Artifact #2

For my second artifact I have decided to create a word document impersonating a roommate agreement form that all roommates, like Rachel and Emma, have to sign. 

To navigate the document, I made it as simple as possible with some twists. The reader can just skim through the form and depending on the color of the text, can tell who wrote it. Red text is Rachel Bahar and blue text is Emma Lyn. 

The text will help the viewer or reader come to their own terms of Rachel and Emma as a person. Their responses and font display them as a whole. While Emma tends to be more down to earth, Rachel is peculiar in terms of living with her. The roommate agreement strengthens my story that RAchel dormed as well as lived with my character, Emma Lyn. 

I have also added hyperlinks to images to show: the dorm (both inside and out) by pressing Clayton, how Emma's room is different than Emma (click 5 for Emma's room, 2 for Rachel), Rachel's odd study habits, using products, and even their 5th floor RA and more. 

I found this a lot more easy and fun in regards to the first artifact, I was comfortable with it, knew what I wanted to put forth easier and overall made the entire process easier. I tried to instill some comedic laughs while also showing the personality of both Rachel and Emma. 

Still Standing

"Still Standing" the masterpiece by both Bruno Nadeau and in corporation with Jason Lewis, brings a new standard to the idea of what literary text is in terms of using technology. The author describes this piece as a reflection of the "collapse of the interval" phenomenon of culture. With this being said, it brings across the idea that in our culture, people are more prone to just glance at a sighting and just continue to go about their day.

Nadeau and Lewis both come together in this interactive video and first displays text (both letters and words) fluttering gently on the floor on a huge white screen. Once someone walks in front of the projection, the text is gently kicked up into the air as if the movement is pushing it or kicking it. Once the person stands completely still, it is only until the that the text absorbs the outline of the person that the words stop shaking and become more eligible to read.

[Person shown with movement - the text is moved around]

[Person staying still - the text adheres to the outline of his body]

The poem called "Seeking Sedation", written by the creators is read as:

five chapters of addiction for my perpetual commotion
bring by brain to a stop

the inception of sedation is needed
for the waves to break and the spin to reduce

letters to literal the motionless moment
hides for my sight to seduce

I really appreciated the social critique on both culture as well as other pieces depicting stories while utilizing technology. I can understand that yes, a lot of people spend their time and just glance at something without really absorbing what it really is. Also, some other pieces can just be 'click easy' that allows the viewer to consume as much as they want rather than to consume for what it is intended to be.


My process was simple, I watched the video multiple times (both on mute and with sound) to take in the visuals as much as possible. The visuals are both the main concept as well as gripping point for the viewer. It has one message, slow down and take it all in. 

First Artifact!

So for my first artifact to connect my character, Emma Lynn, to Rachel Bahar, I decided to go on a more modern way of communication. To fully understand my character, I used the social media network known as instagram to accurately tell her life through pictures and captions. However, because Rachel Bahar isn't a fully formed character background wise or even has an appearance yet, I was able to tie both Emma and Rachel together via hashtags (#) and exchanges of comments on pictures.
In terms of technicality, the viewer doesn't necessarily have many choices in terms of where to click, but every click goes more in depth of Emma and how her life as an intern, yoga enthusiast, and even happily engaged.

As far as the map, I wanted to set up for the viewer how both interactive and at times redundant that technology can be.  I began with a picture of an iphone turned off, and the viewer has to click and proceed to turn the phone on and to click on the instagram app logo to log-in. Once the app has been pressed, the log in screen is presented with Emma's username and password already typed in (her password is written in asterisk's to preserve her privacy of her profile). Once you are logged on, you get a view of Emma's profile and can click on a few pictures to which the viewer is then presented with pictures, captions, and conversations via comments. Some hashtags you can click on and towards the end, the viewer has the chance to click on Rachel's username to view her profile, unexpectedly such as technology does, her page goes missing or rather, that instagram is has some technical issues and is unable to give the viewer Rachel Bahar's life, leaving the mystery of her life still untold but not unknown.

I used thinglink.com to help create my artifact and implore all new users to go and use it for further projects!

Start Here: http://www.thinglink.com/scene/584554345119350788

Hypertext / Ideas

My character, Emma Lyn, has finally come to life! Roommate as well as close friend to Rachel Bahar,  she's a pharmaceutical major who graduated 2nd in her class. Also, tends to blow money on a pumpkin spice frap every day even though she has a perfectly good keurig at home and how anyone can stand the mixture of artificial pumpkin iced with diabetes is beyond me. She currently works on a project concerning a pill to lessen ADHD in adolescents with her internship and is happily engaged.
Check soon to see her tweets!
https://twitter.com/EmmaLyn_00

(P.S. There may be a tweet or two about Starbucks, be warned)

(P.P.S When winter comes, tweets concerning pumpkin spice will be replaced with peppermint)


Possibly for the artifact would be a yearbook or in some memorabilia where Rachel and Emma  attended college or even modernly, instagram pictures from #tbt

(which means throwback Thursday on Instagram for those who are not a technological savant)
(Also, Instagram is an app on a smart phone to show pictures depicting your personality)
(A smartphone is a phone that doesn't flip shut as and doesn't disconnect the internet when you use it)


But in all seriousness!
I'm pretty excited to extend my seemingly insignificant character into someone her own!

Best regards,
Taylor

Happy Fall!

Sketch for character for Rachel Bahar

Rachel Bahar went to Theopolis College to obtain a M.S. in Genetic Engineering, this is what we know for the Generative Literature Project. As for delving into Miss. Bahar's life further, and trying to come up with a secondary character, I thought about choosing an old roommate that Rachel roomed with while attending Theopolis College. During her sophomore year of college, Rachel met her roommate Emma Lyn, a pharmacy major. Rachel and Emma clicked so well together and continued to dorm throughout the rest of the years of them attending Theopolis college. Emma Lyn, a brunette Caucasian woman, would grow to be one of Rachel's closest friends during this time period and would be a strong supporting character if she was questioned about Rachel's personality, morals, and private life. Although Rachel and Emma live too far away to constantly keep in touch today,they were close enough in college to the point if Rachel had any vendetta against her peers, Professors, or in this case, her Dean, Emma would definitely be credible enough to remember if anything had happened during the duration of them staying together in school. Think about it like this, with your roommate (one that you're really close with), if something happened in school in the past, wouldn't you be one of the first people your roommate would tell? Rachel living with Emma for a period of time could lead the audience if she had any past grudges against the school that Emma could dissolve quickly or even help build up a theoretical case.
        Emma Lyn and Rachel Bahar aren't the strongest relationship in the modern day sense but if the reader has to try and put pieces together in order to try and put pieces together as to why the Dean of the Theopolis is dead, going into her past isn't a bad idea. With going into Rachel Bahar's past, why not reach out to the people who knew Rachel during this time period? In this case, her roommate, Emma Lyn.

Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky

When clicking upon the link to experience Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky, multiple different uses of literary magic engulfed me when going further into the poem. When first clicking to begin the short lived journey, English subtitles can be read at the bottom. But to my surprise, a voice was hear in the background speaking what sounded like Arabic. It was interesting to say the least that another language accompanied the English subtitles but it created a balance between the two. Although I had no idea what the young man was saying in Arabic, it gave the poem a more personal tone and endearing in the sense when you feel like he's speaking only to you (regardless if you know Arabic or not).

The poem asks the reader if they wish to know about the speaker's family members or influences in his life. As more and more people comes into the conversation, stars can be seen appearing in the back and if you don't look at the screen close enough, the stars seem to just appear when the introduction is done. Among the people the speaker wants to inquire you about is his uncle, his lover, his sister and his cousin but then you also have the choice to ask about water, the stars, and the land of which he people crossed or wish to cross.

I clicked to know more about his lover and a separate poem popped up and described how the speaker and his mate met. I was under the influence more highly decorated words were going to come into play but the poem mentioning his lover was pretty simplistic and the poem itself had no stereotypical structure a poem could have. It made the poem seem looser as a text, disregarding literary rules when it comes to poetry, the poem then came off as even more personal when the poem describes the costume party to which the speaker met his lover. It created a tone of nostalgia and gave the reader a justified response when asked about his significant other.

The overall effects aren't necessarily out of this world or high tech in any way but I feel that with the ominous music playing in the background, the stars that appeared over time, and even the speaker speaking Arabic but accompanied by English subtitles brought this idea of a poem to life. This poem ha a certain vitality to it when the reader is given the opportunity to choose who they wish to know  about. That also gave a more personal feeling to the poem when I was able to choose who to read more about. It again gave that personal feeling not only to the speaker but to the reader as well. Overall, the poems literary uses gave me the ability to see someone else's work come to life with the helping of electronics but accompanied by English based structures that I've grown to continuously learn about.

Twelve Blue

     Twelve Blue", the hypertext fiction writing of Micheal Joyce, has to be one of the most interesting pieces of literature I've come across. Being a newcomer when it comes to learning about electronic literature, the entire experience when delving into the logistics of "e-lit"has still surprisingly left me curious. The new branch of fiction has been almost like a secret phenomena and only a few really know what it consists of. I've barely begun to unwrap the mystery that electronic lit has over me, and it's not necessarily a bad thing either.
     But "Twelve Blue", a long fiction piece in digital form, has left me more confused than when first discovering the world of digital fiction. In a screen of a persistent blue,  the reader is given only what seems like parts of a story or poem and then ended with a hyperlink to send you to different page of the same tenacious blue.If it was a story line, I'm sorry to report that I couldn't pair one sequence with another, but that isn't to say that the words were mediocre, far from. With each segment, I got a nice visual of every piece. One part depicted a male by the name of Ed, imagining himself within the clouds falling into a still pool. The imagery given was pretty to say the least, but then the word clouds was a word that allowed me to click on it to where it then took me to a piece about a girl named Samantha. Samantha and Ed seemed to have no connection, due to how the transition was. Samantha was standing near the shore edge until it morphed into what was described as a carpet. The story twists and turns when you read about a swimmer in the water, Henry, who was made to sound like he and Samantha were connected. It was only until a mother figure is introduced with dialogue, that she mentioned how the earth smelled of blood, that confused me all over again. Just when I thought I was loosely grasping onto the concept, Joyce rips the carpet from beneath me.

There was one excerpt I landed on, that left me when some profound feeling.
 
"Everything can be read, every surface and silence, every breath and every vacancy, every eddy and current, every body and its absence, every darkness every light, each cloud and knife, each finger and tree, every backwater, every crevice and hollow, each nostril, tendril and crescent, every whisper, every whimper, each laugh and every blue feather, each stone, each nipple, every thread every color, each woman and her lover, every man and his mother, every river, each of the twelve blue oceans and the moon, every forlorn link, every hope and every ending, each coincidence, the distant call of a loon, light through the high branches of blue pines, the sigh of rain, every estuary, each gesture at parting, every kiss, each wasp's wing, every foghorn and railway whistle, every shadow, every gasp, each glowing silver screen, every web, the smear of starlight, a fingertip, rose whorl, armpit, pearl, every delight and misgiving, every unadorned wish, every daughter, every death, each woven thing, each machine, every ever after"

Even seeing the word "every" repeated multiple times couldn't distract me from reading it to the very end. The first line hooked me in and I could not stop absorbing both the words and the meaning. Literature can be read, the love between two people can be read, every sensory feeling can be read in all the same way but differently and that's what makes this so unique. It's so different, in multiple ways, and it's a really good start for a newcomer just coming into the world of electronic literature. 

First Impressions of Electronic Literature

Usually, the words “electronic” and “literature”, never seem to go hand in hand with each other, or at least that’s what I have become accustomed to as I’ve progressed in schooling.  Walking into the class with exactly zero idea about what the course really seemed to be about, I sat in the middle of the sea of others who had a tighter grasp of what the course cultivated of. The Professor first walked in and automatically radiated a somewhat uncommon aura that let the class know she was passionate about her occupation and essentially, the class itself. Throughout the 3 hours, I came to the understanding that electronic literature isn’t just an idea, it’s really another coming of age way of grouping both technology and literature together in a more  profound procedure; a way that allows everyone to appreciate literature in not only a more artistic fashion, but in a more simpler style. Literature gives us the images as we read to truly absorb the language, context, and surface area of a plot, but electronically, we as the outside spectators are also allowed to branch out and view other perspectives of it.

Ornate writing aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the class and what exactly I’m going to get myself into.  Personally, I absolutely love graphic design and English has always been a love I continuously grow more and more fond of as I grow older. So when I came to the conclusion that both of these worlds would actually collide into one another to create theoretically, beautiful pieces of art, it’s safe to say I was blissfully surprised as well as enthusiastic.