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!
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!
