Ceremony of Innocence and the Subversion of Interface : Cursor Transformation as a Narrative Device

There is a potential inconsistency between the experience of story and the process of interaction. Many interactive narratives ask the interactor to switch between an immersive state of immediacy and a hypermediated awareness of process. The paper examines the interactive CDRom Ceremony of Innocence and identifies two design strategies that are used to suture any potential disjuncture. One is the saturation of narrativity throughout the entire work. Analogies are drawn to both classic Expressionism and a more widespread expressivity in cinema. The other is the subversion of the interface itself to reflect narrative concerns. Narrativity is thus situated both globally and at the heart of the interactive experience.