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Ruminate » Notes on the “Infinite Canvas”

Running into Jamie Smith this morning (and want to talk about some great teaching, check out what Jamie’s been doing with his students this summer) reminded me that I’ve been remiss in putting notes from some of the interesting NMC 2009 Summer Conference sessions I attended.

Ruben Puentedura’s session on “The Infinite Canvas Reloaded: Digital Storytelling, Webcomics, and Web 2.0” (slides in rather large PDF form) was particularly interesting. Using Scott McLeod’s concept of the digital space as an infinite canvas for creation, Ruben explained—and shared examples of—characteristics of the infinite canvas and what they meant to storytellers. Following are my slightly cleaned up notes taken during the session with the all important links to examples and more information… they can’t convey Ruben’s obvious love of the topic and the medium, but they might be a good place to start in considering this important aspect of storytelling. [My personal interjections are in brackets]

Central question: how does the change from the bounds of paper to the infinite canvas of the screen effect the mechanics and conventions of comics?

The “infinite canvas” in 200 words or less…

Example: use of vertical orientation, space beyond what’s possible on paper (note the falling panel) – Scott McCloud’s Zot

Changes with the infinite canvas:

  • In a traditional comic, each panel is a “beat” in the story– with the infinite canvas you have as many as you need… pacing is minimally constrained.
  • Opening up the “meter” allows the equivalent of pianissimo to fortissimo – dynamic range isn’t (or at least is far less) constrained
  • In printed comics, spacing between panels is relatively uniform and constrained… in the infinite canvas distance (can) equal time

A (sometimes) related characteristic: use of groupings/proximity [looks much like the poetic line/stanza] that are conceptual in nature, not dictated by physical requirements.

Example: Scott McCloud – Porphyria’s Lover – note the trails, which are functional and ornamental – one way to indicate when not following standard lexicographic order:

Storis can unfold incrementally (literally). See Demian.5 ’s When I am King. This really looks more akin to film… or a flipbook. Incremental, gradual development of the story, figuratively and textually.

Technique: establish a dominant direction which is then purposefully manipulated [much like using form and meter] to create and then divert/thwart reader/viewer expectations.

Drew Weing – Pup – New comic authors are often purposefully experimental. Note the disappearance and reappearance of panel (frame):

[How have I missed these great comics? I guess the same way I spent so long not seeing graphic novels. But the affordances of digital presentation has some really radical effects!]

Use of visual space to establish time [and a format that resembles instant messaging/texting] – Eros Inc: The Third Degree.

Daniel Merlin Goodbrey – 24:Three (a 24-hour hypercomic):  Excellent design implementation. Experimental in directionality, multiple points of entry, fracturing of the story. Still uses trails, but adds interactivity that carries the reader along the chosen path and zooming for emphasis/de-emphasis.

John Barber – Vicious Souvenirs – some would argue this is less “pure” as an infinite canvas – example of overlays –

Question: why do we (educators) care? Why does this matter?

One reason: infinite canvas provides a rich complex of possibilities [image above, moving really fast here]: image assembly (such as Five Card Nancy) narrative sources; narrative constraints- sequential art: Comic Life – pictorial vocabulary; narrative transitions; text/image integration – moving image Center for Digital Storytellying (CDS) Seven Elements [and CDS Cookbook (PDF)], montage structures- interactive media, Pachyderm narrative structures; narrative flows- interactive fiction, Inform 7 ludic elements

Resource: Puentedura – “Digital Storytelling: An Alternative Instructional Approach” – Slides (Slideshare) and Text (PDF): 

Second reason: Powerpoint, which is so commonly used, has so many intrinsic constraints and default (if not solely available) structures (see Tufte – The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within, 2nd ed.)

Toolkit:

  1. The Tarquin Engine (Example: Icarus Tangents)
  2. InfiniteCanvas (Mac Only) -  (but no longer being devloped, buggy)
  3. Infinite Canvas (microsoft) – example Brad’s Somber Mood (Scott McCloud)
  4. Prezi [am I going to have to change my prezi position?] – designed to be an infinite canvas, but not positioning it that way in marketing terms because that scares some people – Prezi still has purposeful constraints, so it’s not just a blank screen, empty page, white canvas – can import flash INTO Prezi – important aspect: the frame acts like the frame around a comic.

Important note about Prezi: the company “gets” the infinite canvas and will be rolling out more features that support this kind of creation.

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Transitions are particularly important in the comics built on the infinite canvas – understanding the mechanics of panel-to-panel transitions will help clarify when viewing and creating them.

Four approaches to the page (Benoit Peeters): http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/peeters/

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Some Prezi examples

  • Nice example of almost a concrete poetry approach to using Prezi to convey a piece of Alice in Wonderland (http://prezi.com/56035)
  • Second example (http://prezi.com/56151): reenvisioning of a powerpoint presentation, uses proximity and distance, not traditional lexicographic ordering

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Infinite Canvas as Terrain – the infinite canvas is a terrain; we can apply concepts of mapping to it.

Resource/ToRead: How Maps Work – Alan MacEachren

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Considerations on “restraints”:

Note: music is a better analogy for understanding comics than film– comics aren’t chopped up bits of story akin to chopped up scenes in film.

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