Medlay (medley + lay) is a hybrid media form for creating a multimedia artifact that narrates a story or communicates an idea on the Web.
A media form is to a media artifact as comics is to a particular comic book or as cinema is to a particular movie: the latter is a specific application of the former.
A screenshot from the proof of concept The Last Dispatch.
Medlay is hybrid because it combines the strengths of two popular media forms: cinema and comics. For example, the moving image in cinema or the variably sized and shaped panel in comics.
Specifically, it fuses the one-image-at-a-time temporal narration typical of cinema with the multi-images spatial narration characteristic of comics.
One-image-at-a-time temporal narration.
Multi-images spatial narration. Hirohiko Araki, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Two proof-of-concept prototypes have been created to demonstrate the potential uses of Medlay: The Last Dispatch and Ubik Chap. 6. Both narrate a short story.
A screenshot from the proof of concept Ubik Chap. 6.
Viewers of a Medlay artifact can actively and freely explore1 the time and space of a multimedia narration.
The watching time of a Medlay artifact is not dictated by the roll of moving images as it is in a movie, allowing viewers to interact with the narrative sequence in an order and pace of their own choosing.
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