DTC 101 – Spring 2013

Redridinghood provides a new perspective and a new medium for the classic Brother’s Grimm fairy tale.  In Donna Leishaman’s tale, red riding hood is updated, and interactive.  While the core story remains the same, Leishaman’s interactive style draws viewers in and brings new life to the story.  Marshal McLuhan says, “Our official culture is striving to force the new media to do the work of the old.  These are difficult times because we are witnessing the clash of cataclysmic proportions between two great technologies.  We approach the new with the psychological conditioning and sensory responses to the old.”  For here we have this classic tale, translated and updated into a new language and media, using code, and hypertext, Leishman transforms this story into the new medium.  The only draw back to her electronic text, is that she doesn’t compile different variations to the Red Riding Hood story.  There are many endings to the story, but in Leishman’s story there is no definitive ending.  Perhaps that was on purpose, no definitive ending allows her to add her own digital narrative to this common story.  Still I think she would have been better served if added multiple buttons to her electronic text.  Each one could have showed a different ending.  There were many different endings to this classic fairy tale, if she showed little red riding hood choosing a different path, or just show different narrations by the wolf, that would have brought the viewer/reader in even more.

ColleenBurke85

I created a video and sound remix with the intent of exploring both the physical and psychological aspects of a virtual gaming environment.  I am not a gamer, but I have three sons that love them. One of their favorite games is Minecraft and at the ages of twelve, nine, and seven, they are well on their way to creating intricately detailed virtual worlds of their own.

These games are visually engaging and aesthetically appealing, but there is also an element of detachment and void within them.  The polarity here is what I am most interested in. These worlds of isolation often built with the creative mind of a stagnant shell.

The project took a more personal turn for me when one of my own faced a common yet tragic occurrence.  My son Denali had been dealing with bullying at school and this escalated last week when a couple of kids beat him up. I did not know how bad things were for him but the failing grades and numerous sick days started to make a lot more sense. So herein lies this young brilliant mind full of innovation and wonder, hiding away out of fear, shame, and sadness.

The video and song had been selected prior to these events but my experience with them and overall interpretation changed greatly.  I found myself exploring his virtual world in search of clues about the real one.  I looked closer and noticed the time and effort he put into creating his world and the careful placement of things he valued most within it.  I saw both his joy and his depression.

It was not my objective to portray these games in a negative light, but rather to shed some on one aspect of it from my own observations and experience.

In The Medium is the Message, Marshall Mcluhan stated, “Nothing can be further from the spirit of the new technology than “a place for everything and everything in its place.” You can’t go home again.”  This stuck with me and although I have yet to resolve it within the context of my project, I understand its significance in that all gains have loss.

My video:  Minecrafting Solitude

@joe5joe7

E-literature pieces provide a fascinating ability to re-conceptualize stories we already know in a way that gives us a different or enhanced understanding of the story. The E-lit piece “Red riding hood” provides us with the story of little red riding hood in a way that only and E-lit piece can, a way that provides us with interaction within the story. Unlike a classic story that is told solely from the person telling the story, this medium allows the author to put some story control in the hands of the viewer. This makes it far more interesting, adding significantly to the depth of the piece. In addition to this unlike a story that is a strict progression of cause to effect, this medium allows for the story to be told in a myriad of ways with an indeterminate ending.

Another affordance of the medium is the ability to engage more senses than a regular story, and actually grants the author more control over what the viewer feels. In a book or short story the viewer is free to conjure up whatever mental images they want, however an E-lit piece allows the author to control every aspect of the experience, from the images to the sound. This can provide much more of an atmosphere than a simple story can. All of these aspects differ significantly from  a regular book, however the goal is the same. This is merely a different medium through which authors accomplish the same thing, but this puts more tools at their disposal.

@chrisdtc101

Donna Leishman’s interactive work “Redridinghood” is an electronic medium like the type that Marshall McLuhan talks about his his book “The Medium Is the Massage”. Lieshman’s work gives us more ways to interact with the story than the original printed text that became a popular children’s story over the years. We are given visual and audio interaction with the story in a way that we haven’t before. We were once limited to seeing the words on text and having to imagine it in our heads or maybe hearing someone else read the story to us when we were younger. Now, Lieshman helps us visualize what is happening in the story and lets us watch it like a movie. We hear music playing as the story progresses and eventually we are even allowed to make a decision about how the story ends. The music sets the mood for the electronic literature that we are interacting with and affects how we look at and interpret the story.

The immediacy and ability to interact with the story make Lieshman’s “Redridinghood” an electronic medium. McLuhan says in his book that, “The method of our time is to use not a single but multiple models for exploration.” This is certainly true for “Redridinghood” where we explore Lieshman’s electronic literature not just as a text but as something to look at and listen to and interact with. We get to make choices that change how the story ends and that draws us in and makes us more involved in the story.

@clonelord #dtcv

After watching this video it became clear that there was definitely an interactive element involved with it, sometimes you had to guess what the interactive was and others it was pointed out to you. With interaction there is a similar element of game play to it unlike just reading a blog post or reading any other electronic literature for the most part, you are guided by the writer or creator on the journey they have set forth for you.

“Alternating game play with novelistic components, interactive fictions expand the repertoire of the literary through a variety of techniques, including visual displays, graphics, animations, and clever modifications of traditional literary devices.” (6th paragraph of ch. 2, Katherine Hayles, Electronic Literature: What is it?) I agree with this as it does add a whole new element for the person to interact with the story almost like the choose your own adventure books which had different endings depending on what you chose to do next.

Your neighborhood
“Electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of “time” and “space” and pours upon us instantly and continuously the concerns of all other men.”(Marshall Mcluhan the medium is the MASSAGE, approximately p.15)
This was just part of this poem or statement but is very strong as with the growth of the personal computer and constant WIFI and Internet available in every house now. We are constantly bombarded by people’s thoughts and rantings of there personal and even sometimes personal lives. Not like before when you had to physically call or write someone to know how they were doing. This can be very overwhelming.

The affordance of the electronic medium does more than a book could ever do. It provides the reader with not only visual, but audible effects that if used properly, can change the outcome of stories and their meanings all together. This is evident in Leishmans interactive game/book; “redridinghood.” The story  is one that everyone is familiar with, however it makes changes that might not be assumed by the reader. Interestingly enough, redridinghood didnt even have a red hood! (at least, I don’t think she did.) She also carried a punk style impression on her face which is contrary to the traditional red who is cheerful and happy. She is from the city and the wolf is apparently a teenage boy. The game also allows the user to interact with random things, such as the flowers in the field and little windows in the city. (though they dont do much.) This freedom allows the user to live the story a little bit more realistically than reading it.  The author has the power to make any changes she so desires, as can be seen at the end. The teenage boy eats the grandmother, (im pretty sure.) which is much like the original story. However when red comes, she eats the boy and  the grandmother too and then lays in her bed, which is disturbingly strange. All of this was masked by music and slight soundeffects. This gave life to the story in a way that otherwise would have to be imagined by the reader. Overall, the affordances of the electronic medium allow the author to turn any story into their own work.