The three completely different textual media samples that were shown to us right away were all interesting. Of the three, I found the Orson Whales to be the most interesting and unique. Sure, the Jabber engine could create random words, and the Firefly showed lots of creativity and needed acted on user involvement, but I loved the meshing of the arts of Orson Whales.
To me, the representational meaning of Alex Itin’s “Orson Whales” is to show the ability of a novel to turn to life. By using the actual pages as a canvas on which to tell the story, mixed with sounds and dramatic music, the novel takes a life of its own and forces the reader to be enveloped within story. Rather than just sitting down and reading the book with a freedom to imagine anything, Itin uses multiple drawings to create a sort of movie. I, having never really read the novel of Moby Dick, can get a faint understanding of the book just by watching the pictures. The combination of the voice of Orson Welles as the narrator, clips from his movies, the intricate drawings, and the music of Led Zeplin not only create a new way to tell the tale, but also create a ‘creepy’ vibe in which the tale is told through.
The evocative meaning of Itin’s piece is the intertwining of various forms of art in order to create a new form – textual media. By using multiple clips, such as the voice of Welles, the music of Led Zeplin, his own illustrations, and Melville’s pages, Itin has creatively generated a new way to perceive and read the novel through the fusion of diverse sources. Itin’s mixes the arts to create his own art in which he shows his own personal interpretation of the novel/song/narration. Though the representational meaning of “Orson Whales” clearly shows a combination of sources, the evocative meaning of creativity and personal interpretation become hindered and hidden.
I think the commonality among the three new ‘textual media’ examples we saw we’re creativity and personal interpretation. Creativity allows us to act on our own personal interpretations and beliefs as well as how we feel about certain things, no matter the type of art.