Reading Responses (Five Hundred Years of Printing)
1. Both works are fundamental to Christian individuals and reveal to us that the innovators of narrative-based technologies in history were religiously-driven. Gutenburg, being a catholic, was motivated to spread the word of the Bible in order to free the minds of those underneath Catholic rule. The first ebook – discussing the Saint Thomas Aquinas – yet again reflects this religious motivation.
2. Nearly 920 years between each other, the first publishing house of print books – and later ebooks – both created materials based around the same conventions, but with ebooks superseding print-based books. Although ebook publishing happened many years later, the same format is in place, but the sensory modalities pertaining to the invention are different. Flipping a page is done by “swiping” the screen and searching for chapters or words within chapters is done with the tactile input of controls. There is also no formal standardization in place for ebooks.
3. It parallels much of how mobile devices have developed over time. Without standardization, the concept of the ebook has to be experimented with in order for it to achieve its full potential (which hasn’t been reached today).
4. The readers of this ebook possibly enjoyed thrillers or had known Stephen King’s previous work, and had access to the technology required at the time of its release. The only operating systems it runs on are Microsoft-based, so Macintosh users were not able to enjoy the story as well. The obstacles that King faced were numerous and included finding individuals who wanted to publish his story, going through the process of publishing, and working around the limitations of digital technology and Microsoft’s operating system.
5. The ever-increasing use of electronic mediums forced HarperCollins and Random House into creating digital books. The promise of new ways to make income drove both publishers as well.
6. When the author chooses not to include the invention of the iPhone, one can conclude that the author places books on a higher pedestal than mobile devices. The author grew up in an era of print literature and consequently finds it harder to accept certain changes in society.
7. We are continuing to revolutionize digital technologies, but us as human-beings can only change linearly. This means that even as iPads and ebooks are improving – our brains hard-wired for story telling and the love of narrative – will always stay the same, meaning that we will continue to see the past innovations in our future inventions. In essence books, whether they are physical or digital, will always be read in a linear fashion and organized in a specific way.
Revised Mediums Chart
At the start of the semester, our Professor showed us this Mediums Chart detailing the affordances and limitations between oral communication, print, and electronic mediums.
As part of our final project, we were asked to create a slot for the mobile medium. As you can see, it branches off from the electronic medium, since they are fundamentally connected. In essence, mobile technologies employ electronic qualities and add more features in the process.
I also amended the previous document by including “nonlinear” to the set of attributes featured in the electronic medium.
Reflective Essay
The Evolution of Manga
Everything from history to food, school life to scenery, Japan intrigues me – especially when it comes to the form of entertainment known as anime. Having a specific art style, anime is Japan’s equivalent of cartoons. As a hobby, I read serializations of these stories in the comic book format known as manga. When reading these stories it takes much imagination and focus to be able to read from one panel to the next. The effect of movement is hard to achieve, and the pacing can be fraught with complications. That is why, when I found an online project entitled “Interactive Manga Prototype” I felt so much excitement. The thought of manga being more than lifeless sheets of inked paper fascinated my sensory modalities, and in the end stimulated them as I explored the affordances of multimedia manga.
From the get go, the interactive manga was more exhilarating for my senses. The addition of kinetic panels and characters, as well as the need for tactile input and choice truly heightened my reading experience. In fact, I wasn’t even a reader anymore. I was an interactor. This is the drawback of print-based manga; they cannot achieve the same sense of kinetic motion, ultimately limiting how manga authors write and the ways consumers read. Whilst the urgency of a running character might be lost in translation, multimedia renditions can enhance understanding through the usage of animations, in the end adding more depth and meaning to manga “reading”.
Half way through the piece, I discovered yet another powerful affordance of multimedia manga. The functioning of narrative within manga plotlines has always been linear, much like a book. However, this interactive prototype marked the beginning of choice and freedom in manga. Positioned on the far-left of the window, a branching timeline of events marks exactly where the user is in the story at any given moment. As the scene moves on the screen, the interactor can move his or her cursor over a kinetic object and see where the story takes them. The choice of which character to click on or which road to take is completely left up to the user. This yet again reveals the differences between print and multimedia manga experiences, whereas one is linearly driven, the other boasts nonlinearity and changes the reader into an interactor. No more is the manga author stuck to a linear storyline formula. Now he or she can branch out and create multiple retellings of the same piece, ultimately creating an aggregation of stories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-grM1382BM&feature=youtu.be
Overall, the experience I witnessed through the “Interactive Manga Prototype” opened my eyes to the affordances of digital narratives. The extent to which one can design his or her story within these environments is truly remarkable. Especially in manga – where still linear artwork is used to represent dynamic motion – the ability to enhance movement is critical, and the capability to alter plotlines is compelling. Without a doubt, through the usage of such properties, one can unearth more enjoyment from manga.
Works Cited
Ozguzer, Selin. “Interactive Manga Prototype.” Selins-Inn. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.
