Words made Worlds

. .

An Interactive Narrative

Maha Al-SaatiSpring 2007

Magic and religion• Words becoming flesh, the

symbolic turning physical […] This figure of thought, of a speech act that affects physical matter instantly and directly, is magical at its root. Material creation from the word is an idea central to magic in all cultures (Cramer, p.14)

Project Idea (derived from cramer)• An interactive narrative (on flash) about the

material creation of the world through the power of the word

• the 3D environment is a metaphor of the world, composed of objects invoked by the words

• Those words have their origin from Historic Arabic literature

The power of the word in traditional Arab literature

• The first word uttered was “Kon”, and through the power of the word, the world was created.

• The first verse of Quran was constructed of a single word, a request to “read” “Iqra”

Main theme• A metaphorical 3d

environment• the 3D objects that

create this environment are symbolic representations to words found in those historic Arab literature works/poetry

• So I have to create some kind of relation between those symbolic representations and the several words that describe

• The color scheme/illumination of the scene is affected by the type of objects found in the space

Words in Chaos• From a chaos of

words scattered on the screen, the interactivity starts with the user moving the mouse cursor on a displayed word

Words into Verses• the engine emphasizes the

selected word, and links it with a number of other related words

• Those relations are found according to Arabic literature

• The user can select a second word that will lead to the creation of the verse

• I might use a similar engine to the one in Delicious molecules engine

• http://www.twoantennas.com/projects/delicious-network-explorer/

The verse creation engine• Matches the word selected with other related ones• Puts the words in the correct order according to the

verses• Displays the visual narrative visuals (images or video)Or vice versa• A person can click on the objects in the space and a

3d menu would show related words/narratives that can lead to more narratives

• If two physical objects have some sort of narrative related, then maybe they can get highlighted to indicate there is a narrative by combining them

• Source: Composing Virtual Space—Imaginary Worlds Editor - Kenneth Newby

• http://gaia.iat.sfu.ca/~chaosmos/

Words become flesh, the symbolic turns physicalWords related to images• Images lead to visual compositions within 3D

environments• The ambience/darkness of the environment cant be

affected by the type of objects inhabiting it

• The 3d environment is an art product and result of the symbols chosen

• So the elements of the space/the words are all embedded

• But I’d have to find the relations between symbols/objects and words

• And the relations between the words (composing them into verses)

• How am I going to place those objects in the space?

• Create metaphorical meanings for those words

Software• Auto Cad + Form Z• Flash• Processing

Other readings• Bolter, J. David & Grusin,

Richard. "Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation", pgs. 20 - 50, from Remediation, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1999

• Murray, Janet. “Hamlet on the Holodeck”, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1998.

• Lev Manovich, “The Language of New Media”, Cambridge MA, MIT Press,.