Audio Heartbeat

In this work, the visual, audio, and haptic elements immerse the reader into the work and bait them into following the narrative. The audio, the most immediately noticeable of these three media, permeates throughout each section of the work. Albeit it varies slightly in each new page, it stays uniformly ominous and intense. In the beginning, the music stays on a single note and varies only in the octave in which that note plays (higher or lower). The sound pulses. When the swinging lightbulb appears, the pulsing quickens, and the player feels the pressure of time with the increase of tempo. In fact, according to a study done at the University of Wisconson, because the music pulses at a faster tempo, the listeners' heart rate and systolic blood pressure increase from their baseline levels ("Effects of music tempos on blood pressure..." 6-7). Then electric guitar enters the music, playing major and minor thirds, making the reader feel a little more overwhelmed with the quickened pace, with more people listening than you’ve ever imagined. My immediate thought upon hearing this music jumped to dramatic cutscenes from interrogation rooms. The music in Untrace pressures the reader to pay attention and make the right decisions because the stakes stand high. The pulsing audio evokes the feeling of a crime scene where pieces of evidence must not go unnoticed.

In addition to the audio, the visual format affects the interpretation of the narrative. With the majority of the work taking place on a solid black screen, the reader has no choice but to pay attention to the small white words in a simple typewriter font. This format draws focus to the content of the phrases rather than any visual distraction. The first image, in fact, doesn’t appear until a minute into the game (a stark difference from many aesthetically pleasing e-literature works). At this point, a lightbulb swings back and forth until the reader clicks it. When they do this, the light turns on (logically), and reveals a chunk of hidden text. The single lightbulb in a dark room, alongside the music, reminds the reader of an interrogation scene, leaving the reader feeling intimidated and powerless. The lightbulb incorporates the traces left behind with the trace of a body on the scene of a crime.

Tactile Trace

Although music and imaging add depth to the piece, the most fascinating media layer of Untrace is the tactile one. In one part of the work, the player has to mouse over the phrases “You are my trace” pop up in different areas across the screen. Because I use a mousepad to navigate the screen, I followed each phrase as it appeared, and ended up physically tracing the path with my finger. Then as soon as I touched each phrase, so to speak, the audio played of different young boys saying "I'm tracing you!" Although a player would not experience this tactile interaction if they using a mouse, I did, and it made me feel connected to the trace the piece left on me.