Since 2001, I have been intrigued by the possibilities of digital video for research, archival and pedagogical applications. After spending a year working with the Academic Centre for Information Technology at Acadia University, I relocated to Sheridan Intitute to teach literature and Digital Storytelling. By combining my literary research with the production techniques of Digital Storytelling, the concept of a digital narrative was born. My working definition for a digital narrative is "a self-contained digital video file that presents, as a scholarly authority, an argument, point of view and/or analysis for a specialized audience through the simultaneous presentation of textual, aural, and visual narratives."
This definition is just a starting point. I'm currently preparing a paper on Digital Narratives for publication in Fall 2009. In the meantime, the vignettes below might give you more of an aural-visual experience on the concept of Digital Narratives. Feel free to get in touch and let me know your thoughts!
Maximiliaan, July 2009 firstname.lastname@example.org
Customizing Media: A Self-Dialogue.
This short digital narrative is a tongue-in-cheek attempt to showcase the multiple selves of the twenty-first century scholar. Over the next decade, it is very likely that academics will combine their archival and research expertise with the production techniques of digital media!
Byron and Information Overload
This Digital Narrative is an adjunct to my article, Remediating Byron, published in Romantic Textualities. The Digital Narrative allows for the inclusion of visual research material without disconnecting their argumentative force as in print-media when these are included in an appendix. Moreover, the experience of information overload is also part of the production technique; thus it simulates the experience for the reader/viewer as well.
The inspirational influence of Fantasmagoriana on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Polidori's Vampyre is well-known. Lesser known are the details about this influential text. My research indicates that Fantasmagoriana was, what I've conceptually termed, a "Travelling Text"--that is to say, a text that travels geogrpahically, culturally, linguistically, and materially over short period of time. This Digital Narrative enhances our understanding of this Travelling Text!