writing » exemplary behaviour
Most of today's Web sites kowtow to the bottom line. That's why a venture like Scroll is so refreshing.
It didn't take long for the Web to become all about business. Those who work in the medium find their creative meetings invaded with the realities of business economics; Web designers in Canada are intimate with “revenue streams” and “return on investment” as dictums over their efforts.
The impetus to experiment expressively in this medium seems to be drowning in red ink. Scroll (scroll.behaviour.com), Montreal-based Behaviour Publishing's New Media 'Zine, on the other hand, serves no master except the creative minds of its designers.
Scroll, hundreds of screens of experimental Web design and editorial, is organic, and beholden to no business driven principles other than the self-promotion of its parent company. Its raison d'être is to show off and the results are engaging. Rich in both content and design, the site exploits the latest in technological protocols, and is an intelligent and entertaining read, as well.
The site is broken into six sections, one devoted to cultural essays and criticism, one to the travelogues of intrepid hacker tourists, a section devoted to fiction, an editorial space, a portfolio and graphics gallery, and the Garage, where the real experimental multimedia efforts are placed.
Contributors are split equally between in house staff and freelancers, and Producer Theo Diamantis regularly tours the web looking for interesting content to co-opt. Submissions are encouraged, but most of the creative comes from weekly production and content meetings.
Producing Scroll is Diamantis' main function at Behaviour, and he sees the challenge as stretching the possibilities of the medium while solving daunting technological and creative problems . “The difficulty (in producing Scroll) lies in all the constraints of the web, yet it's those very constraints that have shaped a unique web aesthetic”, says Diamantis.
“Animation, sound, and a new approach to graphics have created serious challenges for designers attempting to redefine the medium on it's own terms, and that's no easy job considering bandwidth limitations and the amount of browsers and platforms that must be addressed.”
“We are crafting an interesting hybrid with media that is rooted in print, TV, radio and film, with a distribution/broadcast model that resembles none of these. While all these issues challenge our creativity, there is still only one real goal, and that's making storytelling an engaging experience on the Web- cross-pollinating with other media: film, TV, and print.”
And Scroll is well positioned to exploit that kind of media synergy. Behaviour is truly multi-media, in the literal sense of the word, with fingers in the pies of television, film, new media and print. (Its crown jewel is the digital culture magazine Shift.)
The company was lauded as “Wired” (as opposed to “Tired”) by Wired magazine last spring, and since Scroll launched in early 98 it has received several major design awards and accolades-including a New Media Invision silver award for best of show last November, and the New York Art Directors Club, Silver award for Interactive Design in March 98. Web designers are taking notice and the traditional design community is also applauding these web experiments.
Most commercial sites cannot take the kind of creative risks Scroll takes. Not adhering to browser standards, file protocols, or bandwidth rules allows Scroll a lot more latitude in what it can do, although Diamantis admits the works often “do tax bandwidth and the CPU at times, but we do it all with the aim of delivering a cool, multimedia experience- but functionality is definitely a concern”.
The site makes use of the latest in Web design bells and whistles such as java-scripting to make the images wiggle and shimmy, and dynamic HTML to layer elements on top of or behind each other. Liberal use of Macromedia Shockwave flash files lends a CD-ROM multimedia quality to many of the pieces, which are solid thematically, and story or concept driven. The rules breaking is in the fact that scripting languages and dynamic code do not behave the same from one browser to the next, and Shockwave files can have unwieldy byte size.
There is a great deal of sound and animation in these creations, so viewers need the latest browser and plug-ins, and good bandwidth to truly enjoy the site. The interfaces are whimsical at times, with Easter eggs and hidden treasures hiding behind clicks. Producer Diamantis encourages poking and prodding around the pages. “Don't forget to let your mouse roam the screen. Like adolescents on a first date, things could happen when least expected”, he says slyly.
There is a vast amount of content at Scroll. The writing is solid and edgy, the layouts varied and entertaining. All this without advertising banners or transaction pitches-a rare presence on the Web today. Diamantis says he's “trying to avoid banner ads at all costs: the acne of the Web”, but he recognizes the challenges of the bottom line. “Please, world! Silicon Graphics, Macromedia, Apple, Adobe ... sponsor us!, he pleads”.
Check out the writers and designers who are creating content on Scroll, while it is still unencumbered by fiduciary responsibilities. The siren song of revenue will eventually make ventures like this cost prohibitive. The economics of producing experimental work for limited return are becoming harder to justify.
Azimuth 360
Strong writing and a beautiful modern design aesthetic inform this Shockwave piece, a virtual tour and celebration of the Frank O. Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum-Bilbao. Included here is stunning photography of the museum (by Diana Shearwood and Ramona Ramlochand), some QTVR modules that you can move around the space in, and a quirky and ethereal interface that is designed to surprise and delight. You get the sense that your not seeing everything you can, as there really isn't a linear beginning, middle and end approach to the piece. Each viewing is a negotiated experience, an organic event, and the path you take seems to be guided by the luck of the mouse click.
Sex Slave
Sex Slave is a darkly humorous Shockwave cartoon, by Naoki Mitsuse, of a “gimp who rebels against his oppressors”. The piece, inspired by the Jerry Springer show, has a engaging tribal drum soundtrack and clever animation tricks with perspective and motion. We follow our hero as he escapes his bondage and runs to freedom, by leaping from the trees on the back of a speeding truck. The drawback here is the one minute piece is almost 300k, and takes several minutes to download.
The User Interface
The front page of the site and the front page of each of the six sections acts as the navigational compass to all the varied offerings at Scroll. This provides a consistent look which stitches all the pieces together. These pages are well designed in their own right — the sections are rendered in blurred font that snaps into focus when the mouse passes over them. This is done with java-script that triggers events prompted by mouse movements- essentially one graphic replaces another, but because the blurred graphics are slightly offset from the focussed ones the effect is striking, as the headings appear to lock into place.
In the above examples the mouse was dragged over the words En Machina and Scroll. There is also use of the new layering protocol available to be exploited for viewers using the newest browsers. Passing the mouse over the word Scroll above causes the subheadings to fly out from behind the title. This is done with scripting and dynamic HTML which allows for the precise placement of elements in three dimensions height width and depth. The script runs the animation over time. This is very sophisticated code.
