Artifact #2

Welcome to Ana's Room!

ABSTRACT:

Ana's Room is an interactive Thinglink where the "reader" takes the reigns and explores the world of Ana.  "Ana's Room" is a school project that Ana Peretz was assigned by her English teacher Ms. Satac (the requirements of which can be found on her class website).  Ana allows the viewer to take a personal tour of her room, and offers a glimpse of all the different facets of her teenage life including: her interests, hobbies, relationships, family values and sense of humor.  Ana's Room also allows the "reader" to connect Ana with other people in her life, assume the types of relationships she has with them and also maybe draw some important conclusions about some of her family members.  However, these stories are not merely told; the job of the reader is to navigate and work through them to draw his/her own conclusions.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Ana's Room is very user friendly and navigable.  The icons spread across the "scene" allow the reader to choose where to go first.  However, there are some hints as to what each icon does (ie.twitter birds for links to Twitter accounts, play buttons for YouTube links, and an "i" icon to signify important information or in Ana's case, her introduction and welcome statement to her room).

PROCESS NOTES:
In trying to decide how to approach this project, I decided that the most important space for a teenager is his/her bedroom, for a teen's bedroom is the place where they hide their notes, write in their journals, listen to their favorite music, lay in bed texting their friends, etc.  A teenager's room is a treasured sanctuary.  Also, Ana's room is where she kept the journal that her Aunt Rachel gave her for her birthday, and I wanted this project to revolve around that.  

I began with choosing a gender ambiguous bedroom photo that looked like it could be feminine, but wasn't too "pink" (which would clash with her personality).  Then, I let the objects in the photo guide the general direction of the project.  I looked at the different objects in the room, decided how they would fit in with Ana's story and/or personality, and let "Ana" describe what the items were and what they meant to her. I noticed that there was a skateboard and a basketball in the room, which, while not necessarily evidence of a "boys" room, didn't really fit into Ana's character, and thus resulted in the creation of her boyfriend, Shawn.

Also, during the creative process, I was propositioned by a classmate (Holly) to collaborate on a text conversation between Ana and her character Talia (Ana's cousin).  Initially, this was meant to be solely for Holly's use in her project, but as the conversation unfolded, it opened up a short discussion of my main artifact that seemed to tie everything together.  So, with permission from Holly, I also included screenshots of a small snippet of our conversation in Ana's Room.  The process of role-playing as our characters really proved to be an aid in the process of further developing my character and it was a lot of fun as well!

I wanted Ana's room to make Ana's relationship with Rachel Behar more concrete, and I think that all of the small tidbits (some larger than others) add together to make that relationship come to life.  It also provides some interesting red herrings in regards to Rachel, her interests, what her family members think of her, some information about her past, family life, etc.

SO, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, I PRESENT TO YOU, ARTIFACT TWO:
First, visit Ana's Blog and let Ana navigate you to her room! 

Project for Tachistoscope [Bottomless Pit]: A Review

Published in October of 2005, William Poundstone's work, "Project for Tachistoscope [Bottomless Pit]," is claimed to be, in so many words, "a quiet assault of, and perhaps on, icons."  I'd rather think of it as an act of October mischief or quite possibly a Halloween trick, for although I can appreciate it for it's artistic and literary moves, it certainly was no treat!  In fact, it seemed to be more of just one never ending stream of stress.

According to Poundstone, "Project for Tachistoscope" is, in general, a tip-of-the-hat to the histories of avant-garde and popular culture.  In the briefest of explanations, his work tells a story about a town with a bottomless pit.  This story is told via a display of rapid-fire words running in a loop set atop seemingly ambiguous icon images, with menacing music playing in the background and disturbing subliminal imagery flashing for mere milliseconds between words--I believe the words "quiet assault" may have been an understatement, Mr. Poundstone.  


Described in the author's notes, Poundstone mentions the "coincidence" that subliminal messaging and concrete poetry were both introduced as concepts at almost exactly the same time in history.  I suppose it stands to reason, then, upon viewing "Project," that Poundstone's work can  be closely related to that of concrete poetry, if one is asked to attribute it to a specific genre.  While it doesn't exactly take the same "shape" as concrete poetry would, forming words into images of the poem's subject, his work DOES mold the words into some form of its subject in that it uses the methods of the tachistoscope machine to present the text.  




Navigation of this work, is not exactly confusing, but definitely left up to the reader to decide where to start, despite the obvious "start" button in the middle of the home screen.  Should the reader choose to explore the "contextual paratext" first, there are seven icons displayed around the "start" button that only appear when the mouse is resting above said button, otherwise they disperse beyond the screen view of the reader.  These icons link the reader to other pages that provide additional information about the project, including: the historical background of the tachistoscope,  a brief explanation of the work and the best way for the reader to train his/her eyes throughout the experience, some historical background on the historical coincidence of and correlation between concrete poetry and subliminal messaging.  However, the freedom of navigating the page is only the reader's when exploring the paratext.




Should the reader choose to bypass all of the paratext and head straight for the "start" button, he/she is met with a very linear, very restrictive, and very frustrating experience.  By clicking "start," the reader hands the reigns over to the computer program.  Words flash extremely fast on the screen, along with cartoonish icon pictures and subliminal images while in the background unsettling sounds (dare I say music?) play, all making it very difficult to read and comprehend the actual story that is being told through the text.  The reader cannot pause or stop the words from jumping out at them every second.  If a word is missed, a word is missed.  But it's okay, because any words that were missed can be viewed again in approximately 10 minutes when the loop of words is brought back to the  beginning for yet another assault on its now highly suspecting victim.  Essentially, what this continuous flow of text does is create a situation in which the reader actually feels like he/she is falling into this never-ending stream of words, or bottomless pit (not-so-ironically the subject of the text).  If falling into a bottomless pit wasn't enough, the music is designed specifically to evoke specific feelings of uneasiness at specific moments in the text.  The subliminal imagery also has this effect, without the reader being necessarily aware of it. 


 For example:

 According to one reviewer from Yale University, 

"The experience is jarring and sparks all three sorts of help-seeking emotions–confusion about the meaning of the pit story and the flickering images, anxiety about the creepy subliminal images, frustration that the tedious, unnerving video can’t be paused or navigated. But not only does the work offer no viable solution to the conundrums it poses, the “help” it does provide is complicit in the same distressing provocation."

In this critique, the reviewer claims that the contextual material offered to the reader as supplemental information is just as confusing as the "main event" itself because it is non-linear and confusing as to its relation to the fictional text about a nondescript town with a bottomless pit problem.

In her essay, “Machine Poetics and Reading Machines: William Poundstone’s Electronic Literature and Bob Brown’s Readies," Jessica Pressman spend some time talking discussing what she calls "media archaeology" or “a method of examining the cultural conditions that make possible the emergence of new technologies, and recognizing that our reading practices are shaped by historical contexts and media formats renders media archaeology a vital practice for literary criticism.”  She uses Poundstone's Project for Tachistoscope" as an example of this, highlighting his use of cultural history in electronic literature to elicit “suspicious reading,” in which the reader is drawn in and forced to dig deeper into the text.  

Overall, as I mentioned previously, I can definitely appreciate what William Poundstone was trying to do with this piece.  While I believe he absolutely accomplished an evocative feeling of anxiety in his readers through his use of tachistoscope methods and subliminal messaging, I do not feel the need to ever revisit this piece for the simple fact that I prefer to immerse myself in literature that diminishes stress, not causes it.

Artifact #1

All About Ana

Introduction:  While exploring through this hypertext infused blog, the user will find him/herself immersed in the world of Ana Peretz's personal and school life.  Navigation through the pages on Ana's Google Site allows the user to branch out of Ana's immediate world and into the popular culture and other influences of her every day life. From her personal thoughts about movie stars and her "weird" family members to school projects and links to her English teacher's class page, this hypertext demonstrates Ana as an observant 15 year old girl with a multi-faceted lifestyle and a taste for curiosity and intrigue.

Instructions:  There is no "right way" to navigate this hypertext. However, it is always helpful to pay close attention to detail whilst navigating.  

Ana Peretz is essentially your average 15 year old girl.  So, what I decided to do with her is create her online persons to reflect that of someone her age.  She has a personal blog to complain like all teenagers do about their crises, looking for some sort of impersonal digital feedback to make them feel better about themselves. She has a Twitter account to stay connected to friends, family and the popular culture that often dictates her interests and habits.  And, she has a school blog that she uses to post homework and projects for the teachers from her school who embrace digital literacy.  Her English teacher, Ms. Satac, also has a class blog where she posts homework, important announcements and documents.  

I started the process by creating the idea of the journal given to Ana by her Aunt (Rachel Behar) for her birthday, but I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with this journal, so I put it on the back-burner and focused on creating a round character out of Ana first.  I started her blog and her Twitter account and thought about what her interests would be (subsequently following all of the appropriate people, magazines, etc. on Twitter).  Then I just continued to elaborate on everything and sort of let it build itself (with my help of course).  I created this little diagram of how the "web" of hypertexts would be linked, but actually, they are now interchangeable and usually you can get back to one from another, so it's rather cyclical in that way.  When deciding on a teacher's name, I had been looking at a flyer for the Writing Center's "Long Night Against Procrastination" and on it, it said, "...students at a critical..." something.  Then I looked at it again, "...students at a critical..." and came up with the name Ms. Satac.  

After further elaboration on Ana's character, developing school projects, DOING her school projects, posting it in various places and setting up "her world,"  I then decided to go back to the idea of the journal and tweet about it.  I was subtle at first and then felt Ana's teenage attitude begin to surface and complain about what a terrible thing it was to receive such a weird gift.  She posts pictures, tags her cousin, and just generally does what every teenager in the 21st century does, "blow up someone's spot" on the internet.  What she doesn't know, is the possible importance of what she posts on the internet and how that may or my not impact her aunt's fate.


So, without further ado...here is "the link."

Ana Peretz

Well, here it is: 

Ana Peretz officially has a Google Site AND a Twitter account!

I have decided that I'd like to create Ana's digital world in the most detailed way that I possibly can, which may not be easy, but will surely be fun!

I was trying to think of a way that I could incorporate my thesis work into this project and I think that I came up with a solution.  In creating Ana's digital world, I think I am going to use her to my advantage.  I'm going to give her school projects to accomplish and upload to a teacher's page (that I will hopefully have time to create).  And essentially her "projects" will be my projects.  I'm not entirely sure that it will work the way that I want it to, but that is the plan for now.

Also, I'd like to create a physical copy of my "artifact" (the blank journal) and have Ana take pictures of it and post it on her blog complaining about the gift.  She will also create a post later on, while cleaning her room, where she will revisit the journal and find that a page is ripped out of the back.  She will then find, after digging deeper into her "junk drawer" that she did not throw out the note her aunt left her about the journal, and that the note was written on the torn page.  

I then hope to recreate the note, also take pictures of it and post it to Ana's blog and/or Twitter, to be used as suspicious evidence.  I intend to design the message on the note in such a way that it leaves the reader/investigator with questions about Rachel Behar's character, past, innocence, etc.  

Generative Lit. Project

Name: Ana Peretz

Age: 15

Relation to Rachel Behar: Niece

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

"I don't really know much about my aunt; she's always so busy working, she rarely comes to any family functions.  But she does always manage to send me gifts for my birthday and other major holidays, so I guess that's nice of her.  Last year, she gave me this really beautiful bracelet she bought in Paris when she was there on a business trip.  It was probably one of the best gifts I have ever received.  Much better than this year's gift.  It was so weird.  She over-nighted this package to me and I thought it was going to be something really good, since I loved my gift from last year so much.  But it was this weird journal that kinda looked like she got it at a yard sale. It was all worn around the edges and the pages seemed broken in, but there was nothing written in it.  It came with a note that said something about how she liked to write all of her most troubling secrets in her journal and that she thought I could benefit from having one of my own and how important it was to keep it in a safe place. 

 I threw out the note and shoved the journal in my dresser drawer.  I mean, yeah, I guess most 15 year old girls like to write about their lives in journals; I just prefer to live my life than to write about a non-existent one.  I through out Aunt Rachel's note, but now I sort of wish I kept it.  Some days I feel like seeking her out, handing it back to her and asking her just what kinds of secrets she has, exactly.  I figure they can't possibly be that interesting.  I mean, sure, she's traveled all over the place because of work, but shes always working.  What's so scandalous about thirsty legumes?  I'll give you a hint....nothing."

'Cause You're a Sky Full of Stars

I have to admit, I knew that I was going to love Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky as soon as I read the title.  Anyone who knows me well, knows about my slight obsession with all things space related (star-gazing, taking umpteen pictures of the moon, or just enjoying sitting out in my back yard until 4am on a clear night). 

I absolutely loved how it  began with the voice over and subtitles as the stars slowly started coming out (how they often seem to in the actual night sky).  I also love how the voice over introduced all of the stories that the narrator intended to tell in such a beautiful way and compared them to stars in the sky (because, after all, we each have our own "sky full of stars").  We are all made up of the stories that we tell, hear, experience-- and actually, we're also all made of stars.

My initial "navigational" instinct was that I was lost when the subtitles ended.  I waited for something else to happen and when it didn't, decided that maybe it was my turn to do something (though I wasn't sure exactly what).  So I quickly (almost furiously) hovered over the stars back and forth and nothing seemed to happen.  I kept hovering and saw a flash of white text that disappeared as quickly as it came.  So I hovered slower the next time, realizing that each blue star was a story. 

The first star I chose was the story of the narrator's love (because I'm female and subsequently an extremely emotional being--haha).  When I got to the "end" of the story, it seemed as if it ended abruptly, and I wasn't sure if that was intentional or if I was missing something.  Turned out, I was missing something (more hovering--go figure).  I then read each of the stories in a clockwise manner-- going from my starting point at the star in the middle at the bottom of the page and working my way up to the left and around (I may have to put some more thought into why my approaches usually seem so formulaic).

I really cannot say enough about how much I love this piece of e-lit-- BY FAR my favorite this semester.

We're All Mad Here

“Only a few find the way, some don't recognize it when they do - some... don't ever want to.” 

― The Cheshire Cat

"Twelve Blue," for lack of a better term, was "interesting," to say the least.  I approached it three separate times, all because I was interrupted for some reason or another and could not devote an entire 90 minutes to it in one sitting.  I'm not sure if this helped or hurt my general understanding of it. 

I began by just clicking a random spot in the middle of the opening graph, figuring that it really didn't matter where I began, and assuming that I would be confused by its "non-linearness" anyway.  I read through a few screens clicking on hypertext when it was available and going back to the main screen to click another area when it seemed that I had come to a dead end.  

About halfway through my first sitting, I realized that I may have been able to better keep track of the characters and their interwoven stories had I started some sort of name/word web as I read along.  But I didn't, so I was left to memory.  I noticed that the graph had twelve lines that started off separate and then met each other in certain spots.  I have absolutely no proof, but I assume that each of these lines represents a character's story and the meeting points are when their paths cross. 

I found myself revisiting the website for longer periods each time I sat down with my laptop because I was determined to understand exactly how it worked, but I don't think that even the amount of time I spent with it was enough.  The stories of Samantha and Delores, Beth, Eleanor, Edward, etc. still do not seem to all fit together in my head. While I feel as if it is something that may be achievable if I continue to read through it over and over, I am also left with this sense of confusion that almost resigns itself to being lost in the madness.