1. LCC 2700: Intro to Computational Media
Navigable Spaces
LCC 2700: Intro to Computational Media

2. 4 properties of the digital medium
Procedural
Participatory
Spatial
Encyclopedic

3. 4 properties of the digital medium
Procedural
Participatory
Spatial
Encyclopedic

4. 4 properties of the digital medium
Procedural
Participatory
Spatial property is derived from the procedural and participatory
Encyclopedic

5. Space With time one of the 2 prime coordinates of human cognition
Has multiple logical codes
Absolute Longitude/Latitude GPS
Relative Directionality (North, South, East, West)
Up/Down , Orbiting
Lightyears (SpaceTime)

6. Experiencing Space Codes of relationship Left / Right
In front of / Behind
Forward / Back
Landmarking
Zones of proximity (Downtown; the South)
Pathfinding (2 stops on MARTA; Mapquest directions)

7. Representating Space: Overview

8. Overviews Provide sense of boundaries and extent of space
Provide relationship of parts to the whole
From a god’s eye (bird’s eye) perspective
Sitemaps and good site navigation provide overview of information spaces
Establishing shots, zooms in film provide overview prelude to smaller scene; create illusion of proximities
Digital media can create overviews that can be entered and navigated

9. Myst Island Fly-over http://www.riven.com/Movies/MyFly.mov
Not directly connected with navigation in Myst

10. Overview and Navigation Connected
In websites that make nav bar the site map
In more recent games like The Sims where you can move from the neighborhood flyover to the street to the individual house to individual rooms

11. Representing Space: Navigation
Navigation produces sense of immersion
Space seems more real because you can move through it
Space must be consistent
Logically Retraceable (up/down, left/right)
In scale (lower floors matched to upper floors)
Landmarks support orienteering

12. Coherent navigation leads to exploration and discovery
Passing a “tripwire” can set off a dramatic effect
“Room” abstraction useful even for spaces that are not rooms, such as mazes, forest, any logical space segment
Glimpsing one space from another, or hearing/smelling something just out of sight, creates anticipation
Sounds can become louder as you approach
Hidden objects can become more, or suddenly visible

13. Creating Motivation for Exploration
Placing objects in the space reinforces the illusion
Following a fleeing character (White Rabbit) can motivate navigation, discovery
Spaces and objects can be taken from familiar story genres: treasure boxes, outlaw hideout, alien space ship
Story expectations from props and characters, sound and visual style create anticipation, suspense, curiosity

14. Space as Abstract Code Hierarchies
Things above and below: superordinate/subordinate
Upper and lower classes (people, things)
Top of the line; Bottom of the heap
Make it to the top; sink so low that you would…
Right hand man; sinister (left-hand) plot
Memory Palaces
Greek rhetorical trick of associating a list of things with a set of places, recall by mental walk-through

15. Geographical Space as Cultural Code
East Coast, West Coast
Beltway (Washington)
The South, the Midwest
(other countries have similar shorthand)
Valley of the Shadow of Death
Underworld of the Dead
Mountaintop or Celestial habitation of the gods
(in multiple religious traditions)

16. Space as Emotional Code
Choice as a “fork in the road” or a “crossroads”
Despair as a forest (Dante’s inferno)
Being confused as being lost “at sea”
Drowning as being overwhelmed “out of his depth”
“Walking the straight and narrow”: moral orientation for spatial orientation

17. Borges Forking Paths A book that is a labyrinth
An action that is a coded message
A view of human life and the meaning of our choices

18. Adventure / Zork Assignment for this week:
Play Zork and/or Myst for at least 2 hours. What legacy and computational effects make these virtual space feel real? How do you know where you are? How do you know the relationship of your current location to your previous location? What objects and possible events do you expect to find in these spaces? What produces these expectations? How well do the programs reward them?

19. Project I: Create a Navigable Space
* clear navigational cues to script the interactor
* consistent, logical space
* a reason to move through it
* at least 5 separate segments or “rooms”
* at least 3 objects with behavior within the space