Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative [Paperback]

Mark Stephen Meadows (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735711712 | ISBN-13: 978-0735711716 | Publication Date: September 20, 2002

Interactive narrative is the cornerstone for many forms of digital media: web sites, interface design, gaming environments, and even artificial intelligence. In Pause & Effect, Mark Stephen Meadows examines the intersection of storytelling, visual art, and interactivity. He takes the key principles from these areas and applies them to the design, architecture, and development of successful interactive narrative. This provocative book will appeal to designers with its edgy aesthetic and artistic sensibility. Striking graphic and typographic imagery complement unique design features that encourage interactivity through varying levels of information, different navigational possibilities, and even flip-book animations.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is an extremely literate and somewhat scholarly look at the past, present, and future of the emerging art form of interactive narrative, where storytelling, visual imagery, and reader interaction meet. With an abundance of illustrations, including a comic strip that runs timeline-style along the bottom of each page, and a corner flipbook, Pause & Effect looks at what defines visual narrative, how it has developed through the centuries (from the religious paintings of 13th-century artist Giotto to the first-person shooter games of today), and the principles involved.

The book has four parts. In the first, "Theory," readers learn about perspective (both emotional/inside-the-skull and dimensional/outside-the-skull), Aristotle's definition of dramatic structure, the Freytag triangle (complication, climax, denouement), the three interactive narrative structures (nodal, modulated, and open), and other fundamental issues. The second part covers the 2-D topics of image and icon, including several examples of narrative imagery from the history of art (e.g., Velázquez's Las Meninas and Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2) and basic principles for designing a narrative that facilitates the four steps of interaction (observation, exploration, modification, and reciprocal change). The third section looks at the 3-D areas of place and space (how architecture and dimensional imagery affect narrative), as well as case studies from theater, game design (Deus Ex 2), the Internet (the graphical MUD Ultima Online), and more. The last section discusses the practical issues involved in developing interactive narratives and emerging trends.

Pause & Effect is for anyone interested in a serious analysis that touches on new media, storytelling, visual art, and literature. It would also make an excellent textbook for a variety of college courses, from game design to semiotics. --Angelynn Grant

From the Publisher

Enough with the grand unified theory of narrative, right?

Narrative surrounds us. We see it in television, movies, newspapers, video games, web sites, and books. These art forms are evolving and merging in new, exciting ways. With its roots in film and theater, the art of interactive narrative is visual, it includes character perspective and it follows dramatic patterns. It diverges from these roots, however, because it allows readers to change the plot.

Pause & Effect examines the intersection of storytelling, visual art, and interactivity. It proposes working methods, theories, interviews, and examples for authors of this art form. This means that the roles of the authors and readers are merging. It not only changes the ways we read and write, it changes the way we see.

When I first read the galleys of Mark's book, I felt like children sometimes do upon being let loose in a library: everywhere you turn, there are books, and every book you open shows you something new, or a twist on something you thought you already knew. Not to put too fine of a comparative point on it, but Pause & Effect also reminded me of my first exposure to James Burke's work (Connections, The Day the Universe Changed, KnowledgeWeb Project, etc). Here's this amazing mind, eclecticly-inspired yet marvelously focused: but you don't necessarily realize that as you follow his lead. Wonderful writing. You may find yourself thinking "And then?" or "Where are you headed with this, dear one?" And sooner or later the Joycean moment of epiphany hits you and the arc of the writer's narrative becomes clear. There. (see page 49)

Unlike Burke, Mark Meadows is doing much more than cap-and-gown historical journalism (expressed with deepest respect to Burke); as Lev Manovich, author of The Language of New Media, told us after his review of Pause & Effect, "Interactive narrative remains to be a holy grail of new media. Meadows' gem of a book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of how interactive narratives work and how they can develop in the future. By bringing together the ideas from a number of different fields which usually do not intersect--graphic design, interaction design, linear narrative writing, architecture, and visual art--he yields new insights and perspectives. Think of this book as your READ.ME file--an essential reading before you start working on your new media project."

Or, simply indulge your inner library rat. This book is a wondrous learning experience for anyone. Thanks, Mark.

Steve Weiss, executive editor, New Riders. [e-mail]

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Press (September 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735711712
• ISBN-13: 978-0735711716
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A composed approach to a large problem, January 29, 2004

By 

bill kowalksi (california) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative (Paperback)

Other readers have found the book shallow. Unfortunately this is an indication of the reading that went into the book, not the writing. Pause and Effect assumes a level of reader education, reader participation, and it moves over large ideas quickly. The book points to the invention of visual narrative and goes on to explain how it has changed over time, showing why video games are part of a much larger narrative history and that "interactive narrative" is an emerging process.

It is rare to find an academic book that is both as carefully constructed and as beautifully co-ordinated as Pause & Effect. There is nothing shallow about showing how visual art, interaction, and writing are combining in new ways, and what this means to contemporary literature. One has to only read the table of contents to see that Meadows is being conscientious about his approach. Each of the 4 chapters (Theory, 2D, 3D, and Practice) are viewed through the triple lenses of perspective, narrative, and interaction. It makes for a 12-part composition that only a careful eye will notice.

The book is overambitious, as it sifts through 2,500 years of history and better examples could be found, but in the end it is an excellent read and one that stands alone in a field where consideration is needed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars INSPIRING!!, September 4, 2003

By 

Jill Fammash (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative (Paperback)

An excellent book! It is beautifully designed, no question. It made me look at video games (and television and books) differently. Most useful is that it tries to make a general approach to narrative. There's examples from thousands of years ago that are still worth thinking about today. A GREAT inspiration for designers! Meadows does a great job (though a few sentences I had to go over again). I've read it twice because, like a good movie, it deserves it. I'd recommend you not only buy it, but read it twce yourself.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must buy for interacitve storytellers, November 15, 2002

By 

Michael L Bovee (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative (Paperback)

As a documentary filmmaker who is starting to work in the the interactive arena, this book is a map through the maze. Mark Meadows provides a detailed and interesting explanation of the evolution of narrative and how that evolution is pushing us into interactive narrative. The book helped me understand interactive design but also expanded my horizons for the work I am presently doing and will do in the future. Interactive narrative is the future for us storytellers, and this book helps us ride the turbulent waves of its development.