Audience Agency

Hi, all.

After my talk on McGuire's Here, I've been wanting to post a bit more on Randall Munroe's XKCD webcomic. Arya Ponto of Artboiled has linked to a zoomable map of Munroe's comic "Click and Drag." I like Ponto's observation that the latter comic affords more agency to the audience, insofar as the audience can navigate it how they wish. Meaning is generated, in other words, by non-linear navigation and not by sequential storytelling a la panel construction. At the same time, there is less stability in reaching a fixed meaning, as the comic affords many different navigations.

Munroe's work is something I'd like to revisit later, specifically in trying to connect it to essay compositions that controlled by paragraphs and margins. What if we composed an essay at this scale, with plenty of white space between texts? I think Prezi is getting us closer to that non-linear possibility, but I think we can get closer.