Chapter

Two: A Literary Communication Model Based on the Spatial

Having provided the theoretical grounding for this study in chapter one, I now explain
the methodological approach of my research in this chapter. I term this approach, A
Literary Communication Model Based on the Spatial.

Fig 2.1 A Literary Communication Model Based on the Spatial

The diagram in Fig. 2.1 visualizes space in digital literary texts and its influences on
narrative as the space of narrative. The visualization helps explain how the spatial
dimensions of digital literary texts condition interaction. The features depicted in this
diagram proceed outwards from the circles with the reader at the center, creating a
space of narrative as a result of interaction. Spatial practice is initiated by the reader in

1
response to the basic elements of representations of space and representational space.
The reader in intersection with the representative fields of the spatial engages with
design, addressivity, form and signs. An example of this engagement is how
representational space addresses the reader of the digital texts as places, which include
references to and representations of class and gender. Places provide context for
interaction and order to narrative events and actions, as I explain in chapter five.
The diagram above adapts and refines two existing models of textual
communication; Espen Aarseths The Textual Machine (1997 21) and Hannah
Andersons Lefebvres Spatial Triad (Anderson 2003 no page).

Fig 2.2.The Textual Machine by Espen Aarseth (1997 21). 1

The Textual Machine visualizes the text as composed of an operator, a verbal sign
and a medium; or as Aarseth explains, a material medium as well as a collection of
words. The machine of course, is not complete without a third party, the (human)
operator, and it is within this triad that the text takes place (Aarseth 1997 21). The
triad between the medium-specific material artifact, the words and the operator is an
early example of human computer interaction grounded in the textual, which takes into
account the specificities of the medium and the dynamic of the source code in digital
works. However, The Textual Machine fails to account for the step from the verbal sign

1 I have replaced Medium with Form in the opening diagram (Fig. 2.1). The reason for this is it is no longer necessary to distinguish between
media in relation to the digital texts because all communication is so obviously mediation. However, the form in which the medium is constructed
and presented has the potential to provide insight into the structure and technique of communication.

2
to the representational complexity of narrative. This present study thus uses the method
as visualized in Fig. 2.1 to account for this level of representation in the digital texts.

Fig. 2.3 Hannah Andersons Lefebvres Spatial Triad (Anderson 2003 no page).

The second inspiration my model is Lefebvres Spatial Triad (Anderson 2003 no
page), which is a visual summary of the three-part model of space that Henri Lefebvre
proposes in The Production of Space (1972). Lefebvres triad of spatial production
represents a cycle composed of three interlinked and mutually defining aspects of space
as the product of social forces. The Anderson model represents the three parts,
representational space, representations of space and spatial practice according to their
roles in a present space, given as an immediate whole, complete with its association
and connections in their actuality (Lefebvre 37). In other words the three dimensions of
spatial production are interdependent presents a structuring and representational
system for interaction in the digital texts. I argue that in the digital texts, space conjoins,
organizes, orders, arranges and provides a symbolic or coded layer that is open to
interpretations. The spatial makes movement, perspective and characters possible in a
text, but in the digital it also creates the conditions for interaction. I contend that these
conditions are experienced in the response to the spaces of the digital works, which can
be explained according to the spatial triad of Henri Lefebvre. I now break the model
down into its three main parts for the purpose of analysis, beginning with the reader.

3
The Reader
The reader is the individual who engages with the digital work in an interaction that
requires interpretation. In my model (Fig. 2.1) the reader is positioned in the center of
the space of narrative. But at the same time the reader is separated from the text in how
s/he occupies space at the computer as a viewer, listener and manipulator of keyboard
and mouse. It is only when the human reader as an individual exterior to the text
engages in spatial practice that the binary of intratextual and extratextual is resolved in
interaction. By engaging in spatial practice the reader is joined with the text as an
inhabitant in representational space under the influence of perspective, via focalization
(e.g. as a character in the space of the story), and in the address of its semiotic elements.
This union and interaction with representational space is a product of spatial practice.
By way of explanation, the representational circuit that is initiated in the spatial
dimensions of the digital works, according to design (including programming) and
address is completed by the interaction of the reader. The reader completes the circuit
between the work and herself via spatial practice. This circuit is the mediation of the
same textual structure proposed by Aarseth, which is not complete without a third
party, the (human) operator, and it is within this triad that the text takes place (Aarseth
1997 21). The development from textual machine to spatial practice means that the
representational dimensions of both can now be explained as interlocking but mutually
dependent. The result is a structured narrative that is dependent upon representations
of space and representational space realized in spatial practice. The reader experiences
the spatial dimensions of the digital text as spatial practice by responding to and
manipulating its design and addressivity in conjunction with responding to its form and
signs.

Signs
In my model (Fig. 2.1), the sign is something, A, which brings something, B, its
interpretant sign determined or created by it, into the same sort of correspondence with
something, C, its object, as that in which itself stands to C (Peirce 1976 20). This triadic
understanding of the sign, evoking both its object (C) and its interpretant (B), allows for
a wide scope for understanding what is a sign in the digital texts. Above all it is the sign
in correspondence with something, C that makes it highly applicable in interacting
with the spatial of the digital works. The digital works evoke meanings based on

4
resemblance (the iconic) and by consensus (the symbolic). My references to virtual
objects (e.g. wine glasses, furniture and artifacts from the story world) and images in the
digital works are usually both iconic and symbolic: iconic in their resemblance to an
inferred object or constructions of objects; and symbolic in how these same objects can
be interpreted by their associations with generally understood concepts, associations,
beliefs and ideas.
The signs in the digital works operate according to the three modes of Peirces
second trichotomy. The first of the trichotomy is the sign as icon, which is meaningful
by partaking in the characters of the object, centered on resemblance or likeness to its
object. The second mode is as index, where the sign operates in its individual existence
connected with the individual object or in other words the sign is related to its object
by connection (e.g. smoke as signifying fire). Finally, the sign may also operate as a
symbol, with approximate certainty that it will be interpreted as denoting the object, in
consequence of habit (Peirce 1906 251). I apply Peirces categorizations of icon and
symbol to the individual spatial features of the digital texts. I argue that the modes of
iconicity and symbolism determine the interpretation of, and interaction with, the
objects of the digital works as narrative components. In relation to the sign as a likeness,
the iconic can be aligned with the simulative properties of the digital texts, such as a
functioning book and door or a room and its features in Dreamaphage and Faade
respectively. This simulation can extend to the perspective and haptic properties of the
texts, where the reader participates in the representational space that is on the screen as
a part of interaction. The objects in these spaces operate as iconic signs according to the
likeness they have to the objects they reference. It is the likeness associated with the
iconic sign that I examine to demonstrate how interaction and narrative development
result from space in digital interactive texts.
I also interpret signs in the digital texts according to the conventional rules
associated with them, as per Peirces characterization of signs as symbols. These rules
regulate and organize the responses to the signs by the reader, for example rules such as
those related to the drinking of cocktails at a bar in the home of friends in Faade, or the
eyewitness spectatorship of postcard lynchings of African Americans in Last Meal
Requested. These examples depend on iconic signs that function according to likeness,
but also draw upon conventions in regard to the rules of interpretation, spectatorship
and interaction. The objects and other spatial features are meaningful in the digital

5
works as icons in which the likeness is aided by conventional rules (Peirce 1931-58 1
179).
The interpretation of the objects, for example an interactive wine glass in the
context of drinks with old friends in their home in Faade, is grounded in a reading
[that] should be understood as a process of interpretation which is structured by social
class, gender, ethnicity, space and generation (Kerr 281). The rules that are associated
with the likeness of the iconic sign to his object are also related to the structures that
define the object as meaningful. In my own analysis I select class and gender to illustrate
how interactive items in the digital works both resemble their objects as iconic signs
and order interaction with the spatial as a product of the conventional rules associated
with them. Often this ordering is coupled to the symbolic character of the objects as
signs. This interpretation is a process that includes the conventional rules that support
the likeness or resemblance to the object the iconic sign embodies.
Along with likeness and the conventional rules that support it, there is the third
dimension to the iconic that operates as a sign, in other words, correspondence with
something, C, its object, as that in which itself stands to C (Peirce 1976 20). This third
dimension is the symbolic, or the sign with approximate certainty that it will be
interpreted as denoting the object, in consequence of habit (Peirce 1906 251). In other
words, by the presence of the symbolic sign its object is signified and the qualities it
posses are recognized by habit. Whether the sign is understood as iconic or symbolic can
be attributed to the contexts of use (See Deacon 471-472). In the digital works it is
recognizing the iconic sign by its referent, such as the books, letter, or brass sculpture,
that mean it can be assigned roles in narrative development. The virtual objects that are
interacted with in the digital texts do not just rely on resemblances in this recognition,
as they also exhibit symbolic dimensions. These dimensions are emphasized in the story.
An expensive bottle of wine signifies wealth, as does the panoramic waterfront view
from a balcony. As a result these signs contribute to the establishment of spaces as
meaningful in the digital texts and condition responses to them in interaction.
In the following analytical chapters I illustrate how iconic signs influence spatial
practice as interaction according to the representation of colonial nostalgia in Egypt, the
domestic and urban spaces in Faade and the hospital as a generic space in
Dreamaphage. In each of these examples the spatial constitutes a symbolic order,
according to social and cultural dimensions represented by the colonized and non-

6
colonized spaces of Egypt, the gendered spaces of the bar/lounge along with the class
hierarchies of the center and periphery in Faade, and finally the generic and functional
space of the hospital where power and wisdom is manifest in Dreamaphage. These
dimensions encompass domestic arrangements, representations of social class, power,
gender and historical events, often within the representation of places. In each of these
examples the representation of this social world/reality orders interaction according to
the iconic and symbolic signs. In the digital works this representation of the social
within the spatial constitutes the basis for the textual. The objects, images and even the
characters in the digital texts are iconic and symbolic as part of this reader interaction.
Taking into account the iconic and symbolic qualities of signs in the digital works,
the following analysis is based on close readings according to how space structures
interaction. The virtual objects of the digital works are among the signs of the
representational and represented spaces, which I select to illustrate how the spatial is
meaningful in interaction. By distinguishing between the representation of space and
representational space, as visualized in the opening diagram to this chapter (Fig. 2.1), it
becomes possible to explain how interaction with space in ergodic texts results in
narrative. The components of representational space indicate the possibilities for
interpreting, manipulating and contributing to the formation of narrative. I go on to
employ this analytical structure throughout my close reading of prefaces, design and
address of the digital works in the following chapters.

Spatial Practice
Spatial practice is the experience of space. Interaction with space results in spatial
practice, or how space produces and reproduces social relations, commodity relations,
social roles and hierarchies. Space as a mediator of social relations can be recognized in
the interaction between actors in a defined location, such as a kitchen or a public library.
The socially sanctioned role of the parent in the kitchen is one example of how space
mediates social relations. The student working seriously in the library, in silence and
alone, is another example of space mediating social relations, commodity relations and
social roles. Both of these examples involve relations between people (in the library in
silence and isolation as the sanctioned lack of interpersonal interaction). Both situations
include spatially mediated relations to commodities and define the roles of actors in
relation to the social. In this mediation, spatial practice ensures continuity and some

7
degree of cohesion (Lefebvre 33), and in the case of the digital works this cohesion is
experienced in the space of narrative. The spatial practice that emerges from responding
to the digital works is consistent with the projection onto a (spatial) field of all aspects,
elements and moments of social practice (Lefebvre 8). The digital works represent this
spatial field and the projection of special practice includes the interaction with
characters, objects, settings and situations. The spatial thus constitutes a symbolic order,
according to the social dimensions represented in the digital works. These dimensions
encompass domestic arrangements, representations of social class, gender and historical
events often through the representation of places.
The spatial practice that emerges from responding to the digital works includes
the projection of the social elements of spatial practice onto the representational space
of the digital works, or in Lefebvres words a projection onto a (spatial) field of all
aspects, elements and moments of social practice (Lefebvre 8). In the digital works this
projection is typically the establishment of a relationship between an object/character
and space and with an element of social practice. An example of this relationship is the
ordering of interaction according to the lounge and bar area of Faade or the
expectations that are delivered by Last Meal Requested in relation to the beating of
Rodney King and the references to South Central Los Angeles. These are two of the
examples I discuss that demonstrate the formation and maintenance of social space
within the representational dimensions of the texts as interactive media. This
projection also includes interaction with characters and objects in the prefaces and
design, and the establishment of settings and situations that address the reader. These
dimensions of the spatial are recognizable according to pre-existing or assumed social
and cultural values. The gender roles attributed to home decoration and the space it
occupies in Faade, the assumptions implied by the hospital as a space in Dreamaphage
and the role of perspective in the establishment of point of view and focalization in Last
Meal Requested are examples of how these values are expressed in the representation of
space and in representational space. I argue the reader of the digital works is engaging
in spatial practice.

Representational Space
Representational space offers signs and symbols from which to experience of the text. I
locate these signs and symbols in the design and address of the digital works. This

8
means that while a space has a physical or material reality, the elements that compose
that space often exhibit semantically derived meanings that supply the possibilities for
interpreting and understanding it. This understanding can be the result of the semantic
dimensions of a space where signs and symbols conveys meaning (e.g. inscriptions, or
architectural design such as in a church or mosque). On the other hand, representational
elements can also define a space based on themes. The home in Faade and the hospital
in Dreamaphage are two such thematic representational spaces. In both these cases,
representational space is the space that is directly lived through its associated images
and symbols and hence the space of inhabitants and users (Lefebvre 39). Here
representational space is composed of signs and symbols (including images), such as the
visually displayed objects on the shelf in Faade and the generic features of the hospital
represented in Dreamaphage. I include perspective, monumentality, focalization, the
iconic and the representation of places among the images and symbols of
representational space. For example, the hospital in Dreamaphage is first set up in the
prefaces to the text and then experienced according to the perspective, monumentality
and focalization. These are symbolic systems through which the reader experiences
representational space as an inhabitant. The experience of the space from the
perspective of an inhabitant (e.g. as a witness in Last Meal Requested) is so specific to the
digital texts that it must be explained further.
As well as ordering the experience of the spatial in the digital works, the diagram
that opens this chapter is an attempt to visualize the reader inhabiting representational
space according to the experience of its objects and features. In the digital texts the
reader inhabits such space as a character, their own or as a focalizing agent, which
manages navigation and interpretation. It is in this sense that the design of the digital
works also takes on representational space, in how it conceptualizes space for the
purposes of interaction. One method of this conceptualization is perspective, which
operates in design through monumentality and focalization. As a result of these
techniques, the representational spaces of the digital works are experienced directly, or
in the words of Lefebvre lived through (39) by the reader, unlike representations of
space, which are conceptual and therefore experienced as referents to the spatial (e.g.
with a map depicting a space). 2 The ability of digital literature to provide such

2 Representations of space are referential and do not include inhabitants. One cannot inhabit a map or diagram the same ways one can inhabit a
kitchen or a church (or indeed virtual spaces such as video games or interactive digital literature).

9
interactive and spatial experiences that result in narrative from the perspective of an
inhabitant is what makes this media unique in relation to the majority of
representational systems in the modern age. To interact with the spaces of digital
interactive literature such as those discussed in this present study is to experience
narrative immersed within its structures. This immersion is of course not without its
rules and limitations.
Representational space is lived through according to what it both prohibits and
enables in the digital works. One such representational system that contributes to the
inhabiting of space in the digital texts is focalization, whereby a character, such as the
narrator in Egypt or the guest in Faade, or a similar central point of awareness,
provides a point of (re)interpretation for the reader. As I outlined in the previous
chapter, focalization creates prohibitions in the experience of representational space as
a result of the establishment of this point of perception for that space. In other words
perspective (as a component of both design and address) further restricts the
experience of the digital text according to a set point of view. From this point of view the
reader encounters the possibilities for inhabiting the representational space of the texts.
In these texts, what has been termed the textual representation of specific (pre)existing
sensory elements of the texts story world (Margolin 42) (i.e. the focalizing agent), shift
between a first person narrator (dominant in Egypt), a first-person avatar perspective
(dominant in Dreamaphage and Faade) or a first-person witness (dominant in Last
Meal Requested).3 The experience of these perspectives restricts spatial practice and
therefore guides interaction with the digital works. Such perspective, as a means of
ordering the experience of the spaces in the texts, is an example of how representational
space organizes the readers experience.
Based on my model (Fig.2.1), I assert that the components of representational
space channel interaction with the digital works, and this interaction leads to specific
narrative outcomes. For example, the objects and places in Faade or the divisions of
colonial and colonized spaces in Egypt channel interaction towards the limited number
of narrative outcomes offered by the programming in each of the works. I go on in my
analysis to explain representational space and its importance for interaction through the

3 In Dreamaphage and Last Meal Requested, some non-focalized narrative occurs from how the work is manipulated (i.e. as backstory
and via objects). In this structure, the difference between the non-focalized narrative and the internally focalized narrative lies in
the agent who sees (Bal 2006 10). Narrative focus through interaction is achieved in these cases through a mixture of design
specifics and address, as the focalized can be applied only to the narrative itself (Genette 1988 73).

10
examples of colonial themes in Egypt, the perspective of a witness in Last Meal
Requested and the perspective experienced in Faade. The experience of perspective,
most often through the narrative technique of focalization, combines with the
representation of place in each of these examples. Place here is a spatial subcategory
that defines a part of the representational and gives it specific qualities that contribute
to narrative and influences interaction. In the digital texts, representational space
includes the places that address the reader in the sense of appealing to their own frames
of reference and triggering mental links such as memories and associations. To
demonstrate this claim, I examine the representation of places within the texts
according to how they elicit responses via representations of and references to class and
gender.

Representations of Space
The representation of space tends towards a system of verbal (and therefore
intellectually worked out) signs, which results in the conceptualization of the space
represented (Lefebvre 39). I include the iconic and symbolic features of the digital texts
as a group of verbal and non-verbal signs that represent space. In other words,
representations of space, as iconic and symbolic signs, visual images (e.g. diagrams,
maps, photographs) and verbal expressions (written or auditory) depict the spatial as a
subject. In the digital texts this depiction is often as an image of the material works (e.g.
a site map or help section). These representations of space help readers to create mental
or conceptual images of how the texts are internally structured, and that drive
interaction with the digital works. The conceptualized nature of these represented
spaces operates in the digital works through instructions, measurements, plans and
diagrams, expressed as maps, tables and charts, still and video images, spatial
metaphors and descriptions. Such representations of space are experienced physically in
terms of reader dexterity and in the haptics demanded by the text on the screen
The representation of space has its greatest influence upon interaction with the
material components of the digital works. Close reading demonstrates this influence in
how the shape of the work is used to represent space, which in turn is experienced via
interaction in a material rather than totally aesthetic sense. In other words, represented
space is the depiction of the physical or material reality of that space and the elements

11
that compose it.4 The influence of represented space on the digital works of course spills
over into design. Objects and characters, composition of elements, coloring and light, the
use of images, even the material properties generated by the coding of the works can be
considered within the representation of space in the digital works. The representation
of space in the prefaces stands in for the works at the point they are introduced to the
reader. This introduction includes the dimensions, characters and objects depicted in
the prefaces and the represented elements of space in design.
One of the examples of the role of representation of space discussed in this study is
how characters are introduced in the prefaces. The introduction of a character in the
preface partly influences interaction by establishing the nature of the spatial prior to the
reader engaging with the text. In the case of Faade, it is the reader as the guest and
Grace and Trip that are presented as characters in the prefaces, with a promise of how
you will have changed the course of Grace and Trips lives (Faade FAQ n. pag.). Each
of these characters is a focal point within the material space of Faade. As my analysis of
space in Faade goes on to show, the spaces of the text are aligned with gender and class
via the characters. In Egypt, Jeanette, the narrator, is likewise presented in the prefaces
as a focal point for the represented spaces of the work. However, in the case of Egypt the
space is arranged according to the gender characteristics of the primary characters and
the colonial nostalgia these spaces introduce into interaction. In Egypt and Faade, the
characters are the entry point into the spaces of the works primarily as representations
of space, but also as features of representational space and according to spatial practice.
The representation of space in design controls interaction according to its material
elements via objects and characters. In other words, design becomes meaningful in its
representation of space as the articulation of ideas and values. Design with narrative
implications can be found in spatial metaphors, such as the layering of an image over a
written text in Last Meal Requested, where the image addresses the viewer according to
a alternate perspective. The representation of space in design as a result of the material
configuration of the digital work exerts a strong influence over interaction. In the case of
the representation of space, it is the work that is represented. The representation of
space is grounded in form and design in the digital works, as a controlling force for
spatial practice.

4 In the words of Lefebvre, such representations of space are concerned with what is lived and what is perceived with what is conceived (Lefebvre
38).

12
Form and Design
In the opening diagram 2.1 Form refers to the combined material constituents present
for communication to take place. By combined material constituents I mean not just to
the device, but the context and presentation of its use. For example, reading a webpage
from a computer screen, oral conversations via a mobile phone interface, or face-to-face,
visual interaction through co-situated verbal signs, facial expressions and gestures are
each unique and materially different, yet each is mediation. Added to this common
understanding of mediation and communication via form can be the remediation of
devices in virtual environments, where a phone can be reinterpreted as an iconic object
that organizes interaction within the larger digitally mediated space, as is performed in
negotiating Faade. By acknowledging the implicit mediation of communication and
turning instead to its material state, it becomes possible to interrogate the form and to
understand how it operates, how it contributes to mediation, the contexts it offers for
interpretation, what it expects of the reader and in this case how it contributes to the
potentials of interaction and narrative in regard to the spatial.
The present analysis focuses on the material expression of the spatial and how it
gives structure to responding (navigating, interpreting) to the digital texts. This
structure has clear implications for the narratives represented in the digital texts. Of
course, form is always closely related to design. The design of a digital interactive work
is the realization of form, in the sense that form is a generic backdrop to design. Design
is the deliberate and planned shaping of that form. Design is the material arrangement
of the digital work, which provides a basis for addressive elements such as perspective
and point of view, which I take up in my analysis. For example, a Flash website (i.e.
Dreamaphage, Last Meal Requested) is designed with its particular conventions and
restrictions. Many of these restrictions are recognized by the reader in the spatial, such
as a repeated image (e.g. a wheel for audio, a boxed image in negative for the three
sections of Last Meal Requested), indicating a single function as a link and a narrow
visual perspective. Thus, design is the specific instance of form (i.e. a link is used in a
specific way in that particular work). As I explained in the previous chapter through
references to interactive design theory, in the digital works design is the giving of form
to ideas. It is not strictly a functional design, but a design of meanings framed by the
demands of interaction. This arrangement results in a composition of codified elements,
which must be recognizable and understood by the reader for the text to function.

13
 Thus I argue that design is the organization of form that governs interaction
(including navigation and interpretation) and this organization can be understood in
terms of the spatial. Furthermore, interaction is meaningful in relation to how
materiality is expressed in design. In this sense, the design of the digital interface exerts
control over interaction based on its contribution to the meaning making process,
which has dramatic implications for both the writer and the reader (Odin 75). Included
in design is how it functions as a temporal arrangement of space (Zoran 312). In this
case the temporal is the time frame realized through interaction, which may not
necessarily be chronological time, but is realized in the contexts of interaction. For
example a first-person perspective combined with a present tense and first person
address places the narrative event in present time in the contexts of interaction.5 The
space that is experienced through the design of the works comes to represent the
temporal in interaction. By navigating designed space or by interacting with it, the
illusion of temporal change is introduced into the work, and into narrative.
Finally, interaction with the digital texts is a consequence of the interpretation of a
symbol-rich space as created in design. Navigation, the manipulation of spatial features
such virtual objects and selecting hyperlinks and the adding of content rely on the signs
and symbols, articulated through interaction with form via design as the organizing
principle.6 This organizing and the interactions that result from it are of course an
important component of narrative structure in the digital works. It is perhaps difficult to
separate conceptually the form and design from the symbolic, but that is precisely the
purpose of my model (Fig. 2.1). The form and design, while deeply material also have
the potential to be symbolic within the dynamic representation and interaction offered
by the spatial. The diagram that opens this chapter (Fig. 2.1) shows the relationships
between the material and meanings as a process grounded in interaction with the
spatial dimensions of the digital works. An object, setting or situation as form in design
creates settings, or a set of relationships that establishes the field for actors, as a space
according to its limitations, possibilities, resistances and permissions (Shane 105).

5 It is perhaps because of this that it is often difficult to represented interior dialogue and flashback in interactive digital works.
6 David Graham Shane explains this role of design as a principle of organization in relation to urban space, whereby actors
mark out the area, space, or place of their actions, their relationships, their intentions, their desires or their property; they draw
a non-physical boundary around a conceptual space, set of relationships, or system or pattern of actions, or practices (Shane
104). This same marking out, differentiation and claiming/naming is present in the digital works, both on a symbolic and a
material level.

14
These elements are activated by design in the digital work and compose the material
basis for addressivity.

Addressivity
In the spaces of the digital works addressivity, like spatial practice, is 'lived' rather than
conceived. In other words readers are immediately addressed by spatial representations
that trigger associative and mnemonic networks.7 By addressivity here I dont mean
direct, apostrophic address (Reader, I married him) but rather semiotic or symbolic
cues that activate mental representations in readers. The resulting interaction is the
completion of a circuit by the reader as addressee. Representational elements from the
spatial are identifiable from within this circuit. Addressivity here can be related to how
the work, like the rejoinder in dialogue, is oriented towards the response of the other
(others), towards his [sic] active responsive understanding, which can assume different
forms: educational influence of the readers, persuasion of theme, critical responses,
influence on followers and successors, and so on (Bakhtin 1986 76). The orientation of
the digital work as spatially addressive is present in the representation and references
to religion and faith, political discourse, ethnic and national identity, or as is the
examples discussed in this present study, class and gender. It explores class and gender
as indicators of addressivity in the digital works, as guides or instigators for spatial
practice. There is intent, or anticipation present in the text as addressivity, whereby
responding to the text is guided, encouraged or denied.
I explain addressivity in the spatial by examining how places are represented in
the digital texts. I break down the structures of this address according to how it
communicates images and ideas of gender and class in the contexts of place. In this way I
show how address is grounded in space through the use of social conventions, pre-
existing narratives and stereotypes. If we superimpose the example of the beating of
Rodney King in 1991 onto the diagram above, it is first an established factual narrative
that is circulated/recognized widely. This recognition is exploited in the
representational space of Last Meal Requested. In this case it takes the form of an
emphasized reference to the famous amateur handheld video shot by George Holliday.
In Last Meal Requested the design of the text adapts the Holliday video to a repeated

7 I contend that this lived component is similar to the experience of the ergodic, and thus it can be used to determine how
interaction contributes to narrative.

15
series of 4-second loops, which in this format functions as an iconic sign referencing not
just the event but also the place/s linked with it today. The video loops address the
reader by referencing the beating of Rodney King according to a broad coalition of
associations and images related to place. This relationship is grounded in how the
Rodney King beating video is today closely connected to the image of South Central Los
Angeles.
In relation to the events and places depicted in the digital texts, I extract the
semiotic references to class and gender from this coalition and then explain how they
elicit responses to Last Meal Requested, Faade, Egypt and Dreamaphage as addressivity
in interaction. In chapter three I explore the establishment of space as an addressive
element in the prefaces. In chapter four I explain how design sets up this address. Finally
I explain in chapter five how these associations define the narrative contexts for reader
interaction as addressivity. Whether as addressivity or designed-based interaction, the
material configuration of the digital works and the signs or language it employs has an
individual person as its focus. This person is termed in my analysis the reader, not as an
attempt to center the analysis within one particular discipline but in an effort to
emphasize the interpretive and physical engagement on multiple levels with the digital
works by a unique human being who is simultaneously rendered a subject by the texts.

Space and Narrative
By incorporating the spatial into a model for interaction with digital texts, like those
discussed in this study, it becomes possible to address the problems first identified in
detail by Espen Aarseth in Cybertext. These problems have often fallen under the
heading of the Interactive. While Aarseth worked with mostly text-based digital works,
the points he makes regarding their interactive status remain valid, The term
interactive fiction implies an equality between the reader and author beyond that found
in other literary texts. In my experience, the reader is as much at the constructor's
mercy (Aarseth 1997 88). Aarseth is correct in discounting the suggestion that there is
any marked equality between the reader and author in an interactive as compared to
other literary texts. But the interactive is nonetheless a quality of the text, and of itself
does not suggest the absence of an author/constructor or the structure that results from
that authority. Rather, the lack of suitable vocabulary in narrative studies had at the
time severely limited the analysis of narrative as a product of interactive and spatial

16
media. To indicate recent developments in the field, interaction design, which I
reference in my analysis, states that this structure must be complied with in order for
the text to operate in a meaningful manner. It is this interactive structure, expressed
through the spatial dimensions of the digital text that is the topic of this present study.
The connection of space with narrative is now an established topic in narrative
studies. In Mieke Bals work on how spatial arrangement connects discourse to fabula
(2009 297), a focus on the representation of and references to the visual is used to
understand the narrative potentials of the spatial in print media. Bals analysis
emphasizes language and associated forms of discourse (e.g. grammar). Bal goes on to
propose a cognitive approach to the spatial according to how, places are linked to
certain points of perception. These places seen in relation to their perception constitute
the storys space (298). The points of perception are realized according to how, the
primary aspect of space is the way characters bring their senses to bear on space (Bal
298). Such a focus upon the sensuous in spatial perception or recognition demands the
attention of sight, hearing, and touch (Bal 298).
Furthermore, the spatial for Bal is relational and a medium for the already
mentioned interaction between characters. The relational exists in the spatial divisions
between private and public space (Bal 302), where a cluttered room seems smaller, a
sparsely furnished room bigger than in fact it is (Bal 303). Bal even extends this
perception-based understanding of space into the personal experience of the reader,
citing the example of James Joyce and Dublin, and how someone familiar with the city
will be able to visualize much more, and for them the notations in the kitchen and in
the parlour will evoke much more precise images (Bal 304). However, because the
spaces of the digital works are experienced as ergodic in real time and are visual,
auditory and interactive this extension is not as necessarily strong. The lounge in
Faade functions as an experience, not as a memory, with place represented equally by
the iconic as the symbolic. This space of narrative that is experienced is strengthened by
how characters function. This is often as stereotypes in the digital texts, the personified
equivalent of a sign, where a certain set of attributes signifies a particular character
type, held against the backdrop of specific culture and society.
In any medium of interaction the sensual elements are vital considerations in
design and for the representation of space. But in the digital texts the sensual is one
dimension of the experience of socially constructed representational space, which is also

17
symbolic and thematic. The experience of space as a sensual medium is not enough to
demonstrate the interactive and interpretive potentials present in the digital texts.
Instead it is necessary to expand the focus on the relationships between space and
narrative in the digital texts. This expanded focus is possible in the use of space, place
and focalization when close reading the digital texts. In other words, the spatial as a
representational field operates according to "complex symbolisms, [] to be defined less
as a code of space than as a code of representational spaces" (Lefebvre 33). This
contrasts to how Bal presents space as a semantically structural component of narrative
from within diegesis which functions through memory. In terms of place, Bal describes
its role in narrative as one of the principles of ordering whereby the locations where
events occur are also given distinct characteristics and are thus transformed into
specific places (Bal 2009 40). Place is certainly an ordering principle in the digital texts
based on the experience of design. But in Bals analysis these characteristics remain
largely semiotic or are developed from memory, and ordering alone does not explain the
symbolic and addressive dimensions of space in the digital texts. It is only in focalization
that Bal begins a move from a perceptual or cognitive model into an interactive
representational space as a structure for narrative. The visual preoccupation with the
spatial continues in Bals account of focalization, defined as the relation between the
vision and that which is seen, perceived (Bal 318). The spaces of the digital works,
including their visual dimensions, are not only perceived but also enacted auditory and
motion rich environments.
Despite the limited connection with the enacting of space, I place Bals perceptual
understanding of focalization into a spatial structure. But focalization here is not just a
seeing with a pair of eyes or experiencing as a body in the digital works. This
experiencing of the spaces via focalization in the digital texts is an example of the
relation of knowledge between the narrative instance and the character (Kuhn 263). By
interacting with the digital texts via inclusive perspective and addressivity, the reader
can share the space between narrative instance and character. In the case of
Dreamaphage and Faade it is as an avatar character operates between the narrative
instance and the character. In Egypt, the reader is compelled to assume the perspective
of Jeanette, even down to the point of being given a clue via the screen interface as a
virtual object, which the narrator herself receives at the same narrated moment (a
magic charm). These modes of interaction, including interpretation, are channeled by

18
focalization within the space of narrative, establishing perspective and guiding
navigation for the reader through the digital work. The ergodic properties of the work
operate according to the perspectives supplied by the focalizing agent. These structures
shift during the course of the narrative, and the reader follows this course by interacting
with the text.
With a growing literary media composed of digital works that rely of reader
interaction to convey narrative, the idea of structure being the test for interaction at last
needs to be reexamined. Aarseth proposes an attention to a structure of subverted
hierarchies, or [] of well-connected nodes and remote threads (Aarseth 1997 89). The
mechanics of interaction, as well-connected nodes and remote threads are important
for understanding how meaning (whether as play or narrative) can be created with
digital media. However, Aarseth goes on to suggest a role for space in this
understanding, as perspective in both the experience of the text and narrative meaning.
Aarseth implies that by interrogating perspective (i.e. a limited point of view Aarseth
1997 89), a way forward could be created for understanding interactive digital media as
a narrative assemblage. My model, as visualized in Fig 2.1, is an attempt to describe a
communication in which interactivity is not just restricted to the material structure, but
instead is one that operates as a complex and embodied form of address. Such a
communication includes and is dependent upon the spatial, which unites the elements of
the digital works. This unifying aspect of space (Lefebvres product and process aspect
(37)) is present in the introduction of the prefaces, the material configuration of design
and the address of representational elements.
The following chapters will showcase how the spatially grounded literary
communication model introduced in this chapter may be implemented in actual
narrative analysis. Chapter three achieves this through a focus on how the prefaces to
the works set up interaction by representing space, and begins my analysis according to
the methods outlined in this chapter. In the next chapter I open with a close reading of
the prefaces and focus on the establishment of perspective in the works. Attributes such
as spatial tropes, addressive structures adapted from narrative settings, situations and
characters and a resulting metalepsis all orientate the reader to the ergodic elements
and representational spaces of the texts. I argue these spatial elements are organized
attempts to control reader responses to the ergodic and the subsequent formation of
narrative. The prefaces go before in the order of reading, setting it up and introducing

19
narrative elements. Within this structure, the prefaces introduce spaces, characters,
themes, and places to the reader as a means of positioning her within the spatial in
terms of the approaching narrative perspective and address. The iconic signification of
objects along with their symbolic values is also introduced in the prefaces. From these
explanative introductions, I argue that perspective and address are presented in the
prefaces as spatial techniques that control the interaction with the digital works and the
narratives that result.

--------------*---------------



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