Hamlet in the Holodeck

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Hamlet in the Holodeck

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As computer technology moves from the domain of industrial utility to the realm of communication, its seemingly limitless possibilities prove to be both exciting and intimidating. Artists and storytellers are especially intrigued by the new capabilities found in the development of technology; the computer's approach to presenting information makes it an innovative tool for self-expression. In the book, Hamlet on the Holodeck, author Janet Murray discusses the challenges of working creatively with the digital environment. In explaining the elemental properties of this media, Murray shows us how we may use the expressive power of technologies to create a more compelling form of storytelling (67).

Murray compares the current advances in technology to the birth of cinema. She explains that the invention of camera technology did not necessarily denote the arrival of movies as an artistic medium. Cinema originated as an additive art form, combining the film technology of a stationary camera and the traditional art of theater in order to make narrative films called photoplays (66). Filmmakers experimented with the fundamental properties of film for decades in order to create the series of conventions that now define the movie. By utilizing the properties of film editing, sound, color, and camera angle, the technology of film evolved into an expressive and original way to recreate and enhance reality.

According to Murray, the advancement of modern computer technology parallels the development of the movie camera. When confronted with the combination of sound, video, picture, word processing, and global networking of current computing, computer pioneers mirrored the behavior of the 1...

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...of the fictional universe seem limitless" (87).

Currently, The Sims creators are planning an Internet version of their game, which will combine the technologies of hypertext and simulation. Human users all over the world will be able to chat and interact with each other in a variety of landscapes in real time, creating "the opportunity to tell stories from multiple vantage points and to offer intersecting stories that form a dense and wide-spreading web" (84). Forums like these subtly introduce interested computer users to the tools for understanding the nuances of narrative devices. It seems that Murray's hypothesis is gradually becoming reality; the world's growing interest in detailed storytelling, found in programs like The Sims, reveals that computers are helping us to think about "the many systems we participate in, observe, and imagine" (93).

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