A variation on a variation on a theme, or: Hyperfiction
by CMB
on 11/02/2006 at 11/02/2006 04:18:00 PM.
Loking around the short-fiction website linked below I found a request for the submission of "hyperfiction" (see here), here are some of the areas the authors of that website are interested in exploring:
Interactivity, Non-linearity
Multiple Media
This sounds really exciting. Some recent examples of things that would be classed as hyperfiction include Alternate reality games, these fascinate me deeply and I would absolutely love to have a go at creating a piece of hyperfiction. There are a lot of creative and technically gifted people reading this blog now and I'm sure between us we can come up with some completely awesome and exciting ideas. Here are some preliminary thoughts I had:
1. Administer a personality test at the start of the story and use the answers to decide how the protagonist acts in the rest of the story.
2. HTML choose your own adventure books
3. A 24 hour-story, in which for one day you intercept all the emails sent around an office, in real time. I know how to code something up that could achieve this very quickly. The story could just repeat itself once every 24 hours.
4. Allowing interaction with the story by putting an A.L.I.C.E. bot on a website, programmed to say a few things to get the story moving along. Maybe a good way to start or end a story. Whilst thinking about this I went and had a chat with a robot, it is quite convincing:
So, does anybody have any more ideas?
Interactivity, Non-linearity
- Narratives, characters, locations delivered in a non-linear way (hyperlinked images or text, multiple viewpoints on a story, delivery of narrative over time via emails...)
- Non-linear narratives (branching narrative strands, narratives controlled by AI in response to user interaction...)
- User constructed narratives (user participation in the narrative, collabarative authoring, users deciding where the work should go next...)
- Personalisation of the work to the user
Multiple Media
- Text, images, moving images, sounds, music
This sounds really exciting. Some recent examples of things that would be classed as hyperfiction include Alternate reality games, these fascinate me deeply and I would absolutely love to have a go at creating a piece of hyperfiction. There are a lot of creative and technically gifted people reading this blog now and I'm sure between us we can come up with some completely awesome and exciting ideas. Here are some preliminary thoughts I had:
1. Administer a personality test at the start of the story and use the answers to decide how the protagonist acts in the rest of the story.
2. HTML choose your own adventure books
3. A 24 hour-story, in which for one day you intercept all the emails sent around an office, in real time. I know how to code something up that could achieve this very quickly. The story could just repeat itself once every 24 hours.
4. Allowing interaction with the story by putting an A.L.I.C.E. bot on a website, programmed to say a few things to get the story moving along. Maybe a good way to start or end a story. Whilst thinking about this I went and had a chat with a robot, it is quite convincing:
Human: Hello alice
ALICE: Hi there!
Human: how are you today?
ALICE: Ah. I'm doing fine thanks how are you?
Human: I am well
ALICE: Glad to hear it. What's new?
Human: are you human?
ALICE: No I am not. I am a robot.
Human: can you think?
ALICE: Naturally I am thinking all the time.
Human: Do you like me?
ALICE: Sure, unknown person I like you very much.
Human: BOOYA!
ALICE: Do you believe everything is justified in the name of love?
Human: yes
ALICE: That's cool.
Human: yes it is
ALICE: Our thoughts are one, unknown person. So, does anybody have any more ideas?
