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2023 | Buch

Narrating Locative Media

verfasst von: Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Über dieses Buch

This book offers a multidisciplinary approach to locative media, concentrating on specific authors and practitioners whose works exist in print and digital manifestations. The book shapes the discourse for an extensive theorization of locative media works from a narrative perspective. It investigates how different genres ⸺ print novels, fictional and non-fictional locative narratives, locative games, and audio texts ⸺ are affected by locative media practice. Part I examines print manifestations of locative media in William Gibson’s fiction. Part II discusses e-book and audio book locative narrative experimentations, suggesting ways to create and categorize locative texts. Drawing on hypertext theory, Part III views Niantic locative games as an instantiation of locative media storytelling practice that challenges digital narrativity. This study captures a transition from a print-based textuality to a digital locative textuality and culture, and proposes flexible innovative models of interpreting narrative textual forms emerging from the convergence of locative and narrative media.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Part I

Frontmatter

Chapter 2. Narrative Manifestations of Locative Media in Spook Country

Abstract

This chapter focuses on William Gibson’s novel, Spook Country (2007), which anticipates locative media technologies and how they emerged. Spook Country remediates in printed form the ways in which locative media technologies reconfigure the relationship between virtual and physical space and how these converge and coalesce, but also it remediates locative media narrative, art, and gaming practices. The author embeds locative media in the narrative in order to annotate, report, document, and record the effects and the potential of this technology. Spook Country serves as a case study of the affordances and limitations of locative media technologies. At the same time, the novel acquaints the readers with the different stages of technological development, presenting locative media technology not as distinct but as part of other preceding technologies.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Chapter 3. From Locative Media to Ubiquitous Computing: The Peripheral

Abstract

This chapter explores how in William Gibson’s novel, The Peripheral (2014), ubiquitous computing technologies can be viewed as the next evolutionary stage of locative media. Gibson envisions a post-locative and post-mobile future, challenging spatiality and spatiotemporal experiences as far as the notions of immersion, materiality, and embodiment are concerned when examined in conjunction with the mobile phone user. Drawing on Mark Andrejevic’s drone theory, the chapter stresses how the smartphone turns into a drone-like locative medium in the novel that, although it serves as a means of socialization and communication, can potentially turn into a surveillance technology. The drone-figure functions as a narrative trope that facilitates the discussion of the shifts in the relationship between virtual and physical space.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Chapter 4. Afterthought I

Abstract

Afterthought I explores how William Gibson’s latest novel, Agency (2020), takes a step further the ideas explored earlier in relation to ubiquitous locative technologies and surveillance in Spook Country and The Peripheral. Attention is also paid to how the television and movie industries of the 2010s and early 2020s have been influenced by the emergence and widespread use of locative media.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Part II

Frontmatter

Chapter 5. Rethinking the E-Book: The Silent History

Abstract

This chapter pays attention to Eli Horowitz, Kevin Moffett, and Matthew Derby’s The Silent History (mobile app 2012, print novel 2014), which is the first accredited literary work that incorporates locative media in fictional writing practice through location-based user-generated content presented in e-book form. The Silent History combines conventional print-centric reading practices pertaining to e-book technologies with the embodied interaction between the audience, the text, and the physical environment. Drawing on Brian Greenspan’s theories on locative narrative, the chapter argues that The Silent History suggests different locative reading practices from the ones adopted in the locative narrative experiments of the 2000s, pointing to a more dynamic and experiential locative media narrativity that borrows elements from the literary genre of the novel.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Chapter 6. Rethinking the Audio Book: Times Beach and Fens

Abstract

This chapter examines two locative sound-walks: Times Beach (2017) by Teri Rueb, and Fens (2017) by Teri Rueb and Ernst Karel, situated in Buffalo, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts, respectively. These texts constitute innovative attempts to produce non-fiction that remediates the audio book format, while combining narrative with sound, mobile media, and GPS technology. Borrowing from Brian Greenspan’s theories on locative audio narrative, this chapter investigates the ways in which Times Beach and Fens depart from the sedentary (print-centric) reading practices of the audio book, calling attention to how the tension between these practices and embodied interactivity is reconciled.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Chapter 7. Afterthought II

Abstract

Afterthought II summarizes the ways in which locative narratives in The Silent History, Times Beach and Fens, reconcile physical and digital narrative spaces as well as how locative narratives can be categorized on the basis of the readers’ degree of interaction with such spaces. The chapter also illustrates how the observations about locative narratives in Part II are taken a step further by innovative e-book and audio forms, such as Reif Larsen’s (re)mediated localities in his novella, Entrances & Exits (2016), and Duncan Speakman’s ambient literature project, It Must Have Been Dark by Then (2017).

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Part III

Frontmatter

Chapter 8. From Abstract Locative Gaming to Locative Hypernarrativity: The Case of Niantic

Abstract

This chapter analyzes locative games produced by Niantic, Inc., a Google-owned corporation. With Ingress (2012–) (updated into Ingress Prime in 2019), Pokémon GO (2016–), and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (2019–2022), locative gaming has gone mainstream, while, through the incorporation of (hyper)texts, the integration of narrative elements in locative gaming has become popularized. The chapter approaches the games as locative hypertexts, exploring how interactive locative gameplay contributes to the production of narrative. Drawing on various hypertext theories, this chapter discusses the three games as narrative platforms for the creation of different types of locative and other types of digital, screen-based, and fictional hypernarratives.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Chapter 9. Reconciling Locative Gameplay and Hypernarrative Practices in Niantic Games

Abstract

This chapter investigates how locative games produced by Niantic, Inc., a Google-owned corporation—Ingress (2012–) (updated into Ingress Prime in 2019), Pokémon GO (2016–), and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (2019–2022)—can be explored as screen-based hypertextual archives/databases. This chapter reveals the narrative potential of these games as storytelling machines, examining how hypertext and transmedia practices contribute to the embellishment of the Niantic storyworlds. The ways in which the gaming and narrative elements of the Niantic universe can be reconciled are investigated. This chapter explores the various hypertext forms of the Niantic non-site-specific narratives, while shedding light on how the convergence of locative media and gameplay contributes to the creation of narrative.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Chapter 10. Afterthought III

Abstract

Afterthought III summarizes the main points of Part III of this book, highlighting the cybertextual aspects of Niantic games and their literary value, and discusses the extent to which they may lead to the creation of a unified narrative story line. The chapter also views Niantic games as part of the field of cognitive narratology as well as participatory culture, and it finally argues that Niantic games pave the path toward the production of more locative games that share similar features, offering several examples.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Chapter 11. Epilogue

Abstract

The Epilogue summarizes the points raised in the book, calling attention to a transition into a more narrative-oriented use of locative media technologies. The digital fictional and non-fictional locative works examined in the book blur the boundaries of what is considered to be “narrative,” by expanding and further reconfiguring the notion. The Epilogue addresses certain challenges and difficulties that were encountered during the process of writing. The book ends with possible points of departure for further investigation of the works examined here.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Chapter 1. Prologue

Abstract

Chapter 1 introduces readers to certain key concepts on the basis of which the various themes of this book are discussed, namely, space, place, location, narrative, and hypertext. The chapter provides an overview of the most seminal theoretical works that constitute important stepping stones to the evolution of locative media as well as set the ground for the discussion of locative media in this book. The chapter addresses the major cultural shifts that have occurred in digital literary studies and have given shape to locative media experimentations. It explains how narrative and space converge in the book under the lens of locative media technologies and suggests that narrative has become a broader term that may characterize different types of locative textuality.

Vasileios N. Delioglanis

Backmatter

Titel: Narrating Locative Media
verfasst von: Vasileios N. Delioglanis
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-27473-2
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-27472-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27473-2