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."