Griffiths, Sam;
(2022)
The architectural topographic grain of contingent events:
An exploratory 'toponemic' analysis of an interactive narrative.
In:
Proceedings of the 13th International Space Syntax Symposium.
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL): Bergen, Norway.
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Abstract
The philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin referred to the prevailing imaginaries of fictional time-space associated with distinctive phases in the development of the novel as their ‘chronotope’. In this paper I argue that the form of the chronotope can be regarded in relational terms as the arrangement of architectural topographic descriptions that prefigure the time-space of narrative possibility. These denotative descriptions are intrinsic to the temporalizing quality of contingency that distinguish particular sequences of action and occurrence as signifying events. An exploratory analysis of the dungeon-cave complex described in the Fantasy Fighting Gamebook (FFG) The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, published in 1982, offers an example of a ludic chronotope in which the player’s navigation of the text defines the gamespace. The interactive format of FFGs facilitates the quantitative examination of the relationship between architectural topographic descriptions and narrative possibilities that are non-linear because what happens in the game depends on players’ route choices. Space syntax methods are applied to show how the ‘mapping’ of literary time-space has less to do with establishing degrees of real-world correspondence so much as with recognizing the architectural topographic form of the chronotope as expressing the integrity of the fictional world’s own system of reality. Firetop Mountain is then examined using ‘toponemic analysis’ to identify how the characteristic figures of actual narrative events are contingently generated through gameplay, rather than pre-determined by the global properties of its chronotopical form. Yet such contingency is not complete randomness. If it were the gaming world would be unplayable.
| Type: | Proceedings paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | The architectural topographic grain of contingent events: An exploratory 'toponemic' analysis of an interactive narrative |
| Event: | 13th International Space Syntax Symposium |
| Location: | Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) |
| Dates: | 20 Jun 2022 - 24 Apr 2022 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://www.hvl.no/en/research/conference/13sss/ |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Interactive narratives, contingency, space syntax, Mikhail Bakhtin, chronotope |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10150879 |
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