I’m currently teaching an undergraduate year 2 module about web based non-linear narratives and collecting a list of links to inspire the students to investigate the potential of what sounds like it should be a massive topic but is in fact tricky to find good examples of. The majority of work uses flash in a banal almost slideshow manner. There isn’t a lot of work which uses html/css/javascript, what does is very dated and more often than not half broken and very little exists which takes advantage of server side scripting, databases or any of the advantages of Web 2.0 such as mashups, ajax etc.

The 21 Steps by Charles Cumming, one of six digital fictions sponsored by Penguin books reinterpreting or paying tribute to six classics, in this case a homage to The 39 Steps by John Buchan, is one exception I found which without a doubt is the most interesting use of Google Maps I’ve seen yet. It is an adventure within Google Maps which takes advantage of the more sophisticated aspects of the Google Maps API including markers, polylines and animated routes. You would think that the idea of using Google Maps to create non-linear narratives like this was obvious but it’s the only example I can find.

Some related texts, Google Maps and ‘real’ / ‘virtual’ intervention and
Google and Art: A commercial / cultural new media art economy?

Originally seen on Networked Performance.