My example comes from http://infinitecomic.com/index, a web application that generates combinations of images and text randomly chosen from the internet. This application prompts the user to insert a keyword and creates a tryptic where a random tweet containing the keyword is being printed on three versions of a flickr image.
The output of the application is very unpredictable and truly mesmerizing. The triptics formed plays with the ability of our brain to build sense by making a contrapposition of different elements that are only connected by one element of the keyword.
But while the semantic relationship between the keyword and the text is normally direct, the one with the image is only possible because of the "tags" that user give to the image. In this way, images often only
The images retrieved, are being chosen randomly by the script among all the images in flickr that contain the keyword set by the user. In
this sense, it's interesting to note how the random factor of this algorithm is strictly connected with human nature and our ability to apply labels to images and text.
This application plays on many level of generative narratives. Even though a big part of the output is given to casualty, we must consider the elements that make it an interesting piece of generative art. I found 3 elements:
1) the semiotics of comics, as for the work that the algorithm does on the pictures (the division, the squaring, the spacing and the "movement effect". this creates the illusion of a piece of comic.
2) the division of the text in three parts. This keeps continuity in the text and makes a whole of the tryptic.
3) the combination of text and pictures. The juxtaposition is a key element to create a third meaning from the first two.
This application focuses on narrativity, which is one of the key element of the definition of Packer, Randall and Jordan (2002) of multimedia. In my eyes narrativity is a key element that often is being under estimated by artists and new media producers.
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