The document explores the concept of narrative as an interface, illustrating how various art forms, from painting to film to virtual worlds, engage the audience in interactive experiences. It highlights significant works, such as Velázquez's Las Meninas, and discusses the evolution of visual language in film and the use of virtual worlds in education. Overall, it emphasizes the integration of content and form, and the shift towards participatory narratives in contemporary art and learning environments.

1. Narrative as Interface
"The interface controls the reader's
interaction with the narrative”
Nick Montfort (1995)

2. Space Place Perspective
Sebastian Serlio (1545)

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1656

4. The painting shows a large room in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the
reign of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents several figures, most identifiable
from the Spanish court, captured, according to some commentators, in a
particular moment as if in a snapshot. Some look out of the canvas towards
the viewer, while others interact among themselves. The young Infanta
Margaret Theresa is surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour,
chaperone, bodyguard, two dwarfs and a dog. Just behind them,Velázquez
portrays himself working at a large canvas. Velázquez looks outwards, beyond
the pictorial space to where a viewer of the painting would stand. In the
background there is a mirror that reflects the upper bodies of the king and
queen. They appear to be placed outside the picture space in a position
similar to that of the viewer, although some scholars have speculated that their
image is a reflection from the painting Velázquez is shown working on.

6. Muybridge is known for his work on animal locomotion (1877 and 1878)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer

8. Cezanne – Mont Ste-Victoire from the
South West (1890-1900)
The image is broken down into surfaces, paths,
shadows, distances. "This was perhaps the
beginning of the end of academic composition
following the long established rules of
perspective. Heavily influenced by Cezanne,
several young artists were soon to radically
break the mould and themselves become major
influences on 20th Century art"

9. Language as Interface
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Tristram Shandy
She by Rider Haggard ('Sherd of Amenartas’)
James Joyce (Ulysses, Finnegans Wake)
Virginia Wolfe (Between the Acts)
Gertrude Stein (The Making of Americans)
Samuel Beckett (The trilogy)
William S. Burroughs/Brion Gysin (CutUps)
Milorad Pavić (Dictionary of the Khazars)
Jorge Luis Borges (Aleph).
Julio Cortázar (Rayuela/Hopscotch)
Mark Z. Danielewski (House of Leaves)
Content is form. Form is content.

10. The Film Image as a Reflection of Form
Film has moved from representation to interactive world. The visual language of films
has altered to the point where today we participate visually and spatially in narratives
as perspectives. The narrative of film is now a world, we move from game to sequel to
book, often in 3D spaces and with characters we return to again and again. Perhaps the
best example of inhabiting film as a space is machinima: the making of film using
computer games and virtual worlds. (Image: The Lady from Shanghai - 1947)

12. Augmented Reality is Now Around Us

13. Separation Ceasing
Narrative as Interface

14. Material Life in Virtual Worlds
Since 1999 a number of courses have been run in HUMlab that
use virtual worlds as spaces for learning. From linguistics to language
learning, virtual spaces for art production and the teaching of pharmacy
these courses teach students to deal with aspects of working life, as
well as teaching critical concepts grounded in material relations.

15. Interactive theatre project with Skuggteater Umeå, HUMlab and the independent
game artist Nifflas. Audience participation controls the choices actors make through
a body and audio tracking game interface. More here: https://vimeo.com/65631785

16. jim.barrett@humlab.umu.se