Scaremail – Volume 3
ScareMail is a web browser extension that makes email “scary” in order to disrupt the US National Security Agency’s NSA surveillance. ScareMail generates a narrative containing probable NSA search terms, forcing surveillance programs to look at nonsense with no meaning. Each email’s story is unique to avoid automated filtering by NSA search systems. One of the strategies used by the NSA’s email surveillance programs is the detection of predetermined keywords, used to identify communications by presumed terrorists. Large collections of words have become codified as something to fear, resulting in a governmental surveillance machine that algorithmically collects and searches digital communications to predict behaviors based on words in emails. The ability to use whatever words we want is one of our most basic freedoms, yet the NSA’s growing surveillance of electronic speech threatens our first amendment rights, according to the creator. ScareMail only adds words from the English language to emails written by users of the software, revealing one of the primary flaws of the NSA’s surveillance efforts: words do not equal intent. Online privacy has been a major topic of discussion and debate since the inception of the internet, and this is no different. Emails today are commonly reserved for more professional communication (work, school, etc.) yet that doesn’t mean that privacy doesn’t apply to it.
A Modern Ghost – Volume #4
Is a short digital story exploring the use of a 3d canvas to create a sense of environment, as well as using vertical and horizontal touch controls to traverse in those three dimensions. You are able to move forward, backwards, vertically, etc. the idea is to break free from the traditional printed page while creating a user-friendly and aesthetically engaging experience. The story moves throughout the canvas having text and imagery play a role in emphasizing the directions with transitions, imagery that mimic a parallax scroll with what appears to be showcasing flashbacks to the person’s life, demonstrating their emotions with still images that slowly move throughout the screen, telling a story that’s shrouded in mystery and being left up to interpretation in certain scenes, mixing show don’t tell throughout the story. While other scenes will display text indicating how the character feels
Palavrador – Volume 2
The work uses poems and AI algorithms to create a unique 3d environment. We watch as a flying cube, whose wings are made of eros and chaos, flies through the environment to collect the text of poems. It provides an interesting experience as the cube flies through the obstacles and wanders the 3d space searching for the words that will unravel the poems. Palavrador was designed with a video game structure, as someone is controlling the eros chaos cube, giving an interactivity to poems and a new perspective to them. The environment was designed with AI algorithms and poetic texts, giving it an interesting Wonderland/Typoman look. The work was made in 2006, utilizing AI for a 3d virtual environment before the AI boom of the 2020’s. Even with the limitation of early 2000s game software and artificial intelligence, the work created a unique word and way to experience poems.
Star Wars, One Letter at a Time – Volume 1
Star Wars, One Letter at a Time makes use of Flash media, consisting of audio and text, to give readers a simulation-like experience in which the user takes the place of George Lucas as he creates Star Wars, Episode IV on a typewriter. There is no opportunity to interact with this piece of e-lit from Volume 1 of the Electronic Literature Collection, and the user can only watch and listen as the entire script of A New Hope flashes, one letter at a time, in the middle of the screen. For those who are not familiar with episode 4, the fast-paced letters are extremely difficult to understand, yet those who are familiar with the story can understand certain portions well. The project further throws you into the seat of George Lucas by adding sounds of a typewriter. With no user interaction, you are simply forced to sit back and enjoy the beloved story that you may know and love – just in a way that pushes on the mind’s ability to imagine and think.
Comparison:
Interactivity tends to fluctuate in the projects as we start to move through the volumes. Newer sites and projects must work with interactivity in mind because of different screen sizes, devices, and operating systems. Furthermore, audio seems to be integrated on a higher scale through newer projects, further advancing how integrated the user becomes with the work at hand.