Lucid Mapping and Codex Transformissions in the Z-Buffer

Lucid Mapping and Codex Transformissions in the Z-Buffer is an investigation of textual and narrative possibilities within three dimensional on-screen environments (specifically Virtual Reality Modeling Language, or VRML). Functionally, it is both a text to be read and a space to be surveyed. The various elements of the title -- "lucid mapping," "transformissions," "the Z-buffer" -- are all glossed within the VRML environment itself, so I will not discuss them in detail here. The project evolved from a set of early schematic models. These experiments in "spatial heuristics," as I called them, were not conceived as displays of technical virtuosity; rather, I hoped to begin exploring some of the questions raised by three-dimensional information spaces: How well suited are they to organizing documents according to the non-linear principles pioneered by hypertext developers? How can the addition of a third dimension extend (hyper)textual visualization? What are the conditions required for "narrative" in three-dimensional on-screen environments? And so on . . .