New Possibilities in Audiovisual Ergodic Narratives

Abstract

Espen J. Aarseth defined in his work Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (1997) ergodic literature as one in which “a non-trivial effort is required to allow the reader to pass through the text”. Based on the analysis of a representative body of narratives found within the ergodic spectrum, this article aims to bring order to the classification of ergodic narratives; and contribute to the development of two possibilities of this type of narrative: transmedial and raccontian. Transmedial ergodic literature takes into account the new media and the latest technologies available to the teleuser in order to transform his limited role from decision making to an acting role in the narrative, becoming an off-stage character. The raccontian proposal is characterized by the application of alterations in the hidden layer of a storyline using the Schrödinger cat effect. Ergodic decision-making dynamics are applied in racconto scenes (Rondolino e Tomasi 1995) to manipulate the timeline prior to the story world’s starting point. This allows a greater diversification of outcomes by varying elements that usually remain inflexible and truncated. Two proposals that therefore affect different areas of transmedia communication, as we will demonstrate in this article.