The digital narrative

Part of the process of developing a wearable technology that allows a dancer the personal expression of controlling the output, is the importance of maintaining the awareness that there is a need for the development of a narrative. By creating wireless wearable technology, an artist has a great capacity to develop a narrative that more fully expresses the movement and flow of the artistic imagination.

Kahr-Hojland (2011, pp. 226-264) describes the qualities of the narrative and meta-narrative and how these help to form and shape flow and develop understanding of the relationships between environments and the people interacting with those environments.

She explains that the narrative calls attention to the fact that it is a narrative and supports meta-reflective processes within the audience or person interacting with the technology.

Also discussed are several intrinsic qualities of the narrative as a function of interactive installation. A summary of her findings will be given below.

Intrinsic qualities of the narrative:

It can organize information in a way that meaningful in the sense that it provides recognizable context and through this supports human comprehension.

It can hold several systems of meaning, making it possible to engage people on several levels operating in parallel.

It “scaffolds” reflection by encouraging different interpretations.

All of these qualities define the structure of narrative as a function of observation and user interaction with art, but in addition to operating from this structure, narrative also allows for the development of other experiences.

Kahr-Hojland describes an aspect of this as flow, flow is all about framing experiences that are flexible and user sensitive and in this way it is possible to adequately challenge the target audience and allow them to simultaneously engage with an exhibition pleasurably:

This large target audience is challenged through the narratives development of unknown content, therefore the narrative is characterized by representing something well known and yet something unknown, by creating suitable balance between the unknown and the known, the narrative has potential for supporting social learning processes by providing a framework that calls for social participation. it is known that knowledge can be developed out of constant ongoing negotiation – verbally and non-verbally- between individuals and their surroundings, the negotiation of meaning takes place in different kinds of communities of practice. (Kahr-Hojland, 2011, p. 234-238)

Kahr-Hojland  makes it clear how narrative supports this potential by imitating communities of practices that insight a curiosity to develop in an area previously unknown and to build knowledge through this process.

The meta-narrative creates a layer within the narrative that allows for critical reflection and insight into the underlying objectives involved in the installation or exhibition being experienced as a flow of interaction by its participants.