User:Elleke Hageman/Trimester 3/Prototyping

Research to Non- Linear narrative

My exploration of non-linear narrative in the third trimester derived from an interest in creating a format that would suit the material that I produced while documenting my father. In this material there is a wide range of techniques like photographs, interviews, notes, films etc. which also have a wide range of topics. I wanted to create a form in which I could integrate these different elements and create parts which would be suitable for these different elements.

I had the feeling that the visual narrative in a regular book is in a sense very limited because it is attached to the page size that is predecised and there isn’t enough space to make an intuitive decision in which part the spectator would like to see next. Thus I wanted to create a book which was based upon the experience of walking through an exhibition where the choices the spectator makes are based upon a visual intuitive choice in stead of on following a laid upon this more fixed narrative in a book .

I was interested in connecting one topic together instead of dis-connecting the entire bookstructure. so for example having quires but not attaching them to each other so they can be re-arranged and laid out and this would also open up the possibility to play around with different sizes, forms and material. Or creating a box with loose plates which are un-numbered so will not stay in a specific order.

Another idea was to make a book which could unfold itself into something into a 3dimensional object and would be place able in a space thus creating an overview of the content for the viewer in which he can actually choose which topic to look into next.

As a reference I used Eisensteins text on three dimensional narrative. Which is an article that states that the only 3dimensional narrative that exists is used in architecture. Because while moving around perspective changes and new impressions will arise in the movement.

Furthermore I looked at The House of Leaves which is a book that in which the text literally illustrates the changes that are going on in the house of the main character and what the main character is going through mentally. And I looked at Fernando Pessoa which in his Book of Disquiet makes short descriptions which are almost like notes or thoughts.

Now afterwards in the fourth trimester I am realising that my interest in non-linear narrative was not actually a research into non linear narrative but more a search to creating an object that would be more fit for my content then a book but which you are able to take with you.