Blog Post # 11: My Electronic Literature Showcase

I finally did my Project 3 love poem! It took a lot of work to do but I am happy that I created a website in which I feel accomplished. It's been a long semester but taking this class where I learned so many new things about Electronic Literature made me be more into technology but in a creative way. I decided to use the software "Prezi."  I hope you will enjoy watching my love poem. :)

Here's my link:

http://prezi.com/oahvgbifa7vz/untitled-prezi/?kw=view-oahvgbifa7vz&rc=ref-38051291

Blog # 10: E-Lit Review

English: "E-Lit Review"

Inanimate Alice: Episode 1

Through my exploration of "Inanimate Alice, Episode 1: China” by Kate Pullinger and Babel I have seen how technology has been evolving more in our everyday lives.  Technology is a place where many people can adapt and learn new things.  Have we ever thought that technology could be a creative or fun way to learn?  Well, I am here to tell you that technology has many web pages where one can find it be amusing and entertaining by the electronic literature that’s being incorporated online.  There are many genres in electronic literature such as poetry, young adult fiction, games, hypertext creative non-fiction/fiction, music, and many more. 

Therefore, from all these genres of electronic literature, one that struck my attention was a piece of children/young adult literature with art work called, “Inanimate Alice Episode 1: China.”  This piece of electronic literature is an interactive hypertext fiction that set in the 21st century.  Inanimate Alice tells a story about a young girl (Alice) whose life is surrounded by technology.  She goes on a journey with her mother in the middle of nowhere where she is concerned and worried about finding her father.  Alice lives on a base and is home schooled because her father being in the army.  She doesn’t associate with any friends, whereas, her only friend is “Brad” a boy who she drew and moves around with a skateboard on her baxi, a technological device. 

In my exploration to Inanimate Alice I’ve realized that the story takes place in China, (where her dad was drafted).  The digital storytelling starts off with giving you directions on how to navigate through the website (which is clicking the arrow in order to proceed to the next page).  Each page contains a sentence more, but one can see that in each page there’s significance symbols on the right hand side.  The symbol is shaped as a square and represents what the page was about (indicating as if the symbols are chapters of the story).  Throughout the whole story there are many sound effects but one that I noticed a lot was a sound that’s like an old dial-up Internet connection, in which it plays throughout the whole story.  Even though, the sound effect fits right into the story where it takes place as Alice is living in the middle of a desert where wires surround her at all times.  There also comes a point in time where the website contains a special sound effect as if the reader can imagine they are in China while reading the story.  The sound is like a shaolin monk where people in China go to meditate. 

Through the story there are moments where the navigator has a chance to interact with the story.  For example, when Alice is on the journey to look for her father she decides to take a picture of flowers as she’s in the car with her mother.  By taking the pictures the navigator can click on the flowers that pop out and each click makes a flash sound effect.  After the flowers have been photographed there is movement where images are displayed and motion occurs where you see Alice’s technological device going through the process of sending a picture message to her father.  While Alice is staying at the base camp the only thing that seems to make her happy is her “baxi” (technological device).  Her baxi is a device that keeps her entertained and prevents her from being scared because she is searching to find her father late at night.

On the other hand, Inanimate Alice is a piece of electronic literature that took me on a journey where I felt that I was a child all over again encountering a new invention that was incorporated in technology. Alice was a digital piece that seemed user friendly.  There were moments where I found myself being amazed on how a piece of electronic children’s literature can be highly interactive for the child.  Even though, this story is linear and not complex like many other pieces of electronic literature are, by means this hypertext fiction is a great story to gear children and young adults’ attention to technology.

Reviews/Critics:

In a review by Kotlon Smith, she discuses that Inanimate Alice was a piece of literature where she felt it was something that didn’t connect her into a childhood’s experience.  She also indicated that it was a piece that didn’t fall into the category of children’s literature.  One of the things that grabbed her attention was that in order for the navigator to read the digital story the website needed Flash to operate the interactive story correctly.  Kotlon also states that the story was displayed in a linear fashion, but at the same time this makes the navigator more engaged and attentive throughout the entire story. 

On the other hand, Kotlin states that one of the negative things about the story is that the reader is not able to click forward (chapter menu that’s displayed on the side of the page) to keep on reading towards the end, whereas, the only thing the reader is able to do is to proceed backwards from the story.  Although, Kotlon mentions that she found the story to be entertaining, it also made her to pay attention in order to maintain interest within the story. Overall, Kotlon states that one problem she has for the story is that she feels its, “highly compressed” making it “easy to miss information that the author thinks is important,” but in the future she hopes to encounter more types that in some way are related to the one like “Inanimate Alice.”

Here’s a link to my E-lit review: 

http://culturenet.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/inanimate-alice-episode-1-china-2/

Blog # 9: Ideas Flowing for Project 3

Blog # 9: Ideas Flowing for Project 3

So, my plan for project 3 is to incorporate a love Poem called, “A Love Too Late.”  I’m deciding to do my poem in “Prezi,” but the idea that I have won’t function for “Prezi.”  Due to the fact that Prezi is a website where one cannot include animation for the website.  On the other had, “PowerPoint” is a software where one can incorporate so many animations that the software provides.  So, for that to be said I still don’t know which software to pick, but I may just end up choosing Prezi for my Project 3.

Ideas: What I want to do for my poem is to have a black and white picture with a red rose.  The navigator will have to click each pedal from the rose.  As a pedal is clicked on it will then float around the air and a word or two will appear (the words are from the poem).  I’m thinking to the words different colors so it will attract the reader to keep on reading.  Also, background music will be playing throughout my poem and most of all, in the last sentence of the poem I want it to start raining and at the same time you can hear the sound effects of the rain.  Well, that’s all I have in mind to do so far.  Hopefully, my ideas will come out the way I want it to be.  Lets see what happens! :) 

Blog Post # 8: E-Lit "Prezi"

Blog Post: Please post the link to your project on your blog, along with your "abstract" and any instructions to your readers.

         I created a young adult hypertext fiction story called, “I Screwed Up.”  My website contains lexia, audio, and images.  Doing this project was a lot of time consuming, since I thought it wasn’t going to take me forever to do, but then again creating a website was difficult to do.  Although, creating my own website did take a lot of practice. There were some moments where the website (prezi) was making me aggravated because there were some things that I felt wasn’t working out the way I wanted it to be. Technology is being more complicated than ever!  Even though, after all I feel accomplished that my website came out to be successful and creative!

“I Screwed Up,” is about a teenage girl named Marissa who ends up falling in love with a college FRAT boy.  She’s a rich, smart, honor roll high school student who is innocent and never had a boyfriend.  Marissa opens her heart to the college boy, knowing that he will never leave her, but that all changes when she makes one of the biggest mistakes of her life.  Will Marissa ever move on forward in life?

Instructions:

Website is pretty self-explanatory.  All you have to do is press the arrow on the bottom of the website and start reading the story.  Make sure you have your audio on in order to hear the sound effects throughout the story.  So, here's my piece of electronic literature fiction story:

Link: http://prezi.com/it5itzsoxwfk/untitled-prezi/?kw=view-it5itzsoxwfk&rc=ref-38051291
Hope you enjoy! :)

E-Lit Review Assignment:

Link:

1.  http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/pullinger_babel__inanimate_alice_episode_1_china.html

2. http://www.inanimatealice.com

3. http://www.katepullinger.com

4. http://www.inanimatealice.com/languages.html

5.http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-gb/Resources/Item/145712/inanimate-alice-episode-1-china-lrs/#.UWRs36UpvIr

Enjoy! :)

Blog Post # 7

This was after all a fun experience to do. 

My own Spine Poetry! :)

Blog Post # 6

Blog Post:

Please write a reflection - your thoughts/questions resulting from reading Amanda Gould's article on Electronic Literature.

After reading, “A Bibliographic Overview of Electronic Literature” I have realized that electronic literature is important more than ever as being the new element for education.  It amused me when I first came across that “electronic literature is born-digital literary art that exploits.  This makes me question about, when exactly was electronic literature born? Who started it? Where did it come from? Electronic literature has been evolving throughout the media more than ever, but at times an individual may think that e-lit at times is not an easy task to navigate.  For example, when I first read “Twelve Blue” I didn’t even know where to start.  I would click any link that would get me to the next page but after a while I started noticing that the stories weren’t in a sequential order.  Therefore, I needed to think of a method or task to find out how an exactly does one find to read Twelve Blue (which I still haven’t found the answer). Therefore, “E-lit provides students new objects to think with and new ways to think the objects (the text) we think we know.”  Even though, one needs to understand that when reading any type of genre that is related to e-lit there will be many new ways to read it but an individual needs to be open-minded and just have fun while reading a piece of art work. 

Further on, in the article Francisco Ricardo indicates that he believes “a digital work is fundamentally different form and more complex than a material or printed work.” I agree with this statement because ever since I attended Zamora’s class I believe that electronic literature is multifaceted in many ways such as images, text (ex: hypertext links), audio and many more.  Even though, from all of the interconnected parts that take place in any work of e-lit comes out to be something out of the ordinary that captivates the reader to be more highly engaged and entertained.

Overall, electronic literature is not just about e-books, or written work, it’s about doing beyond the dimensions of creativity. As Ricardo mention, “the first purpose that digital work serves is an act of creative expression.” Without creativity people would find that e-lit is too boring to read, therefore, by incorporating art work in any piece of digital work will attract many people into being part of the social discourse of electronic literature.  Although, when students encounter electronic literature Simanowski suggest that when one offers skills to students “and critical readers rather than offering them knowledge” it “teaches them how to produce their own knowledge.”  Therefore, when students are able to use their critical thinking skills that’s related to electronic literature, they will then be able to understand the fundamental concept when reading any type of digital work.  After all, electronic literature has become the new element of education in today’s generation of technology. Even though, as Wardrip-Fruin states, "I believe there remains more I need to learn to read, in order to read digital literature." 

Blog Post # 5

Blog Post 5:

Post the following: 

•  a short introductory statement or “abstract” to characterize what your text “does”
•   any instructions or suggestions for readers to have a successful experience
•  a link to the readable/playable version of your hypertext

Abstract- 

My electronic literature is about a twenty-three year old woman named, Lotus Eisenberg’s who gets betrayed two times and attends three funerals.  She tries to find her true love but apparently things come out the way she didn't expect it to be.  She is deeply broken and is trying to maintain strong to keep on moving forward in life.

Instructions: 

•            To start reading my e-lit fiction story, click on "How it all began?"
•            Then click on every page of the hypertext link in order to proceed to the next page (it's pretty self-explanatory).
•            I hope you enjoy reading, "Betrayed." Here's my link. :) 

http://kcifuentes07.wix.com/loveneverfails02 

Blog Post # 4

Blog 4:  Write about your work on the Hypertext Assignment thus far.  Post a map of your site (so far) and your writing/plans for how you are going to create your hypertext. The more you post - the more your classmates and I can give you feedback on.

When we were introduced in class about the hypertext assignment, since then I have then been exploring on what type of genre I want my hypertext assignment to be about.  I love writing stories that are related to young adult fiction.  As a class when we were assigned to navigate/read “Twelve Blue,” I was pretty confused on what the story was mainly about.  It was taking me to different routes/pathways as to, “Where do I even begin, or end.  Is there even an ending to the story?”  I was pretty frustrated and aggravated because I didn’t get the whole concept as to what was the plot of the story.  But I guess after navigating “Twelve Blue” I figured out that when reading any type of electronic hypertext fiction essay (ex: stories) it can then be a journey as to where the reader wants the story to go by manipulating their instincts.  What I’m trying to say here is that I don’t want my hypertext essay to be like Twelve Blue (confusing) but have the sense that it’s up to the reader to click on the icons/texts in order to where the want the story to begin or end.

Therefore, I decided to write a young adult fiction story.  It will be titled, “The Perfect Family.”  This title may attract a reader because in today’s world there is no such thing as a “Perfect Family” but its up to the reader to find out if they are really perfect or not. 

•     There will be title page (once you click the title with the mouse (computer) the words will flip around    and end up upside down). 

   The wallpaper for the title page will be a flower image, in which will play a significant role to the story.

The reason why I chose this image above is because I want my reader to analyze the wallpaper and have questions/concerns about the image. (Hint: color)

       

      Title page:

•                     In the middle of the page there will be two pictures.  First, a girl (laying down on the bed) writing on her diary.  Second, a house with symbols of Greek letters (which signifies a Fraternity house).

•                    I will also have chapters on the title page; you will be able to click on it. (but it’s up to the reader to click on the chapter or the picture to start the story). 

•                            On the bottom right hand corner there will be an arrow that says, “Next.”  But this will be tricky because once you click on the arrow it will not go onto the next page; since it’s up to the reader to find out how to get to the next page. (Hint: lap top: in order to go onto the next page you will slide your fingers on the mouse; desktop computer: you would just move the mouse across to the left side.)

•                  My hypertext fiction story will contain many audio effects.  For example, one sound will occur when pages are being flipped by the reader that’s controlling the website. [The pages will flip as if someone is actually reading the book in their hands [motion]).

•                  My background of my website will vary with different wallpapers, but there will four pages that consist of diary entries.  The background for the diary pages will look something like this:

•                 The page will be blank at first but on the bottom right hand side there will be a pink flowery pen (you will have to click on the pen in order to find out what the dairy has to tell you). 

•                  My website will contain many pictures that represents a meaning or an explanation to something.  Here are some pictures I may incorporate in my website (hypertext fiction): 

•                My young adult fiction story will also consist in having two “ENDINGS” (ex: PART I and PART II).  I decided to write two endings because I want to reader to navigate the website while going on a journey to find out how he/she wants the story to end like. 

 •               These are the ideas I have so far for my hypertext assignment. I hope you like it! Please feel free to post comments or feedback on what you may think I need to change or add.  I may perhaps change things around when I start designing and posting my written work.  The art of work is a journey and at the end of it all I will finally accomplish to have my own hypertext fiction essay on “Google Sites!”

Blog Post # 3

Blog Post: A) Post your early ideas for the Hypertext Assignment (Project B) Post your experiences with your demo google.site thus far - try to identify what kind of help you are going to need.

A)   So far, my ideas for the Hypertext Assignment seem to be working out good.  First, I want my website to be about a young adult fiction story.  A story about teenage girl who states that her family is “perfect” but then she receives some news that her whole life changes and she may not be so perfect after all.  Second, I may want my writing to be all diary entries (or maybe some).  Third, there will be up to six characters in my story but each character will play a significant role.  Fourth, I want music to be playing in the background once the reader starts reading the diary entries.  Fifth, I may have two different stories in my hypertext assignment but eventually they will both connect and fall into place. 

B)   My experience so far with “Google sites” is something that I need to practice more on.  This is my first time making my own website through Google site.  I am still trying to figure out how I can incorporate music, and have some pictures floating around on some pages of my story.  I'm glad we are using Google Docs in class because I am able to put my notes and writing into a folder and then when I’m ready to organize/fix/ or change it around, I will then be set to go.  Hopefully by using the tutorial of Google sites and many other information I may look into, I will then know how to make my website the way I want it to be.  Google sites will be an experience that I may never forget because at the end of the semester my story will be creative and unique.    

Blog Post # 2

Blog #2:

Write about some of the pieces you have been exploring in the ELC.  

When I first started looking through the electronic literature pieces in the collection there were some that I found interesting, funny, and loved.

A)My Ball by Shawn Rider:  I clicked on “Begin” to start the website, then there was a box that said, “click here” in order to begin reading.  It took me to a “Welcome” page, in where I feel I was being well invited to the website, therefore I was already interested in finding out what this famous “ball” was about.  I automatically knew that the website was going to be user friendly.  What I loved about the website was that it was all in sequential order; I didn’t get lost and knew what to click in order to keep on reading.  The audio (website) had an amazing sound that was related to the background and images of the website.  While I was reading more and more the sound affect took me to another world.  I felt that I was going on a mission to another planet and figuring out about a new toy in outer space that was making every child in the world a life changing experience.  I couldn’t believe that someone actually wrote a website about a new toy that was making miracles to parents and children. “My Ball” website was entertaining and funny to read about because it was about a robotic and learning toy.  Every child who owned gave their testimony about their experience of the “ball” was as if it was their new best friend.  You can dress up the ball; if a parent missies a soccer game the ball can record the game, play games, sing songs, help with homework, say prayers, float, roll, bounce and teach manners.  The website indicated that if a child had no one to talk to, then the ball was the answer to their problem.  The ball would record and keep secrets in an “internal memory chip” that no one had access (only the child or with a parent’s permission, which was funny that I couldn’t stop laughing).  In reality who in the world would talk to a ball about their problems (people would think you’re going crazy).  Most importantly, I think this website may attract parents to read on and buy the “BALL” because this can keep a child entertained in many ways

B)Faith by Robert Kendall: Faith was an interesting piece of electronic literature that was about a poem.  I loved that it had two options; if I wanted the website to start playing with or without music.  I played it with music.  At first I saw words floating and coming out of nowhere one by one, but then there came a point in time that the words were coming way too fast (all at once).  I got confused and didn’t know where to start reading either at the bottom, middle or end, in order to understand the poem.  But then I got the hang of it and my eyes just started following each word that appeared and connect with the sentence or word.  The sound effect was a mellow instrumental song that made me get more interested in reading the poem. I felt as if I was in a maze that took me to a different dimension in life.  The poem “Faith” had taken me to a route where I needed to be patience and not get frustrated because I knew soon or later I would understand the poem, all I needed was to have faith and trust in myself.  But I can say this piece of literature is an art of work.  

C)Pieces of Herself by Juliet Davis: Reading, “Pieces of Herself” is something that I know many females can relate to.  It’s about how woman in today’s society feel internally broken.  When I first clicked “begin,” I thought I was going to read a story about a young teenage girl but then the website was about sound effects and a woman talking (sometimes).  I felt like I was playing a game, just drag and drop, that simple!  Once I started to drag and drop images in any body part that I choose, it would inform me new information about the significance of the image or body part.  Many females have emotional problems with relationships and many other things in life.  This was the kind of website that one can figure out what was going on in a female’s body.  There were different options (settings) that I was allowed to click on, in order to find out the different perspectives of what was going on such as: office, shower, bedroom, kitchen, living room, office, and many more.  This website was something out of the ordinary, something that I would have never thought of doing (maybe).  Hearing what every body part had to say was something that dealt with identity crisis.  It’s where a female is on a journey to “find” herself and the navigator will finally find the truth behind those closed doors.  

*I had fun looking through the electronic pieces of collection. Hopefully one day I will make my own website with the creativity that some of these pieces have, but mine will be unique (one of a kind!).* :)