This is an academic study and a narrative about stories and their mediums [1]. [4] If you choose, you can decipher the puzzle and connect the links; if not, you can read straight through [5]. [3] Links in and between the digital and analog are keyed through repeated symbols (colors, words, numbers, images, etc.) creating a rhizomatic web [4]. [2-pix] Images, colors, words, numbers and links are used to code and layer this chapter [3-definition]. [5-methods] Either way, stories are related and experienced [repeat-illustrative.html#repeat]. [1-illustrative] You can experience the story and play with the ideas as you puzzle through the words and images [2-orgs].
This study is being self-published so that it can be released under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/). This license covers the text and images found in the downloaded version (http://www.etc.cmu.edu/etcpress/?q=node/83).
With this work, you are free to copy, distribute, display and perform this work, as well as make derivative works, under the following conditions:
-Attribution: You must attribute your work back to this work.
-Noncommercial: You may not use this work for com mercial purposes.
-Share Alike: If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
The ideas in this study are organized rhizomatically and linearly. In other words, it exists as a website and a text. The website was concepted by Jessica Dale and Erica Volkman, Interactive Media Design graduates of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and was developed by Charles Palmer, a Faculty member at the Entertainment Technology Center of Carnegie Mellon University. The text was designed with ocreations (http://ocreations.com) by Shawn O’Mara, a Graphic Design Faculty member of AiP, as well as Jen Bauman and Nick Baldini, AiP Graphic Design graduates. The linear text starts with an introductory section covering the purpose and objects of study, along with concepts, definitions and methodologies. The text then moves examples and discussion of the cross media involved; books, comics and hypermedia. Finally, the text concludes with an analysis of the current state of affairs and looks forward to possible future developments.
The rhizomatic website (found at http://etc.cmu.edu/etcpress) provides readers with a more interactive, hypertextual agency in how they can explore the ideas in this study and the web at large. Online, each section of the text becomes a webpage with a section for adding comments. Also, this discursive text has some elements that refer to the website and to multi-linear ways to navigate the text itself. Hyperlinks are represented in the text with bold, underlined words. Some links are internal and will take you to other associated sections in this text. Others are external and will take you to other websites that resonate with the linked section of the study. If you are interested in following the links, they will be live on the website in the near future and soon you will be abble to find the webpage that corresponds with the section from the book and you will be able to explore all the links.
In conjunction with the above, this study has thematic threads based on the various definitions provided in the introductory section of the text. These themes are denoted with specific graphic icons that are used to illustrate how the themes are woven throughout the study. So follow the icons to follow the themes.
In any case, you are invited and encouraged to actively and interactively engage with the ideas found in this study. My one request is that if you do create work using this study, please let me know (drew@waxebb.com) so I can reference and link to the work you’re doing. Plus, when a variety of works are created and comments are posted I will incorporate them into a version 2.0 of this study. Enjoy!