Virtual Surfaces: Writers Experiment with New Media
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 by Lucinda M. Dugger
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For some years, writers have creatively sought alternative places and strategic partnerships to reach greater, more diverse audiences. Gone are the days when fiction and poetry are meant to be enjoyed – in solitude – on the couch or at the beach.
The departure from the traditional surface for writers has led to an exploration in communication through a variety of mediums in both print and online. Scratching the surface are a number of authors who are embracing a (relatively) new form of literature called new media novels.
At the AWP conference this past weekend, I attended a session that introduced audience members to this form of novel. It is one that still focuses on reading as the center of the experience, but it incorporates film, e-literature, and story into a full-length interactive media novel.
These multi-layered experiences, one panelist pointed out, challenge our understanding of how language exists in our world and how we interpret it. The use of graphics, sound, and movement play directly with the language, thus transforming the nature of language from that of archive to that of immediate experience. (He asserted that language exists primarily in two forms: on flat surfaces and streaming out of our mouths. When one creates a new media novel, he is using both written word and spoken word – forcing an intersection between history and immediacy.)
Not only does language become transformed in the new media novel, but the role of the author also morphs into other forms. The authors who write – create – these novels are not pure writers anymore. They also become graphic designers, sound technicians, and filmmakers. They often work in teams – not in solitude – to write, develop, and produce an experience for the reader.
Though the primary mode of interaction with the new media novel is through online engagement or DVD, writers are not afraid to continue using good ole fashion print. Another panelist, who was the 2007 New York Foundation for the Arts Computer Arts Fellow, showed us a new media children’s story and then proceeded to pass around printed, bound copies for all to view leisurely.
As I talked with all sorts of writers and journal editors this weekend, I noted that one fact continues to be true: that the written word, whether it be virtual or concrete, remains active and necessary for the livelihood of so many.
