Message forwarded from Beth Cardier. I understand It should have
appeared a few days ago but for subscription difficulties.
Her email is [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-Ted
+++
Dear FIS colleagues,
My name is Beth Cardier, and I am currently researching "narrative as
information" at Melbourne University. I haven't contributed to this
list before but I have been watching it since I attended the FIS
conference in Paris. In response to Ted's call for a hybrid space, I
thought I'd share some of the ways that the ideas raised in this
thread overlap with a few key concepts from the arts, as well as some
of ways the logics differ. I also happen to know a lot about
newspapers, which have recently entered the discussion.
As a writer and media analyst, I don't deal with the conveyance of
meaning numerically, but I suspect there could be a geometric way to
understand narrative. For me, it seems that the first difference
between an artistic and scientific notions of information is that
artistic logic doesn't operate in terms of context and content n
there is no container and object. Perhaps linguistic principles are
responsible for the traditional idea of object and link, noun and
verb. Instead, storytelling deals in "situations," carrying an
ontology in which participants are elements of context, because they
compose the situation.
I define a "situation" as you would expect, as a cluster of embodied
spaces in the actual world. In a story, aspects of a situation are
represented as "images." Images are promiscuous in terms of what they
can represent - not only tangible objects, but emotional sensations,
philosophical positions, abstract impressions or metaphysical
wonderings. They can be expressed via nouns or verbs, or both, or
neither. They can also be expressed in the way the words are placed
in relation to each other, or the frequency with which certain words
occur. This is why linguistic descriptions of how words are related
are not as important to me as understanding how images are related.
My currency as a storyteller n the way I create "meaning" n lies in
the association of images. I fit them together to create represented
situations. Images are clustered into networks, like stones that join
to form virtual pavements, interpermeated and overlapping.
The situated nature of narrative information means that it is
conditional, and no element is absolute in its identity. Indeed, the
relativity of information is the subject of this FIS thread. But
there is an additional quality to artistic information that you might
find interesting. In narrative, when information is added
incrementally, the identity of the entire system changes, and so
isn't reducible to its parts. Let me give a crude example from Media
Analysis, an activity that mines news reports for dominant narrative
patterns. It should be noted that this example is noun-oriented for
ease.
When an analyst determines the public relations implications of a
news story, one method is to look at the images present. For example,
a news article that contains the words "president," "car accident"
and "broken leg" conveys one sort of story (1). An article containing
the words "president," "car accident," "broken leg," and "woman
passenger" is a slightly different story (2). Watch how the story
changes when the list of images becomes: president, car accident,
broken leg, woman passenger, woman not president's wife, woman dead
(3).
Even though these reports share identical elements, they have three
different "meanings," and not only because the story is longer. For
example, in each version, the role played by the image "broken leg"
changes. In story 1, concern about the president's broken leg relates
to the prestige and importance of the office he holds. In story 2,
there are still suggestions of this concern, but the broken leg is
also the reason we know about his trip with a female passenger (an
analyst would recommend PR intervention). In story 3, the president
is responsible for such a bad situation that the broken leg is almost
a deserved punishment, the beginning of a much larger punishment to
come (an analyst would recommend a lawyer).
Of course there can be slightly different readings for these three
stories, depending on the finer links between their images, although
that sort of variation tends to be more common in fiction. There is
actually not much variety in news reports, their recycled templates
being part of what makes them fast to write and read.
This begins to relate to Steven's and Christophe's observations about
newspapers and interpretation. As you might guess, I see pattern as
an agent in terms of information and meaning. In artistic terms, two
patterns draw out each other's shared features simply by having
similar structures. Perhaps this also speaks to Walter's thoughts
about information transference. If I tell a story about a dying
friend, and you have lost a friend in a similar way, the factors of
your experience that match mine will be drawn to your attention. My
verbal representations indicate the shape of my inner situation
(emotional, intellectual, pictorial), which stimulates you to form a
mirror model. Through further exchange of details, we might match our
constellations more closely or grow them towards each other.
Newspapers are fast to write and read because the templates of
association are fixed, so the interpretative and assembly work is low.
So I agree when Guy describes "meaning" as information that resonates
with the structure of a system. Image association occurs not only
within a story, but "communicates" because it matches existing
narrative patterns in culture, as well as patterns in the mind of the
reader (which are of course related). Perhaps this is what Christophe
was referring to when he said that meaning is "around us." A writer
uses aspects of large public stories to orientate a reader, whilst
providing enough local detail to create personal resonance. A writer
will also add novel threads, to stimulate interest.
Part of what makes a story engaging are these novel,
"non-reinforcing" elements. This relates to Stanis comment:
If resonant inputs to a system are nonreinforcing, they contradict
a >system's finalities, and will then elicit learning or avoidance.
No story (or situation) is an exact match for another. I believe
narrative growth occurs when one pattern is challenged by another
that is similar but not identical. New parts of a pattern can be
assimilated (which is the premise behind narrative psychology) or
under other circumstances, will be avoided (I donit watch speeches by
the Australian prime minister).
But pattern is not the only aspect of narrative agency. Here is
perhaps the third difference between artistic and logical models -
partialness and gradation. In response to Jerry's question about
precision of communication: on narrative terms, there are degrees of
fit. I am investigating theories of image association in computer
science, and one surprising thing (surprising to me) is that most
models talk in absolutely explicit terms - understanding is either
achieved or not. In narrative, there are degrees of "fit," in the
same way that stones resting against each other have surfaces that
connect, and other surfaces that vary in closeness. The areas that do
not touch are an important part of the system, because the
dissymmetry of the situation creates relational tension. Tension acts
like a kind of gravity, urging gaps to be filled, which is a handy
tool for a writer who wants to make sure their reader keeps turning
pages.
The idea of pattern similarity might distress Steven, because it
seems to suggest a comparison external to the system. However, in a
narrative network there is no outside, in the usual sense, because
everything is conditional on everything else. One story is defined by
parts of others, a self-referential system. I believe we introspect
not by stepping into a neutral objectivity but by crossing into
another story space (some stories are so commonly shared that their
shape is difficult to detect). Of course they all overlap, and we
adjust favourite stories as new situations arise. Narrative
perspective is a system of prisms and lenses, with the angles from
one body of information informing the angles of the next.
If there are scientific problems with or matches with this narrative
model, I would be genuinely interested to know.
- Beth Cardier
--
__________
Ted Goranson
Sirius-Beta
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