Some of the common themes in this work that I found were: the color blue, rivers/water, flow/fluidity, winter/Christmas
I also noticed mention of retrovirus and virology. I detected themes of Freedom vs. Constraint, Death, love and lust.
Some characters I encountered were Samantha and Lisle, a Daughter and Mother. Javier-Lisle's lover, and Javier's daughter Beth.
The first strategy I employed in my approach was to click the number links from the home page. This strategy made me feel safe and kept me linked to a "home base"
Reading this work was like piecing together a dream, little by little images were formed in my mind while the details fell into place.
I saw "Route 9" in the town as a metaphor for navigating through Twelve Blue. The work was often self-referential while also being a beautiful poetic work.
While employing my first strategy, I found that the hyperlink "Begin" on homepage and ".1..." lead to the same page entitled "How she knew".
Navigating through this work was like putting together a puzzle out of many pieces.
"Follow me before the choices disappear" was like a secret link because it blended in with the background and I could not see it unless I passed my cursor over it to highlight it.
When I could go no further with my first strategy I came up with a second strategy, which was to click the textual links within each page to go to another page. This venture made me feel like I was on a mystical journey, slowly uncovering a mystery. After a while of clicking on the textual hyperlinks, I was led to an image. Which lead me to think, "Now what?! Onto another strategy?"
My third strategy consisted of randomly clicking the many different threads on the right bar of the page. However, the threads' positions changeed every time, making it difficult to form a pattern.
When I encountered another textual link, I had to stop and consider whether I should go back to strategy #2 or keep on with #3.
Some themes others picked up on and shared during our class discussion included: memory, reflection esp through relationships and generations, and perception.
Some of the characters/relationships found were: Lisle, Samantha, Javier, Beth, Lee, Lisa, Mary Reily, Flossie, Ed Stanko, deaf dead boyfriend, Eleanor, Henry Stone, Dolores Peters.
Everyone encountered something different in exploring this work, which made me think that it offers endless possibilities!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Navagating Electronic Literature
"Navigation
is an element of electronic literature that uniquely affects the ways
in which we read and interact with digital textuality. Unlike print
literature, electronic literature does not consist of stable, inscribed
marks on a print page; rather, it emerges as a processural performance
across codes and circuitry within the computer and in response to
interactions from the reader." A quote from Navigating Electronic Literature by Jessica Pressman.
Truly, navigating this new form has proved to be one of its challenges for me. It is something so different from a traditional piece of literature, and it must be approached in a different way as well.
"Navigation is not just how readers move through electronic literature but how they read digital works. When and how the reader inputs a command, whether it is a mouse-click or a typewritten word, this action affects the work’s performance and the reader’s engagement with it."
Electronic literature, and the means by which we interact with it as readers, quantifies our understanding. Whereas a reader's interaction with traditional literature happens mostly in the mind and is difficult to measure, a reader's interaction with electronic literature can be measured by the rate at which they click a button, type a word, etc. Electronic literature forces the reader to interact with the work not only through our thoughts, but through our physical actions as well.
"How one navigates a hypertext determines what one reads and in which order." Everyone experiences a literary work differently, but now the difference can be measured and tracked by the means of how one physically navigates through a hypertext work. Not only are the readers each experiencing something different through their individual minds, they are also coming at the story in a completely different way depending on where/what/how they click through it.
It is as if electronic literature has taken what could only ever happen in someone's individual mind and made it accessible for all to experience.
"Navigating a nonlinear narrative such as a hypertext, or a related form like Andrews’s stir frys, demonstrates how electronic literature challenges expectations associated with and codified around print-based reading practices." As I mentioned in my previous post, electronic literature challenges the concepts we have formed as readers of traditional literature. Those concepts cannot be brought into the electronic experience because they often do not apply.
For example, "Since hypertexts are structured as networks rather than linear plots, they lend themselves to openness and disorientation." There is no linear story; a hypertext can bring you round and round in circles without even ever ending. This can be a difficult concept to wrap one's mind around (it certainly is for me) because we are so used to linear works.
Truly, navigating this new form has proved to be one of its challenges for me. It is something so different from a traditional piece of literature, and it must be approached in a different way as well.
"Navigation is not just how readers move through electronic literature but how they read digital works. When and how the reader inputs a command, whether it is a mouse-click or a typewritten word, this action affects the work’s performance and the reader’s engagement with it."
Electronic literature, and the means by which we interact with it as readers, quantifies our understanding. Whereas a reader's interaction with traditional literature happens mostly in the mind and is difficult to measure, a reader's interaction with electronic literature can be measured by the rate at which they click a button, type a word, etc. Electronic literature forces the reader to interact with the work not only through our thoughts, but through our physical actions as well.
"How one navigates a hypertext determines what one reads and in which order." Everyone experiences a literary work differently, but now the difference can be measured and tracked by the means of how one physically navigates through a hypertext work. Not only are the readers each experiencing something different through their individual minds, they are also coming at the story in a completely different way depending on where/what/how they click through it.
It is as if electronic literature has taken what could only ever happen in someone's individual mind and made it accessible for all to experience.
"Navigating a nonlinear narrative such as a hypertext, or a related form like Andrews’s stir frys, demonstrates how electronic literature challenges expectations associated with and codified around print-based reading practices." As I mentioned in my previous post, electronic literature challenges the concepts we have formed as readers of traditional literature. Those concepts cannot be brought into the electronic experience because they often do not apply.
For example, "Since hypertexts are structured as networks rather than linear plots, they lend themselves to openness and disorientation." There is no linear story; a hypertext can bring you round and round in circles without even ever ending. This can be a difficult concept to wrap one's mind around (it certainly is for me) because we are so used to linear works.
Introduction to Electronic Literature
Before taking this class, English 4081, if were to hear the words "electronic literature" fanfiction, e-readers, and blogs are some of the things that would come to mind. After last week's class however, my mind has been blown. Electronic Literature is so much more than all that! It's a cross between literature, graphic art, computer science, and technology. The freedom and lack of limitation it affords is actually quite frightening, even to someone like me--a performing artist.
When I think of literature, I think of a story, and naturally a story is usually chronological, or at the very least can be pieced together and made sense of. The stories I am experiencing through electronic literature, however, are not so. They are much less lateral and much more circular. They are less of a story and more of an overall experience. In some ways they give me, the reader, a lot more freedom, but in other ways it can be even more restrictive than your average book.
One form of electronic literature we investigated was hypertext fiction. The example of this was a story called Twelve Blue, an HTML hypertext that used frames and image maps. This was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. The story, seemingly, had no beginning, middle, or end. To top that off there were so many ways to get to the another part of the story. Sometimes words were links to another story, sometimes images were links to another part of the story, but it was very hard to follow and thus to understand and make sense of.
Another story within the genre of hypertext fiction we investigated was Frequently Asked Questions about Hypertext. Although this piece of electronic literature was in the same genre (or tagged by the same keyword) as Twelve Blue its style was very different. This story was set up in a way very similar to a website, with an index and links that could be clicked on. It was a lot easier to follow because it was clear to me, the reader, where I could go and how I could get there within the story.
What I learned from these glimpses, was that my preconceived notions of electronic literature must be thrown out the window in order for me to enjoy and learn about this new and exciting form. In fact, my expectations must be wholly put aside and I must come at it as a young child first learning to read. It's something very new and different, and to impose the expectations I have come to know through my experience of print literature would inhibit me from truly embracing this new form.
This class will culminate in an end-of-semester project where each student will create a piece of electronic literature and display it in a gallery setting. Last week, we explored some different genres and our professor encouraged us to start thinking about what kind of project we might like to do. The genre that most interests me so far is locative narratives. I like the idea of incorporating different locations, like a scavenger or treasure hunt, with images, sounds, and story. I'm excited to further develop my ideas as I continue to discover the world of electronic literature!
When I think of literature, I think of a story, and naturally a story is usually chronological, or at the very least can be pieced together and made sense of. The stories I am experiencing through electronic literature, however, are not so. They are much less lateral and much more circular. They are less of a story and more of an overall experience. In some ways they give me, the reader, a lot more freedom, but in other ways it can be even more restrictive than your average book.
One form of electronic literature we investigated was hypertext fiction. The example of this was a story called Twelve Blue, an HTML hypertext that used frames and image maps. This was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. The story, seemingly, had no beginning, middle, or end. To top that off there were so many ways to get to the another part of the story. Sometimes words were links to another story, sometimes images were links to another part of the story, but it was very hard to follow and thus to understand and make sense of.
Another story within the genre of hypertext fiction we investigated was Frequently Asked Questions about Hypertext. Although this piece of electronic literature was in the same genre (or tagged by the same keyword) as Twelve Blue its style was very different. This story was set up in a way very similar to a website, with an index and links that could be clicked on. It was a lot easier to follow because it was clear to me, the reader, where I could go and how I could get there within the story.
What I learned from these glimpses, was that my preconceived notions of electronic literature must be thrown out the window in order for me to enjoy and learn about this new and exciting form. In fact, my expectations must be wholly put aside and I must come at it as a young child first learning to read. It's something very new and different, and to impose the expectations I have come to know through my experience of print literature would inhibit me from truly embracing this new form.
This class will culminate in an end-of-semester project where each student will create a piece of electronic literature and display it in a gallery setting. Last week, we explored some different genres and our professor encouraged us to start thinking about what kind of project we might like to do. The genre that most interests me so far is locative narratives. I like the idea of incorporating different locations, like a scavenger or treasure hunt, with images, sounds, and story. I'm excited to further develop my ideas as I continue to discover the world of electronic literature!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Genesis
"The creation of a thousand forests lies in one acorn."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Welcome to my newly created blog!
I've ventured back into blogging because of a class I am taking called "Introduction to Electronic Literature" aka ENG 4081-5081.
Here I will be posting my thoughts about this new and exciting genre which, along with my classmates, I'll be exploring.
Stay tuned for more to come.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Welcome to my newly created blog!
I've ventured back into blogging because of a class I am taking called "Introduction to Electronic Literature" aka ENG 4081-5081.
Here I will be posting my thoughts about this new and exciting genre which, along with my classmates, I'll be exploring.
Stay tuned for more to come.
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