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• 1 2013-07-23T20:21:55-07:00 Reader's Guide 7 plain 2013-08-30T12:43:41-07:00 Ghost Metropolis is a hybrid work composed of genres organized into narratives and networks. Genres -Genres are all stand-alone units of expression in Ghost Metropolis. Each of the nodal genres were created according to their own logics and (in the case of my own creations) in parallel with the creation of the works in the other genres. There are a finite number of instances of each genre, each capable of standing alone.  Each of these is a "node" in the topology of Ghost Metropolis  Multiple Genres, Hybrid Work As a whole, Ghost Metropolis is always simultaneously visual and textual; different genres are never presented in isolation.   a prose essay can be isolated from other genres and still retain 100% of its original information, just as a photograph can be isolated from textual labeling, captioning, and critical commentary because photograph communicates pictorially, not semantically. A work in each genre retains its autonomous integrity when isolated from the others. Cartography is a special case of annotated pictorial form, but it does not need anything outside of its frame. Inventories --Listings of every instance of each Genre. -Narrative Essays -Stand-alone short or long essays in narrative prose form.   Forty-two in number, [expand and replace the paragraph below)/ I have 42 of these. They do not necessarily have any “illustrations.” They were written by me with many images and maps in mind, but I did not plan them to be embedded with specific images in specific places. I have known all along that I would organize them groupings alongside the prose, and printed with layouts that juxtapose images and textual prose. The other types of visual artifacts I have always worked with while writing these essays are presented in the book with equal empirical and representational value as the prose. They are different genres with different cognitive pathways required to “read” them, so it is impossible to value semantic prose as superior or primary. The author uses the power of all together. But it is important to recognize that these prose essays and stories are not, largely speaking, in need of “illustration” in the normal sense. Neither would I prefer that they be stripped of my other, visual forms of expression. The visual material is no less important, but indispensable in a different way. I have tried from the beginning of this project to visualize the past alongside my semantic representations of it. I am a photographer and a writer and a cartographer, but I have never practiced any one of these crafts as a function of my practice in any of the others, nor independence upon that other craft. Photography and Graphics Photographs -Still images recorded to photosensitive films and digital devices. Includes montages and panoramas. Graphics -All static pictorial forms that are neither photographs nor maps, per the definitions in Ghost Metropolis. Maps -Pictorial cartography. A special case of annotated pictorial form, it usually carries semantic symbols that index or reference a depiction of some region of the Earth’s surface. Ghost Maps --See Presner essay for this text Video -All motion pictures. All photographic representations produced with equipment desgned to capture motion in discrete frames and to edit those frames and re-present them at rates too frequent to be detected by the visual perception and cognition of the human mind. Frame still can be isolated from these sequences, but they were never intended to be displayed in a frozen, single-frame format, except for promotional purposes in static formats of magazines and posters. Presentations of frame stills (not to be confused with production stills) beyond their makers’ original intent include critical studies by scholars, and displays by collectors. Audio -All soundtracks lacking moving images. Includes but is not limited to the subgenres of music, radio, recorded voice of any kind, from oral histories to dramatic narratives, and the sound-tracks of movies and videos of any kind. Paths: -Groupings of Nodes with common themes or concerns, presented sequentially in roughly chronological order. -Narrative Pathways -Narrative Essays by common subject in rough chronological order. Pictorial Narratives -Curated sequences of static images (including both photographs and graphics) Cinematic Narratives -Curated sequences of film stills or clips taken directly from cinematic sources. Does not include “production stills” taken by still camera equipment during the making of movies. Cinematic narratives are only taken from motion photography—in whatever format, film to digital. Cartographic Narratives -Curated sequences of maps. Note, this is distinguished from “narrative cartography,” which is any deliberate case of sequential storytelling within a pictorial map. Audio Narratives -Includes voice-overs, curated sequences of discrete musical works (as in the “Soundtrack” of a film), and curated sequences of any form of audio that can be played independently (even if in synchronized conjunction with) any other narrative form. Networks Time and Space