I’m behind on blogging as I’ve been busy at conferences. I was invited to speak at a special session of Association francophone pour le savoir – Congr?©s on Interactivity and Narrative. The papers were excellent – well theorized and provocative. Some worth noting:
- Bertrand Gervais gave a paper on L’illusion d’une pr?©sence : l’efficacit?© symbolique des nouveaux m?©dias. Bertrand is leading a CFI funded lab nt2 that is developing a database of new technology fiction so that electronic literature, net art and interactive hyperfiction can be studied.
- Bernard Perron and Carl Therrien gave a great paper on L’illusion du cin?©ma interactif that presented a good topology of interactive cinema and games.
- Joanne Lalonde presented a paper on Rituels de l’oeuvre hyperm?©diatique : individualit?© et collectivit?©. She looked at net art through the lense of ritual in a way that was new to me.
If there was one problem with the papers it was that everyone was connecting interactivity to narrative and few questioned whether narrative was appropriate. Sometimes the fit seemed forced.