Navigable Spaces

Week 3LCC 2700: Intro to Computational MediaFall 2005Ian Bogost

4 properties of the digital medium

• Procedural• Participatory• Spatial• Encyclopedic

4 properties of the digital medium

• Procedural• Participatory• Spatial• Encyclopedic

4 properties of the digital medium

• Procedural• Participatory• Spatial property is derived from the procedural

and participatory• Encyclopedic

Space

• With time one of the 2 prime coordinates of human cognition

• Has multiple logical codes– Absolute Longitude/Latitude GPS– Relative Directionality (North, South,

East, West)– Up/Down , Orbiting– Lightyears (SpaceTime)

Experiencing Space

Codes of relationship• Left / Right• In front of / Behind• Forward / Back• Landmarking• Zones of proximity (Downtown; the South)• Pathfinding (2 stops on MARTA; Mapquest

directions)

Representating Space: Overview

Overviews

• Provide sense of boundaries and extent of space• Provide relationship of parts to the whole• From a god’s eye (bird’s eye) perspective• Sitemaps and good site navigation provide

overview of information spaces• Establishing shots, zooms in film provide

overview prelude to smaller scene; create illusion of proximities

• Digital media can create overviews that can be entered and navigated

Myst Island Fly-over

http://www.riven.com/Movies/MyFly.mov

Not directly connected with navigation in Myst

Overview and Navigation Connected

In websites that make nav bar the site map

In more recent games like The Sims where you can move from the neighborhood flyover to the street to the individual house to individual rooms

Representing Space: Navigation

• Navigation produces sense of immersion• Space seems more real because you can move

through it• Space must be consistent

– Logically Retraceable (up/down, left/right)– In scale (lower floors matched to upper

floors)• Landmarks support orienteering

Coherent navigation leads to exploration and discovery

• Passing a “tripwire” can set off a dramatic effect • “Room” abstraction useful even for spaces that are

not rooms, such as mazes, forest, any logical space segment

• Glimpsing one space from another, or hearing/smelling something just out of sight, creates anticipation

• Sounds can become louder as you approach• Hidden objects can become more, or suddenly

visible

Creating Motivation for Exploration

• Placing objects in the space reinforces the illusion

• Following a fleeing character (White Rabbit) can motivate navigation, discovery

• Spaces and objects can be taken from familiar story genres: treasure boxes, outlaw hideout, alien space ship

• Story expectations from props and characters, sound and visual style create anticipation, suspense, curiosity

Space as Abstract Code

• Hierarchies– Things above and below:

superordinate/subordinate– Upper and lower classes (people, things)– Top of the line; Bottom of the heap– Make it to the top; sink so low that you would…– Right hand man; sinister (left-hand) plot

• Memory Palaces– Greek rhetorical trick of associating a list of things

with a set of places, recall by mental walk-through

Geographical Space as Cultural Code

• East Coast, West Coast• Beltway (Washington)• The South, the Midwest(other countries have similar shorthand)

• Valley of the Shadow of Death• Underworld of the Dead • Mountaintop or Celestial habitation of the gods(in multiple religious traditions)

Space as Emotional Code

• Choice as a “fork in the road” or a “crossroads”• Despair as a forest (Dante’s inferno)• Being confused as being lost “at sea” • Drowning as being overwhelmed “out of his

depth”• “Walking the straight and narrow”: moral

orientation for spatial orientation

Borges Forking Paths

A book that is a labyrinth

An action that is a coded message

A view of human life and the meaning of our choices

Adventure / Zork

Assignment for this week:

Play Zork and/or Myst for at least 2 hours. What legacy and computational effects make these virtual space feel real? How do you know where you are? How do you know the relationship of your current location to your previous location? What objects and possible events do you expect to find in these spaces? What produces these expectations? How well do the programs reward them?

Project I:Create a Navigable Space

Week 4: submit and present a map of the spaceWeek 5: submit and present space itself

* clear navigational cues to script the interactor* consistent, logical space* a reason to move through it * at least 5 separate segments or “rooms”* at least 3 objects with behavior within the space

This can be a group project as long as individual parts have clear authorship.