Response to Art Exhibit and MUSE Article by Joanna Drucker

What I took from Drucker’s article is the idea about graphic images forming the experience of the reader or viewer. That is, how the story is physically displayed is very important—the margins, the framing of the text, the illustrations, where the illustrations are situated. As stated by Drucker, “the term graphic includes all aspects of layout and composition by which elements are organized on a surface” (Drucker 121).  These graphic elements both are structural elements and elements that play a vital role in further explaining a narrative.

There are many ways a story could be told—words are merely one device by which this can occur. Drucker proposes that the graphic design elements presented in a narrative both in print and electronically can evoke a further understanding of a narrative or perhaps can open a window into thinking about the story differently. For example, she alludes to a short story written by Stuart Sillars entitled “The Illustrated Short Story”. Within the text of this short story are pictures embedded. The pictures, or illustrations for a better word, are sort of a hint into the next event that occurs in the story. It gives the reader a hint as to what is coming next but only a little hint. The reader is then eager to turn the page or find out what happens next.

Another aspect she points out is the format of the text on each page. Words cannot be floating around on a page, scattered. Most readers appreciate the structure of the words in a text or a story. They feel somewhat uncomfortable if they must search around for the words to a story. She states that “the structuring effect of the layout” is “an integral feature of narrative production” and that “paragraph indentations, placement of images, section breaks, or other basic graphic features organize the presentation of textual elements” (Drucker 122). Many of these elements are forms of navigation, such as page numbers and the table of contents. If necessary, margins allow for creative thinking. I have extensive experience in the arena of “marking use of the margins”, as stated by one of my science professors. The blankness in the margins allow for you to summarize, speculate, and think beyond what you have just read. Margin usage is especially beneficial when you must quickly look through a text to remind yourself of what you have just read and the ideas you thought of while reading it. The sizing and purpose of chapter titles is another aspect of a text’s structural elements. Chapter titles and their sizes give each chapter “a defining role” (Drucker 123). She points out that although these elements are navigational in context, they can also be graphic as well, in that they appeal to our eye and initiate our thoughts through their visual cues.

Programs such as Second Life are another form of navigation and graphic elements imposed onto a player’s experience. The navigation within Second Life is a result of the player’s choosing. In this way, players are in control. Along with their surrounding environment, they are able to control where they go, what they do, who they see, what they wear, and many other things. The way in which you can control your character shapes your experience. Being able to choose what your character wears can shape your experience. The toolbar on the bottom shapes your experience. Every graphic element, being just graphic in nature, or navigational, has the ability to shape your experience. What if the navigational bar was placed somewhere else? What if you couldn’t change your character’s appearance? These tools help immerse you in the game and help solidify the game’s culture into your experience.

Another example she gave was a picture taken from a Flight Simulator game. When players go through this simulation, they are shown this picture, which is similar if not exactly the same as a real cockpit. In this way, players also feel like they are in control. This is how the simulation is shaping the player’s experience. If the picture shown was a cartoon sketch or did not look like a real cockpit, the player’s experience would be different. Players who feel like they are in total control of a seemingly real situation will find themselves really experiencing and understanding the simulation for its purpose.

As I was reading Drucker’s article, it made me think about the hypertexts that I have done. Throughout the article, she talked about the positioning of page numbers, size of the chapters, framing of the text, size of the marginal spaces, and the effects of the placement and content of illustrations. I felt that I could relate to what she was proposing about the importance of all these aspects—that they can shape the experience of your reader or viewer.

In each of my hypertexts, I always try and make sure that each page has a picture to it. I want the reader-viewer to have a basic understanding of what the page is about before actually reading the text. I like abstract pictures that do not show specific faces. I like silhouettes of people and I like the background of each picture to match the color of the page background. In this way, the picture and text flow well, in my opinion. In addition, each page has the same format. There’s always a menu, a picture, and text. The title on top of each webpage is the same font. However, subpages for a particular topic have smaller font sizes to indicate its sub-standing. Important words in the text are italicized, made bold, or underlined.

My aesthetic when it comes to designing websites is aligning everything to the right. I have always been a right-handed person and everything looks better to me from the right side. I might be shaping a reader-viewer’s experience in this way as well. They might take this type of design as me portraying a right wing perspective on things. It opens a myriad of possibilities for the reader-viewer.

In conclusion, Joanna Drucker’s article on Narration and Navigation has some interesting points about how the physical appearance of a text or narrative can shape the experience of a reader. She points out aspects that we would never have thought about before and tries to understand how they influence the way we see a story or a piece of text.