Early Web and the Affordances of the Browser

• Josephine Berry & Micz Flor
• Snowfields
• 1997

Snowfields is a participatory, interactive narrative based on the genre of a soap opera. The interface takes readers to a city map, which the authors identify as Berlin. Clicking on various places on the map reveals different parts of the snowfields and a textbox where readers can change or add to the story. Each reading results in a different version of events. In the original version, the authors archived the readers' text, which then became part of what the authors call "the reality" of the snowfields. The work was published in the collection of works on mini-CD-ROM that accompanied Christiane Heibach's Literatur im elektronischen Raum. Visitors can see a copy of this book at the "Treasured Artifacts" section in the glass case.