The Digital Narrative

I attended the Setting the Scene exhibition yesterday, and was wowed. The exhibit contains set tools from some remarkable movies, as well as other physical representations of space. Though the exhibit doesn't contain many actual set pieces, what it does have are a number of the models and numerous drawings used to draft the spaces films would emerge in.

I found particularly interesting, the notion of blending spaces. For example, in Australia, virtual spaces were created to blend the real with the unreal, to smooth over the fault lines between location spaces and sets at the studio.

The exhibit was interesting for another reason, the notion of spaces in writing, the way digital narratives are informed by the spaces in which we explore them. Digital stories are influenced by the spaces in which they are screened (personal or private etc). They are influenced by the static and animated recordings of spaces shown in the story. They also are explored in spaces described through narration, remembrances and imaginings.

There are also the degrees of influence spaces represent in a digital story: private and public, virtual and staged, places of transition or power, labyrinthine spaces. All these spaces may be inhabited, and are often as evocative as the characters in story themselves. These spaces can be instigators of change and conflict in story, and through this are a significant consideration in narrative structure as they directly inform character.

The exhibit is on at ACMI in Melbourne, Australia for those interested in attending.