The Narrative and Hypermedia workshop was held on April 5-6th, 1997, in Brighton, UK.
The main goal of this workshop was to provide a forum in which designers, practitioners and researchers could discuss theory and practice relating to the role of narrative in hypermedia and the relationship between narrative, hypermedia and cognition.
Sequence, connectedness, causality and linearity are associated with narrative and, in fictional materials, narrative can act as a structuring device, helping readers or users find their way through texts. How, then, can narrative be adapted to a multi-linear medium such as hypermedia - does it fulfil the same kind of structuring function? Is it meaningful or desirable to use narrative in this context? Can it be usefully applied to a wide range of applications, or is it limited to only a few types?
Although hypermedia superficially appears to combine media with which we are already familiar, such as film, television and books, its structure differs from that of other media with which we have more familiarity because the media formats switch frequently between video, text, animation, graphics, sound and silence; there are combinations of different media on the screen at the same time; users' interactivity can be manifested as control over aspects of pace, sequence, choice of activity, and input to the system, and there is no fixed running time. These attributes are potentially beneficial, but they are also responsible for the multiplicity of pathways and disruption of the flow of the user's experience. Further, it is sometimes difficult to predict user input or system response at the decision points or 'foci of interactivity'. It does not, therefore, lend itself to narrative structures as generally understood.
Narrative shapes our knowledge and experience. Some claim that we have a predisposition to finding and creating narrative and that it determines ways in which we acquire language; the role of narrative is not therefore simply aesthetic, it is central to our cognition from earliest childhood. The generation of narrative is an active process of meaning-making through which we make sense of our own thoughts and experiences and those of others. There is a significant body of research which suggests that texts which are unfamiliarly structured because they do not conform to mental models of narrative make excessive demands on our cognitive processes, and that memory and comprehension can be used most productively when the text is clearly structured and navigable. Learners are constantly adjusting their understanding in accordance with their exposure to conventional narratives, making the construction of ÔstoryÕ a central cognitive goal. This research has focussed on written texts; so far there is a dearth of such research for hypermedia.
Although these cognitive issues are not central for designers of entertainment media, a primary goal is still, in most cases, an enjoyable interactive experience and this depends, to some extent, on avoiding undue cognitive perturbation. Such concepts as wholeness, unity, and coherence of meaning are unfashionable requirements for narratives in a postmodern world and some claim that hypermedia mirror cognitive processes more truthfully than old fashioned single-medium linear narratives.
Participants considered some of the following issues:
Although narrative is associated with fictional materials, as a structuring device which helps readers or users find their way through texts it can be applied to a wide cross-section of applications. Most hypermedia applications are used for education, training, point of sale and marketing. Those interactive fictions which have been originated for the medium can subvert and stretch our understanding of narrative because interactive technologies are, for some, the perfect postmodern playground. However, they tend to be relatively limited in their appeal and games are the only form of fictional interactive media which has captured a mainstream market. Nevertheless, forms seen as avant-garde often become assimilated into the mainstream, and we can already see the influence of hypermedia in advertising and newspaper and magazine layout. We can learn as much from those creatively experimenting with the form of hypermedia as those conducting academic research.
