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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