T_Visionarium

Abstract

Currently the dominant position in aesthetics conceptualizes narrative as mono-temporal or linear. The digital, by contrast, is conceptualized as a-temporal or non-linear. This monochronic explanation reduces narrative to a mono-temporal process that fails to account for not only the potential of interactive digital narrative but also the workings of conventional cinematic narrative itself. In contrast the concepts of dialogic and transcriptive provide an understanding of narrative as a multi-temporal process operating beyond the structuralist notions of linearity and non-linearity. The dialogic refers to the interactive multiplicity immanent within the digital, while the transcriptive describes the cinematic capture and reconstruction of multimodal forms of information within virtual environments. Recently the authors explored these concepts as a model for the production of interactive narrative by means of an experimental study entitled T_Visionarium, Cinemas du Futur, Lille Cultural Capital, 2004.