21W765j/21L489j (U) (12 undergraduate credits)

21L989 (G) (12 graduate credits)
Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative: Theory and Practice

Dr. Janet H. Murray

jhmurray@mit.edu

Assignment 1 Due Tuesday February 10

Starting with the list of "story webs" on the HOH Resource Page and with projects from previous classes, look around the web and spend at least 30 minutes with each of three different web-based stories. Create an html page and copy it to the Spring98/a1 directory of the course locker. The page should have links to the three stories you spent time with and links to at least 3 pages from one or more of these stories, with a short description of what was good or bad about the segmentation of the story.

For instance, consider these questions:

Was there too much text per segment, so that you had to scroll through it? Was thre too little happening on each lexia, so that you had to click forward repeatedly to get the rest of the event? Was the text too wordy?

Was the text limited to single point of view? If so, was it easily juxtaposed with an opposing point of view on the same event? Was the voice behind the segment clear?

Did the events described in the segment make up a clear whole action? Did you know where you were in the story?

Did each segment raise other questions you were lured on to answer? Did you feel you knew where you were going when you followed a link?

Did you feel this story was best told in this format? If so why? If not why?

If there are pictures and text together, do they make a coherent whole? How aware are you of the different kinds of media as separate objects? Do they pull your attention in different directions, or work together to lead you deeper into the story?

syllabus