Towards a Taxonomy of Polymorphic Works
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The document discusses a taxonomy of polymorphic works, exploring various forms of cross-media narratives, including types of hybrid and multi-channel works. It references key theories from authors such as Halliday and Chatman to categorize narrative structures, time relations, and components of text across different media formats. Examples of polymorphic works are detailed, highlighting the integration of multiple texts and modes of interaction within fictional worlds.
![GoFigure.net.au (tonyjohansen.com, 2005) In gallery (x3) Described on gofigure.net.au as: ‘ a painting about painting and the act of painting […] In this case it takes the form of a triptych in 4 parts’ Online gallery digitisation](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/pnt-100622185757-phpapp01/85/Towards-a-Taxonomy-of-Polymorphic-Works-28-320.jpg)
Towards a Taxonomy of Polymorphic Works
- 1. Texts, Worlds, Realms and Channels: Towards a Taxonomy of Polymorphic Works Christy Dena 17 th August 2005 University of Melbourne
- 2. Ingredients Theatre Installation Networked Art Locative Arts Hybrid Arts Polymorphic Narrative Ergodic Literature Hypertext Fiction Games Treasure-hunt books Conglomerate media ownership Internet Hucksterism
- 3. Hierarchies Linnaeus introduced a hierarchy of living things: genera, order, classes and kingdoms . Cross-document Structure Theory (CST) differentiates between four levels of textual organisation: document, paragraph/sentence, phrase, word . Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar differentiates between the following ranks: clause, group (verbal), group (nominal), group (adverbial) and word (Halliday, M.A.K., 1973). O’Toole developed Halliday’s grammar for Art and proposed the following units: work, episode, figure and member (O'Toole, L.M., 1990).
- 4. Types of Cross-media Works Enhanced TV, iTV; ARGs (alternate reality games), Extended Reality Game; Locative Arts, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Art; Telematic Arts, Networked Narrative Environments;
- 5. What are Polymorphic Works? The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary defines 'polymorphism' as 'the occurrence of something in several different forms' (Moore, B., 1997: 1040). Polymorphic works are works in many forms, multiple texts.
- 6. Medially Framed Units Character: member, numeral, pixel, Paragraph: components of lexia. Examples: Panel Lexia: framed as a component of a text. Examples: Webpage, chapter, sequence, scene , lexia, chorus?… Text: framed as a stand-alone text . Examples: book, episode, post to a website, canvas. Work: collection of texts. Example: triptych, website, book set, entire series.
- 7. Fiction Framing EventRealm: Example: 2-part film = 1 eventrealm. SeriesRealm: collection of texts clustered according to the eventrealm. Realm of Coherence/Progeny: entire collection of all texts. Akin to Seymour Chatman’s notion of ‘kernal’ (Barthes’ ‘noyau’) where a fictional event is of primary importance in the narrative, advancing plot. They ‘cannot be deleted without destroying the narrative’ (Chatman, 1978: 53). A ‘satellite’ then is a ‘minor plot element…is not crucial in this sense’ (ibid.: 54). ThemeWorld: Example: Matrix, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, James Bond or branding …
- 8. Framing Portal: access to themeworld Simulation: emulate themeworld Meta: about themeworld, its creation and affect.
- 9. Taxonomy Values Text: individual unit of the product. Can be an episode, movie, book, painting. Themeworld: the fictional world or brand as is known through works and imagination. Channel: Mode of accessing the text.
- 10. Taxonomy Values > Channels View Channel Product Form Computer files (pdf, jpg, wmv, mpeg…) DVD, CD-Rom, catridge Print Computer, television, console, portable DVD player, hand-held game… Broadcast Owned Theatre: 16mm, 35mm, 70mm, IMAX Television Internet Radio Computer, console, portable DVD player, mobile phone, PDA, iPod… Print (book, newspaper, magazine…)
- 11. Taxonomy of Polymorphic Works Multi Single Single 2 Single Single Single 1 Multi Multi Single 4 Single Multi Single 3 Single Multi Multi 7 Multi Multi Multi 8 Multi Single Multi 6 Single Single Multi 5 Channel Themeworld Text Type
- 12. Type 2: Component Works Type 2: Single-text, Single ThemeWorld, Multi-Channel Disney and Pixar (2004) Amazing Adventures: Movie Theatre Storybook and Move Projector, Funtastic, South Oakleigh
- 13. Hybrid vs Multi-Channel Hybrid Art is the integration of modes and styles into a single form. A singular mode of interaction is used to access the work. Multi-channel works require ‘assembly’ to bring all the components into a whole. The assembly can be literal (aligning a picture in a book beside one on a computer) or conceptual (juxtaposing the experience on the website with the story on the TV show).
- 14. Type 3: Crossovers Lara Croft, for instance, fights criminals with Sara Pezzini of the Witchblade themeworld in the Titan Books series from 1999-2002. More recently, The Simpsons themeworld jumble with Futurama in the C rossover Crisis comics by Matt Groening, 2002, 2005. Type 3: Single-text, Multi-ThemeWorld, Single-Channel
- 15. Type 3: Crossovers Simpsons Futurama The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis II Time: Delivery Channel Type 3: Single-text, Multi-ThemeWorld, Single-Channel
- 16. Type 7: Series Crossovers Baby it’s You Law & Order Homicide LotS Baby it’s You, Part 2 Time: Delivery Channel Type 7: Multi-text, Multi-ThemeWorld, Single-Channel
- 17. Film DVD, CD, Tape Print Television Website Radio 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 ThemeWorld: The Matrix 31/03 15/05 The Matrix Comics Graphic Novel Vol.2 The Matrix Comics Vol.1 The Matrix Comics Vol. 1 The Matrix The Matrix Reloaded Matrix Revolutions www.intothematrix.com The Matrix Comics Preview Comic The Animatrix The Animatrix: 4 Episodes The Matrix Comics Vol.1 Preview The Second Renaissance Part 1 (Animatrix) www.matrixonline.com www.theanimatrix.com The Second Renaissance Part 1 (Animatrix) Program (Animatrix Program (Animatrix March Feb 14 th May 3 rd June Enter the Matrix 2005 15 th Nov The Path of Neo
- 18. Issues
- 19. Time Reading time (discourse-time) Plot-time (story-time) Delivery time
- 20. Story Time: Delivery Time: Film: ‘The Matrix’ 1999 Online Comic: ‘Bits & Pieces’, 1999 Print comic: ‘Bits & Pieces’, 2003 Animation: ‘The Second Renaissance’, 2003. Discourse Time: Film segment: 5mins Online Comic Story: 15mins Print Comic story: 10mins Animation story: 9.13mins The Second Renaissance 2090-2139
- 21. Genette’s time-relations Ordre (order) Dur é e (duration) Fr é quence (frequency)
- 22. Rhythm: Delivery Timing Duration: relation of time to read/view/watch the narrative (discourse time) to the time the story-events themselves last (story-time). Summary: discourse time shorter than story-time; Ellipsis: discourse time is zero; Scene: discourse-time and story-time equal; Stretch: discourse-time longer than story-time; Pause: story-time is zero. Chatman, S.B. (1978): 68
- 23. Order first narrative: Genette second narrative : anachronies (disjunction between story chronology and discourse chronology): analepsis (flashback, retrospection) and prolepsis (flashforward, foreshadowing, anticipation). Homodiegetic analepsis : information that relates to the current character, event or storyline. (G.) Heterodiegetic analepsis : information about another character, event or story-line. (G.) External anachrony : events that begin and end before the starting point of first narrative or now? (G.) Internal anachrony : events that begin and end after the starting point or now?. (G.) Mixed anachrony : events that begins before the starting point or now? and ends after. (G.) Distance : span of time from present or starting point to the inception of the anachrony Amplitude : duration of the anachronous event. Completive anachrony : Repetitive anachronies : repeat what has been stated before, with a different slant. (eg: ‘Jack-Jack Attacks!’ short animation on Incredibles DVD.)
- 24. Relationships btw Texts Adaptation Remediation Continuation Elaboration Contrast
- 25. The Incredibles (dir: Brad Bird, Pixar, 2004) Scene with mother listening to messages from babysitter in The Incredibles (theatre, DVD, video, online) Scenes with babysitter calling mother in Jack-Jack Attacks! (short on DVD extra)
- 26. One Life to Live (ABC, 2005) Sourced from: http://abc.go.com/daytime/onelifetolive/index.html Sourced from: http://abc.go.com/daytime/onelifetolive/gallery/61981_1.html From Hyperion Books website: Marcie Walsh works as a receptionist at a police station, where she sees firsthand that truth is actually more bizarre than fiction. The Killing Club is her first novel. She lives in Llanview, Pennsylvania. For more information about Marcie Walsh, please visit www.abc.com/daytime/onelifetolive.com . Marcie Walsh
- 27. The Killing Club (Hyperion, 2005) Cartoon by: Clementine Hope, Hyperion website ‘ Killing Club’ was a club in the TV series character Marcie Walsh’s past. Marcie Walsh writes book called The Killing Club, based on her past. The Killing Club is published in TV series and in real-life through Hyperion Books (but co-written with Michael Malone: the actual author). The book is a mystery about how a group of friends wrote down in a Death Book how they would murder people didn’t like. Then the murders start happening and an investigation ensues. Murders described in fiction book start to actually happen in TV series. No murders in real-life as yet!!
- 28. GoFigure.net.au (tonyjohansen.com, 2005) In gallery (x3) Described on gofigure.net.au as: ‘ a painting about painting and the act of painting […] In this case it takes the form of a triptych in 4 parts’ Online gallery digitisation
- 29. GoFigure.net.au (tonyjohansen.com, 2005) Image sourced from: Sydney Morning Herald , April 26, 2005 3 paintings in gallery Numerous digitisations online Description and images of the making of the paintings Images that were not selected (equivalent to deleted scenes) Title of work a hyperlink Author name a hyperlink
- 30. Types of Delivery/Experience of Plot over Texts Sequential Simultaneous Alternating
- 31. Producers Primary (original) Commissioned Licensed Sanctioned Unsanctioned
- 32. Project Site: www.polymorphicnarrative.org Research Blog: www.crossmediastorytelling.com
Editor's Notes
- #10: Whereas before the text could be divided into chapters, segments,
- #11: Owned are handable, they can be owned and transferred. They are property. Broadcast works can only be accessed according to delivery.
- #13: Type 2 I’ll call ‘Component Works’ for now. This qualifies as a single text because it is delivered at a single-point-in-time, but it also qualifies as multi-channel because the modes have to be assembled by the reader.
- #14: Hybrid Art facilitates a convergence of interaction systems that coalesce into one — a unique singular mode of interaction. Cross channel navigation occurs when the user has to navigate, to move physically and conceptually to another system of interaction. An ‘assembly’ has to take place therefore (in line with Apperley’s ‘assembler’) on behalf of the user, not the object. Kress and Van Leeuwen define ‘assembly’, from a semiotic perspective, as being the case when: ‘there is no longer a single, integrated original. Instead, a range of fragments is assembled into a whole’ (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2001, 102). Hybrid Art has already been assembled, whereas cross media requires effort to bring all the components into a whole. The user may be sitting in the exactly the same spot, reading a book at their desk and then using the Internet, but they have to change their interaction (from turning pages to taping a keyboard) and the associated cognitive processes to ‘build’ the work.