Assignment: Interactive Narrative: Beyond the Landscape

When we think of the image , we normally view it as a single, static layer of visual information, a frozen moment in time, or fixed windows in a linear sequence. For this assignment, I want everyone to use the digital medium to create a narrative that puts into play the dynamic image, one that not only moves and animates, but how the image can reveal new moments in time beyond it's surface through hypermedia.

I want everyone to create a landscape image in the broadest sense of the word, in another words a landscape that suggest a natural scene, or a mental landscape, or a purely abstract one. Furthermore, I want this landscape to be embedded with narrative possibilities, a narrative that doesn't progress in a linear fashion from point a to point b, but rather one that is explored and navigated by the viewer, one that tells its story, however abstract, according to the interaction of the viewer.

This image, initially created in Photoshop, will then be divided into regions that animate, with mouse rollovers and hyperlinks to other pages. You will be shown the slicing technique in Imageready to do this. The project will consist of a "home" page with the main image, and then "satellite" pages that are linked from the home page, and have navigation built into them to take you either back to the home page or to other pages in the narrative. It is up to you to decide on the exact structure.

Here are some guidelines for carrying out the project:

-- Storyboard the project, without at first being concerned with how the narrative will work in the non-linear context. You might start with a simple story or idea that unfolds sequentially. Sketch out your storyboard on paper.

-- Create your main image in photoshop, thinking about how the elements of the narrative can be portrayed visually. Feel free to incorporate text, either as html or bit-mapped.

-- Now the interesting part: based on the resulting main image, how does it suggest possibilities for rearranging the story in unexpected ways? Think about how the viewer might enter into a kind of "story world" you have invented. Once you have decided how this works, sketch out another storyboard on paper indicating how the viewer will link from the home page to the satellite pages. Sketch out the imagery and any texts for these pages too.

-- Once you have developed the overall structure of the narrative and the project, break up your main image into slices, creating animated elements and rollovers, and defining where your hyperlinks will be located, and where these regions will link to.

-- Create the satellite pages and "wire" up the whole project so that all the links are working. Be sure you fully test all the links before showing to the class. Test your projects on-line.

The assignment is due in three weeks on March 21, right before spring break. We will have critiques in which you will take the class on an interactive tour through your narrative-landscape.

Good luck!