Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 7
The Dr. K- Project
Brandon Rickman
Introduction
Dr. K- was constructed as an MFA thesis project in design and media art. The
project is an attempt to create a fabricated narrative environment, an environ-
ment where nothing exists except that which is visible to the user. While a fabri-
cated environment can be presented in varying degrees, Dr. K- was constructed
with an extreme degree of fabrication.
Dr. K- operates as a text-based interface. The user is presented with a
screen of text:
Office. A bench. A coat rack. Some furniture.
The screen updates as a result of user interaction:
Office. A bench. A coat rack. A desk. A character enters.
All Dr. K- stories begin with:
A place. Some scenery.
The narrative that follows is a unique virtual reality experience constructed out
of historical elements from Edinburgh in the 1820's.
Operation
The user interacts with the Dr. K- system through a text-based interface. A
set of elements is presented to the user on a screen, and these elements can be
selected with a mouse. Because the narrative is constructed through interaction
with the user, navigation occurs in one direction only - there is no way to go
back to a previous page of the narrative. At the same time, even though the
user is advancing through the narrative, there is no sense that the narrative
itself is advancing in time. It is not a narrative developed in “real time”, but in
a lurching and discontinuous fashion.
