Some notes from the Lev Manovich reading:

– database is an unordered list of items

– narrative: consequential

– webpages: are a form of database, have an ‘antinarrative’ logic and are rarely ‘finished’, thus is more of a collection rather than story

– computer games or interactive narratives: have well-defined goals, all elements are motivated and justifiable, follow algorithmic logic. To qualify as narrative – must have narrator and actor, text, story, and fabula (plot events), contents should be a ‘series of connected events caused/experienced by actors’ (so a ‘game’ like nyan cat probably wouldn’t be considered a narrative)

– but even within interactive or hyperactive narratives, there is an underlying database – only there is a user deciding the sequence of events.

– data structure is at the ‘centre of the creative process in a computer age’

– in new media database is material and explicit, while narrative is implicit

– cinema can be considered at the intersection of database and narrative – the recorded footage becomes the database which the narrative will be constructed from through editing