The Wave-crest: Narrative Complexity and Locative Narrative

Whittaker, Emma (2019) The Wave-crest: Narrative Complexity and Locative Narrative. In: Narrative Complexity, Cognition, Embodiment, Evolution. Frontiers of Narrative Series . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, pp. 73-97. ISBN 978-0-8032-9686-2

Abstract / Summary

Locative narratives transform landscapes, city streets and buildings into fictional places. These augmented and mixed reality experiences use sound, image, text, with mobile devices and low-tech materials. While these practices within the arts, games and heritage have been documented by Rieser (2005), Raley (2008) Farman (2014) and others, this chapter asks, how can the formal and experiential narrative complexity of locative narrative be conceptualized? In this chapter the writings of William James and experimental pragmatism inform the explanation of experience, an experiential story world model and an analysis of case studies based on a six-point framework of complexity: (1) the situation-integration of the story world within an existent place; (2) a narrative structure linked with the mode of interaction; (3) participants’ actions take place within their surroundings and the fictional place; (4) the spatial-temporal complexity of partaking; (5) perceptual ambiguity may result in ontological ambiguity; (6) prompting experiential and epistemological questions.

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