Repurposing Information for Electronic Publication:

Interactive Fiction and Collaboration

The communication of music, video, and text in a digital, or electronic, method has, in many areas, overtaken the earlier analog and print forms of these media. An musical piece that once required many musicians, instruments, and space, now can be created with one individual and a computer. Films once recorded on ephemeral tape, requiring manual splicing in a professional studio, now last indefinitely and are produced with inexpensive cameras and simple software applications. Finally, many texts, including textbooks, fiction, and news, are published either solely in electronic form or at least as an alternate and additional format to print.

There are many new methods to recording, producing, distributing, and storing these media in a digital format. As new products and techniques emerge, there come new uses for these items. For example, the arrival of the iPod, and other MP3 players, created the concept of Podcasting. This exciting concept has found use in many areas, including as a sort of audio Web log (Blog) and for broadcasting business meetings, music, religious orations, and even campus orientation.

One particularly interesting topic is the “repurposing” of media through the use of digital technologies. Some aspects of this topic are older than others, but it is a continuing practice that often raises much controversy. This paper will review a few examples of repurposing documents and what issues these practices raise.

Repurposing

According to Richard Lanham, “[Repurposing] points to the increasing practice of taking an existing form of electronic communication and using it for a new purpose.” (131). Additionally, I suggest that it is also the electronic repurposing of a previously printed item. Repurposing a document can be controversial in its application. The controversy usually stems from the fact that a certain document (which for our purposes includes audio, film, and textual files) has been “borrowed” in part or in whole and repurposed in a format differing from the original.

Music

The first example that generally comes to mind is the sampling of music. This generally consists of an artist taking a portion of another artist’s song, such as a guitar riff or a drum rhythm, and using it in his or her own song. While some artists, such as Beck, find success with inserting a single sample into an original song, other artists, for example the Beastie Boys, form all of the music from sampled sound bites. This practice can be a questionable issue, since the artist using the sample does not, generally, receive permission to use the sound bite, and while using a certain portion of the song is not illegal, it can be unethical.

Film

There are many examples of repurposing in the film industry, such as the colorization of black and white movies. Also, consider the digital “enhancements” that George Lucas made to the original Star Wars trilogy, adding additional ships, characters, and scenes. One could argue that this enhances the film, especially as Lucas delayed work on the additional three installments of the series by over 20 years, to await the advancements of special effects. Clearly, digital special effects have improved over the last 25 years. However, the addition to this original film, even by its own creator/director, brought much concern by traditional admirers of the original films.

Text

There seem to be much stricter intellectual property laws regarding the use of text than of other media. Obviously, plagiarism is not acceptable; however, there still can be controversy over an author’s decision to repurpose his or her own work, especially when it comes to electronic publication. If one merely wished to republish in electronic form a previously printed text, few would argue, assuming it did not break any intellectual property laws. However, if the author were to make alterations to that document once it is published electronically, it can get attention and opinion. One genre that can draw much attention in this area is digital fiction.

Interactive Fiction

Digital (or interactive) fiction is a fascinating area in which text can be presented in various methods with the addition of sound, video, and hypertext. Authors can take bring the words of a story on screen at a certain time, from a specific direction, or in other ways, including fades, spirals, and as images. Additionally, sound can accompany sections of the text to invoke or enhance certain emotions in the reader in much the same way as a movie score does. Richard Lanham refers to this interaction between reader and writer as, “… a very broad spectrum of expressivity that includes not only words but images and sounds.” (129).

Even at this point in my discussion, opinions may vary. Some may feel that text should be read in a straightforward manner, in basic paragraph style, and without aural or visual additions (short of illustrations). Many people are even opposed to film scores, feeling they should not need to have emotions forced, but rather experience their own emotions based on the film itself.

Altering Original Texts

This genre also opens many possibilities for Hypertext use. A reader would not, necessarily, need to experience the text in a linear fashion. Readers could jump around and read a text in a different order than was originally intended. For example, a story that does not originally take place in chronological order could be set up to do so.

However, this concept too can raise controversy. Even if no text is changed or removed, has the text been altered? Some would think so; after all this is not the author’s intended structure of the story. However, one could just as easily read a book in any order, so it should matter little if there is an option to re-order the story in this fashion in an electronic version.

The conditions of an interactive fiction story can become more complex. Presumably, all of us have pondered what happened to a character in a book after it ended. There are even examples of authors who have written sequels to another author’s original text, such as K.W. Jeter’s follow-up books to Phillip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” (better known as “Blade Runner”). So, there could be additions to original texts.

We have also all likely considered what would have happened if a fictional character had made a different decision in a story. What if there was such an option in an electronic form of a story? What if Lenny had not killed Curley’s wife, but only a puppy, and had bought the rabbit farm with George? Such suggestions are virtual blasphemy to traditionalists, and would, admittedly, lose the meaning of the story in certain cases. However, one can see that this “choose your ending” option is possible, and even exciting.

Consider this “choose your own ending” concept both if it were the original author and if it were a different author. Surely, there would be huge debate if an unknown author were to create a version of “Catcher in the Rye” with multiple options for what direction Holden Caulfield could take, based on the reader’s decisions, But what if Salinger, himself, created the updated version? Again, there would likely be a rift in the opinions of the document.

Once we get beyond the opinions raised by altering original texts, one can see the amazing opportunities for a writer to create an original piece solely for electronic publication, using multimedia and audio software and techniques, such as the “choose your own ending” device.

Collaboration

An additional point to consider is that, as Lanham writes, “Interactive digital fiction invites the reader’s collaboration.” (124). Depending on the choices that a reader made within an interactive fiction story, there could be innumerable different endings. In this way, the reader is a collaborator of the story, but not likely one who should receive credit. Rather, it is collaboration by the fact that the readers’ decisions continuously place them in a somewhat personalized story. As George Landow has discussed in a more general consideration of hypertext, “All hypertext systems permit the individual user to choose his or her own center of investigation and experience.” (38).

But there are many non-fiction and academic collaborations in electronic form, as well. While it is certainly easy for authors to collaborate on a printed text and have it published, collaborating on electronic documents adds new possibilities to such an endeavor. For example, just like any electronic document published on the Internet, an electronic collaboration could be updated daily and become more of an ongoing discourse on a given topic.

Such a discourse could even become open, in that anyone could publish on the site, thus providing many different opinions and deeper information. Clearly, there are downfalls to this aspect as well. One can find any Blog on the Internet that is comprised of many rants, opinions, and off-topic conversations. Here, it is virtually impossible to verify what is posted or who the actual author is. One side of this is that it becomes increasingly important to verify any sources obtained from the Internet, as anyone can publish anything on the Web.

There are, however, ways to improve this situation, such as with a Wiki. Here, people can post information, files, even change the look of the interface layout. But the owner can limit access to any individual, including assigning different levels of abilities. Many academics feel that one can never use such a resource to cite from. While it clearly poses difficulties, if we can teach students how to correctly use Web sites as verifiable sources, so too should we be able to teach them to use verifiable information from the collaborative resources.

Printed books go through fact checks, reviews, and other steps in the publishing process, and they have verifiable authors. When citing a passage from a published book, one can obtain all information necessary to verify that passage. However, with an online text, there is increased complexity regarding factors of author, authority, and legality considering the ease with which one can repurpose a document, even if it is the original author referring to a previously-written text. As Lanham clarified, “Both “author” and “authority” become softened and diffused as the reading event moves from a one-time exchange to a continuing conversation.” (126).

There are many exciting ways to publish and collaborate electronically, whether it is creative and entertaining, such as with interactive fiction; or it is more informative, drawing on a discourse of research and opinion. However, these methods can raise controversial issues of author, authority, and legality. As authors, we must consider these factors when publishing original material, repurposing our own work, or even that of another. As readers, we must be conscious of the origins of what we read, especially when using electronic collaborative publications as citations.

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Works Cited

Landow, George. 1997. “Hypertext and Critical Theory.” Hypertext 2.0. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Lanham, Richard. 1993. “Electronic Textbooks and University Structures.” The Electronic Word. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.