Blog # 11

"Workshopping" the FINAL PROJECT:

I have been working with Prezi to upload some PowerPoint slides and am creating a file from scratch.

Since the day of our class presentation is my 9year anniversary (2years married) with my Husband, I have changed my theme to "True Love".  I will be creating a project asking if there is true love or not, having the reader be able to see both sides. I will use images of my husband and I for the 'YES there is true love' side and I will find images online to fill the 'No there isn't true love' side.

*I am having issues with making my piece interactive.  I want the reader to click on things on Prezie and have them open up to another window, but it seems like when I upload things onto Prezie, it is available to the reader all at once. 
**I am not able to animate my PowerPoint images. I created them to have words and animation, but it seems only the pictures were uploaded to Prezi.

E-Lit Review Assignment: RE-POST

Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky

By: Sharif Ezzat

http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/ezzat__like_stars_in_a_clear_night_sky.html

“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.

Blog # 10

For project two, I tried using Flash and Prezi, but ended up using PowerPoint.  Flash was far too complicated, and Prezi felt way too simple.  I went back to PowerPoint, which I hadn't used for years, and was fascinated with the new tools they had.  I had a lot of fun doing my Project 2, but for my final project I am interested in using something new. 

I know at first glance I judged Prezi as being too simple.  However, I recently received an e-mail from Prezi saying, "Did you know that you can import your old PowerPoint slides?" And it made me thing about how I didn't know I could mold two software concepts together to create one final piece.  Perhaps for my final project, I will give Prezi another chance and upload some PowerPoint slides.  I will definitely give this a chance, before searching for another software choice.  

 

An idea I am interested in creating is magical electronic literature.  I would like to have a crystal ball with smoke floating inside and mystical music in the background.  The reader would have to hover over the crystal ball and click on a puff of smoke.  Then a stream of smoke would float out and display an image or lexia. How I am going to create this is beyond me, but it is something I hope to pull off for my final project. 

Blog # 9

Project Number Two:

I created "Rain Rain Please Stay and Play" as a free-verse poem.  I have created the digital literacy using Power Point.  There are six slides.  Each slide is made up of lexia, sound, and image.  I have set up the display to play on its own, but the reader would be able to go at his/her speed.  The words which are capitalized are where the images are born from.  The sound is to reinforce the actions which are written.

*It doesn't look interactive because I timed it to play as a video for the sake of playing it in class, but if the reader would use this program the way I crated it on PowerPoint, it would be interactive as the assignment requires. The reader would click through the presentation, to animate the reading.  

Blog # 8

1.  Choose the software you would like to use in creating your next piece. Write about that choice explaining briefly why you decided to go with that application.  "Play around" with the software, and develop some initial foundation for your project that you may build upon in the week before deadline (April 16).
 

The software I am interested in using will probably be flash.  I am interested in creating some kind of interactive poetry.  I was inspired by the e-lit review I did on “Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky” and am interested to see what I will produce when mimicking that idea. 

2.  Write an early outline of the narrative/text/poem you will be creating.  Describe the intended content for your piece, along with the style and design features you would like to invoke.

I would like to use at least four to seven of my own poetry for my project two assignment.  This way, for each different poem, I can implement different ideas and develop a creative e-lit project.  My main goal is to make the visual aspect coincide with the lexia to make a well-rounded final product. 

3.  Prepare a question (or a few) to pose to Dr. Flores during our twitter session. 

   
  Some questions for Dr. Flores: 

• Which software does he prefer use when creating digital literacy? Why? 
• Which software does he not suggest for people starting out with e-lit?

Blog # 7