet Murray's Hamlet on the Holodeck [Murray 1997] is a popular and seminal and early text dealing with narrative in cyberspace. In this book, the computer is seen as a new technology by which to practise storytelling. Her studies include videogames along with hypertexts, web serials, and interactive chat characters. She distinguished three main qualities of this new medium: immersion, agency, and transformation. By immersion, she means the power of the medium for helping the user to construct beliefs rather than suspending beliefs. Agency is the capacity of the medium to allow the user to perform actions that have consequences on representation (responsive interaction). And finally, transformation is the ability to move agilely between multi perspectives. It simulates worlds that can enhance the two previous characteristics. Murray argues that the concept of storytelling must expand to include traditional forms (literature, drama, film) and towards interactive forms (videogames, hypertexts, conversational AI). Murray identifies "interaction" with participation, and unlike Aarseth (below) is not particularly concerned with the detailed working of the machinery in a system but rather the participant's sense of agency. Agency "is the satisfying power to make meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices" [Murray 1997; p126]. Her definition of Interactive fiction is concurrent with Jay Bolters [Bolter 1991] as electronic writing containing episodes or topics, connected by decision points or marks.

My main point of contention with Murray's propositions is that I do not agree with Murray's idea that digital narratives are in a "protean state"; this to me infers a traditionalist search for canonical master texts. From my practice led perspective, I see digital narratives as been / always being outside the mass or populist narrative consumption, and indeed this non-commercial position, I believe, inspires many practitioners to produce (also see Paul Digital Art [42]).

Espen Aarseth -- Cybertext
While both Laurel and Murray describe the computer as medium and discuss the new phenomena such as graphical interfaces, social practices and the cognitive behaviour needed in games and hypertexts, Aarseth focused his Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature [Aarseth 1997] on the deeper analysis of solely textual forms. Most of these are computer-based forms. He also makes the point of showing a lineage back to ancient and conventional texts, disputing the common belief that literal interaction within narrative is a shocking new development. Instead of drawing comparison with drama or narrative, he investigated their "behaviors", comparing them to meaning-making machines. Aarseth's "cybertext" is a term derived from cybernetics, a discipline that studies system dynamics, often applied to the study of complex systems, including organization and human behaviour and particularly computer simulation. This definition of cybertextual form acknowledges the change of signs and signifiers and thus multiple readings. It also restricts any medium bias as the aesthetics and social context of these machines are not the primary issue. More important are the functions and the principles that underlie them. Aarseth ranks interactive narratives (by which he means literary hypertexts) hierarchically lower down among cybertexts where the machinery of a programmed system controls and evolves the type of story produced [40]. He argues that cybertexts are dynamic and hypertexts are static (however he concedes that if the linking system is large enough and dense enough the presence of randomness comes to play, a credited cybertext feature). Aarseth is concerned with the author-computer-text triangle in contrast to the author-text-reader alignment. However he does accept that "to claim that there is no difference between games and narratives is to ignore essential qualities of both categories. And yet, as this study tries to show, the difference is not clear-cut, and there is significant overlap between the two." [Aarseth 1997; p5] Aarseth also states that in open-ended readings the interpretation of the experience is fundamental and that literary theorists' attempts to "uncover literary ambivalence in texts with linear expression" are no longer valid when variable expressions are at play. Aarseth also posits the term "Ergodic", to be used instead of the vague well-used term "interactive", and prefers to describe these new forms as Ergodic literature, defined as texts where "nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text." By nontrivial he means active participation rather than turning the pages of a book, which does not modify the shape and reading of the text itself. In my thesis, the term "cybertext" is used in a looser form than Aarseth' s definition, i.e. as any instance of symbolic communication significantly mediated by a computational feedback loop. This definition is not limited to hypertext (a very specialized form of cybertext) but includes distributed Internet applications, digital environments, games, simulations, and various forms of self-generating experimental art forms.

I found the cybertext perspective useful in its direct focus on the structural set up of how the various ergodic practices generate multiple meanings. However I found the implied hierarchy that proper cybertexts should be significantly complex in structure a little reductionist. This is because practices such as mine have an inherent accumulative nature, where even simple structures can create over-proportional results. So the end result is far more complex (cognitively) than the basic layout appears.

Gonzalo Frasca -- Ludology
Frasca (the founder of Ludology.org ) is positioned out with the literary circle having previously researched play and the history of games. His master's thesis, Videogames of the Oppressed - Videogames as a means for critical thinking and debate [Frasca 2001], studies simulation theory and videogames as a tool to foster critical thinking. Aarseth and others have commented on the simulation genre found in videogames, but Frasca goes further by adding the transformative / dual state of videogame systems into the discussion of semiotics. Another interesting point is his acceptance of non-real source systems for simulations, where fictional rules of physics and laws of society are acceptable. He gives the example: "is the word unicorn not a sign since its referent is not real…?" Frasca offers a hypothesis as to why the term Ludology is more appropriate when researching videogames -- Ludology is derived from the Latin word "ludus" (game). The term has historically been used to describe the study of games and particularly of board games. Before this perspective (pre-1997), researchers for the most part explained computer games through previous existing media (drama, narrative, film). Frasca (like the cybertext school) believes:
	"That by studying videogames as something else than games, they are denying its main potential. This potential is not narrative, but simulation: the ability to represent dynamic systems. A picture of a dog represents a particular dog: we can learn about its shape, color, etc. A simulated dog as Sony's Aibo or Mindscape's Dogz is not only made through signs but also through rules of behavior. In order to understand Aibo we do not only interpret its signs, but we also must experiment with it in order to be able to infer some of its behavioral rules. To make a long story short, representation is about signs, while simulation is about signs and behavior. This is the ontological difference that makes me claim that games cannot be understood through theories derived from narrative." [43]
Frasca focuses not only on understanding the functionality of simulations, but also on the possible social usages of simulations. My approach parallels his in my interest in re-presenting and transforming narrative subject matter that comments on the female gender. In this context, this critical commentary is found in both the visual language employed and the way the rules of exploration are set up and governed. In turn, the critical commentary recurs in the subsequent responses from the participation.

Lev Manovich -- Film Theory
Manovich comes from a cultural and film studies background (specialising with the Russian Futurists), Russian in origin but teaching and working in the USA. He is also the director of the new media art communication organization Rhizome and author of The Language of New Media [Manovich 2001]. Similar to Frasca, he has come from a non-literary critique background. Today his emphasis is not in simulation and the history of games but in contextualising mediums and placing New Media and the Internet into a media ecology.

Manovich points out the problems that occur when a medium becomes blurred, when mass and art cultures collide. Video and photography on their own pose no problems; photographs deal with still imagery, video relates to film; but video can also relate to television where both have the same material base (electronic signals which can be transmitted live or recorded on a tape) and also involve the same conditions of perception (television monitor). The only justification for treating them as separate media are sociological and economic, i.e. the differences in sizes of their respective audiences, in mechanisms of distribution (via television network versus museum and gallery exhibition), and in the number of copies of a tape/program being made [44]. He claims that new media art is a relatively new instance of mass distribution technologies being used in the gallery context, where the art establishment has applied an inappropriate fetishism on the "art object". This can be witnessed in gallery shops where we find limited edition DVDs of Internet art.

One of Manovich's distinctive takes on this situation is that software should be, or is, part of the sender-message-receiver equation. It is influenced by the way we send and experience or receive the message. The abstract rules of programming combined with the speeds of the display tool sometimes provide the sole inspiration for the artists. Contemporary design and experimental art such as that shown at Flashforward2001 Amsterdam [45] highlights this issue. Some artists take it one step further and program their own software to mediate their expression and help them to create the visuals they desire. Artist Joshua Davies talks about building personal coded "engines" and feeding graphical elements into them to create experimental unimagined (he can't anticipate what the computer will "spit" out at him) landscapes such as his Mountain Pass or Insect and Machine [45], after which he applies narrative themes as he interprets the animations. At this stage, or at the beginning, he works with collaborative musicians to enforce or complement the emotional quality. This process then leads him to fine tune these "engines" and the graphics. Recently [46] Manovich discussed the recent trend in new media art as data visualization, whereby setting up formal rules of calculation (in Java or C languages), the artist can interpret traditionally overwhelming data groups. An example is Lisa Jevbratt's 1:1 project (shown at the Whitney Biennale 2002 [47]), which includes the creation, maintenance, and visualization of the C5 IP database, containing the IP addresses to all hosts on the world wide web. The project uses this database to create five interfaces (Hierarchical, Every, Petri, Random, Excursion) for navigating the web and to generate a new topography of the web.

Similarly co-collaborators Paterson and Pitaru, build on this idea by synchronizing the animations they create not to random or pre-ordained mathematical plotting of positions but as visualisations of the resonance and pitch of the accompanying audio (see Pagan Poetry[45]) which was played live on a piano hooked up to a computer at their Flashforward2001 Amsterdam presentation. Also of interest is that Paterson draws out his forms (a sliding scale from abstracted Burrows-esque distorted drawings to Giacometti like figures) and literally shreds or slices them with the Flash lasso tool and plots this into the animation/interactive engine, which in turn abstracts further and contorts his forms. The computer is the mediator (co-creator and display tool) by which artist and participants alike are excited by these new -- and sometimes unimagined -- forms, which seem impossible to conceive through other means.

Primarily, Manovich's perspective reaffirms and supports my awareness of the neo-minimalist or "soft modernism" (Flash) aesthetic. Whereas he sees this trend in a positive light "(Flash) uses neo-minimalism as a pill to cure us from post-modernism" [33], I see it as an interesting phenomenon, but one that is limiting, at least in respect to rendering narrative environments. His other contribution, of proposing that the software used to produce a communication actually conditions the sender-message-receiver equation, is one that I have personally experienced. In using Macromedia Flash. The software's characteristic ability to present precise graphic crispness at any level of scalability (being vector based [48]) led me to develop and push the tropes of the pan/zoom and pixel-level detailing.

Marie-Laure Ryan-- Independent Scholar
	"There are plot types and character types that are best for the novel, others are best for oral storytelling, and yet others are best for the stage or the cinema. The question, then, is to decide which types of stories are suitable for digital media." [49]
The above quote encapsulates much of Marie-Laure Ryan academic interests -- in the crossover between narrative, interactivity and digital media. She is less well known than the previous researchers I discussed, although she has published over fifty articles on narrative theory, genre theory, linguistic approaches to literature, digital culture and is the author of Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence and Narrative Theory [Ryan 1991], Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media [Ryan 2001] and editor of Narrative Across Media [Ryan 2004].

This situation is perhaps due to the tasks she often undertakes. These are often seen to be outmoded. For example, she has located or reclaimed narratology for game theory, has bridged the gaps between narrative and media studies and clearly articulating unpopular opinions such as: the problematic relationship that complexly non-linear narrative structures has with creating sufficient user closure [50]. Ryan also goes on to suggest that the new media aesthetic of postmodernism is clearly anti-immersive because the user cannot achieve a sense of location and/or an affinity with a narrative character [Ryan 2000; p.120].

Ryan is undoubtedly critical and questioning, and like Douglas (below) is not interested in futurology, however she does attempt to posit some solutions or avenues that may answer her own questions. Of interest to Ryan is the relinquishing of the model of the novel in favour of localized experience of narrative such as short episodic, provocative or poetic structures. Ryan also suggests that hypertexts depart from verbal textuality and should include images, spoken word and sounds [Ryan 2001;p.266]. She also reaches into the territories of conceptual visual art. This Ryan feels will enable a better sense of user immersiveness and generate more appropriate stories for digital media.

Ryan's perspective primarily supports my position that visual resources, the built-in spatiality of pictures can help the participant's immersion within the narrative by giving them a sense of space. She also supports my belief [Leishman 2000] that participants need to be gently "initiated into point-and-click interactivity" [Ryan 2001: The future of interactivity], which was seen not to happen in the early rebellious structures of verbalized hypertexts. However I disagree that post-modern immersion fails to offer cognitive space in which the participant can recall or create a global narrative, I believe that it can, if the postmodernity is located (but not exclusively) in the visual language more than the structural set up.

J. Yellowlees Douglas -- Hypertext
Douglas is a contemporary of the cornerstone hypertext creators and theorists Michael Joyce, Stuart Moulthrop and John McDaid. In her book, End of books- or books without end? [2000 [51]) Douglas positions herself on the here and now (in contrast to what she called the futuristic zero-frost positions of Aarseth and Murray) of interactive forms and the practice of close (multiple readings) of hypertexts such as Afternoon [Joyce 1987].

At the time of publishing, Douglas commented on the scarcity of examples of interactive narratives to study. In her eyes there were still as few artefacts as a decade previously although the Internet and technology had proportionally grown [52]. In 1998 the culture of disillusionment or cynicism was rife with statements such as "Interactive fiction is mostly a fiction-great concept what about the demo models" [18]. Recently Raine Koskimaa has taken up Douglas's position as a close reader and interpreter of hypertext. He has been so bold to use and define the term "new wave of hypertext fiction" [53]. Here he sees the new wave of hypertext fiction as works that have gone native in the Internet, where there is a fruitful feedback loop between the texts and contexts not seen in the majority of early hypertext fiction. Therefore, the new hypertext fiction is written for the web, and is aware of its own on-line existence. Examples cited are: Michael Joyce's The Sonatas of Saint Francis, M. D. Coverley's The Book of Going Forth by Day, Nick Montfort's and William Gillespie's The Ed Report, and Talan Memmot's Lexia to Perplexia [53].

Literary critics did not see what Douglas calls "digital narratives" (generally regarded as the CD-ROM and video gaming industries) as a serious threat to modern literature, and to a certain extent still do not. Rather more worrying for this group (conservative literary critics) are those writers who can be understood in that they follow a long lineage of contemporary literature and use recognizable traits such as developing complex locations, characters, plot and modern styles of prose. Instead of using the printed book, these writers have experimented with hypertext systems to build structures to construct the form of their texts, relinquishing the bound and printed book. These scholarly writers, who challenge post-modern fiction and are putting into practice post-structuralist theories, represent the traditionalist camp's major threat to the "book" as they know it.

However the dissemination of these works has not significantly altered society's perception of how narrative can be consumed (hypertext forms are at least 20 years old). Perhaps it has heralded the next chapter in contemporary writing techniques or indeed an interesting testing of reader-response philosophies. Whereas the image-led equivalent hypermedia / visual cybertexts have succeeded in gaining a larger audience base, and even the ability to cross fertilize other media (successful computer games being translated into linear Hollywood blockbusters), and on a lesser scale Internet based forms find themselves being mass downloaded with browsing viewer numbers rocketing. Indeed, in recent years, we have witnessed the advent of contemporary gallery spaces install and screen such artefacts [54]. The style of digital art has been constrained by limitations of the Internet -- file size restrictions, bandwidth problems. Online aesthetics have to be frugal compared to traditional viewing locations like art galleries, the cinema, theatre, and in print. Independent and non-trained artists, animators and filmmakers worldwide continue to post up new forms of expression and conceptual works. Long term, the Internet and its art audience has rewarded the dedicated and the impassioned Internet producer; as elsewhere, technical virtuosity and artistic creativity and talent hold the audience captivated, the transience and anonymity of the work types however adding a new quality. Image based cybertexts or digital narratives have in my opinion a different (and less respected) lineage coming down from early games, popup and comic books, abstract cinema [55], and animation instead of the Gutenberg Press.

Douglas comments that "digital narratives" have no exalted lineage from which to gain acceptance and respectability, unlike avant-garde fiction and other digital narratives and their "shaky, jerky video clips" [Douglas 2000; p8] do not bear comparison. However, this is to miss the point entirely and is the crux of another problem -- that however adroit and innovative such literary critics are, they are misplaced in applying their perspective to the art and visual fields. The "shaky jerky video clips" can be seen as constituting the birth of a stylistic development, though perhaps Douglas is commenting on the early CD-ROM productions' huge (in memory size) and unrealistic design, played on the small processor speeds of the first generation Apple Macs. These were truly stuttering animations which were never intended to be viewed as such but the low tech-ness (in terms of computer graphics) of the early computer graphics (Nintendo games, early Macintosh interfaces) have spawned a retro style of their own. Some artists and illustrators alike can now be seen to specialize in pixel art [56] and in animation techniques. This involves almost enlightened primitivism. High audio, complex and visually lush animations do not run well on the Internet. Their art is reminiscent of Victorian Pop up books and movable paper cut out puppet shows [57]. And yet they sit side by side as the low-tech "indie" and non-friendly (in attitude) brother of the billion dollar industries of commercial videogame production and their state of the art realist animation.

The zero frost position of Douglas (in contrast to Murray's) appeals to my practice led approach which is concerned with creating responsive multiple state systems, testing them, making mistakes, and elucidating their meanings. This is distinct from unbound speculative thinking of what may develop. However I disagree with Douglas on the problematic lack of linage for these digital narratives, indeed I support Moulthrop and his interstitial perspective (see below) in which the artwork:
	"… expatiates upon the materiality of expression. It embodies precisely the opposite of "seeing through," in that it holds forth its own mediation, along with that of other texts, for relentless inspection. It does not take us beyond mediation into the pure and timeless realm of story. It does not lead to the holodeck." [Moulthrop Gamely Interstitial 1999]
In this paradigm, lineages are found in non-traditional spheres such as: comics, games, experimental novels etc… [58] all of which occupy cultural interstices, tenuous gaps not covered by "comfortable old hierarchical" [59] forms.

The above theoretical standpoints veer from contemporary literary theory, such as the vindication of poststructuralists [Landow 1992; Joyce1995], to the realisation of the postmodernist sociologists' and psychologists' point of view [Turkle 1996], from the perspective of futuristic cultural studies of Lev Manovich [Manovich 2001] to the provocations of contemporary videogame researchers [Friedman 1997; Eskelinen 2001; Frasca 2001;Juul 2001]. The narrative form is back in the fore. Definitions of new genres, methods of construction and reading are ongoing and hotly contested by all camps.

1.11 Supporting critical theory
Preferred perspective: the interstitial and cybertext paradigms
The critiques of works such as mine are shared between games studies, literary studies, communication design (semiotics), new media art, media/film studies and the field of human computer interaction.
These positions have different emphases. This may be because the artworks themselves are inherently diverse in form, and in contextual allegiances. Commonly, these artistic works are achieved individually and outside the commercial realm (videogames are an exception), thus the creative and conceptual choices open to the practitioner are vast.
Three main perspectives exist within this research. Firstly (in chronology) are the hypertext theorists who viewed the practices of hypertext fiction (typically early 1990s [60]) within deconstruction and poststructuralist ideologies. This paradigm for the most part has been criticised for being overly theoretical and complex, focusing on a small body of verbalised master texts (thus convergent) rather than applying an external awareness of new and developing artefacts. Recent hypertexts have included image and audio elements, further aligning themselves with the histories of concrete poetry.
Secondly and more recently, there is a developing scholarly collective of game studies researchers (circa 1999, [61]). They specialise in a cultural media contextualisation of games, as well as researching the formal attributes such as the aesthetics and issues of spatial and visual intelligence as offered by videogame products.
Arguably, a subsection or hybrid of the two previous positions is the cybertext perspective as instigated by Espen Aarseth (1997). Cybertext was an early and significant domain that was seen to place computer games within the realm of literary critical enquiry. Cybertext is a structural and conceptual position open to various media if they qualify as being "ergodic" (e.g. when nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text). Aarseth himself focuses on literature and verbal transactions, though does not rule out the analysis of image-led structures.
Finally and still emergent is the broad field of new media art (which covers software art, data visualisation art, web serials, streaming performances, ASCII art etc…). A significant amount of new media art can be seen as a reaction against the field of commercial HCI (Human Computer Interaction [10]), and a commentary on the fields of communication and media theory. This domain is typically lacking a clear critical discourse, though it can be broadly sited in post-digital and post-contemporary paradigms [36].
The cybertext paradigm involves the belief that the system in question should be significantly mediated by complexity or dynamic behaviours rather than being a simply linked non-linear structure such as hypertexts, CD-ROMs, and basic games (cybertexts are generally taken to mean digital however need not exclusively be), whereas the interstitial paradigm (Moulthrop) is essentially less formal than cybertext but more conceptual or philosophical in nature.

Stuart Moulthrop is a digital practitioner of classical hypertext fictions such as Victory Garden (1991) The Colour of Television (1996; with Sean Cohen), Hegirascope (1995/1997), and Reagan Library (1999). As well as in his body of artworks, Moulthrop has shown in his numerous essays and talks that he is interested in both the broader changes in literacy and fiction and the possible implications that hypertext and the Internet have on our cultural landscape.
Moulthrop at the Digital Arts and Culture Conference 2001 prominently used the term "interstitial", in his closing keynote speech. It was from his observation of the contemporary practices and the participant's experience of new media art (see jodi.org [62]) and cybertexts (especially Riven, by Miller & Miller, 1997) that he reapplied the term interstitial. Originally it was used by Michael Joyce in Of Two Minds, 1995. Moulthrop appropriated interstitial to describe works that are inherently "difficult", and whereby interstitial artists are imbued with a "trickster spirit"-- referring in particular to John McDaid, Noah Wardrip-Fruin and the conference based "readings" of John Cayley, Jim Rosenberg, Judd Morrissey, and Lori Talley.

Moulthrop's use of the term is an evolution from Joyce's, in that Joyce used interstitial to describe the more stylistically obscure sections of his book that were placed between two or more focused sections of writing. When I asked. Moulthrop to expand upon his motivation in using the term interstitial, he replied:
	"To me, Michael's usage always seemed more than arbitrary or technical, really almost metaphysical or spiritual -- as if the standing-between stood for something deeply related to the truth or purpose of what we were doing with hypertext, where as I take it we are always betweening something." (Moulthrop, email correspondence, July 2004 )
Moulthrop defines the interstitial:
	"At its most direct, interstitial design insists and expatiates upon the materiality of expression. It embodies precisely the opposite of "seeing through," in that it holds forth its own mediation, along with that of other texts, for relentless inspection. It does not take us beyond mediation into the pure and timeless realm of story. It does not lead to the Holodeck… Comics, games -- and, yes, experimental novels -- all occupy cultural interstices, tenuous gaps not covered by "comfortable old hierarchical" forms. What is a comic -- a novel with too many illustrations, or a very fast film? What is a [Cyan] game -- a novel with no characters, or a film with too many cuts? Interstitial fictions represent breaks in the illusion of necessity foisted by major media forms. They reveal unauthorized vectors; they make us aware of interfaces, of media, of different ways to go. All of which may be meaningful..." Moulthrop, Gamely Interstitial, Narrative, Excess, and Artifactual Interstanding, 1999.
	"In phenomena like comics and adventure games, or for that matter in imaginative cybertexts and unconventional novels and films, we may be seeing the emergence of a fictive sensibility more finely attuned to gaps, inconsistencies, tensions, and fissures than to unbroken traditional lines." Moulthrop, Misadventure: Future Fiction and the New Networks, 1999.

The Moulthrop definition of interstitial art is that it exists in the interstices (spaces between), and capable of binding two or more things together. Closely linked to this interstitial is the term "inter-standing" as discussed by Mark Taylor and Esa Saarinen in Imagologies:
	"When depth gives way to surface, under-standing becomes inter-standing. To comprehend is no longer to grasp what lies beneath but to glimpse what lies between.... Understanding has become impossible because nothing stands under. Interstanding has become unavoidable because everything stands between." Taylor & Saarinen 1994, p. Interstanding 1.

Though in its nature not fixed, the term interstitial suggests celebrating all practices that fall between currently established genres and forms, one example could be -- practice that can be said to problematise the labels of fiction and non-fiction, games and art. The artworks located in this thesis can be said to be interstitial practice.
Interstitial practice with its fractures and gaps can be said to create what Eco calls Open Works -- when the artist has made a decision to leave the arrangement of the depending on your intention, the artwork 's constituents to chance, thus giving the artwork not a single definitive order but a multiplicity of possible orders [Eco 1989]. This is in direct contrast to the prevalent mindset of today's interface culture and its "ease of use" ideology. Interface seen in HCI terms, should be logical, intuitive and satisfying to use