Blog #15: STORYLAND

Storyland
Nanette Wylde

http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/wylde__storyland.html

BIOGRAPHY
Born: California
Resides: Redwood City and Chico, California
Education: MFA, Ohio State University, 1996; BA, San Jose State University, 1986.
Employment: Associate Professor, California State University, Chico, Department of Art and Art History.

DESCRIPTION OF STORYLAND
The computer-generated combinatorial story is one of the oldest forms of digital writing. Storyland, with its simple circus frame, plays with this tradition by performing recombination of the sort seen in cut-up and in Oulipian work. The system repeatedly plots amusingly repetitive stories, inviting the reader to consider, to read its scheme for composition.

Author description: Storyland (version 2) is a randomly created narrative which plays with social stereotypes and elements of popular culture. Each sentence is constructed from a pool of possibilities, allowing each reader a unique story. The reader presses the "new story" button, and a story is created for that moment in time. It is unlikely that any two stories will be identical. Storyland exposes its narrative formula thus mirroring aspects of contemporary cultural production: sampling, appropriation, hybrids, stock content, design templates. It risks discontinuity and the ridiculous while providing opportunities for contemplation beyond the entertainment factor.

Previous publication: Version 1 of Storyland was published by Wylde in 2002. Version 2 made its debut in 2004. The latest version of Storyland is available at Wylde's site, http://www.preneo.com/nwylde.

CRITERIA FOR GRADE:
• identification of the text’s genre + discussion of the literary traditions the text draws:
• Gossip Magazines- telling stories about people and how everyone knows everyone. It’s like 6 degrees of separation.
• The entertainment world is like a circus. In fact Britney Spears has a song entitled such and lyrics that further support the metaphor of the celebrity world, “All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus.” (Could be a stretch… not sure!)
• Even though Storyland doesn’t directly refer to celebrities, it highlights the effect people have on one another. Of course this is also realistic in everyday life, but when each story starts with the circus theme song you can’t help but wonder if she is making a connection.
• Poetry- short sentences, leaves room open for greater interruption, characters are vague and underdeveloped. Patterned lines- stanzas.

• descriptions of the important textual elements including navigation design, visuals, sound, interactive features, movement, layering effects, network connections, and so on
• Audio, Combinatorial (Works where the permutation of possible outputs plays a key role in the composition.) Fiction and Generative (sometimes referred to as the genetic code of artificial objects, working and producing in unique, unrepeatable ways. In experiencing a generative piece, the reader starts the process that results in the output, as opposed to watching a pre-prepared motion picture or selecting one of several pre-written texts to read.)
• Audio- Circus Theme Song: replays before every story appears
• Navigation- one button- Reads: New Story… no other way to navigate. Story appears in front of your.
• Visuals- as the song plays the letters in Storyland change color until the music stops and then they appear still in an assortment of colors. Also, the letters come in and out not revealing the whole word in its entirety.
• Movement- text comes in one stanza at a time.

• analysis of how textual elements create an overall effect (or not); this discussion will be based on your descriptions of textual elements •
I think I might have addressed this in other sections…

• narration of how the text is experienced including an assessment of the overall effect/feeling of reading the work•
The literature throughout the work keeps the same pattern: 2 sentences, line break, one sentence (short- somewhat of an afterthought or similar to stage direction in a play), line break, 2 sentences, line break, 2 sentences, line break, one sentence, line break sentences (wraps up the story the- shows how the characters effect on another).
• Even though the circus tune evokes energy and happy childhood memories, the stories of the people and their interactions are sad, monotone, bland, and uninformative, therefore making the music satirical. However, circus life for the people in it is exactly like the literature presented. They are on display showing off their abnormalities… the circus isn’t as glamorous to them as it is to the spectator which can further play into celebrity/entertainment world theory.

• references to what other reviewers/critics have written about your piece or genre
• http://danerday.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/e-lit-example/
• http://nickm.com/if/montfort_dac_2009.pdf


TEXT
Mom-Roller derby Queen- Computer Programmer
Pilot- Torch Singer- reality show contestant
Rookie- Exhibitionist- Jeweler
Wild women-old man-parent
Psychiatrist- police officer- investment banker
Clown-college student- hooker
Media mogul- stand-in- labor organizer

REPETITIVE THEMES/PHRASES
• Day tripper
• Ruthless
• There were disagreements
• During the last ionic storm
• Felt abandon
• Emotions were expressed
• A long, long time ago


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Infinite Limits: E-Lit Example
February 18, 2009 at 8:24 pm | In Lightness | Leave a Comment
Tags: Storyland
The Electronic Literature example that best fits my analogy, emblem, and ideas on lightness is one called Storyland by Nanette Wylde. This E-lit example relates to Calvino’s ideals because it portrays his idea that meaning is conveyed through verbal texts that seem weightless and there certainly is a flexibility to the story. Storyland is a random narrative created to play with social stereotypes and elements of popular culture. Since each sentence is constructed from a variety of possibilities, allowing each reader a unique story, it relates to Calvino’s idea of weightlessness and flexibility. The reader presses the “new story” button, and a story is created at that exact moment and then it is very unlikely for any two stories to be identical. The flexibility of these stories is what makes it so like the ideas of lightness portrayed in my emblem and analogies because the light weight of the changing stories is just like that of wood floating on water or an individual water skiing. Also, since each story is never exactly the same, this E-lit relates to how each mass of wood is never the same nor is the way it floats. Even the process of water skiing can never be identical since each person has different abilities and weight.
To further explore this E-lit idea and make your own observations click here.
The ppg256 Series of Minimal Poetry Generators
Nick Montfort
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave, 14N–233
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
nickm@nickm.com

Nanette Wylde’s Storyland is a simple and amusing program to
randomly generate very short stories [16]. Talan Memmott’s Self
Portrait(s) [as Other(s)] assembles images and somewhat
authoritative-sounding curatorial texts from fragments, also at
random [17]. The effect of these two pieces would be entirely
different and significantly reduced if they were converted into
exhaustive programs that generated every possible combination
one after the other, making a slight change each time. The effect
of a random program can be like overhearing bits of a
conversation, perhaps a conversation that is most interesting when
only partially overheard. It can be more along the lines of meeting
a few people from a particular country and less like having
everyone from that country arrayed in an enormous gymnasium.
In terms of their poetics, random programs demand that an author
define interesting distributions over texts rather than simply
writing a single text that is appropriate.