layers and meaning: reflections on digitality
DESCRIPTION
A presentation to a symposium, which will get more developed in the course of things.TRANSCRIPT
Layers and meaningJenny Weight, RMITc. [email protected]
2 types of stories• The ones where you already
know the conclusion• The ones where you don’t
You already know the conclusion to this story …
When you already know the conclusion …
It is easy to organise the elements you need
into layers
Regardless of medium /software / genre /style
Each layer is equivalent to a discreet story element
And can therefore be manipulated
Layers are about relationships between elements
Iteration and juxtaposition
Reveal and hide
Layers and frames
Frames consist of layers which change over time. Frames accumulate changing meanings, in which the relationships are not just between layers but between versions of layers in an evolutionary sequence.
But what about the other type of story
the one where you don’t know the conclusion?
Layers become an experiment
in meaning-making
juxtaposition and iteration
hide and reveal
smaller and bigger
incremental change
Have layers changed meaning?
Layers allow us to contain the history of the object (the drafts) within the file
Layers allow us to treat meaning as an experiment
Layers represent to the maker the plasticity and contingency of meaning
So I think meaning making is a different sort of experience in digital production
