Author: bbowling

Blog #10- Last one! Twitter, Twittervision, Twistori

I really enjoyed working with these different programs. I thought it invoked other avenues of clearer thought for me. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that Twitter is extremely similar to that of Facebook wall posts, which is familiar to a large majority of the younger generation. There is also a familiar theme of staying connected among these three and Facebook or the other sites some of use, like Myspace or even email in general. The way that Twitter was set up more or less disappointed me. I felt as though we went from stressful works that had a trillion different triggers for our senses to a work that had a cute bird and a box for writing text-like messages for the world to see. I did enjoy the work because of the stress free aspect, but I was already conditioned to expect the intense nature of the other works. Twittervision draws the viewer in immediately and you find yourself intently waiting for the next bubble to pop up. The cute little bird has a new activity of jumping from place to place delivering you the text-like messages from their original location. I remember watching it in class and seeing someone pop up from Richmond, Virginia and I instantly felt it become more real and personable. This work also allows for ads to pop up, which I found interesting. It speaks to how inundated the world has become to material and financial opportunities. These ads are for things like news channels, radio stations, etc. The only thing that would make this more interesting is if you could see a story being developed by these tweets that are being shown. I suppose a story could be developed by chance, but the likelihood of it being a cohesive story is slim to none. There would seemingly be no beginning or end.  This could relate back to the work Implementation because it’s as if we’re seeing parts of a random story as we come upon them. We would have to wait to stumble upon another bit of the story in the future. The twitervision, however, provides an obvious way to go back and search for the rest of the story by including a writer and potentially their picture. The last work, Twistori, reminded me so much of We Feel Fine and I’m sure it’s completely obvious why, with the similar structure and content. One of the main things I found interesting is how they both provide the reader with surprising results after an emotion is clicked on. This morning I went back and viewed Twistori and I clicked on “Love.” The first line that came up was something to the effect of, “I could kill myself – I LOVE meetings.” These works all force the reader to disarm any stereotypical answer for emotions that are being sought out. Don’t choose an emotion with expectations of a certain response, because you may get just the opposite.  These three works were a good way to end the semester because they were way more relaxing and they were something very familiar to most of us in the classroom.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Be safe and good luck on your projects!

Post #9: Game, Game, Game and Again Game

In Game, Game, Game and Again Game, the question of whether this new media is considered a game or story was heavily discussed in class. In my opinion, I believe it could be either. I’m not sure if this was mentioned during the discussion, but I thought it was interesting because every time I would fiddle with the piece of new media, my mind would focus on something different. This all depended on how I was feeling or what time of day it was.  The piece, like many others in this course, takes on several different titles. When I initially engaged in the activity, I completely ignored the text and the things that were being blasted across the screen. My focus was on that weird squiggly ball getting to the door. It wasn’t until I lost the second round and saw the church cracked in half with weird bolts coming out of it when my attention shifted. This attention deficit towards the seemingly more important aspects of the piece is probably due to the amount of senses the artist is trying to reach. I tried interacting with the piece without the sound and instantly I felt more at ease. (Notice the use of the word ‘interaction.’ I’m trying to stay away from verbs like ‘play’ or ‘read’ because I don’t want to suggest that I think it’s more of one than the other.) Avoiding attention to the words or the massive random objects that would appear helped me to pass each level, but I certainly had no clue what was trying to be conveyed by the text. The person interacting has to decide what it is that they want out of the work and how much searching or analyzing they want to do. The general idea that all of these pieces have layers to them is quite significant and generally isn’t something a reader has with a book or with a simple game. The choice of playing or analyzing is often chosen before other types of media or entertainment. This piece gives the viewer the option during any point of their interaction. The only catch is that in order to be more analytical, you have to be more interactive with the gaming aspect.  This is typically the case with other works that we have looked at. We have found that with pieces like the Bomar Gene, the interactor has to do something in order to get something – in a give and take type of relationship with the piece. These types of pieces allow the interactor to decide their fate with the piece they’re interacting with.

Blog #8- We All Fell Down

All Fall Down by Young Chang Heavy Industries was a bit of a headache as we all saw in class. This work consists of two different story lines being played out in different fashions. This first and most obvious part was the top half of the screen with bigger and bolder text. It also came up on the screen in tandem with the beats of the music. The other part was the ticker-esque text that ran along the bottom of the screen. If we separated all three aspects of the text, the music and the two texts apart from each other it would be a much more pleasurable experience. However, as we concluded during class, reading the texts separately even posed a problem, because it was tedious and the viewer had to be very focused. This is also true with the Star Wars, One Letter at a Time work because the viewer had to be completely involved and actively watching the screen to put the pieces together before the next word or letter popped up.

The aesthetics of the work are intriguing because, again, if you were to separate all of the pieces of the work and make them more simplistic, they would be more enjoyable. For example, I had had this work running behind a couple of Internet browser windows and I found myself enjoying the music. If you were to take the texts out of the pulsating or ticker format and were to put them in a structure resembling a poem, then the viewer would be able to read each word at their leisure.

Aside from the aesthetics and the fast paced nature of the work, the context was a matter of interest for me as well. While we were reading the separate pieces in class, I was wondering if there was ever some part where they intersect. Why were these texts chosen? Maybe when the top part mentions that ‘people fall down’ he’s referring to the person in the bottom ticker and their actions. I feel like the bottom ticker is describing a stalker or someone who is obsessed with a particular woman. It’s almost as if the top part of the screen is pushing the bottom part of the screen to make a move or create some kind of action towards the object. The forced nature of the top part and the way it fluctuates between the black and white makes the viewer anxious and it creates suspense as if something is supposed to happen. Nothing seems to really happen, which is disappointing. It reminds me of a really bad horror movie in which there is plenty or suspense leading up to plenty of nothing.  I found this piece just as stressful as the other pieces, despite the lack of color or intricate links and quirky aspects of pieces such as the Bomar Gene.

Blog #7- The Intruder

The Intruder by Natalie Bookchin told a story through the games that you were playing. The presence of text fluctuated from game to game, but there always seem to be two different ways to understand the story from. Typically, those two ways were through hearing it and the other way was a supplementary picture, text, often times both. To retrieve the story, the viewer needs to advance through the game. Almost, like in game, game, game, and again game, which we saw in a recent class. I found it difficult to pay attention to the story, especially in the game where you had to shoot your rival, because your attention is focused on achieving the goal, rather than comprehending the story.

After going through the game a couple of times, I started to pick up what the storyline was about. Sure, you get the quick blurb in the beginning that says “The intruder- passing the love of women- 2 Samuel 1:26- a story told in ten games…”, but that only tells you so much. The sound of the narrators voice seemed to have a Spanish accent and the original story was in Spanish. The Spanish culture is extremely religious, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to see the biblical reference in the title page or game.

I found it interesting when I opened the hypertext at different times because at some points the games were running much more slowly. That tended to influence my tolerance towards the games and the story itself. This is especially true in regards to the game immediately following the title page. Sometimes it was simply too fast and the sound and screen glitch that appeared made me cringe and more so with every miss. I had to eventually mute the sound and manually switch to the next game.

In regards to the theme of the story, the games related to the text or the spoken words of the narrator, I assume. For instance, in the second game, there is an alien game, which relates to the intruder not being familiar to them. In the third game, the narrator speaks of how the intruder or antagonist has relations with women. The game requires you to shoot the opponent without getting yourself hurt. The interesting part is that the woman switches from side to side, which is triggered by whether you shoot. She doesn’t necessarily die, she just changes sides, which may symbolize one side saving her or on the other hand, possibly kidnapping her. This may also symbolize the fact that the narrator of the story possibly feeling like a piece property or a trade item. In this same game there was this intriguing picture of a window with a women standing in it. This represented the possibility of escape through women. Maybe the women in the story were the key to freedom somehow. The story combined with the voice and the games give another layer of insight to the plot it is just a matter or understanding both and comprehending both at the same time.

Blog #6- My Body- a Wunderkammer

My Body- a Wunderkammer by Shelley Jackson was a difficult hypertext to wrap my head around, but not in the typical sense of the other hypertexts we’ve studied. Instead of spending majority of our time to simply understand what is going on, we are able to read and understand the context. This work was more relatable and personable than any of the other works, so the difficult part laid within discovering the reason behind the work and possibly the feelings she had while writing the work. While we took time to navigate and explore the work, I felt as though I was prying into someone’s life and private journal or diary. There were some very personal entries about her body. For instance, the entry about her stomach and how her belly button ring chain kept her from slouching was, to an extent, uncomfortable for me. She says, “[the chain] make[s] me aware of my bondage… it stops me from wondering where else I might want to be…” Several parts of the entries are critical of her body and make me wonder if she didn’t feel resentful towards her surrounding society, rather than sentimental and self-confident, like was said in class. This is evident in the same entry when she talks about her belly dancing and her inability to achieve the dance technique. It seems that she has something positive to say, but then the next line is consequently negative. For instance, she says, “Belly dancing has taught me to roll and flutter [my stomach], though awkwardly and unreliably.” Another example is when she had the cast that made her small injury seem bigger than it was. This caused people ‘who wouldn’t ordinarily talk to [her]’ to inquire about what happened. She felt as though her injury wasn’t good enough for people to seem concerned. While there are several instances of her being expressing self-confidence, I can’t help but feel a sense of shame and resentfulness towards her schoolmates and family or even in her self proclaimed shortcomings.

My Body- a Wunderkammer gave insight to a unique individual’s past and revealed different aspects of her body image. Within each entry there are links interweaving the entries together. I’m not sure why she makes the connections she does, other than the link making a connection to the obvious body part, but there are some that take more anaylsis to figure out. For instance, with her link of ‘princess’ the reader wouldn’t necessarily guess that the link would lead to an entry about her dolls and their hair.

Shelley Jackson’s work is extremely intimate and secluded from the outside world, from sharing about the hairs on her toes to her exclaiming that she discovered a new way to masturbate. This work is very intriguing on several levels than the other works than we’ve studied because it added a sense that the reader could relate to as well as feel empathy towards in some respects.

Blog #5: ‘Understanding Comics’

When I realized I had to buy this book, I was seemingly annoyed that I was spending my money on such a thing. I also found myself some what embarrassed when I pulled it out to read a few chapters at work. When I got a little ways into the book, I started to find some interest in it. The structure is really captivating and it allows the reader to analyze the written words through illustrations. For instance, on page 51 he shows “The Picture Plane” triangle, which charts the many phases of drawing a face. On the following two pages, there exists an even more complex triangle where there is an even clearer explanation of the concept of the symbol. I found that I was appreciating the slow progression of each explanation, because it allowed the reader to stop and think about the little details of a comic more than they probably ever have before. Another section that caught my attention was the concept of time elapsing between pictures. I never realized how much time and thought goes into that break or ‘the gutter.’ McCloud explains that the gutter allows the imagination to come into play. The two frames he provides on page 66 is of a man shouting no and the next frame you just see a city scape and the word “EEYAA!!” He explains the action as our “special crime, each of [us] committing it in your own style.” I like this idea and I think this is why many people are drawn to comic books, because their imagination has a chance to decide what happens and to create a story the may not have even been there. There are several concepts that McClous brings up that I had never thought about before. I think even the length of the book tells a lot about comics and their complexities, because all I knew prior to this book, was that a comic essentially consisted of pictures and dialogue bubbles. Thanks to McCloud, I can appreciate the amount of work and effort that goes into each comic strip of the Sunday paper.

Blog#4: Afternoon

The anticipation to actually view the story Afternoon, more than what we saw in class, had me with greater expectations in the beginning. After I opened up the file, I started flipping through the actual story. In terms of the style, I didn’t see many physical attributes that played up to Hegirascope’s entertainment value. I was relatively bored while reading and I actually think some color would have helped me to read the text. It seemed bland and it made me wonder if pictures or other aspects could have enhanced the story. Maybe Joyce’s intention was to have the reader rely solely on their imagination like a physical novel. In relation to the necessity to click, hit enter or select ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to continue, there are obviously less options, but there is more cohesiveness then Hegirascope. While there is some cohesion, because there are obvious connections to characters and themes, the story still displays much ambiguity across the paths of options. In Afternoon there is only one question that I noticed in the entire story and that was on the first page. The rest of the story heavily depended on the answer to “Do you want to hear about it?” If you click ‘yes’ it leads you on and eventually no matter how you chose to move forward, it always takes you to the same following page. The title bar for that page would say ‘yes 1,’ ‘yes 2,’ etc. no matter if you just hit enter or selected no. So, again, in relation to Hegirascope it gives you a significantly lower number of options, which allows it to be less confusing. If the reader selects ‘no’ for the first question then there is a more complicated stream of pages. Rather than majority of them being ‘no’ titles, there are other pages that contribute. For instance, on the third or fourth page, it says ‘yesterday 2.’ However, there still occurs the issue that you can’t really change the path once it’s started, because it will continue to the following page no matter what is pressed or clicked. Another aspect I noticed was the arbitrary text space next to the ‘Y’ and ‘N’ buttons. I tried to use them, but nothing really seemed to come out of it.

As far as the story context is concerned, I only tried to follow four or five pages to try and simplify a small part. I chose to not ‘hear about it’ or winter and then I just pushed enter to see where it would take me. I followed roughly the same techniques as before and found that when you go back to the previous page and hit enter again, sometimes it would take you to a different page. This was one way I found it to be like Hegirascope, but I think that was the only part in the story it did that. These five pages talk about seeing a son dying, someone driving a Japanese truck and running into beasts like raccoons, and also there was a random page with someone asking the narrator about sleeping with his ex-wife. The story itself seems like it carries the same type of characters and themes, but overall it is hard to tell where or if it ends.

Blog #3: Interactive Fiction- Lost Pig

As with the last assignment I tried to go into this assignment without reading the instructions. I fit in with the part of the population that’s all about instant satisfaction– which means the majority of the general public. So, from seeing the short example in class, I thought this would be a somewhat simple and enjoyable assignment. Upon attempting the first IF text, I shortly realized how obnoxious and time consuming it would be actually get to the ending of these stories. After Tuesday’s class when we had played with the story Aisle, I saw that it could be more enjoyable when you put more thought into the actions you wanted the characters to play out. This was especially true when you ask the character to do dangerous or scandalous acts. For instance, in Aisle I asked the main character to push over a shelf and she did, which led to her getting carried out of the store by security. In Lost Pig, the character, Grunk talks to himself in third person and reminds me of the character Dobby from Harry Potter. He, of course, is off looking for his boss’ lost pig. The first step I took was too see what he had in his possession by hitting ‘i’ for inventory and from there the adventure began. I ended up finding the pig, but was stuck down by a glowing room and I wasn’t able to grab the pig. By this point I got frustrated and told myself I would try again later.

My general reaction of these types of texts is that I think it is interesting for someone who has plenty of patience and curiousity. I never really had experience with IFs in the past and I never even had a gaming console when I was growing up. So, the gaming realm as a whole is more foreign to me. I feel as though Aisle is more closely related to the CYOA books because there are those immediate endings sometimes and there are so many different endings. However, there is no real plot just some general information and each time the story ends, you gain a little bit more information, which allows you to navigate through the story a little longer. In that way it is like CYOA books because each time you go through the book, you gain that much more information and you know better than to go to a certain because you might die. I like the concept of the IFs, I just wish I had more time and patience to fiddle with them.

CYOA Reflection

The one thing that was crystallized by the mapping process was the fact that several of the stories overlap. While we’re reading the stories, a page or two might look or sound familiar, but it is really made concrete when you can see the arrows cross over other paths. The book, itself, seems so simplistic, but upon creating the map and seeing the interworkings of how the stories are intertwined proves otherwise. There are so many intricate details involved with this process it’s interesting to actually see those details layed out infront of you.

Blog #2: MBCBFTW

The physical differences in Hegirascope versus My Boyfriend Came Back From the War were obviously because the colors weren’t as vibrant, but I think that played into the story for MBCBFTW. It was interesting to start exploring MBCBFTW because I had this preconceived notion of what I might expect, since we were going to be comparing it to Hegirascope. In the new text, I found that there were more links and more opportunities for progressing the blocks on the screen as well as more evolution for the story. In this, I mean that MBCBFTW had slightly more cohesiveness than Hegirascope, because all of the links could be related back to a scenario that would fit into the situation of someone’s boyfriend coming back from the war. For example, in the first blocks, it says, “Where are you? I can’t see you.” And when you click on it, it says “FORGET IT.” I took this as the girl trying to delve into her boyfriend’s odd personality and why he’s not the same as when he left. As the viewer gets deeper into the text, it is up to them to chose a link, just like Hegirascope, but the option to go back and chose another path is easier to do.

I think the layout of MBCBFTW is interesting because it starts out with limited items on the page and it expands. The images of the couple in the bottom left hand corner remain there along with the window in the same box. The viewer is not allowed to click on either of the images and they are seemingly secluded from the other boxes. I feel as though they represent the couple in conversation and the window represented an exit that you couldn’t escape from, like a blocked fire escape. I felt myself wanting to click on the window to do something, but there was never a link connected to it. This could represent the fact that when a loved one comes back from such a traumatic situation as war you can’t just run from it, it has to be dealt with.  Also, when the middle column of boxes became split in the middle, it seemed that the girl’s side of the conversation was on the left and the guy’s side of the conversation was on the right.

Overall, I found this text to be more entertaining than Hegirascope and definitely less frustrating. This is not to say that I was more understanding of the piece, because I can’t tell if I understood it more or less then Hegirascope. I only know that it was easier for me to make assumptions of what the author intended.

Blog 1: click.

My first instinct when I opened the Firefly site, as with the Jabber site, was to just click. My natural instinct in any site like this is to click, explore, and discover as much as I can without actually reading and/or following the instructions. In all honesty, Firefly was kind of boring and I think it’s due to the fact that requires less thought. Jabber possessed more of an everlasting entertainment value even though less clicking was required. The reason behind the process was more complex and it did require some knowledge of the system to understand what was happening. Firefly was boring because it was more self-explanatory and there weren’t as many things flying around the page.

The representational meaning behind Firefly was to provide a text that reads like a create-your-own-story book. It shows us a poem with 5 lines per page and a background picture of a memorial is provided – a different picture/view on each page. Each of these lines is able to switch to another line, once clicked on. It gives us options and depending on the line you switch, you’ll create a different part of the story, which may also mean a different end product.

The evocative meaning behind Firefly was created through the nostaligic feel of the style of text. I know that one person in class mentioned that it reminded her of when she or her children read those type of books when they were younger. Also, this style of changing one part of a work, which leads to a potentially completly different ending is relevant to our everyday life.  This meaning that if we were to chose to drive versus ride our bike to school could, it be the deciding factor of our fate. One slip of another driver or the drivee/biker could evolve into a fatal crash ending one person or many people’s lives. Sure, that’s an extreme example, but in reality, one wrong, unanticipated, or irrational thought by any party in a situation could change your life.