Comically Comic Comics

Google Map Fiction on Reflection

Even though the assignment was fairly straightforward, I wanted to do something cool with it. I wanted to make whoever sees it go "Wow, that was pretty damn cool." I was inspired when making it, I tried to make direct references when I could to the surrounding area when I was writing the poem. To be honest, I had fun making it. It's very easy to use, there is next to no learning curve and apart from a few glitches it works well. The part I thought was most cool was in the final product, I made the icon for the clue sheet Jigsaw's head and the little pop up that comes up when you click it looks like a speech bubble so it looks like the head is speaking to you. When I was making the clues I thought I found many similarities with Jigsaw from the Saw movies. While I have never seen them, I've heard he kidnaps people and forces them to solve his puzzles, so I thought I'd adopt him as a kind of mascot and I ended up creating a kind of scavenger hunt. Instead of wagering your life though (somehow I didn't think you'd appreciate that) I wagered your ego, if you can solve the clues then you are smarter than an undergraduate arts student. That sounds like a good concept for a TV show... I digress though. One final thing on the Google Map project is that I like where Google is going with the integration of their site into the internet, the site is like a swiss army knife now. It has so many apps, programs and utilities and it is just a search engine. It is paving the way for cloud computing, an emerging trend and something that I think will become HUGE in the next five to ten years. The ideas are there, the technology can't be too far behind.

Late Night Musings on Electronic Art

Number One:
TOC: A New-Media Novel
E-Literature Listing

TOC was very interesting. While I was only able to view the previews and the gallery, this intrigued me the most out of all the ones I read/looked at. While it wasn't a narrative it was quite cool in the way it was put together. Rather than simply telling the information it had, it was more like an explanation, or for a better term and exploration. Visual novels are a much better tool for instruction, as they interact through both visuals and sounds. I can see something like this being implemented in schooling, and I would think it would be a very effective tool.  Perhaps that’s just me though, I don’t like rote learning, learning something only to parrot it has never been very interesting.

Number Two:
Crowds and Power
E-Literature Listing

Crowds and Power was cool in its interactiveness. You make the story, so there is no set right and wrong interpretation. I found that to be a pretty cool concept, in the same way that the images, while all covering the same idea, could be interpreted in different ways. It shows that while they all have a common theme the interpretation of a theme can cover a broad spectrum. While the actual site seemed to be a bit dated, its content seemed to be groundbreaking still. Well it was for me, as I'm new to the world of non-narrative text. Maybe this will be the future of reading. A story that not only conveys a message, but one at  which the user has to broaden their mind to receive. An interactive story that actually stimulates the brain by creating limitless stories. A very cool notion.


Number Three: 
Code Movie
E-Literature Listing

This was probably my favourite, although TOC was very close behind. I love how the idea of syntax is ignored and a seemingly random stream of numbers and letters is employed. Logically this would lead to chaos, but somehow it comes together to form an awesome piece of visual imagery. Then in the same stroke it is ignored, syntax is evident, by changing the size and position of parts of the text, it gives them order. A weird juxtaposition I found, but oddly cool. It works for the piece. When you focus on what part in the piece it seems chaotic, but when you look at the whole, it has an order. Kind of like in life how when you look at one single event, it seems to make no sense, but then when you pan out you can see clearly how the event came to happen and how it can affect your life in the future. Maybe I’m just reading way too far into it. I suspect this is a case of late night philosopher-itis. I always hate when people read too far into things like that, it sounds so pretentious and new agey. Sometimes people just want to do something because it’s fun or looks cool. They don’t try to embed the meaning of life into everything. Maybe I’m just grumpy because it’s late. Or early, depending on your outlook on life.

Time for bed I think.