Writing and Society Research Centre

Composing the Narrative Interface

 
Abstract: “Good” interface design, like good prose or cinema editing, sets thought in motion through affective rhythms, patterns and gaps in a semiotic surface. However, unlike mimetic and linear narrative constructions, an interface is typically a non-mimetic map of signs and sign-systems; of images, text fragments and links. How do we compose this multimedia space with the same agility and intuition that we compose text with a word processor, or video with digital editing software?  How do we conceive a poetics of the interface that makes room for ambiguity and excess alongside clarity and economy?  While many digital artists and e-lit authors continue to draw inspiration from the "radical artifice" and collage aesthetics of the avant-garde, we still lack the proper tools, heuristics and vocabulary to compose, think and teach about the narrative interface. This talk will explore approaches to narrative design by looking at selections of my media work: from simple juxtapositions of video on a page, to spatial montage, to the multimedia book

Bio: Will Luers is a professor at the Creative Media & Digital Culture program at Washington State University, Vancouver where he teaches multimedia authoring, video production and mobile app design. His current research and artistic interests are in database narratives, remix video and the multimedia book. In 2010, he was awarded the The Vectors-NEH Summer Fellowship to work on his database documentary, The Father Divine Project. In 2005, he won Nantucket Film Festival and Tony Cox Award for Best Screenplay. Will is currently in Australia to collaborate on a video project with Hazel Smith and Roger Dean funded by the literature board of the  Australia Council for the Arts.

Video: Will Luers presented a number of his video works during his seminar. You can watch the videos in the order in which they are referenced in his seminar via these links-

Haystack Rock (2006) (opens in a new window)

The Messenger (2007) (opens in a new window)

Westward (2007) (opens in a new window)

The Walking Man (2010) (opens in a new window)

217 Views of the Tokaido Line (2011) (opens in a new window)

Film of Sound (2012) (opens in a new window) 

Audio: Download the audio of Will's paper (right click and "save link as") or play below 

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