Blog #3

Blog:  A) Post your early ideas for the Hypertext Assignment (Project 1).  B)  Post your experiences with your demo google.site thus far - try to identify what kind of help you are going to need.  C)  Also, start to collect images you might want to incorporate into Project 1.  Think of this week as the "image blog" -start collecting images on your Google Drive.

My ideas on the Hypertext Assignment are to treat it sort of as a survey.  I want it to be something people can maneuver through based on their interests.  As you click through my project, I want you to make choices and going into details you enjoy.  I don’t want to be confusing like Twelve Blue or The Jews Daughter.  There ideas were creative but too jumbled.  There wasn’t a clear idea that was helping me enjoy the thought process.  The idea would be more-or-less the same, but I want mine project to be much clearer.   

I understand how to create a google site, based on the video on youtube.  However, I think the kind of help I am going to need is how to be extra creative with it.  I want to add music to it, but I don’t quite understand how to do this without having itunes.  I’m positive more problems will arise as I continue through the project, but I am confident I will be able to find examples online on how to solve them.

Blog #2

-Write about some of the pieces you have been exploring in the ELC. 
 

My favorite piece that I explored on my own was in Flash.  It’s called “Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky” by Sharif Ezzat.  I loved this piece because of its simplicity and majestic vibe.  The wind chimes in the background and the stars were absolutely peaceful.  The stories were written clearly and their messages were powerful.  I wish I could come up with a concept as great as this one for my project. 

Another piece I found interesting while exploring in the ELC was “myBALL” by Shawn Rider.  This was located in the Network Forms.  The music in the background matched the entire concept, which was eeriness.  It was creepy to think of the message they were sending.  But what I liked was how simple it was to navigate and understand.  I don’t like it when the ELC gets too complicated.  

Sometimes ELC writers put too much into their concept that makes it unclear for me to understand.  An example of this is in “Landscapes” by Bill Marsh, also located in Flash.  I didn’t get a meaning from it because it was uninteresting to me.  I felt like there was too much chaos occurring and so I was not focused on anything in particular. 

Blog #1

Blog assignment #1: Describe some of the strategies you used to "read" Twelve Blue. Indicate what you did + what you hoped to achieve - and what you got out of doing whatever you did. I am hoping you will dig around in this text long enough to try out more than one strategy.

My strategy was to read the instructions given at the beginning “Once past the first page, click the threads displayed on the left or hyperlinked words to progress the narrative” and then to jump right in.  I clicked on “Begin” on the left hand side and freely went for it.  Once I clicked on the link on the first page, and read its content, I clicked the back arrow to check out where the threads would direct me.  After continuing to click the back arrow a few times, I felt like I was cheating the author a bit.  I feel Michael Joyce would be disappointed if he knew I wasn’t losing myself in his literature.  Therefore, I went back to the beginning and started clicking at random.  I was clicking every other thread, and then I mixed it up and would click on the underline words…no real strategy.  I really lost interest when a picture of who knows what popped up.  I tried staring at it for a while to see if something would come to me, but I still have no idea what it was.  Then I continued to go through the links to see if some other picture would pop up and I reached the finally (I think) which was after I clicked on the “…” and showed me a picture of what looked like grass. 

I started again and took the link that said “click here for help with this reading”.  It said “The story threads quite obviously along its edges, like frayed cloth, in the left window. You'll find links there. There are passing links within the text on the right as well, but these, once followed, go away.  You'll want, I think, to open the space so all twelve threads show, diurnally ( a not terribly obscure word for the weaving and unraveling of time). Their progress is measured in the stories and their occasional proximities are meaningful.  The words work best with serifs and space enough (14 point is preferred). There are two hundred and sixty nine links here among ninety six spaces.  Twelve blue isn't anything. Think of lilacs when they're gone.” This still left me confused.  It looks like a riddle to me, but I can’t really put it together.  I did try opening each thread in a new window, and I was paying attention to the titles, but saw no connection.

I’m not really sure if I got anything out of this, but I am interested in hearing the ideas behind why he did this.  Also, it might be fun to create a project like this just to be out of the norm and to create confusion.