HiDiLi

I Thought It Was A Map...

2006-04-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

When I first saw My Name Is Captain, Captain, I thought it was supposed to be a map. Then we talked about it in class and came up with all these different options. I thought I'd throw one more wild pitch out there because I was reading online everything I could find about this piece (which really isn't very much, we said many more interesting things in class).

One of the most interesting things I found was the emphasis on Morse code. I wanted to kind of expand on what I read a bit. Some people talked about how Morse code was significant to this piece, not only for it's visual aspect and it's relation to traveling and flying and S.O.S. emergency calls, but to the fact that both Morse code and My Name Is Captain, Captain depend on technology to function. At some point in time Morse code was a very new and brilliant invention, a new piece of technology. To use it, one was required to possess a telegraph machine, right? Just like with this CD, we need a computer to use it at all. We need a monitor to view it, and all the wires and technology that go into making our computer and monitor work. I found this connection interesting, but I then I had another interesting thought:

Though it's true that both use technology, one requires (I think) or uses sound, and one has no involvement with sound at all. I thought this was a kind of significant point, but I really don't know why. If we would have heard Morse code while the plane flew by, then would we have been irritated? Would we have thought it was cool? I don't really know, I think I might have been irritated if I couldn't turn it off. Or what if there was a plane sound? That's less irritating, but maybe Judd folks thought it wouldn't really add anything to the piece. (Changing subjects now)

How about the whole lack of sound? Why? Why no sound? Are we to focus on the visual only? Is it important that we see everything and hear, feel, taste, and smell nothing? We get only one sense aroused right? Isn't that a little bit odd? Especially because we do very little while viewing the poem, though there are certain interactions. (Which, might I add, most of the reviewers/commentors/interviewers failed to mention/missed. A couple would mention the table, but say nothing of the drawer, only of the rising/falling letters/numbers. None of them seemed to find that. There were also some that said something to the tune of "this requires no interaction at all, and no other programs can be run" which isn't true (about the no interaction) the drawers need to be opened. The plane's dit-dah-dit needs to passed over. There's definitely some interaction...all right, back to my topic) We watch the poem for the most part, at first with very little color, and then, with the aviators and the colored box tops, we get SOME color. Most of the stimulation seems to occur through the movement. Movement requires energy, which is something watching this poem requires none (physical-wise) of. So why all the movement? Why so little color? Why no sound? Why so few pictures? Would pictures be too stimulating?

One thing a reviewer noted was that "His endless way" settles over the line "She was and may still be." Amelia references? God? Lindberg? I don't know. I don't really know the significance of this, but one reviewer brings it up, but doesn't explain it. Does it have to do with the story of lost love? Maybe the reviewer is just insane. (Jessica Pressman is the reviewer, by the way)

Why are there 2 little holes on the viewer screen of the pilots with the toy planes? I was wondering if the fact that pilots are "playing" with planes has any relevance. It could, because maybe Amelia was toying with fate, flying so far, so early in flight history? Maybe that baby was lost because the family was toying with its life. Maybe Judd & Lori think that all pilots play around in a way? I have no concrete stuff here, just ideas. As for the two holes, maybe it has to do with eyes. Maybe they're so we see a big piece and two tiny pieces. Big picture as opposed to the small picture (short term), like with the execution of someone with maybe some of the evidence being questionable (which I don't really know if that's how it really was).

So we came up with, that viewer thing, from when we were kids... http://images.forbes.com/media/lifestyle/2005/12/02/4_1202toys.jpg which let me say I think might be dead on. See the two small holes? And the big thing in the center? The big thing in the center doesn't show the images, but the holes are in the right places...And the color is red...the image could just be showing something aged, and maybe showing nothing in the big hole and only a little something in the small holes wouldn't really have worked well for viewing. So maybe that's exactly the thought they were going for though.

Then there’s the Venn diagram. (Which I found spelled with “nn” and “n,” and Google didn't have a problem with each) http://www.stat.yale.edu/Courses/1997-98/101/venn2.gif. This one also seems kind of significant because at some point there is the section in the middle that seems to obviously represent that crossover area. But at that time there are no pictures, so maybe at one point the poem is representing a Venn, in trying to show how things crossover, (like their medium, which is writing, a traditionally non-digital thing throughout time, but now is featured on a computer...CD) or maybe the crossover of the words, or stories, since there are 3, and there are 3 sections to a Venn diagram (as well as three holes in the Viewmaster).

Then maybe the Viewmaster section is the audience looking. We are looking at pilots playing and joking with "toy" planes. We're "seeing" something, realizing something maybe. I don't know, but maybe it just means both things, as Judd and Lori tried to find things that fit their general image ideas.

I think maybe a map, glasses, eyes, the MasterCard logo, the woman (maybe not so much, I can't seem to get any of my other friends on the bandwagon on that one, just the one chi....girl...girl...I said GIRL Sheela!), the dials or instruments in (or on the instrument panel of) a plane. I also though, after I kept being reminded of the Morse code by reviewers, thought "hey, maybe it looks like a telegraph," and I'll be damned if I didn't find a telegraph that kind of looked like their poem layout from the top view http://www.greatdreams.com/telegraph.jpg! I thought that looked kind of like it with the two circles and kind of tiny gap between (which is different, being that the two circles don't overlap, but this was the only picture of this kind of telegraph I could find on a couple of search engines, so maybe there are other, similar looking telegraphs, with closer together circles, and maybe Judd saw one of those), and I thought it did look like the poem and since the Morse was so significant (to these reviewers), I thought I'd throw that out there.

Well, I hope people took a break at some point during reading this. I was just trying my best to let all my thoughts and comments out at once. I tried to include those links to spice it up, I don't know if you have to copy them or you can just click them. Hope they all work when clicked on. I think I was a blog or two behind, so I wanted to write something thorough! See you guys next week. – AJ

Oh, and Jessica’s review is linked here: http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/feature/morrissey_talley/.

The Joys of a Double-Braided Text

2006-04-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

In chapter seven of Writing Machines, Katherine Hayles discusses the importance of allowing personal experience to inform and transform texts. She argues that the application of broad literary theories through the specificity of personal perspectives will allow “scholars to read old texts in new ways and seek out new texts that cannot be adequately understood without the theory” (Hayles 106). This was a refreshing take on literary criticism, a form that can be thought of as being very impersonal, scholarly and aloof – an obscure analysis floated down from the Ivory Tower. I wonder if what Hayles is proposing might be something along the lines of the gritty analyses especially noticeable in the fields of post-colonial and post-modern literature. Could Candace Fujikane’s response to Blu’s Hanging be one such example? If memory serves me correctly, that response combines the formal structures of literary theory with the personal realities of racial stereotypes and cultural attitudes.

Hayles goes on to propose that “now is a good time for a double-braided text where the generalities of theory and the particularities of personal experience can both speak, though necessarily in different voices. A text where both voices can be heard, at first very different but then gradually coming closer until finally they are indistinguishable” (106). It occurred to me that this is precisely what Hayles does herself. In Writing Machines she switches back and forth between the first and third person voice, and it is easy to hear one in the other. It would seem that House of Leaves could also be considered a “double-braided text.” Johnny’s voice and experiences inform Zampano’s writing (in the form of extensive footnotes), while Zampano’s experiences seem mirrored in Johnny’s personal/mental breakdown. So far however, the voices are very distinct from one another (both visually and audibly), and since I haven’t finished the book yet, I’m not sure if they ever merge to the point of being indistinguishable.

Ultimately, the form of analysis that Hayles discusses seem to speak to the possibility that literary criticism can be both scholarly and personal. It can represent the best of academic thinking with the best of complex realities, offering a richness and depth that is accesible to those of us who choose not to reside in the Ivory Tower!

Last Week's Post This Week - Fun Stuff!

2006-04-03T01:29:00.000-07:00

House of Leaves presents a puzzle for its readers. The layers of fictional characters give the book a “real” feel and left me trying to sort out what was what. Part of my experience had to do with the author’s use of editors, a fictional author, and a narrator who used footnotes extensively. The use of different typefaces added to the sense of credibility of the story. Even though I knew everything from the title page on was fiction, I found myself getting drawn into the story and started wondering about some of the external sources that were cited. The fact that some of publications mentioned are real, The New York Times for example, gave the story a sense of weight, made it real. I stopped reading on page 72 and flipped to Appendix II-E. Later, I noticed the checkmark in the bottom right corner of page 97, the signal that Johnny’s mother asked him to use if he gets her letters. This threw me because page 97 is from Zampano’s notes. Is Zampano Johnny?

After reading Hayles’ analysis of the book, I thought I might have enjoyed the rest of the book better if I hadn’t read it. At the same time, having read it after reading part of House of Leaves I had a better grasp of the nuances the book. More importantly, I gained a better grasp of the ideas that Hayles talks about in her writing. I find her writing has a little too much jargon for my taste. Even with Hayles analysis in hand, I found this text ergodic. The layers of characters and the length asides - what did Thumper have to do with this story? - drew me in and at the same time required my complete attention so I wouldn’t miss too many clues or signs or symbols.

This was a dense book, I need to add it to my re-read list.

House of Leaves: Unholy discourse

2006-03-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

I have never read a novel with so many levels of discourse, nor such explicit narration. At its heart, we have the story of Navidson and his family, though our experience of those events is shaped by Navidson's film editing. Furthermore, we don't actually see this film, but are fed only excerpts from critical literature, which describe the scenes only as evidence for a certain reading of the text. All of this is assembled by Zampano--so much commentary on a film compiled by a blind man! But it has been organized from fragments by Truant, who also reveals up front that the entire Navidson video is a fabrication. Truant presents Zampano's work as nearly unchanged (except perhaps for the addition of the word "water" before "heater"). Yet, from his footnotes we see that Truant is practically a compulsive storyteller (aka, bullshit artist; ie, unreliable narrator). As frosting on the cake, we have the nagging question of how much change was affected by the anonymous "Editors".

Hayles does a nice job pointing out how each of these levels of narration have also affected a change in medium, from film, to scholarly article, to a box of notes, to a novel.

Also, we are constantly aware of the narration. (This book reminds me of The French Lieutenant's Woman, which is my only other major experience with this sort of thing.) Footnotes inherently break our reading of the text for the purpose of commenting on that text. (Though in House of Leaves, it's so easy to slide from the text into a footnote!) Each level of added narration comments on how the previous narrators were unreliable or biased, adding levels of their own experience to the mix. And the text wanders away from the story for pages at a time to make an abstract argument for a certain reading--such as the discussion of the mythological and symbolic nature of echo.

Certainly a very dense and somewhat unsettling read!

Mind Games

2006-03-21T15:43:00.000-08:00

For me, HOUSE OF LEAVES, acts as a complex and intriguing set of mind games - a literary work that forces me to question my perceptions of what is real and what is imaginary. Never before have I read a book that tricks me so thoroughly into believing that the characters and events are real, only to have me reminding myself in the next minute that it is all fictitious. It is not so much the descriptions of darkness nor the dangers of nothingness that frighten me the most, but rather the ability of words on a page (words on these pages) to so thoroughly mess with my mind!

Katherine Hayles refers to this phenomena as it relates specifically to the “realness” of the characters. She notes that “the text emphasizes that people within the represented world – Will Navidson and Karen Green on one level, Zampano on another, and Johnny Truant on yet another – exist only because they have been recorded” (116). My relationship to the various characters – i.e. my willingness to believe that they are real – is precisely determined by the unusual nature of what is recorded on paper, who is recording it and how. I believe Will Navidson and Karen Green to be real because some character name Zampano dedicated his life to writing about them and referring to others who wrote about them. I believe Zampano is real because some character named Johnny Truant has found his writing and writes in turn about him. I believe Johnny Truant to be real because some anonymous authors have written about him and his desire to publish his writings as well as Zampano’s. Each of their writings – distinguished by location on the page, typeface and the addition of footnotes – further confirms the apparent validity of what they are writing about.

This cycle is one that transforms the traditional “unreliable narrator” into a “remediated narrator” (116-117). And it is the multiplicity of these remediated narrators that tricks me into believing, almost unconsciously, in the reality of what I am reading. While HOUSE OF LEAVES is definitely not one of my all-time favorites, I do recognize the value of a literary work that remediates reality so completely.

Creative Projects

2006-03-20T23:01:00.000-08:00

I'm hoping you've all been thinking about what you'd like to accomplish with your creative projects for this class. We'll go around and hear from each of you in class tomorrow. I'd like to emphasize the importance of archiving your materials as you generate them, even early drafts/attempts/test-runs you don't especially like. You will be asked to account for your process at the end of the semester, and having a collections of previous versions and "cutting-room floor" sweepings will help you describe your trajectory and assess your final project in relation to your initial goals.

I'll refer you to Acid-Free Bits, an excellent resource for digital artists and writers that focuses especially on the problem of preservation. It's co-authored by Noah Wardrip Fruin, who is the editor of First Person, and Nick Monfort, a writer of interactive fiction and author of Twisty Little Passages, a critical book about IF.

I'll also invite you to take a look at one of my creative projects. Ask Me for the Moon is a combination of a poetry chapbook and a critical essay on Waikiki. It appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of The Iowa Review Web, but I'm giving you the direct link to my site to save you having to hunt through the IRW archive.

comments for "New or Recycled?" by Michael

2006-03-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

Michael-

I'm still in awe on how far the design of your site has evolved from its initial stages!

Navigation/Organization: I love the organization of your site--how you incorporated different ways to navigate through the lexias, with the navigational bar on the side and the links w/in the text. They seem to complement eachother-one is good for the type of person who needs some kind of linear organization, and the other for the type of person who doesn't mind the nature of hypertext (in that you are able to jump around from screen to screen). I'm kind of embarrased to say that it took me several visits to realize that the green and blue (non-underlined) links are activated by the rolling-over of the mouse. (I kept thinking...did I accidentally click the mouse? That's certain evidence that I'm an "old dog"!) I also like how you incorporated the definitions with the red links--it cuts out on the time spent waiting for a new window to open.

Content: You provided a very deep analysis of Hermeticon in relation to the philosophy of the past (Bruno) and present (Hayles). You also discussed concepts I never would have came up with on my own, such as conning, consumerism, alchemy...etc. There was one part that I found a little confusing...on the "Fifthly" screen, you start off with, "The importance of this can be seen with a few kewstrokes." I was a little confused by what you mean by "this," is it the importance of the screen capture/what you captured in it? Or is it another concept you discussed in one of the previous screens?

All in all, besides what I mentioned above and a few spelling/grammar errors, I think you provided an excellent, insightful analysis of Hermeticon and covered topics an average net-surfer would not pick up on. I don't think what I said will spark any new ideas but I hope you feel very accomplished in a job well done!

-Kanani

Justin's Critical Review

2006-03-14T15:27:00.000-08:00

Hey Justin.

I apologize for how late this response to your work is. I held off on responding because I kept waiting for you to put up more sections of the essay, thinking that all you'd posted were screen shots. It wasn't until just now that I realized the screen shots were themselves links to individual pages!!! Once again...I forgot to do a sweep of the page!! Grrrrrrrr!!

In any case...here are just a few thoughts and reactions to your scholarly review:

Organization
I like that you've used individual, chronologically ordered screen shots. Given the style of "Faith" itself and the importance of each individual screen, this seems like the most logical and comprehensive way of approaching the work. This clear, simple way of organizing your review made my life as a viewer pleasantly easy. All I needed to do was click on individual screen shots to view your analysis of that section of the work.

Navigation
However, I would consider using some type of navigation bar or hypertext link so that the viewer has multiple ways of navigating the site. As it stands right now, the only form of navigation available to me is the back button. Was this intentional, or have you just not gotten around to it yet?

Style
Again, I enjoyed the simplicity and legibility of the site's style...but you could always toy around with different color combinations and maybe a slightly smaller/more interesting font.

Critical Analysis:
I appreciated your detailed analysis of each screen shot, but was also looking for some tie-in to the criticial theory we've studied. Maybe some theoretical arguments from Hayles' work or from First Person might complement and flesh out your own personal analysis.

Other Screen Shots:
As it stands now, I believe the last three or four screen shots do not lead to linked pages. I guess you'll be finishing out these screen shots in class? Are there any other screen shots from Faith that you plan on analyzing?

Well...that's about it for now. Hope I've not been too nit-picky and that some of this is helpful. Best of luck as you complete your review!

See you in class! :)

text wrap with external style sheets

2006-03-08T02:00:00.000-08:00

Aloha!

I learned how to wrap text around images but still be able to use an external style sheet.

You can use an inline style. If you look at my home page, you can see the coding. Resize your browser and you'll see it works.

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~mesulliv/

Of course, if you have a lot of images, an internal css might be the way to go.

Also, if anyone wants to create a personalized/custom background for their page, I have photoshop. Let me know if you want to play!

Aloha,
michael

Flash Movie Contest

2006-02-22T19:24:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, just wanted to tell all of you about a flash contest...if you have time in between all of the school work. The info is at this site Flash Movie Contest 2006.

CSS Contextual Selectors and Colors

2006-02-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

At the end of class yesterday a few of us were talking about ways to specify different styles for different parts of a web page. I put together a very simple (and very ugly) example page on "contextual selectors" in CSS. Compare the source code (which you can find by following any of the hyperlinks on the page) with the HTML source to see how various "class" assignments and nesting techniques can give you more flexibility with your styles. There are a few different approaches to this issue, each with its own problems depending upon the structure of the particular page. Experiment and find what works for you.

I've also added the contextual selector example to the Web Resources page for our class, along with a link to the Visibone Web Safe Color Table, a handy way to look up the hexidecimal (six-character) code for colors.

My Own Errand

2006-02-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

I decided to post about the language of Errand Upon Which We Came because I realized a couple things shortly after leaving class, one of which is, upon returning home, the link to Mez’s piece does not work anymore for me, it says “file not found,” so I was kind of stuck with the Errand piece, but I did find some interesting stuff.

One thing I enjoy about this piece, that I had not noticed before is that you can freeze it with the silver butterfly. You do not actually have to read fast, you can enjoy the imagery and the words. The silver butterfly is a device some other pieces of weberature should take into consideration. I think some (or maybe a lot) of the pieces do not let me stop them when I want. I can capture the image on the screen with a screen capture, but sometimes, on the go, I want to experience something longer. I guess, maybe, the whole point is that the person or author of the piece can choose whether to allow a stop or not, therefore that is part of the decision making process that goes into the piece itself. I think a pause button and a rewind button would be really helpful with a lot of the pieces, like the Heavy Industries’ pieces especially. I think something like, “Press the P key to pause during the presentation, or press the R key to begin rewinding,” would be helpful.

Something I noticed about this piece, that has little to do with it being online, more with the literature of the piece, is the language that begins the piece. “Gentle reader, begin anywhere. Skip anything. This text is framed fully for the purposes of skipping. Of course, it can be read straight through, but this is not a better reading; a better life. You are being asked to move with great rapidity. As if it weren’t there. As if you were a frog. A frog that since it’s disappearing thinks to ask, for the first time, in which element it really does belong.” Part of the poetry of this piece is it talking about how to read itself. The piece adds to itself by explaining itself, and I do not know how many other times I have experienced this with a piece. The comment about “a better life,” is kind of weird, I do not know what to do with it. It is saying the poem is not better when read linear, though I heard Kanani say she thought it kind of was. (or maybe I was misunderstanding her) The reader is then told to read with great rapidity, which is kind of obvious, unless you are using the silver butterfly, then you could read as slow as you prefer. Then there’s the comment about in which element the frog really does belong. This is kind of like her piece, does it belong online as weberature, or in print as literature? I think this is the question a lot of people ask when making a piece online.

The last thing I noticed and I wanted to mention (very briefly) is the leaves moving over the words in the first frame. I had watched this piece and messed with it a bunch of times and never noticed this movement. I like how the leaves move from the background to the foreground, covering the words, moving the reader forward in the poem, whether they want to or not. I like these kinds of aspects of weberature, where the author gets to do more with their stuff as opposed to mess it up.

Even though Errand was a busy piece, that at first seemed a bit intimidating and unnecessary, I have grown to enjoy it. Even though none of us defended it in class, its opening stanzas are kind of beautiful in their words, even if the pictures and images are kind of cliché and busy. I think the piece is not a horrible piece, just a piece trying to do too much. I really do think the silver butterfly pause button makes a huge difference though.

Until my next post, hopefully coming BEFORE the class meets - AJ

Simplicity is the Key

2006-02-21T05:31:00.000-08:00

Of the three selections for today's class, I enjoyed "V:Vniverse" the most. The simple design and random navigation sequence complement one another without compromising coherence and meaning. It struck me that "V:Vniverse" also illustrates Matt Gorbet's point that "the success of [a work] depends precisely on the sense of control afforded by the simple and phsyically familiar interactions" (FP 218). Relying solely on lines and numbers, constellations and stars, this text does not make use of complicated graphics, as "][ad][dressed in a Skin C.ode" does, nor does it visually abuse the viewer as "Errand Upon Which We Came" does. The viewer is left to enjoy the constellations, to read the coherent and legible sentences in peace and to navigate via mouse and/or number pad.

It is refreshingly relaxing to be in control of a piece through simple actions for which I am responsible. In this work, I am not at the mercy of the whims and wishes of my computer's clock nor do I have to race to keep up with a rapidly flashing Flash program. Instead, I can sit back and explore at my own pace, enjoying each visual and literary element. Like a few previous works, the navigation of "V:Vniverse" is determined by my random actions and the numbers I choose to key in. Unlike some previous works, however, this one is able to maintain some level of coherence. Phrases are often connected to one another or have some kind of other correlation that does not leave me feeling completely lost, dazed and confused.

I also appreciated the work's visual simplicity. I found both the other texts to be visually abusive with color combinations, graphics and fonts that combined to create a less than pleasant reading/viewing experience. "V:Vniverse" was a welcome change - simple colors were used and delicately simple images were created. It helped too that I recognized many of the constellations, that I was familiar with the images that were appearing.

Altogether, familiarity and simplicity were beautifully combined in this piece. It was not so much that there was anything wonderfully thrilling about the work, but rather that it was user-friendly and easy on the nerves! A simple and enjoyable read! :)

Examples of what not to do

2006-02-21T00:06:00.000-08:00

][ad][dressed in a Skin C.ode repeatedly hung-up on my computer all weekend. As this it the first piece that I have had problems with, I'm guessing it has something to do with the way it was constructed or written. That being said, the little that I was able to see before Explorer stopped responding had too much code looking stuff for my taste. I disliked dealing with code in 1980 when I had a vic-20 and that hasn’t changed in 26 years. Like other forms of art, it’s not my bag so I’m tempted to skip trying to make some sense of this work on another machine.

I thought V: Vniverse was the most interesting of these three pieces. The star chart reminded me of Myst. At first I randomly selected a star but then I started entering the numbers and reading it in order. I noticed that some of the pages/paragraphs/sections could be read with the title and/or number included which gave an added dimension to the text. Other times, one or the other or both needed to be skipped because they made the sentence nonsensical. I didn’t recognize the stars (not that I have much knowledge about astronomy!) or the “constellations” that appeared when a star was selected. Nor was I able to notice any type of image that had anything to do with the written part. If I haven’t explored/read some of the essays that are linked to this piece, I’m not sure I would have grasped the link between the nomads reading the stars and my reading text by selecting a star. This one needs to be added to my places to explore page!

Errand was a rather annoying piece to me. The soundtrack was short and repetitious. The background images made the text hard to read. Thankfully, it was very short! Or maybe I intentionally overlooked some links that would have made it longer. The links I did follow looped back into each other quickly so getting lost wasn’t an issue. The text - both as objects and as words with meaning - and the images appeared to be working together - possibly there is a pseudo-subliminal eco-message in the piece. But the basic design flaws (intentional?) I noticed negated any interest I had in going through it more than twice - once in order and once using the links. Maybe it would be less annoying with the sound turned off.

Mez generates "code"

2006-02-19T23:57:00.000-08:00


public class Mez extends CodePoet {

  protected Text generate(Text orig) {

    orig.insertInitial(this.getNextEmailHeader());

    while (orig.isCoherent()) {
      orig.insertRandom("][");
      orig.insertRandom(Dictionary.COMPSCI);
      orig.insertRandom(Dictionary.BIOLOGY);
      orig = this.obfuscate(orig);
    }

   return orig;
  }
}

Hollowbound Book - I'm Lovin' THAT!

2006-02-17T13:18:00.000-08:00

"Hollowbound Book" has to be one of my all time favorite works! The elegance and 'class' of the work as a whole made experiencing it and interacting with it an absolute joy, while the music, graphic details and actual content complemented one another beautifully. It was also especially satisfying to see three major themes of digital literature, as laid out by Hayles, brought to life by Loyer. Those themes - remediation, kinesthetic involvement and materiality - were subtly intertwined in the work, yet concretely thought provoking.

What better way to illustrate remediation than by using a computer to simulate a book voicing its thoughts on books and computers? Talk about a "cycle of remediation!" And of course in talking about such a cycle, one cannot ignore the materiality of the work. This is a book talking to us; a book running away from its author and from the invisibility of its print existence. And where does it arrive? Center stage on our computer screens where it is subject and object, character and voice. How can we possibly ignore its materiality now? The answer is, we can't! We're forced to notice it as we interact with the work, as we use our mouse to manipulate the binding and open and close it as we would a real book.

The "Hollowbound Book" also makes the point that it has to be always on the run. That it's not safe, even here in its computer form. To me, this speaks to the fact that both books and computers are ultimately forms of containment. As such, digital literature is a means of breaking free of such bindings and of stretching the boundaries of what we consider iterature and art.

I'm Lovin' It

2006-02-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I missed your presentation Sheela Jane, wouldn’t have missed that for the world, except it was an emergency. Hope you (and everyone else) had a great Valentine’s Day!

This is my post for this past Tuesday, I just wanted to make sure I put something up after having a very distracting day.

These pieces were amazing! I found these pieces to be, by far, the most interesting and engaging. I first watched Hollowbound Book, or experienced it as the case may be.

Hollowbound book was my least favorite of these three pieces. It was kind of boring, and a lot of the scenes at the beginning and end were just the glowing dot. I kept thinking I could manipulate the dots, but to no avail. Also, this piece was kind of short, especially compared to the other two. When it ended, I felt like I was left hanging. I wanted more, even if I didn’t really like the format. I liked the part where the three-prong thing changed from steps 1a, 1b, and 1c to 2a, 2b, 2c all the way to the fourth step. This took me awhile to catch onto because at first I was just bouncing the thing up and down until I saw the words had changed. It was fun to manipulate at times, but I think “Writing Machines” the book was a much more fun experience.

I knew I would like the Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries piece, so I watched it in the middle, twice over. It wasn’t as much fun for me as Miss DMZ, but it was interesting. They, once again, force us to move forward at their speed, and this time I watched it a second time because I missed a couple of words the first time around. This one had some times where I found myself frustrated because I had missed a word or two and then felt like I was not getting the whole experience. When he asks whether Kim Jong-Il has a website, I cracked up. It was funny to see the URL on the screen for that one moment. At some point there seemed to be some word play with “soul” and “Seoul,” and I thought that was kind of fun. The thing about these Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries pieces is that you do not have as long to get caught up in the wordplay because it moves so fast. I like how they both think though, their pieces seem to be consistently fun to experience.

The last piece I experienced was The Dream Life Of Letters. I clicked on this one first, but after reading that it took eleven minutes I chose to do Hollowbound Book first. This piece was fun. I read the letter that it came from first, which I had a very time understanding. Were there other languages mixed into it, because I really got lost on while reading certain parts that appearing to be in another language. Then I read his original poem, and I am very glad he chose to make it into what he did, because the original poem is extremely bland. This was fun because you could feel yourself moving forward, if by no other means that realizing that “z” would be your final stop and watching yourself approach that letter. There was so much movement, but no sound (on my computer) or colors other than black, white and orange. I thought the lack of sound helped me to focus on the moving words and on the images themselves, rather than music. I liked when the “Y” filled up with words, which then overflowed. I also liked the “O” with the word, “outside” rotating around its outside. This is something I plan on watching a couple more times, just for fun. This piece might be my favorite of all the pieces we have read so far.

Well I will probably do another post before Tuesday, but I just wanted to get one in for these pieces, which were so great. I do not usually praise pieces this much, but these were really fun, and not what I was expecting. The Hollowbound Book could have done more though with “Writing Machines.” The Dreamlife of Letters could not have done more with less. It was just alphabatized words and I was fully engrossed. Thank you Professor Zuern for exposing me to this piece! Amazing!

So until my next post: Shoots! ------AJ

Traces

2006-02-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

These pieces of digital literature reminded me of previous works that I’ve experienced. Each one seemed to use a devise that was used in my earlier reading. The advantage to this was that I needed to spend less time learning how to interact with the pieces and could spend more time reading, interacting with them and reacting to them.

The Dreamlife of Letters is a fun piece even though I’m not sure I completely understand it. After reading the introduction and following the links to read DePlessis’ submission and Stefans response, I understood how he constructed the piece but, I’m still in the dark about the project, its purpose, and its meaning. In spite of this I like the poem. In some ways the kinetic text and mimetics reminded me of Faith. For example, when chimneysweep swirled on the screen like I picture a sweep’s broom in a chimney and when steep and split appeared together, steeply angled down the page and then splitting into two distinct words.

The title of Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries Artist’s Statement No. 45,730,944 told me about the piece and gave a hint about what to expect. Naturally, the work employed their trademark big, black, bold text flashing on a white background. But the message in the work is one I think anyone who is involved in creating art goes through, questioning the whys and the purpose of creating art. However, I also thought there was a deeper meaning to it - what is the purpose of our life? Why are we here? Questions I think most people ask themselves at some point during their life. So in a sense, the age old questions haven’t changed, just the way they’re asked has.

Hollowbound Book

2006-02-14T16:37:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed Loyer's piece. I think I found my heart beating to the same beat as the red dot that appears in the beginning. I like how the music makes it seem like there's something more to expect...the music makes it seem like something is going to pop out of somewhere.

The level of interaction is just right for me, it wasn't a total movie type like The Dreamlife of Letters or Artist's Statement No. 45,730,944: The Perfect Artistic Web Site. Although it took me some time to figure out how to read the text of some of the pages, I was amazed when I did.

It's interesting to see that it can become a never-ending loop--Hayles discusses an electronic text in her book and Loyer discusses her book in an electronic format. It's also interesting to see the relationship and the effect each type has on a reader.

"Interrogating the inscription technology"

2006-02-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

A common theme of this week's works seems to be that they highlight their own "inscription technology", the medium in which they are conceived.

"Artist's Statement No. 45,730,944" does this the best. For me, it achieved what "Lexia to Perplexia" failed to do--effectively questioning the effects of technology, and the Web in particular, on our existence. It reveals how we are defined by people looking at us (our work); it explores how we understand and interface with the world (our neighbors) through the Web. And the entire work is a prolonged self-reference--another Web denizen's work calling for attention, just another cycle of uploading, waiting, and playing. (I imagine the sock-tasting is also a interesting reference, though not apparently one to the inscription technology!)

"Hollowbound Book" highlights the materiality of Hayles' book--particular it's bound nature. It expands this metaphor into the conceptual realm, holding that Hayles ties her various arguments into a single whole in a very similar way. Yet, interestingly, all of this reflection is done through interactive, electronic examples. It's a nice return--Hayles reviews such digital works in a physical book, only to be reviewed in turn by the digital.

I did not find "The Dreamlife of Letters" to be particularly enriching. Indeed, it is little more interesting than its original source material "poem(s)". However, what effect it does achieve beyond simply being a list of words, it achieves entirely through interesting animations and combinations made possible by the animation medium.

Experience Counts

2006-02-14T03:40:00.000-08:00

[I apologize for this being late. I guess I was busy reading my classmates reactions and forgot to post my own. I realized when looking for feedback that I hadn't posted yet.]

Experience helps when viewing digital literature. After several weeks of looking at and exploring a variety of digital literature, I’m starting to develop an understanding of how to view the sites. Like printed literature, digital literature makes use of earlier works. For example, I realized (probably because I took ENG-253 last semester and we read parts of it) the painting of the bull and women in Miss DMZ was connected to Greek mythology. However, I didn’t pursue it beyond that recognition.

While reading Dakota, the use of Americana in the beginning made an instant connection with me. It seemed to draw on or reminded me of early Springsteen, specifically “Born to Run”. I also connected with the images because my friends and I used to cruise with the top down and a case of beer. Having looked at other pieces by Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries, the blinking black text on a white background wasn’t as distracting as it was earlier in the semester. This probably allowed me to connect to the imagry more easily.

I thought the frames in These Waves of Girls - while distracting and not something I would use - reflected the segmented aspect of the story. Each section seemed to start with an age statement or a defined block of time which the frames reflected and forces the reader to move though them as though they were going though that block of time. I thought this idea of moving though the story was picked-up in the chapter of First Person that we read. I was intrigued by the idea of Card Shark and look forward to experiencing a piece written using it.

Screen Captures

2006-02-10T02:28:00.000-08:00

Oddly, I had to write up something for my ICS students about how to do a screen capture today. During that, I found out that Paint on Windows XP will now save GIF, JPG, and PNG formats! In the past, it could only handle BMP (bitmaps), which are huge files that you don't want to put on any website.

Anyway, Paint is found under Start -> Programs -> Accessories. Just hit Prnt Scrn or "Alt + Prnt Scrn" to copy the image (as demo-ed in class). Then open Paint, and hit Ctrl-V (or go up to Edit->Paste). And save!

Now you don't need to mess with downloading, installing, and using the GIMP, which is rather troublesome. Paint doesn't do much more beyond what I just described though, so if you need to do any thing fancier than just saving, I still think the GIMP is still worth learning (since it's free!). Also, Paint seemed to produce a rather crappy GIF image. PNG turned out okay though.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my discovery of an easier way to do it!

The Jew's Daughter

2006-02-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

I can honestly say that I admire this site. It works with sentences in a way that makes a reader realize that by changing one sentence in a paragraph the meaning of the paragraph changes also. The navigation system reminds me of the Don't Click It Project. It takes additional thought to not click on what I perceive as a link versus clicking on the link to move on or change lexia.

When I first started "rolling over" the highlit word, I didn't notice that the paragraph changed. I think I clicked on the word and just saw that the word was no longer blue. Once I got the hang of rolling over the highlit word, I found myself also looking for the next highlit word as well as the change in the paragraphs.

Miss DMZ

2006-02-07T14:19:00.000-08:00

Since Miss DMZ moves at a slow enough pace to allow people to comfortably read it, as opposed to DAKOTA and many other of the Young Hae Chang narratives, I managed to sit through the whole thing. I have no doubt that the design of the page was to allow for easier reading, although it may move fast enough to turn some people off. One helpful tip to reading Young Hae Chang sites... move your head back from the monitor. The text is often so large, that your impulse to lean forward in order to read the speedy text is counteracted by the fact that the text is often so large, it becomes harder to read the closer your head sits to the screen.

It is also important to note that DMZ refers to a Demilitarized Zone, most likely the one separating North and South Korea. There is also one in Vietnam, but from reading the narrative, the subject lives in Palpan-dong, a city in Seoul, it is probably the Korean DMZ that is talked about in the story. Another key point is that the long tunnel that the subject goes through to get to the "Duty-Free" store, most likely refers to the long tunnels that were discovered running underneath the Korean DMZ. There are two in total, spanning such a length that it would take roughly an hour to traverse the length. Seoul is located in South Korea, and since it is hard to imagine anyone wanting to get from South Korea to North Korea, I can only assume that the narrator was at the Duty-Free store right underneath the DMZ, and therefore was only on the border.

This factual basis fits well with the idea of the Duty-Free store and the European Luxury hotel motif. The idea of a "Duty-Free DMZ" area also fits well with the correlation between DMZ and a store that is "duty free," or free of taxes and tariffs. Here we have the narrator entering a place of seeming freedom, but he cannot stay because he doesn't work there. It isn't clear exactly who "Miss DMZ" is, I suggest that she is symbolic of a kind of ideal representing a truly united Korea. A place where the "new customers" can blend in with the existing workers. As truly horrible a place as North Korea has become, I have no doubt that in the minds of many, a united nation is something coveted by all. Especially if you consider that the separating of the two Koreas wasn't necessarily due to internal hemorraghing, but more due to the politics of nationalist America and the Europe. The wars in Vietnam and Korea were largely political terraforming wars; we were seeking to liberate Korea and Vietnam from the Communist menace, a threat that was blown largely out of proportion by propaganda and McCarthy.

Given the history of Korea, I can imagine a largely liberal company such as Young Hae Chang wanting to get this kind of message across through its work. Miss DMZ delivers.

Enjoyment in spite of structure

2006-02-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

I liked These Waves of Girls in spite of its hypertext structure, largely due to the grace of the writing and the power of the underlying "story" (or rather, the "narrative images"). The hierarchial overview found on some of the pages, with short linear stories from there, were the easiest to comprehend. I found the mix of images and sound to be somewhat discordant, since the text and formatting was so different between pages (and the sound wouldn't play through my plugin). However, some of them were enjoyable. The trip though the glass window of the security door was memorable.

I enjoyed the jumble of memories--short and interweaving. Many of them continue to haunt me this morning. However, I felt this experience was due more to reading them together and having them refer to each other, than due to the actual hyperlinks themselves. I felt the links were too numerous, and the relationship between their source and destination texts was often obscure. This may have been the intent--as if modeling a stream-of-consciousness recollection. But I question its use as an interface. The user is not making a real choice if they have no idea of the consequences of their actions. And each time they make a choice, they have to give up on the thread (often unfinished) that they're currently reading. The user is going to take a single (albiet, perhaps branching and looping) path through the work. The author of a hypertext work does not provide a coherent path, favoring instead a user-constructed experience of naviagation. But fumbling around blindly through a work is frustrating, not enriching. The connections should be evident in content of the work itself, not only in its technical structure.

Jew's Daughter was a very neat trick, playing with the notion of a page. Also a sort of stream-of-consciousness, the page seems to model a current moment of thought. But the writing did not keep me interested. After about 15 to 20 morphs, I bailed.

Miss DMZ was wonderful, my favorite Young-hae Chang work yet. A great story, great music, nice use of *, all brought together into a single piece. Here, I didn't feel I had to overcome the structure to enjoy the content.

Miss DMZ

2006-02-07T01:35:00.000-08:00

It amazes, excites and inspires me that black text, a white background and a stirring instrumental soundtrack can be so powerfully moving. To me, "Miss DMZ" represents one of the most fascinating aspects of digital literature - a deceptively 'simple' use of digital media to incorporate "coherence, causality, and closure" while simultaneously providing mental, visual, literary and auditory challlenges.

It is wonderfully satisfying to experience a piece of digital literature that has a coherent structure and plot, that illustrates cause and effect and that comes to a definite end. Yet despite containing these seemingly 'ordinary' elements, "Miss DMZ" maintains a strongly unique style, an ability to challenge the viewer and an ambiguity that leaves room for interpretation and analysis. With words that flash across the screen at varying speeds and sizes and with no apparent mechanism for control, the reader is trapped, almost hypnotized, into staring anxiously and following along as best as possible. This format lends itself to the plot, to the uncertainty and sense of anxiety inherent in what occurs to the protagonist, and has the power to make the reader feel as if she herself is right there in the story.

It is especially interesting that a piece that places virtually no control in the hands of the viewer and that demands very little can have such an effect. Despite not being "the crucial creative/receptive presence in [this] digital art" I still felt very much a part of the story, very much a part of all that was going on. This feeling was enhanced, ironically, by my lack of control. I had to sit there and experience the story whether I liked it or not mainly because pausing, re-ordering and starting over were not easy, handy operations. The same is true of the protagonist - his experiences are completely out of his control and he has no power to turn back, to return to the mysterious duty-free store or to comprehend what had happened to him. In forcing us into a situation that is so much like that of the protagonist, this piece succeeds in making literature a truly virtual experience - subtly, powerfully and uniquely.

2006-02-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

These Waves of Girls created by Caitlin Fisher is a good example of digital literature that seems continuous and non-linear. Like many of the other pieces we've seen like Hermeticon and Lexia to Perplexia, this work had many different links embedded within the text. These links would lead to totally different subtexts or sometimes subtexts that added context and background to the text you were reading previous to clicking on the link. At first, I didn't know what to do at the inital webpage of These Waves of Girls, and after waiting for about 15 seconds, a new page loaded up in my browser. There were several options that were given at the second webpage that were doorways to different pieces of digital text.

There seemed to be no end to the many stories and texts of These Waves of Girls. "The end" depended on how much you as a reader wanted to continue reading; how committed you were to spending your time and concentration reading and understanding this text. Similarly, Dakota and Miss DMZ, created by Young-hae Chang Heavy Productions had no real "ending" to it. Well in reality I'm unsure if it has a definate ending or if the pieces just loop and repeat over and over. I only committed about ten minutes to watching each piece before I didn't want to read any more. The text appears and disappears mostly at a "readable pace" that is comfortable for most people.

These three pieces of digital literature most similarly parallels the websites on the internet today. People can spend hours looking at, reading, and entertaining themselves with images, texts, and digital literature; it is truly on the conscious decision of the viewers to decide when to "call it quits." In this way, digital literature is very diffferent, but yet similar, to texts in written format such as books, magazines, and newspapers. There is a tangible "endpoint" to reading, but there is also a never-ending, time-consuming process that people can get caught in depending on how much time we spend on text or digital literature.

First Person

2006-02-06T17:12:00.000-08:00

When I first heard the title, First Person, I did not even put two and two together to form the phrase “first person shooter.” I use this phrase at least five times a week describing some game or another to friends online or in person, and I thought it really odd I did not notice this about the title. I believe that first person shooters are the equivalent of using the first person to write a book, it puts you into the story just a little bit more.

The first game I can remember having a truly adjustable story is Final Fantasy XII. I remember that the big highlight of this game for gamers was FMVs (Full Motion Videos). Everyone loved to get to the point in the story where it would cut to one of these, and you could then view them later in a clips vault. My cousin used to watch these clips upwards of fifty times after he unlocked them. I just got a new game for Xbox 360, Kameo: Elements Of Power, and almost the whole game is an FMV. It is very surprising how far games have come. Role Playing Games in general are story based, and as we came into newer and newer technology, RPGs became these great, amazing, fantasy stories (though RPGs really never were my “thing”).

Games like Final Fantasy were nothing like the old first person shooters like Duke Nuke ‘Em or Doom. Though first person shooters put us into the action by having the villains shoot directly at us, it was these story games that really cornered the market for awhile. Everyone was looking for the next great mythical story line. Xenogears, Final Fantasy XIII and on, Harvest Moon, Evolution, all these RPGs were just trying to hit the same nerve as Final Fantasy XII did, something with an easy to follow story. Final Fantasy had a (horrible) movie come out, which had nothing to do with the stories in Final Fantasy XII and so the movie bombed. Then, just recently, they released an anime called “Final Fantasy: Advent Children,” and it sold it Asia like hotcakes. It is based on the Final Fantasy XII characters, it’s their after story. My roommate watched this movie, so I kept glancing in, and it was far superior to the other Final Fantasy movie, mainly because of the story, because the graphics were much cartoonier, and there was really nothing else about the movie that was amazing (though some of the graphics were cool). These story based games meant so much until,

HALO! I personally hate Halo. I think it is unrealistic in the fact I am fighting aliens and can jump super-high, etc. I find it TOO realistic because a correctly timed head shot with the right weapon kills the player immediately and because I can only hold two guns at once. I think the only reason Halo became so popular is because it was the first MMO shooter. Xbox Live was a new thing, and only computer games could be played online with that many players before it came about. Xbox Live changed a lot. Games like Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark were better first person shooters than Halo. They had better weapons, better looking characters (not everyone was in a spacesuit), and it was more fun when you and three friends played. Halo dominated because it was the only option.

Xbox 360 just released an updated version of Perfect Dark, with MMO. I think it will be incredibly fun (right about when Microsoft stops hoarding the 360s so I can have some friends online) eventually. Halo 3 comes out this fall (supposedly), and hopefully they don’t just remake Halo 2 (which is just a remake of Halo). Give me something new! I think MMO is really what matters, as can be seen by two very popular computer games right now: World Of Warcraft and City of Heroes/Villains. These games just have you make a character, and then you get sent into an online map, where you level up and interact with hundreds of thousands of other players. These are the future.

MMO, Massive Multiplayer Online, is a great idea. I think more video games will sell just because you can, at the very least, chat with people online, in a body you chose, with a weird profession or superpower you chose, in a game you chose. Already you and the other guy playing would have something in common, just by being there. I think gamers really like this. I actually do not like computer games. I think the chance of crashing is way too high. I think Xbox Live and PS-Online are more fun and crash less, and I think most CPU games will end up on a platform with online capability (World of Warcraft is coming to Xbox within the next couple of months). My roommate once told me that his “clan was having dramas because some guy’s real life wife (who played the game also) was mad because her husband got married to someone in World of Warcraft.” I thought this was amazing, but it really shows you how first person these games have become. People are putting their emotions, their lives so to speak, into these games. It is kind of sad, but I mean, not my right to judge. I think these uber-involving games which take ten hour of play time per day to get good at (my roommate once played for 22 hours in a 24 hour day, so said his game-clock) are where true-gamers will end up. Maybe I am “getting too old for this shit,” because I really don’t like these new games. Too time consuming, too much like trying to escape my real life, but I guess that is the gain for some people right?

Does anyone but me think that someday people might actually just put on a VR helmet at home and that’s how everybody will work and get things done? Virtual Work? I just had to bring it up, because if you are willing to spend 22 hours in a day on a video game with no real-life rewards, wouldn’t you work eight doing that? (btw, my roommate barely goes to class, so this is his life most of the time, kind of sad, but again, not for me to judge.)…

CSS and HTML Examples

2006-02-03T18:07:00.000-08:00

Michael has been asking about how to set the margins around images for word wrap in HTML. One solution is to create an element in the CSS for the image and then assign that element a specific margin value.

I've slung together an HTML page that has an internal CSS specification illustrating this approach. The text and the image are totally arbitraty--the image has been cropped along the colored edge so you can tell that the margins are not in the image file.

The file shows you how to do other useful HTML things, too:

1. The CSS shows you how to "float" an image inside a chunk of text with "float" and how to set the alignment (right or left side of the text).

2. The style includes a simple approach to setting up, over, down, and visited specifications for your hyperlinks. You can also turn off the automatic underlining of links.

3. The link itself includes the "target" attribute with the "_blank" value that opens a new browser window for the linked file. This is a simpler approach than the JavaScript one on the syllabus page for the class, but you can't specify the size (or other features) of the new window.

4. The "../default.html" in the link is a relative path (as opposed to the full URL, which would be the absolute path) out of the "Resources" directory (where the "brat_css.html" file is located) and into the "394" directory (which contains the "Resources" directory). You can use these relative paths to link files nested within your own directory structure.

Please write me with any questions or problems you're encountering. We'll spend some time in class on basic stuff next week to make sure you're ready to put together the "beta" releases of your first paper.

Web page access

2006-02-03T02:30:00.000-08:00

Is anyone else having problems with their web page setting getting changed back to the restricted setting?

I enable mine. Save the changes and log-out. Then it works, however, when I return to it later, I need to go through the process again.

michael

MSA: New expectations come with new capabilities

2006-01-31T13:09:00.000-08:00

I found Lexia to Perplexia to be a little too ergodic. It wasn't the physical effort to explore and find links, but the mental effort to make sense of it that wore me out.

I think a large part of my experience was shaped by the "medium ecology". While the work explores how our human experience is shaped by technology, it was exactly this environment that undid any initial enjoyment of Lexia. When I'm sitting at my computer--as I do so many hours of the day--I'm in information processing mode--answering student questions, grading assignments, writing webpages and programs, and surfing for quick, accurate answers. When I surf webpages in this mode, I'm constantly evaluating whether this page is reputable and useful, and I'm skimming it for the gist. Lexia reminded me of those times I've taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on some incomprehensible "crazy's" website, where normally I quickly hit the Back button--time is short and I can find what I'm looking elsewhere. (And having to wait for Lexia to preload over a 28.8k connection, and then needing to switch browsers and download again, already wore on my patience.)

However Hayles chapter did improve my estimation of Lexia somewhat. Lying back on my bed, I could peruse her examples. Following her orientating lead, I better understood the work's intent. Then I was able to catch the wittiness of constructions such as "cell.f" and "I-terminal". It reminded me that many (fine) things in life--wine, beer, literature, jazz--need to be studied closely to understand their subtlety to be enjoyed. Yet this means more ergodic expenditure on my part, overcoming my Web-based expectations of clear structure, quick information, and obvious navigation.

I also wasn't all that impressed with Memmot's code "creole." I've seen much better examples of witty and insightful "code poems", clearer both in the code and the underlying sentiment. Admittedly, these were mostly very short works (usually on T-shirts).

Though I'm embarrassed to reveal how impatient a "reader" I was of Lexia, I do think much of this was shaped by my expectations of the Web medium. I think being aware of this is important for Web authors, as well as for me, next time I try to approach a piece of digital literature.

"Frustratingly Inert"

2006-01-31T10:42:00.000-08:00

"Lexia to Perplexia" must be my most frustrating encounter with digital literature to date. As Eugene Thacker put it, the work is "frenetic, sometimes frustratingly inert" (Hayles 57). While I can intellectually allow for the stimulating nature of creating an English/HTML creole, of engaging the "mindbody" and of "signif[ying] a trajectory in which we become part of a cybernetic circuit," the actual implementation of such elements (in this piece) leaves me feeling hollow, dissatisfied, and down right annoyed (Hayles 51)! Memmott's piece to me represents a very disjointed and "cold" implementation of such efforts, one that seems completely unconcerned with aesthetics.

Perhaps I did not spend enough time with the piece. Perhaps trying to view it in two different browsers was not enough. All I know is that after opening the piece multiple times, in two different browsers, and never being able to move forward or backwards or uncover new links/portals, I was always left feeling as if I reached a dead end. I did mouse sweeps religiously but to no avail, was confounded by links that appeared and disappeared, and thought I was losing my mind when the little drop down menu in the left hand corner disappeared as soon as I tried to make a selection! Was I experiencing technical difficulties or merely becoming part of the "cybernetic circuit?"

I much prefer Matt Gorbet's view on the nature of such pieces. In his response to Camille Utterback's essay, Gorbet supports the "practical" interface over the "poetic" interface; "the simple and physically familiar interactions" that afford the reader/user a real "sense of control" (Wardrip-Fruin 218). Does a piece have to be mind-blowing, uncontrollable and frustrating in order to be successful? I would hope not. I'm all for pushing the boundaries and creating new forms/methods, but would it be hypocritical of me to want to impose some limits, some level of normalcy and aesthetics?

Finding a new language

2006-01-31T02:31:00.000-08:00

Resistance to change was the sense I had as Hayles described her journey into Digital Literature. Not her resistance, but the resistance of the people around her, the people in academia. What came to be called the “bathtub theory of literature” probably best sums up their opposition (Hayles 36). Fortunately, she continued to explore this emerging new field. As she discussed her journey of discovery, I found myself wanting to experience some of the artist’s books she mentioned.

While reading her book, I was reminded of our classroom discussion about the pieces. Her frankness in talking about how she needed to learn how to read and interact was the pieces was refreshing. It also served as a reminder to me to revisit this works at different times. I was also reminded about how I need to change my expectations when I’m engaged with one of these pieces compared to my expectations of traditional books.

After looking at Lexia to Perplexia a few times, I think she said it best, “Lexia to Perplexia is a ‘nervous’ document” (57). I explored the piece prior to reading the Writing Machines as suggested. Even though I approached with an open mind, I found myself getting frustrated by its “nervousness”. I managed to loop around once but restarted it a couple of times too. Later, I revisited with Hayles book in hand. Her explanations helped some as far as explaining some of the artist’s intentions. But I think this piece might be like Cubist painters, they’re not my cup of tea.

I’m left with the feeling that Digital Literature will continue to change and expand as new technologies become available. How they will change the way that the artist constructs their piece and how the audience interacts with it remains to be seen. By attempting to define a lot of terms now, I’m wondering if we’re trying to do too much too soon. The differences between the 1st and 2nd generations of Digital Literature illustrate this point. Perhaps, we need to agree that we don’t have all the terminology yet - and might never - and simple enjoy and create new pieces before we have to learn a new set of skills!

Over My Head...

2006-01-30T22:35:00.000-08:00

Both “Lexia to Perplexia” and “windsound” went way over my head as far as poetry goes. I had no idea what to make of Lexia. It was kind of interesting; I kept clicking, hovering, and moving my mouse from one location to the other. I started with the one that looked like it said exe.termination. That sounded like something interesting, so I probably gave that the longest look, still left with a feeling of, “WTF?!” The wotclock wouldn’t work on Explorer or Firefox on my system. It would just have “ET” on the screen and then freeze my Quicktime player. The “windsound,” which I watched for about eight minutes was actually kind of creepy, but in the end still way over my head.

Some of these more “techno-edgy” pieces confuse me. I do not know if “edgy” is the right word for it, but they seem very abstract and modern. I was following the guy’s creepy voice during “windsound” and the whole time I thought of “Fear.com” (this really bad movie). Whenever it would switch to the louder, less creepy woman’s voice, I would follow along, trying to connect that piece of the story to the last, to no avail. I kind of liked “windsound” because the title somewhat tells what the site/poem/experience is like. It is kind of like wind blowing through trees, happening to make weird sounds. Until the woman-voice speaks, it really could just be the wind blowing, and our paranoia providing words to the madness (if we did not have the words on our screen, obviously). That was a little bit cool, but still, I do not think I could have handled that for anything over ten minutes.

“Lexia to Perplexia” was weird. I liked how I could interact with the text nonstop. I could just move my mouse around on most screens and something happened. I like when the background changed because sometimes I would try to figure out what the picture was. Sometimes when you would click stuff, green words or “Manifestos” would appear. I tried Googling these phrases, but only the site I was at came up. I see some poetry in the paragraphs, but with all the techno-jargon mixed in, maybe I am just misunderstanding the symbols. I also did not understand if I needed to start at each one, because some seemed linked to others. The colors were kind of dark too, with shots of fluorescent green mixed in, somewhat painful for the eyes.

The two pieces I was able to view were interesting, but I would call them art more than poetry. Are they supposed to be poetry? I do not even know, and in no way am I putting down these artists’ works. I think they have messages, but these messages are breezing right over me. I hope at the end of this semester, maybe with a little more experience with this stuff, I will be able to get more of the subtleties of these pieces. I think it will be very interesting to view these pieces at the end of the semester and see what I think of them then.

Well until Tuesday….That’s all folks! -AJ

Never-ending digital literature

2006-01-30T19:06:00.000-08:00

In Lexia to Perplexia, there was utilization of many different images and flash techniques to create a piece that was quite overwhelming. This piece was prompted by the mouse-clicks of the viewer, which consequently had an effect to the images or text that you would see onscreen. There was so much text and confusing juxtaposition of drawings, images, and moving images. I couldn't compute and take in that much input, so I ended up just clicking wherever onscreen and not even reading any of the text.

This piece seemed to parallel the readings from Writing Machines by Hayles and First Person by Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan. These texts are so dense with loaded words and terminology that really confuses and frustrates me. I'm not used to all of this computer tech lingo. It's like I have just dived into another world where I don't understand the language that everyone is speaking in. I also had a lot of trouble with my html page. I tried to create links and upload them to the ssh uploading tool and uh-server, but to no avail. This week has just been quite frustrating for me.

Lexia to Perplexia

2006-01-30T02:57:00.000-08:00

While browsing through the Lexia to Perplexia web site, I have to admit that at first, I found myself trying to search for all the possible links and didn't read any of the text. I am always amazed with web sites that are visually stimulating and this site is definitely a (confusing) visual piece of work.

I think I find sites like these a little intimidating. There's so much information packed into this one site that I don't even know where to begin...or end. Every time I went to the site, I found a new link, more images, more words, more confusion. Eventually, I think I came around to the same place I started at, but as I kept moving forward, I couldn't find a way back to the place I was at previously.

Personally, I think that's something I have to learn to get over. I'm so accustomed to being in control of what I read, especially in a book. I can leave a book marker or post-it in a place that seems important in a text book but online, in a site that has no address bar, makes that more difficult if not impossible to do. Most of the text in the site could be copied and pasted into a word document but I wouldn't know for sure how to get back to that text, at least not without spending time searching for it.

I could go on and on about the design of the site but I think I should at least mention that I did enjoy Memmott's use of neologisms and creole words. It reminds me of trying to decipher the personalized license plates that make no sense when you first look at it but seems clever once you figure it out.

2006-01-24T21:25:00.000-08:00

These three pieces were very interesting. I found that out of the three, aesthetically, Faith by Robert Kendall was the most visually stimulating because of the actions and motion of the words. There was also a lot of colors used to direct the viewer's attention from here to there and to put emphasis on some words more than others. I felt that the "buttons" that appeared which would take us to the next section of the flash presentation was very helpful because it gave readers a break in which to soak in all of the information.

In contrast to the many words of Kendall in Faith, Murmuring Insects written by Otagaki Rengetsu and designed by Ingrid Ankerson gave viewers only a few words to visually read. The rest of the piece incorporated very subtle images such as the fade in and fade out of the twin towers. These images and text were accompanied by music and insect sounds along with actual news reels with people's voices and sounds from 9/11.

Jason Nelson's Hermeticon was a very complex piece that had an overload of information. There were many different squares in which different images would appear depending on the keystroke that you used. This keystroke would appear as the faint background behind the grid and squares. The keystrokes that the viewer typed in would be displayed and the old text would be pushed out of sight as you typed more and more. This technique that Nelson used engages the viewer more proactively, but also confuses and frustrates the viewer in the sense of reading this piece. There is bits and pieces of actual text, but otherwise this flash piece is a combination of old commercials that have been all put together and are displayed somewhat randomly it may seem to the viewers.

I saw a parallel between Hermeticon and The Matrix (Revolutions - I think it was the second one). In The Matrix Neo confronts the architect who is seated in a room of hundreds or thousands of different television screens. These screens all depict the different possible reactions that Neo could have and one of these possibilities is actually true. These screens juxtaposed with each other create an influx or overload, rather, of information that gives viewers headaches and causes frustration when they are trying to find meaning and understanding of this piece.

And Little is New

2006-01-24T15:54:00.000-08:00

In a sense, digital literature - kinetic text - is a new version of old ideas. The new medium allows us to experience literature in a different way. This is similar, I think, to way our view of stories changed as society shifted from an oral tradition to a written. We weren’t confined to mnemonic devices to preserve or create a piece. With digital literature, we’re no longer confined to the written page or to lines of text. Whether we are trying to produce something new or to preserve old knowledge isn’t really important. What’s important is how the new medium affects the old and how the old affects the new.

Hermaticon might be the “new” The Waste Land. It’s confusing. It doesn’t seem to have a point. Maybe one day critics will point to it and called a masterpiece. Masterpiece or not, like The Waste Land, I’m thinking that if the author/creator annotated it, the notes would need notes. That being said, I plunged into Hermaticon. I tried the suggested spell and then proceeded to experiment with different keystrokes. The sense of bafflement I felt wasn’t reduced by a second or third visit. This experience paralleled my experience when I read The Waste Land.

I was left wondering how I was going to react when I saw the pictures and clips used in the piece. Would I view the advertisements differently because I saw them used in a different context? Or would I think of Hermaticon when I saw them? Would seeing them in the context that was intended, help me to understand Hermaticon better? Perhaps a better question would be, would it help me to start to understand it? Perhaps, like the notes to The Waste Land, seeing them would only increase my bewilderment .

Touching on emotions...the third time around

2006-01-24T15:41:00.000-08:00

I agree with Zach when he said that all these pieces of works could not be duplicated on paper, at least to the same effect. The first couple of times I looked at "Murmuring Insects" by Ankerson, I didn't have the volume on. Then when I went back to the site again, I noticed that it said "Sound bytes from..." Viewing that poem, and allowing it to have all the modes of communication required, allowed it to become very powerful. Those sound bytes gave it a different meaning, a meaning I wouldn't have gotten without those clips.

I'm not even sure how a poem like this, using words, images, and sound could be duplicated on paper. Maybe the sound clips made a huge difference for me because in 2001, when the attack was in the news, I only had a TV with no cable and virtually no picture in my dorm room. I remember listening to the news, and hearing that lady's voice (the one heard when you click on "air"). I couldn't see the picture they were showing while she was saying that and could only use my imagination. I'm sure had I been able to actually see what she saw and heard what she said, it would have had a different effect on what I thought and felt.

Similar to the emotions brought on by the TV (the emotions supposed to have been brought on with the picture and sound), the emotions felt while listening, and seeing the poem unfold on the computer screen cannot be reproduced on paper with words alone.

A new medium demonstrated?

2006-01-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

I felt that all three of this weeks' short works are strong evidence for the existence of a new medium--none of these works could be reproduced faithfully in an older medium.

Faith, with it's cute animated intro concerning the imperviousness of faith to logic, requires motion for this message. It prompted me to question whether the rest of this "poem" could be printed in a traditional anthology. But how would you print a morphing poem? Print the 4 screen-pages sequentially; or print only the second-to-last screen-page when the poem is most "complete"? It would fail to capture the sense that one poem could contain/reveal another within it.

I found the contrast in Murmuring Insects to be quite striking. At first, the scene only seems to highlight the content of the original poem (much as in last week's "Origami")--the peaceful night sounds, two fluffy airplane lines over a still moon:

In the sky, flocks of departing geese
In the weeds, murmuring insects
Tears like dew well up in my eyes

But as the poem is revealed, we find other sounds that correspond instead to the faint early image of the Twin Towers and the 9/11 date we had to click on to start the experience. These sounds are not natural evening sounds, but human chaos and suffering. The sadness of poem is attached to the events of 9/11, promoting many interesting image and emotional comparisons. This was my favorite work (though I agree I found the "apparent" link from the moon to be confusing).

Some of the scenes from Hermeticon were nostalgic for me, but overall, I found this work less enjoyable. The background beat put me on edge. Possibly due to my lack of rhythm, I failed to make any interesting "spells" from the work. If found I'd rather press many keys quickly and use the resulting noise to drown out the background beat. Yet, in a way, it reminded me of dipping into the "communal consciousness", of being aware of all the messages being simultaneously transmitted on all the different communication channels, and the futility of personally making order from it.

Though none of these works could have maintained their effect through print, I also found that the interactivity was important. I often had to go through each of the works at my own pace, pause to evaluate each scene, back up and play it again to evaluate it closer. This suggests that they may not have done well as video either.

2006-01-24T05:28:00.000-08:00

I think that the piece "Faith" best represents the true nature of the kinetic text. Though the beginnings of this medium probably dated back to the earliest forms of Internet technology, with more advanced programs such as Flash, moving texts like "Faith" aren't all that uncommon. Therefore, when giving an opinion on such a piece, I must judge it in the light of today's technology, if only in the light of design philosophy.

The concept of faith is flexible enough to play with; I especially liked the beginning when the word "logic" was bouncing off the word "faith." When the words began materializing, I began to concentrate too hard; this I believe is the main weakness of the piece. Though I was able to make out the various shifting sentences rather quickly, it took away from the enjoyment of the animation itself. Only after I was sure I was reading the message correctly could I then step back to enjoy the various animations and fade-ins/outs. There were also many other combinatiosn of sentences that could be formed as the text appears. I don't doubt that the author wanted us to pick up on these phrases (ones that clearly weren't part of the original paragraph), but as I mentioned before, these intricacies are lost when the viewer tries to keep up with the moving text.

Compared to the other piece that I feel is most similar to it, "Murmuring Insects," although "Murmuring Insects" is much easier to follow, Faith's message is a bit more complex and interesting, and I prefer it. "Murmuring Insects" is a bit too artsy, but it gets the job done. I won't even bother going into "Hermeticon," I absolutely detested it. The main reason is though we are encouraged to put together "phrases" consisting of different combinations of key-presses, the grid itself is by no means intuitive and the short sound bytes and video clips aren't enough to lead us on to pressing other sequences of keys. The piece doesn't generate sufficient enough incentive for the viewer to bother trying to spam all the letters just to see what happens.

You gotta have Faith! (AJ)

2006-01-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

Logic bouncing off faith, now that's an interesting visual.

I just read professor Zuern's rules for posting, they are so very strict. My thesis, my topic sentences, and things of that nature usually do not concern me on a blog, maybe that is why he has to mention it. But c'mon John! Whatever happened to casual writing? Well who knows, but I do think these kinetic texts are the new "thing."

All of these kinetic texts had something interesting in them, but I found Faith by Kendall to be the most interesting. I loved trying to actually figure out what he meant, what he was "trying" to say. I loved the introduction, with logic bouncing off of Faith. I love how Faith is typed in nice script, while the other stuff is just colored, nothing too fancy. I think the imagery and message was cool. It's like the dropping words made the thought whole. I enjoyed that piece the most.

I did not understand Murmering Insects. I clicked on it first because my parents own a pest control company and I thought it might be something relevent. It was not. I saw that the soundbytes were pulled from all over, but for all I could tell they were off one, very fuzzy transmission. I could barely understand the message. It had something to do with the two towers falling on 9-11 right? I got that from the date you have to click on. I tried to click on the crescent moon looking thing in the center, but nothing happened. Was something supposed to? Earth, Air & Water all worked, but not that crescent thing. I just watched it for the fifth time and noticed the beautiful, almost illusion-like towers in the background, very cool in that respect.

Lastly, the Hermeticon, the one I thought was in the middle for overall likability (is that even a word, I think it is), which Sheela Jane really liked, I find irritating. I had it on my computer, with the sound on, and my roomie had to ask me to bust out my earphones. I kept trying to make some kind of real message form. I typed things like "so far, so good" and "spellbinding." I didn't type numbers until I saw the example say to, and I didn't get why they used that example. What was going on in those commercial clips? I watched the My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite commercial clips like six times each trying to pick up what they were. Very throwback, but I think I am missing the message.

The pieces were all very interesting, and I think poetry should be headed in this direction (for those who would want to). I mean, you could always choose to print just words, like some/most book poetry, but the pictures, movement, added messages, are very cool. I think this class might expose us ("us" meaning people like me who have read pretty much no poetry online like this) to really new (maybe some old, because that'd be new to me!) technologies in poetry publication. I enjoy this format and I look forward to talking about these interesting pieces in class.

SHOOTS! - AJ

Hermeticon - A Shocking Experience

2006-01-23T01:23:00.000-08:00

Nelson's "Hermeticon" is what I'd consider my first, truly SHOCKING exposure to the field of digital literature. And I use the term "shocking" literally and in uppercase for extra and very necessary emphasis. Sitting at my computer at 11pm this evening, I was taken completely by surprise at the noises and images that erupted on my screen at the simple touch of the keypad. I literally jumped and yelled something like "Oh Jesus!" which brought two of my three roomates running (I'm sure the third would have joined us if she were not already asleep!). Between the three of us we pressed numerous keys simultaneously, independently and for various lengths of time, laughing, shouting and trying to make sense of it all. If this piece and our response to it do not completely and brilliantly support Hayles' argument regarding the importance of "materiality" and "media-specific analysis," I don't know what does.

"Hermeticon" demands the reader's full attention to the materiality of the medium - keypad, screen, letters, sequence - while at the same time challenging her to create a literary production that has some semblence of coherence and meaning. There is no way for this piece to make sense without the unique combination of the material elements that are necessary for its viewing as well as the physical actions and intellectual capacity of the viewer. Like the book that Hayles describes as "an artifact whose physical properties and historical usages structure our interactions with it in ways obvious and subtle," "Hermeticon" truly succeeds in "transform[ing]...the relation of word to world" (Hayles 22-23).

On the flip side however, despite its stimulating, mind-blowing and exciting form, "Hermeticon" does run the danger of losing its literary purpose admist the technological hoopla. While I am titillated by the seemingly infinite possibilities, I find it extremely frustrating and almost impossible to make sense of the work's literary meaning. What is the author trying to SAY? What is the central MESSAGE? These are questions that I cannot answer at this point in time - perhaps because the materiality of the piece is so overwhelming and perhaps because it requires multiple viewings and more non-trivial effort (was this the term we discussed last class?) than I am willing to put in at this point in time.

First Post

2006-01-18T15:03:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, just testing my first post for this class.

Another Intro

2006-01-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

Made it here without too much trouble. This is my first blog post (ever). :)

Hi There!

2006-01-16T20:37:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

Finally made it after jumping through a couple of hoops to regain my still active account from last semester! :)

See you all tomorrow!
~SJ

HTML & CSS question...

2006-01-16T02:58:00.000-08:00

Aloha kakou!

I've been playing and have at least some of the basics down...I need to learn how to set a margin when using text wrap...anyone have any luck with it? Maybe give me a nudge in the right direction? Here's what I've done so far;

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~mesulliv/

Any comments? sugguestions? snide remarks?

A hui hou i ka Po'alua,
michael

Aloha!

2006-01-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

I made it! Had a firewall issue to correct before i could get here...

Quick Post

2006-01-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Just doing my quick post. Hope you all have a great week!

Mahalos,
Shaun

Welcome to HiDiLi

2006-01-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

The Hi(Hawai'i) Di(gital) Li(terature) is your space for conversation and reflection while you're a student in the 2006 Junior Honors Seminar on Digital Literature at the University of Hawai'i. As you'll read in the class assignment descriptions, you're required to make weekly postings in response to our assigned readings and activities. You may also want to use the blog to coordinate your teams' work throughout the semester and to alert fellow students about interesting discoveries on the Internet or changes to your own online projects.

I very much look forward to working with all of you this semester.