vertical narratives
the project is designed to allow multiple ways of accessing content. it aims to enhance and expand a persons experience of the work by presenting its content in a variety of forms and contexts. for example, the locative media version allows people to actually experience the work from the inside, so to speak, using their mobile phone or handheld device they assume the role of the agent, physically visiting the location of a specific scene presented in the narrative. the interactive version allows people via a website to download raw content from the work in order to make their own version. for the less adventurous there are short film, feature film and gallery installation versions.

creating a time based art work that can retain its integrity across a number of platforms is an ambitious brief to fulfil and presents an interesting challenge when dealing with rules of engagement and storytelling. therefore it was necessary to devise a suitable narrative form that can accommodate reconfiguring and re-purposing of narrative content without sacrificing meaning and dramatic thrust.

the modular nature of the narrative renders ordering of episodes arbitrary, as each episode is a self-contained, finely wrought audio visual set-piece. The Hong Kong Agent does not follow a linear narrative, the story is directed by the protagonist’s experiences and descriptions of events. it is the information embedded in these events that is compelling, not how they came to be.

the narrative is vertical rather than horizontal (like the structure of the city which the denizens of Hong Kong inhabit). thus the journey is into rather than along the narrative - Vertical Narratives.

the future? in my humble opinion i believe this project has the potential to be a very practical template perhaps even a manifesto of sorts, which may be of benefit to fellow creatives. i would like to encourage potential agents to use this model to create works. i intend to create a series of works under the umbrella title ‘the agent project’. the agent's next mission will be in japan. robert iolini 2008 BACK