Tuesday, March 26, 2013

E-Lit Review Assignment



Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky

By: Sharif Ezzat


“Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky” is an electronic literature created in 2006.  The keywords of E-lit it falls under are Audio, Flash, Multilingual or Non-English.  This Flash hypertext poem focuses on telling the reader stories of the challenges of life and love from “parables to family stories.  The author tells poems through different characters stories, who are introduced in the beginning.  There is an introduction movie spoken in Arabic (with English subtitles) asking the reader if they would like to hear a series of stories.  As the video plays, the stars appear in the sky in the background.  After the intro, you are free to click on any of the nine blue pulsating stars to get a story mentioned in the beginning.  The free verse poems are written in English.  As you click on a star, the story opens up in the middle of the screen.  The reader scrolls down to receive the rest of the story, closes the story when he/she is done, and has control over which story/poem is opened next.   During the entire piece, you hear wind chimes in the background, and an occasional bird sings. 


The feeling of the piece is calm and elegant.  The wind chimes give serenity along with the stories you read.  “Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky” sets the reader up for a meditative experience.  From the moment your experience begins, to the end of each poem you read, you are faced with peace and relaxation. 
A review by Leonardo Flores in I ♥ E-Poetry sums up this E-lit perfectly saying “Its power lies in its earnest, honest simplicity”.  

This piece reminded me of my childhood experiences with bedtime stories.  Although it was not Arabic, my father would tell me stories in Spanish, and after I became familiar with his list of stories, I was able to choose which one he would tell me as a bedtime story. 
The stories Ezzat shared with us reminded me partially of fables, in the sense that fables give an illustration or guide the reader to a moral lesson.  At the end of Ezzat’s stories, you may apply it to your life, connecting his question or statement to something you have experienced.  I feel like he didn’t specify any names or titles in his stories to make them relatable to his reader’s life. 


About the author:
Sharif Ezzat is an Egyptian-American multimedia artist based in San Francisco.  In 1998 Sharif launched Good Food Productions, through which he works in a wide variety of digital media, from web sites and videos to interactive kiosks and installations. His work has been featured by Adbusters, the San Francisco International Film Festival, and the Electronic Literaure Organization.  Sharif has toured extensively with human beatbox Yuri Lane, providing multimedia visuals for Yuri's theatrical and musical performances, as well as showcasing his skills as a spoken word artist. Each year he helps produce the Arab Film Festival in California, providing print, web, and motion graphics design expertise.
His personal website:  http://sharifezzat.com/
He describes himself as a man who tries “to tell meaningful stories that inspire positive action using design, video, poetry, animation, and code”.  Ezzat works at Genentech, where he focuses on user experience and video.









                                       

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