Other programs I have experimented with include, Blender, a three-dimensional graphics application and Inform 7, a design system for developing Interactive Fiction games, popular in the 1980's. By using the Blender software, I created a 3D liquid which poured from a cylindar object. Throughout the visual tutorial, I explained the process step-by-step.
The Inform 7 project is strictly a word and language game without graphics and animation. The creation of these games are very tedioius and involve specific coding and creativity for a story plot. An example of my coding can be found ">here. The ending result of the Inform 7 project is an actual hospital game in which you, the player, are the protagonist and a patient trying to navigate the mysterious hallways and escape what is so unfamiliar to you.

Reflecting back on the Topics in Media & Cutlure class, I feel like I have made progress in my learning as well as in my writing. I made this class my top priority because of its difficulty and workload. When we first began reading from Writing Materials, I felt like we were just discussing the topic of orality and would eventually abruptly end it and move on to the manuscript culture. It wasn't until about midterm when I found myself referring to Socrates and contrasting his opinions from Espen Aarseth's. Socrate's opinion about orality and memory stuck with me the most through this course because I completely disagree with him and as able to compare and contrast his thoughts with other authors all the way into the digital culture.

As for progress in my writing, this class really helped me focus and stay on topic with what I needed to. Not once did I write a paper the night before it was due because I wanted to try and apply ideas. I know from experience, rushing in writing, never has that great of a result. Before each excercise was due, I planned out readings and quotes that we did to connected them that way. The re-introduction of Bloom Taxonomy really helped me realize and think about the writing of argument papers.

Coverage & Depth
As for the blogging aspect in class, I also feel like I put a lot of time in those. My blogs are completely different than my formal writing. In my blogs, for me, I usually do it in a free-writing fashion. It is hard to connect the dots while reading them and I understand that. I write them as I think...which is definately not in a linear fashion. I do manage to get points across, just probably not as clear as everyone else because I don't plan and outline those. Since our last portfolio two weeks ago, I have three solid blogs that fall under the coverage and depth.

• Bye, bye books, they're goin'
• We don't even use pens anymore
• What the heck is he talking about....Ooohh I get it

Creative Presentations
The creative presentations for EL336, at first were bothersome to me. Only the first one angered me. It may have been the lack of creativity that you can actually have when dealing with orality. I was bored with teaching it and bored with everyone elses. (Sorry guys). There really is so much you can do creatively with speaking. As we got into the manuscript, print and digital culture, I found the creative presentations to be a freedom from writing a paper and a fun way to hear my classmates' thoughts on each topic. It was a vacation from just blogging and writing, but in an educational way. The creative presentations was very opinionated as we presented on topics we agreed with and disagreed with, but it was also very respectable. No one forced their opinions on anyone else and it was just nice to hear about them and how we felt about each topic.
Creative presentation #2 was my favorite because we were restricted to what we could use and that was really fun because everyone was able to come up with something interesting. Jessie brought in the feather pens and Erica brought in calligraphy pens. It was very realistic to the era we were studying.
Overall, I'm glad we did four presentations instead of just one, because that would have really slanted our class if we creatively portrayed one era over another...and it would have been too much to try to incorporate something from each era into one. I do think it iwas well-divided and more of a learning experience than it was work.

Paper #2
As for paper #2, which I entitled, "Digital Culture’s Supreme Simplicity," I am proud to say is finally finished!!! Woohoo! This paper definately shows how ideas can change and a direct path to a thesis is never the same from the beginning. I changed my mind about this topic3 times. I didn't develop a thesis until I was completely finished because I was not sure where I wanted to go with my sub-topics. Sometimes I agreed with digital culture, other times, I didn't and I needed to find consistency. I was even mad at some of the authors I came across and their opinions. I thought, Steven Fox, the guy who wrote a small magazine article about the positives behind Facebook was ridiculous. He was of course heavily slanted but in strange ways. Fox discussed ideas like not having to be clean when living behind a profile. No one needs to know you haven't showered in a week. Then I began to think how unrealistic that was and wanted to change my thesis to how unnatural digital culture was, but I don't necessarily believe that. Even though this was just an argument paper and I didn't really need to honestly believe everything I wrote, I found myself getting attached to certain sides of the issue. This was something that never happened to me before. If I could find evidence supporting a topic I was arguing for or against, I would use it. Enough said. This was a different experience and I had to step back and tell myself, "who cares?" It's a paper, you can't fight the guy who wants to be dirty and live behind Facebook.

Miscellanous
...And because of this class, I am now consciously aware of the world of print versus digital culture and by an unwanted force, I click on news articles like this. Choosing to read things like this is now imbedded in my brain. Now that we've discussed the transitioning periods...is technology actually healthy? I may as well answer that. Too much of anything is never good, so there. I'm not sure if I like this brainwashed-kind-of-mentality that makes me click on articles involving print and digital. I will work on it and see how it progresses.

And my very last portfolio ever....should I be proud to say it's my lengthiest blog entry ever?!?!?! Woooo!

Past porfolios:
October 2006 (Writing for the Internet)
November 2006 (Writing for the Internet)
October 2007 (Newswriting)
November 2007 (Newswriting)
December 2007 (Newswriting)
December 2007 (Media Lab)
February 2008 (Intro to Literary Study)
April 2008 (Intro to Literary Study)
February 2010 (Topics in Media & Culture)
April 2010 (Topics in Media & culture)

"I love books, old-fashioned books, the older the better. As I see it, book culture reached its highest peak when Gutenberg modernized the codex; and the codex is superior in some way to the computer. You can leaf through it, annotate it, take it to bed, and store it ocmveniently on a shelf" (60).

His description of the physicality of books is what he admires. He enjoys the fact that it, unlike a digitized book, is visible and can be handled. He can mark in it, draw doodles on the cover. He can literally "cut & paste" words and letters if he wants to. A digital book, not so much without a few alterations (like digitally copy and pasting...much simpler...if you would even want to do that to a book...).

At the very end of Chapter 4, he says, "...the electronic book, which will act as a suplement to, not a substitute for Gutenber's great machine" (77). The man loves his book, but again, he is attached to the physicality of the book. I don't blame him and I do agree with him, but he doesn't seem to have a strong argument about the digital accessible information. The information is going to be the same, in text or on a computer. The words will all be the same and the context and how you take the meaning will all be the same.

Perhaps Darnton is unwilling to admit that he is addicted to the smell of books just like in his comical example of French students.

"According to a recent survey of French students, 43% consider smell to be one of the most important qualities of printed books--so important that they resist buying odorless electronic books. CafeScribe, a French online publisher, is trying to counteract tat reaction by giving its customers a sticker that will give off a fusty, bookish smell when it is attached to their computers" (39).

This made me laugh. It is very interesting to visualize people sniffing books. We all have done it, but to think that people need to read the physical book in their hands just to smell the pages. At first I thought, that might be pushing it. Then I reconsidered. People really do enjoy the smell of books or they are afraid of the transition into the digital world. They used to have a physical book and its perks still outweigh a digital books' perks. They don't want to lose what they have always known. Quite a simple psychological assumption, but that is what I am getting out of it.

I would rather turn a page too than scroll down on a computer screen, but I wouldn't say that it is because I want to catch a whiff of musty paper while reading. I think this weird book-sniffing is about value as well. I remember Shellie talking in class about how she does not like marking up books, but does not mind scribbling on a computer print out.

Although Darnton clearly is a fan of original books and not afraid to admit it, he is willing to accept the change of technology. He knows that not everyone is excited about the rising of digital texts but with a look at history, we always progress no matter what comes along. He said, 'Through trial and error, we must inch forward toward the creation of a national and the an international digital library" (57). The scaredy-cats who aren't moving will have to. He is pretty optimistic about the idea, because it's inevitable although he wish it wouldn't happen.

Back back back.

"In the Bell Laboratories there is the converse of this machine, called a Vocoder. The loudspeaker is replaced by a microphone, which picks up sound. Speak to it, and the corresponding keys move. This may be one element of the postulated system," (Vannevar Bush).

Bush is talking about the futuristic recorder. By recording someone's voice, say in an interview or courtroom, that is taking out one step, the writing step. I thought about the process of how I interview a person for a newspaper article. I meet with them and write down their responses. I hardly use a recorder unless it is for a speaker. Still writing down responses for an interview is a use of old technology and I had not realized it until I read this. In 1945 it was fairly difficult to write an article for a newspaper without every picking up a pen or pencil. Now, it is almost normal to never use a writing utensil to write an article. Many people record an interview or event and sit at their computer to type out their information, never once using their pink feathered pen and Post-It notes.

This equipment that has transformed our way of writing is also benefitting us. Everything is much faster now and more accessible. Bush also mentioned a photocopier as "going out of style" which is a large assumption 65 years ago. We definately still use photocopiers today, but the internet and laserjet printers has also taken over the photocopier's tasks. There is not just one way to spread the word anymore....which is fairly obvious, but it's also more overwhelming when you measure how much equipment and technology is out there doing the job of what one printing press used to do. If Bush predicted these advancements years and years ago, imagine what else we have in store for us in the near future.

Back to class

"What we call computer literature should more accurately be called cyborg literature, and it is therefore in need of a criticism and terminology with less clear-cut boundaries between human and machine, creative and automatic, interested and disinterested. Cyborg literature, then, can be defined tentaively as literary texts produced by a combination of human and mechanical activities. in presenting a tenative typologyce of cyborg authors, I hope to encourage and aesthetic theory nuanced enough to deal with cyborg narratives as a separate class of texts rather than as failed pastiches of 'human literature'" (Aarseth 134-Chapter 6).

WHAT?!?!

Aarseth is giving a new name to computer literature. He is not only describing a new term, but a term he has invented. Unless cyborg literature is something that is common and I just don't know about....I understand that he is emphasizing the computer lit's "newness" and infancy, but he also does not want anyone to attempt to undersstand it and fail because of its unfamiliarity? That is a complete stab in the dark. I defined the "iffy" words and placed them in context, but I'm still not sure what his main point of cyborg literature is. I'm not sure why he is comparing "human and machine, creative and automatic, interested and disinterested."

A more comprehensible part of his work....

"In my constructive approach to the field of ergodic literatures, I feel it necessary to focus on broad, highly visible issues, such as the conflicts between the desires of users and the ambitions of creators or the problems of old terminology and theory when brought to bear on new objects. These are grateful perspectives to engage in, and although they are necessary in an initial phase, their durability is correspondingly brief and must be followed by a subtler, less-dilated approaches. I hope I have added a little to the increasing awareness of these literatures and strengthened the argument for their growing relevance to the broader fields of aesthetics and communication" (Aarseth 183).

Ironically, I chose the very last paragraph in Aarseth's book as a comprehension paragraph. Throughout this entire book, I had no idea why he was lecturing his readers about these detailed aspects of technology and the web. I know he was attempting to reach a point....obviously...but he was establishing conflicts and offering solutions and his opinions about the desires of users and ambitions of creators and etc. Plus he did meet his goal of raising awareness to these issues that may have surpassed the brainwaves in technology lovers. I think his attempts steered our class away because we were already familiar with the technology he was talking about. His target audience really was newbies and we were fortunate to have the foundation of this technology advance and evolve right in front of us.

Read my equally-confused classmates' responses.

Past porfolios:
October 2006 (Writing for the Internet)
November 2006 (Writing for the Internet)
October 2007 (Newswriting)
November 2007 (Newswriting)
December 2007 (Newswriting)
December 2007 (Media Lab)
February 2008 (Intro to Literary Study)
April 2008 (Intro to Literary Study)

February 2010 (Topics in Media & Culture)

Coverage
I made sure to cover each assignment with a blog entry. Even if I had to I compacted a few readings into one.
Write at a standstill
Revolution of the pencil = to Revolution of the computer
You can't describe the unknown
Printing Press opened doors for art too
Short & Sweet, the name of Calvino's game
Calvino in the mind of the reader
Calvino creates confusion
Preservation of culture in today's libraries
Bibliographies help detract inaccuracies
Omnicient Calvino strikes again
Mysteries of reading are mysteries of the world
Cybertext development
Linear vs. non-linear
Reactions to ELO collection
Interactive fiction strikes again
Allegory of the Cave

Depth
The best section, loaded with several ideas and thoughts rather than just simple opinons.
Write at a standstill
Revolution of the pencil = to Revolution of the computer
Printing Press opened doors for art too
Short & Sweet, the name of Calvino's game
Calvino in the mind of the reader
Calvino creates confusion
Preservation of culture in today's libraries
Omnicient Calvino strikes again
Linear vs. non-linear
Reactions to ELO collection
Interactive fiction strikes again

Interactions:
I think I need to work on interacting with my peers a little better. I do often read their blogs, I just have not been commenting. :(
In Jessie's blog, I had an epiphany about writing improving communication versus claiming that writing is communication.
In Sean's blog, I mentioned how interesting it would be to study the actual syle of writing from Old English to online slang and how that evolved.

Discussions:
In Megan's blog, we both talked about how we grew up writing and the influence it had on us then and now.
In Jessie's blog, we discussed Calvino's expectations in his book and how he does not meet any specific standards.

Timeliness:
Printing Press opened doors for art too
Calvino in the mind of the reader
Cybertext development

Xenoblogging:
The Comment Primo:
Sean's blog
The comment informative:
Megan's blog,
The link gracious:
Revolution of the pencil = to Revolution of the computer

Wildcard:
I hardly connect past blogs with newer ones, because I'm rarely on the same train of thought on different topics. So after establishing this idea, I linked to a previous blog of mine for reference.
Calvino creates confusion

Had he been drug out of "his cave" he would have resisted just like the prisoner, but he would have seen the light as well and accepted his improved life. We can all put ourselves in Plato's Socrate's & the prisoners shoes. When have we not been a little "iffy" when it comes to experiencing something new and innovative? Especially with technology when we only see it as a mere invention and not something that can completely solve all problems?

We are also weary of new technology because we cannot possibly believe what we do not know or have yet to experience personally. New advancements are our "distorted reality" as we cannot be told about its glory and innovation until we have experienced it first-hand.

The thing about IF games is that we can choose our own path and examine what we want through text and a literary genre. In a novel, we are forced to endure each and every part of the book until the end...if we choose that as our goal. We can only judge IF gaming on its own terms because of the extreme differences from print. I still think these games are fun but they certainly were innovative during the birth of computer technology. And it's sad that they really have not become a phenomena because we advanced so quickly into graphic and visual games. Computers were not as widespread when IF games were born so not many people were introduced. I feel bad because they were simply...skipped over and the opportunity to become "rich and wonderful" was revoked.

As I played the game, Deadline, I continued examining the most basic things. Like the cabinet, the pantry, china. I didn't find anything intruging with those objects so I started roaming around the house, which I try to avoid because I often get lost in games (and in life in general) so I don't tend to wander far. In this game, I felt like direction was important as well as characters because they both developed significantly as I progressed. I leanred alot about Mrs. Robner's son and her husbands will, but that's all the farther i got. Now that I think about it...why were there police at the house? Fishy. I don't want to look up any cheats or spoilers because I may go back and play it.

If it were 1982 and this is the type of entertainment I had, I'd be excited. IF is exciting and who really needs graphics to illustrate a story? I do agree with Aarseth, that IF games would make a good novel. Writing a story for a novel or an IF game is the same concept as we use language to do so. Just the structure is different and the multiple opportunities and pathways differ. The idea of a story is interchangable, but the medium in which it exists is not.

Back to class

Play my hospital game. It has a crazy ladyin it!

My first reaction to the ELO collection was intimidating, because I clicked on "Bad Machine" which had a bunch of coding and jumbled mess as its image. And as a person who does judge a book by its cover strayed farther away as I read the discription about being in an unusual futuristic society with a central Queen. Then my worries faded as I clicked on a more simple picture...with just the letter "d" and found it to be a creative twist to the "Star Wars" game. Although, I am not a Star Wars fan, I found it less scary as the description did not bombard me with a mass of detail. It actually sparked my curiousity and made me want to give it a try.

Possible Exploration:
Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw-- I would be very interested to see how a graphic game portrays a demonic possession. This could be the PS3 game of The Excorcist.
Storyland--This is a narrative game that says it is highly unlikely that two stories will ever come out to be the same. I kind of want to prove them wrong, although I agree with the description.
Landscapes--This game involves ...landscapes and portals. I'm interested in seeing how those two things tie together.

Reactions to Explorations:
Storyland--Weird, not very engaging and I didn't understand how the plots of these stories fit in with anything at certain moments of time...which is what the description claimed.
Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw--This bizarre game was freaky because it did have creepy music associated with a horror film and the characters were strange and decrepid...in my opinion. The characters didn't move, but the girl did spit out strange stuff when I clicked on pink flowers. There were two monsters...maybe unstereotypical demons that hid behind bare trees. They were not interactive. Both times, my screen went blank, so I'm not sure what that meant or if I did something wrong, so I never got very far.
Landscapes-- The Landscapes was just a neat way to read proverbs and important quotes from the past from a different perspective...like a desert background or in the city life. Destinations all around the world. It wasn't interactive from a player's point, but the graphics were constantly changing.

Interaction with Redridinghood
I spent some time looking at Redridinghood and I liked the portrayal of this author. She did it from a feminist perspective but what i liked was the modernization of it. The moral of the story is still the same, but it takes place in a city and the character development was neat to see. I watched it 3 times and it was the same every time because there was only one option during each scene. There was no conversation or text, but there was background beat and expressions on the characters faces. So that was definately a different way of expression than from what we have been studying all semester.

Aarseth
The Redridinghood expression was a nonverbal animation. No text or narration. Looking at Aarseth's communication figures between the narrator and the reader on page 93, how would that even apply to this age of animation? In each figure, he shows an author, a narrator, a narratee, and a reader. There narrator and narratee seem to be non-existent in this graphic animation, unless the entire product of Redridinghood is soley the non-verbal narrator. Then there would be author, non-verbal narrator, viewer...because even reader would lose it's name and consistency.

Aarseth said, "If the paths are simply parallel, never meeting before B, then multilinear is the natural choice, just as linear describes one such path" (44). This would be the natural path for a hypertext format as there is more space for interior and additional information.

So that got me to thinking, nonlinear text in books does exist, although I disagree with Aarseth who only calls it "random access." And it even exist in our minds, which we can associate to daydreaming as our brains wander from topic to topic. (Though, there is no permanent record of those immediate thoughts. What do you think about that Socrates?) And then there is nonlinear hypertext which I agree with Aarseth is most effective with a computer/database with unlimited storage space. This allows for almost unlimited additional information if there are consistent links and passages available.

Because of these accessible paths in which text can take, "nonlinear is purely the observable differences in the behavior between text and reader use" (59). True, due to the ability to choose one's fate, circumstances, and consequences.

I think the text on paper and in books has to follow a structure and standardization because it is what authors have practiced and produced for centuries. It's imbedded in our minds of how we as humans like to read and understand things. As for hypertext and digital formatting of text, it is still under experimentation and it is still in its infancy. We're still exploring the options as there are many more than those limited to books. There is still more time to pinpoint a structure to our liking of the text in the digital era.

Back to the class website.

So I'm going to try to make sense of this and I'm going to admit that I did not understand this chapter. There were a few paragraphs here and there I could relate to, but even after looking at definitions it was difficult to understand the majority of this chapter's concept.

I chose the quote above because I carefully analyzed the triangle illustration. For digital text, it must have a medium in order to see, dissect and comprehend the text. Words do not just appear in the air in front of you. I thought about traditional books too. They are the mediums in which we pick up to read the text on their pages. They are just less innovative than a computer, digital billboard, cellular phone, iPad, etc.

These mediums also cannot be operated without a human, so a third source is needed. The complexity of digital culture has evolved greatly from print, however the communication triangle remains the same. Even the linear versus non-linear reading is a new concept which expresses more depth in the digital era.

With the evolution of digitial media, text is always going to need an operator to express words and text. That connection cannot work without both parties. The only changing aspect is the medium which continues developing more and more depth and complexity.

back

Each author writes their work based on an emotion or experience from their own life. They themselves are trying to make sense of an idea or attempting to fill a void by creating a plot. By human nature, we seem to relate to one another on all kinds of different levels and areas. As we read books, journals, articles or any kind of writing, many times we feel a connection to what is being said, from the author's words to the paper to our eyes and into our brains. We ponder on these phrases or paragraphs and reflect on their meaning and how it applies to our everyday lives. Why do we feel that way? What have we done that is similar? Do we want to experience the same thing?

I feel like these brief moments of wonder are very common, yet very unique, because not one is ever the same. I seem to find similarities between Darnton and Calvino. There are techniques and mysteries for writing as Darnton often expresses and he can say it all he wants. Though, I think Calvino has been great at executing these techniques and mysteries. He is getting down to the nitty gritty and applying what actually works for the readers' mind.

Why do we feel the way we do about certain characters or events that alter the plot significantly? Are they too close to home and similar to our own lives? Why do we have that sublime moment while reading a an excerpt about our lives as a microcosm in a large world. We want to solve the mysteries of the world and the closest we can get is through imagination and theory. Two components of a great book.

back

I'm starting to think Calvino has invented a new perspective, the omnicient author. The speaker can know everything and even a character, but Calvino is demonstrating a new type of perception...which is coming straight from his eyes.

To begin, I must say that Ruedi (the Swiss) is my favorite character. He is hilarious and I don't even feel bad for Jojo since Ruedi is so funny. Or is that Calvino's intention to want me to feel no sympathy for Jojo?

I keep coming up with multiple conclusions about why Calvino has written this book the way he did. I'm starting to think he wants us to know that sometimes you cant control what happens next, not even in a linear structured book. So why does this writing technique bother you? I got this vibe from a few different quotes, "Anyway, the conclusion to which all stories come is that the life a person has led is one and one alone, uniform and compact as a shrunken blanket where you can't distinguish the fibers of the weave (Calvino 104). And then Calvino comes right out and says, "I'm producing too many stories at once because what I want is for you to feel, around the story, a saturation of other stories that I could tell and maybe will tell or who knows may already have told on some other occasion, a space full of stories that perhaps is simply my lifetime... (105).

As contradictory as it sounds, Calvino's book is more realistic than a traditional story plot. Fiction or non-fiction conversation, events and stories do not happen in order. I think he just being very, very blunt about this point.

And then, there are several references to truth of writing and storytelling which reminded me of the bibliography chapter in Darnton. "This is a true book, even if its author has written so many false ones. So it comes to us" (126). [This coming from Marana's writing]. Then, another example when Calvino is inside of our minds again, offering options, "Your eye falls on the beginning of th ebook. 'But this isn't the book I was reading...Same title, same cover, everything the same...But it's another book! One of the two is fake'" (155).

I take these quotes as the readers of this book assuming the Calvino is writing an imposter. It's not a real book because it follows strange conventions. And if we want to get extremely philosophical, it is the book of our lives, which will always be ever-changing due to past, present and future events. If I am totally off the wall on this one, I'm sure we'll be finding out the real answer soon. Or maybe not. He's fairly unpredictable.

Classroom discussion,,,continued.

Donald McKenzie devoted his life to studying the manuscript culture. There is more to writing than the text itself. We know that today, plagerism and unreliable sources linger throughout the internet. But what I found surprising was that these problems are not just new-age problems.

What i found ironic is McKenzie's ability to find errors accuracy problems in past printings. I thought that the history in which we knew was permanent, whether it was right or wrong. I never thought it was possible to investigate history. "The search for reliable texts of his plays drove the whole discpline (Darnton 137). What we thought we knew about Shakespeare proved to be wrong. Missing copies? Two different versions of King Lear? Hamlet has subtracted scenes in another version?

Through bibliographies, we are able to establish some sort of credibility, however these same bibliographies are drawing more than that. There are discoveries of mystery texts and new additions to old versions.

Now there is more added to the problem. Because of these unpublished additions and mystery texts, plagerism is bound to hop in at some point. There has to be another taking credit for others' work. Because bibliographies do not have the power to omit wrong information, discovering plagerism has to become a deeper and even longer process.

It seems that inaccurrate information and plagerism was easier back in the day even with the lack of resources. With today's technology, there is software available to detect plagerism and inaccuracies. It's a bit contradictory.

Back to class