Actions (draft)

Proposed Scenario for Galactic World Forum – Sydney Convention Centre December 2008 (originally specified in 2003)

“This is dedicated to meandering of the challenged, the pioneers of fumbled realities, and all the players who serve to solve the riddle of non-sense.”

Start Small, End Up Big – Conference Outline

Cultural Questions of the Journey-Man Project

Prime categories for this connective interactivity are:
- Academic (Education)
- Professional (Business)
- Development (Children)
- General Interest (Me)
- Interactive (Travel)
- Spirituality (Religion)

Individual Queries & Concerns Regarding the Future Development of Life
• How are we to see the relative future if we as individuals are empowered to perceive/change it before it arrives?
• Is the method the madness or the message the medium in which to develop?  
• We reconstruct our knowledge through information and technology, but do we ever define a new body of knowledge or a new way of thinking?  
• What is our future and are we not redefining our own vision anyway and have our virtual realities become our real destiny?

Conference Item A: Sensorium Web-Hopper
‘In the presence of extraordinary reality, consciousness takes the place of the imagination.’

First I should mention all those ‘adventure games’ which in fact use a typical case of spatial metaphor: The user/hero is wandering around in a set of environments and it is even possible to encounter other users in this information-space so that the game is a sort of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) – environment.

It can be claimed that such a system is in fact a spatial metaphor for a hypertext. In hypertext the aim is to let the user discover information and reach his goal as fast and easy as possible whereas in an ‘adventure game’ the aim of the game is to obscure the path to the information looked for. What I find particularly interesting about those games (besides the fact that I like playing them from time to time) is that they often convey this spatial metaphor without any graphics (text-adventure).

Some fine ideas for spatial metaphor (even if they probably have not been implemented) are described for five sorts of data (Florin 1990):
1) collections of data: fields in the landscape. Fields with older data ‘vanish to the horizon’.
2) interactive documentaries: visualised as a kind of village.
3) annotated movies: have a linear structure and can be visualised as rivers, highways and the like.
4) networks of guides: other persons in the landscape.
5) hands-on activities: range from simple games to complex simulations.

By visualising such clusters you can see a close relationship within several nodes instantly.

Conference Item B: Immersion Programming

Virtual architecture uses models in order to convey the purpose of the space. These models are low-level symbolic language, understood to be at the base of human thinking, which the ‘designer’ uses to encode meaning.

Described are ten virtual architecture models for the ‘designer’ to subscribe to in defining the construct of a virtual environment:
1) axis: infers a path to a goal and begs to be followed.
2) court: is a container of thresholds, the focus of action/inaction and cognitive awareness.
3) relationship of path and place: describes the journey begins at the first threshold (initiation) and ends at the final threshold (enlightenment).
4) perimeter of domain: defines the limit of understanding, the limit of the defined world.
5) portal: shows a breach in the perimeter; the mouth of an axis connecting two domains.
6) openness and closure: is defined by the perimeter, openness is the lack of understanding and closure is the comfortable area of knowledge.
7) datum: consists of spatial datum that defines the scale and perimeter of the space; secondary datum may define items of interaction and is offset to show importance.
8) column: defines the perimeter and sets the vertical scale.
9) wall: is the primary method of defining the perimeter; also provides closure and clarifies breaches or portals.
10) roof: preserves the relationship of the sky and ground and provides the elevation boundary for the area of interactivity.

In applications that use these building blocks, the task and meaning of the space are immediately obvious. In addition to models, other guides have been defined. The space must always preserve the integrity of location, movement, and transition.

Our understanding of the world around us is built on a correspondence between what we already know and what we learn from observation and experience. Each of us carries in our heads a spatialised mental model of the physical world (including its social components).

This ‘virtual world’ paradigm should guide the creation of a ‘new generation’ of computer technology (in fields as diverse as entertainment, industry, and education) that uses natural forms, similar to those we have in our minds, to convey information.

Conference Item C : The Third Place
“Not narratives that unfold in time – all elements are simultaneously present”

Dealing with the ‘third place’, where you are when you’re not at home or you’re not at work. The viewer doesn’t want to have to choose a concept, but a format/framework everyone knows how to engage in.

A Practical Commentary:
Dragon Eyez (Blind Dragon, You give the vision!) will need to have as ‘bleeding edge’ a script and conceptual model as the technology it will piggyback off. The development process will need mechanisms and conditioning in which to keep the project liquid yet still move forward. The viewer will see this characteristic in the end product, experience its framework, buying into the ‘new’ gaming product as fact and not hype. Choose your own adventure, the premise for it all.

Need to ensure a common bond or mentality for the character and environment space, this will influence the base level programming required for a decision path, this can then become a story node which is only limited by it surrounding or relative framework (other nodes). Call it ‘iChing’ – This points toward a content management system and development toolkit to assist in the extrapolation of other products and developer support. Don’t think you can do it all yourself, specialise and become an important component of the process.

There are many fractured trains of thought, so you must accept that the journey will involve many ideals and vehicles in which to adhere, but never truly understand, but time will allow more insight into these mental dynamics, for these you can choose.