Narrative


2004W 1.29.2004		MAT 495 Visual Design through Algorithms George Legrady Narrative in Technological Projects
Minimal condition		The linguist Tzvetan Todorov describes the minimal condition of narrative construction as consisting in the passage from "one equilibrium to another".
Narrative as transition		An ideal narrative begins with a stable situation which is disturbed by some power or force. There results a state of disequilibrium; by the action of a force directed in the opposite direction, the equilibrium is re-established, the second equilibrium is similar to the first, but the two are never identical.

		Notion of narrative as a process of engagement with a subject, or theme, that builds up meaning through some action.
Examples		Transition in time, or space, or mental state Movement from one culture to another The shift in perception from one point of view to another

		Narrative strategies (Gerard Genette)
Duration		signifies use of timing (how the narrative may expand, summarize, pause a bit, etc.)
Frequency		involves the relationship between event and its retelling (questions of whether an event happened once in the story and is narrated once, happened once but is narrated several times, happened several times and is narrated several times, etc.)
Distance		concerns the relation of the narration to its materials (is the narrative told in direct or indirect speech? Is it a matter of recounting the story (diegesis) or representing it (mimesis))
Perspective		refers to point of view, and can be also sub-divided ("externally focalised", (the narrator knows more, or less, or moves at the same level as the characters)) ("internally focalised", (told from a fixed position) ("Non-focalised", (delivered by an omniscient outside of the action))
Voice		what kind of narrator is implied (The narrator can be absent from the story, inside the story in the first person but in the background, or inside and being the leading character)

Agency		Every narrative is presented by a narrator ("agent"), who usually has some interest in telling the story.
		Seymour Chatman states that: "In this age of mechanical and electronic production and reproduction, it would be 'naïve' to reject the notion of nonhuman narrative agency", for instance a story constructed through algorithmic processed or as a result of multiple voices constructing together in realtime.

		Narrative in technological projects can be expressed in number of ways
Material		- Through material properties of material: wood, silicon, etc. - Through unexpected usage - through the material's relation within the system in which it belongs
Transition		- Through the transposition of analog to digital to material, etc. - The transposition from 1 media to another: from light to sound, etc.
Methods		- Let the material reveal its properties and qualities - Provide a phenomena (create a situation) - Historical context: go forwards or backwards - Make a statement through the organization of elements (Statements are usually cultural, meaningful, ironic, etc.)
Propositional		- the existence of a project by its nature focuses in on something

		A project has narrative components at a number of levels - the project must communicate something - the project is a result of intentions and conditions - the elements are assembled according to intrinsic properties - and to a set of culturally learned rules

Artists		Masak Fujihata, speed Alan Rath, sculpture Artificiel, sonic light bulbs Eduardo Kac, Transgenic art Karl Sims, Genetic Arts Natalie Jeremichenko: Artificial Intelligence/Life Steve Wilson's Online arts archive