Chawn's blog

When we covered the readings on Point of View, one of my favorite questions asked was, “How do the authors of new media texts decide whose eyes we see with”? I say I agree with the Meadows reading where through the means of perspective an author is able to depict a dense image or experience. I say experience because the shift in today’s new art forms is in combining multiple perspectives and rich interfaces to enhance meaning. In “my body: a Wunderkamer” Shelly Jackson, presents the character’s body as the interface (visually) in an intimate fashion as if we, the reader, were looking at the character close up. Although the body is a sketch the process of viewing the body and clicking on each part personalizes the experience. Through the use of text and the way she tells us about each intimate detail as it relates to the scars of her past, the text is presented in a perceptual perspective. The two experiences or multisensory perspectives offer more meaning. The experience seems as if you are interacting with the character while she points to each scar and tells a story. It makes the experience more human due to the structure of the narrative vs. presenting it in a plain text book or website.
The idea of a multiple viewpoints made me think of the ways the Pan-perspective is used today for sales of goods. Think about realestate sales and apartment listings. Nowadays, you can access a 360degree view of homes. The cameras use the viewpoint of the customer to create a optimal view for selling the best features of a home. See the Century 21 link.
Multisenory viewpoints are all around us.

Wow. I just read the 10:01 digital narrative and what an interesting way to present a series of very short “stories” about seemingly random characters that have only a brief encounter at the movies in common. While I was reading I couldn’t help but think the first few characters I read were all “in their heads” so to speak with gloomy, lonely, or desperate thoughts. What I liked about the piece was the use of the sillohette images and the audio clips that accompanied some of the characters, and visual media that played outside the text boxes. In this case I can appreciate the fact that less is more. Olsen & Gutherie give you just a glimpse of the characters thoughts, behaviors, and actions portrayed in the movie theatre. I find it ironic that the characters all have a different perspective of those 10 minutes before the move starts yet they have all “escaped” to the same place at the same time. I say escaped because Olsen & Gutherie leave me with the impression that on the surface the characters are normal everyday people doing norma things, i.e. what is more normal than going to the movies. However, the stories that unfold about the character’s lives is anything but normal. Although I do not like some of the racist and sterotypical tones used to protray some of the characters I definately believe the hypertext media works more effectively to bring the characters to life versus telling these individual short narratives on flast text. The fact that you must use multiple senses to engage with the text offers an intriguing experiences, even if I do not agree like the text on the whole.

In Week 5 we talked about the different ways we can use comics and text. I had no idea there were different ways to consider the relationship between the two. But that got me to thinkin’ remember those cool Garbage Pail Kids? Ok I’m probably telling my age!… Anyway, I think here I found an example of how the Additive Combination, where text supplements the image with more information, was used to give those hilarious, yet disgusting and abominable kids a more descriptive meaning. Take for example the character “Starin’ Darin” or “Acne Amy”, I think the Additive Combination Dr. Guertin talked about was used to bring many of those characters to life. So what do you think, would Acne Amy be the same if she were just “Amy”? Probably gross but not nearly as funny! Or how about ‘Starin Darin’ — it would be clear from the picture alone that he has some sort of horrible affliction but the name of the character brings it home! I could be totally wrong but one thing I’m sure of is that reading the text has totally changed the way I think about and view comics.

We also were introduced to the Comic Life software. This was great stuff. I started picking my brain to figure out how can I bring the remixed world to life through my eyes…This is either going to be fun or a disaster! Let me know what you all think? I’m considering a remix between clowns at funerals or something…Ok, not really!!! lol /CJ

Hey all…I hope everyone enjoyed our 6 Word Autobiography assignment for Engl 3372. I thought iWeb was awesome. I got such a creative rush from designing the webpage. Colorful templates and ease of use make for a less intimidating experience in webdesign. Although I ran into problems getting started, the project didn’t take long to pull together. I think the most difficult part was finding time to access the Macs and trying to figure out what I wanted to say. Anyway, I would have to say that iWeb and the ability to create webpages for personal or professional interests are no longer intimidating. I found myself volunteering to assist with a web site for a group project. Already looking forward to our next project!

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