Animania

This second project has definitely tackled me more than I have tackled it. At this point in the semester things seem to run together, and all of the madness of life seems to pile  up as more and more assignments are due. When I first set out to begin this project I had many ambitious ideas running around my head. Luckily, due to the scaling back of the first project, I was quickly able to reign in my ideas based upon my time and my capabilities.

Dr. Zamora posted a ton of helpful resources for this project on her blog, and I wanted to do my own research as well. I found lots of amazing applications for creating Interactive Fiction, Text-Based Adventure Games, etc. but, sadly, I noticed that all of the free and easy to use software was not Mac compatible (which is what I have at home) while all of the complicated coding-based programs were fine on my Mac.. but I didn't have the time to learn the programming language.

After much deliberating I decided to just stick with Keynote, Mac's answer to Power Point. I've been playing around with it for a few days now and I think I've figured most of it out. I think with this project I will have less of an interactive piece than an opening animation to a larger story.

My narration idea, essentially, sprung from apocalyptic discussions that I have with my boyfriend. We both find it fascinating that our culture seems incredibly obsessed with the end of the world, and we always make hypothetical doomsday plans in case we wake one day to find a zombie outbreak or whathaveyou.

So this story takes place 4 generations after the world has "ended." The story is told in 2nd person, with the narration centering around the room that your character is currently standing in. The room is full of books, movies, CDs, etc. and you, having been born 4 generations after the world ended, are incredibly unfamiliar with the vast majority of these relics before you. My goal with this story is to explore our collective history, and how future generations would have to piece together our history on their own with what was left behind if civilization as we know it were to collapse. Essentially I want to play with what someone might think if all they had to draw upon from human history were some pulp novels, DVDs of British television, some music from a teenager in the suburbs, or some kind of random assortment of media. What would this say about history? What would this person deduce about the way our society was run if this was all they had to go on?

There's more to this idea but I will elaborate in my next post.

In regards to our in-class Tweet session with Dr. Flores this evening, I would like to pose questions that center around structure in the digital sense.

1.) Do you believe it is essential for one who wants to be involved in Digital Literature to learn all the possible coding languages they wish to use or is it equally as important to collaborate with individuals who already have this skill set in order to make a more cohesive product? An example I can think of along this line would be an individual who had a great idea for a movie but no idea how to use a camera. He could learn to use the camera, but in order to get the full effect of his vision he could easily find someone with all the know how to film his movie with him.

2.) Do you have any tips or tricks on creating interactive fiction/digital poetry/etc? One or two "insider secrets" that our class might not be in tune with just yet?

3.) I have gotten into many debates lately about the relevancy of poetry in the digital age. In a time when the internet makes every angsty teenager with a blog a "poet" do you believe that poetry is becoming a watered down art form or one that is seeing a breath of new life due to new ways that it can be explored? I guess I'm asking if you are cynical or optimistic about the future of poetry?