For my project I will be using a mix of art and computers…. I am going to take pictures through a digital camera of things that are ones and zeros. Then using those I will be putting together a short story or poem, in binary code.
Oct
29
Basically, I will be making a graphic novel and uploading it to the internet. The webpage that it will eventually be at will be here: http://www1.hollins.edu/classes/eng264/grahams/rl.htm
The actual graphic novel will be traditional (i.e. no hyperlinks within the text), but it will be experimenting with the reader’s sense of time and location. The ‘frames’ will serve this purpose mostly, as each will be hand-drawn without a ruler to give a more sloppy feel, which is something that this work needs.
The actual piece will be a fictional horror/adventure piece involving something that the reader hopefully knows a little bit about: love. Love will be shown in many different ways in the comic, not just romantic love between a man and a woman, but romantic love between a woman and a woman, familial love, the strong bonds of a friendship, and other aspects that the reader can identify with. This combined with the fact that many characters are not ones encountered everyday (undead, revenants, and a vampire) will bring a fresh breath to themes that the reader is already familiar with.
Oct
29
I thought of this after I left class and kicked myself for not mentioning it – I don’t know how many will be interested, but I thought I’d throw this out there anyway.
Today (10/29) we discussed human/machine interface and the creation of cyborgs. How far can this technology actually go? We discussed artifical hearts and thought-controlled prosthetic limbs, but what if it was possible to actually become the technological interface itself?
There is a wonderfully thought-provoking book entitled “Feed” by M.T. Anderson which explores a future in which computers are actually inside peoples’ brains – thoughts and memories can be sent from mind to mind via email. Drugs have been replaced by websites that produce the same psychological effects as earlier chemicals. The internet has essentially been moved into society’s collective mind. The book not only explores the implications of such a technologically dependent and driven society but also the consequences that come with such dependency. The language of the book itself is annoying, but the ideas presented in it are worth the irritation.
The Amazon link is here: http://www.amazon.com/Feed-M-T-Anderson/dp/0763622591/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8896486-9195141?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193690665&sr=8-1
Oct
29
While I hate putting this into real words and actually committing (there’s such trepidation that accompanies committment), I think I have the basis of my final project down.
I want to utilize the cut-up method of poetry we discussed earlier in class and combine that with hypertext – a linked word of one poem will guide the reader to another webpage and poem, which will have another linked word, etc. I want to use famous poems by famous authors – Shakespeare’s sonnets, for example, or poety by Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, Ogden Nash, or Phyllis Wheatley (to name just a few) – and explore the ways in which old poetry can be recreated into entirely new forms and meanings. The hyperlinks within each poem will, I think, demonstrate a fluidity between the new meanings or even similarities between the original versions of the poems. I haven’t yet decided if there should be a common theme in either the original versions or the new versions which I will cut up/write; are there any suggestions as to themes I could utilize if I did decide to make the poetry related?
Oct
29
For my final project, I’m planning to create a comic/very short graphic novel. I’m planning to create the piece on a single paper approximately the same size as the Spiegelman book’s pages, newprint-sized basically. I really enjoyed the large, oversized layout of his individual pieces and think this size allows for a great deal of flexibility and exploration.
I will be referencing, and definitely using as a resource, McCloud’s Understanding Comics. I’ll be especially concentrating on the Time Frames section we discussed in class, but I would also like to read past that section and incorporate other principles that he discusses.
I’m honestly not yet sure of my exact storyline. I want to carefully craft a story with strong visuals that will truly take advantage of the assets of this media form. At this point, I am in the stage of learning about the form’s strength and weaknesses, before beginning to definitively set the piece’s content.
~Emily
Oct
29
My project is going to consist of a comedic story that I am going to post on a website using html. It is going to explore the concept of non-linearity because there will be clickable images and words that will take the reader to different sections of the story. I also hope to explore resprentations of the text through images
The reader will be able to navigate through the story any way they seem fit and hopefully will find that no matter how they approach the text, it will make sense. This will bring up the notion that there is not one way to take a certain text and that there are many different ways to make meaning of a text.
-Hilary
Oct
29
Hi guys,
I’m interested in creating a website (hopefully on Photoshop and Imageready…if I can figure out slicing->coding->php loading, arrrgh!) that explores a romantic friendship through artifacts. Instead of being given a linear story – “first they met, then they became friends, then they fell in love” etc, the viewer will be presented with a variety of options, such as a stack of letters, a box, or a folded laptop. From there they will be able to see more closely the letters and gifts exchange between the two friends, as well as more hidden artifacts.
I want to explore non-linear storytelling; artifacts as the currency or metaphor for a relationship; cyborg interactions (the girls will have met online and exchange emails etc). I want to include as many types of media as possible: photography, letters, email, etc. I think it’s interesting to translate physical media into online media. I’ll probably be referencing Apple as well as the piece we just read on Cyborgs. I haven’t figured the rest out yet.
This will be a continuation of my earlier hypertext, amicus amoris, by the way.
Any thoughts?
Thanks, faye
Oct
29
Hi everyone,
I’m very interested in what McCloud has to say about the separation of visual art and literature and how there are no commonly accepted great works that combine the two.
I’ve started working on something that will either be a graphic short story (like Daniel Clowes’ work) or the beginning of a graphic novel. I’m focusing on the concept of “show and tell” that McCloud discusses in “Understanding Comics.” Throughout the work I will have sections that are based more on images and sections that are based more on text. I’ll try to find a balance between text and image and learn how to bring them together in a way that they support, not compete with, one another. Hopefully, I can try to help legitimize this kind of storytelling.
-Kat
Oct
29
Everyday millions of spam emails flood electronic mailboxes around the world. Many people attempt to head off the problem early by using spam filters that automatically delete any email with a subject line like “improve your sex life with Viagra” or “hot girls getting dirty.” As spam filters become more advanced, spam begins to morph into something else as their authors become more creative. For example, a subject, which would have previously read “Man with huge d*** has wife go down,” would now read “Get a new hose for your vacuum!”
A majority of the populations does not wish to be barraged with ads for online pharmaceuticals or cheap porn. However there is a minority who find it rather enlightening to read the subject lines of spam. These artists and poets use the subject lines as jumping off points for art and cut-up/found poetry.
In examining spam poetry, one must have an open mind for vulgar words and crude ideas. I wanted to change how people look at spam subject lines, not as trash but as possible art. When I began writing, I tried not to use very many rude words but as I continued I found that they were quite necessary in representing that aspect of our pop culture. The poetry I created is meant to be a social commentary on our technology and culture.
To present my work, I plan on making a creative power point with simple black and white images of graffiti. The idea of presenting the poetry through power point was meant the experience more interesting. Also I feel that the images of graffiti would lend to the idea that spam is a part of our culture. Both forms of art are considered taboo, so, naturally they would showcase each other beautifully. Although I have not completed the power point, and I may write a few more poems, I am very excited to see how people react to this relatively new idea and art form.
-Emma
Oct
29
I am interested in William Burroughs’ The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin, and in particular with the idea that (quoting Tristan Tzara) “Poetry is for everyone.” There is something very important in the idea that anyone can approach any work of literature and transform it into something new and worthwhile; cut-ups provide a service not only to their instigators & audience, but also to the original works.
Moby-Dick is a leviathan in its own right among works of literature–its sheer size is enough to deter the casual reader. My project is to take a section of the book and cut it up. I will present this on one side of a white sperm whale cutout (to make an immediate connection to the well-known, fundamental plot of the book). On the opposite side, I will translate the pre-cut-up passage into binary code. Thus, Moby-Dick will be transfigured to be applicable both for readers at large and for computers.
–Alison
