Title
Writing while wandering : material and spatial contingency in locative media narratives
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Convergence: the international journal of research into new media technologies
Publication Date
2-2017
Volume
23
Issue
1
First Page
5
Last Page
19
Publisher
Sage Publications Ltd.
Abstract
In digital writing, there is a discrepancy between the dynamicism that is associated with born-digital narratives and the rigidly encoded structures of content management that shape digital media technologies. Locative media narratives – site-specific narratives that are designed for accessing digital mobile devices – are therefore interesting because they cannot be written without reference to real space and are subject to the dynamic relationships that device users have with material space. This article reveals the ontological complexities of digital reading and digital writing for the locative media narrative user. Writing and reading digitally through locative media narratives, I argue, require users’ dynamic and reflexive negotiation between the experience of reading and the material circumstances that offer insight into the element of contingency in digital writing. Specifically, I explore the element of contingency as a ‘counter’ to paradigms of standardization and rationalization during the age of modernity; its nullification through the introduction of predefined digital parameters; its resilience in the figure of the walker; and its contemporary resilience in the media user. Contingency is thus delineated as a condition through which a dynamic narrative can emerge between the parameters of digital writing and a user’s narrative play. The material spaces explored are contingent upon which paths users choose to take; also, the produced story is contingent upon the narrative trajectory that is formed through users’ wandering through material space. As users choose real spaces with historiocultural contexts, this article shows that locative media narratives allow us to write digital narratives while also engaging in the discourses of material space, media materiality, and emerging forms of narrative. In turn, by conceptualizing and identifying dynamic forms of narrative for how they complicate notions of reading and writing, this article proposes the initial shaping of a narratology for dynamic digital narratives.
DOI
10.1177/1354856516679635
Print ISSN
13548565
E-ISSN
17487382
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2017 by SAGE Publications. Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Fan, L.-T. (2017). Writing while wandering: Material and spatial contingency in locative media narratives. Convergence: the international journal of research into new media technologies, 23(1), 5-19. doi: 10.1177/1354856516679635
