Designing Literature

My e-chapter, rather than producing new knowledge, looks at known knowledge in a new light. Hypertext is not something usually (or ever) shown in print form, and that is the direction my chapter went.

“The World in a Bottle” is a printed book that gives the viewer a hands on experience of travelling through hypertext.”

My portfolio is a success because you can see my progression from being terrified of blogging to staring blogging right in the face! You can also see the focus on hypertext throughout every post. Most of the time I hated it, but there was one instance where I enjoyed the stuff. “Rice” actually really helped to move my project in the right direction and made my plans more concrete.

“first of all, this piece is very visually pleasing and it’s the first time i’ve actually liked hypertext.”

If I had more time for my portfolio, I would probably incorporate more print work in. Perhaps blogging in my notebook, photographing it, then posting. That’s kind of how I imagined my blogs to be, but, alas, a camera was not always at my fingertips (though it should be) and there’s always the computer lab in the library.

I probably will not use the class e-book in the future, maybe as a reference or something, but this whole electronic art concept is just not my style. I like to feel my work with my hands, and a keyboard/mouse just doesn’t give me the same feeling.

HS-208 was different from any class I’ve ever taken before. The collaboration worked much better than any other group project I’ve ever participated in. I think it’s because it was more of a group/independent project. Everyone is given the same question knowing that the works will be put together in the end, but are free to answer it in their own way. That’s a really great concept.

I’ve only had one other humanities class at Cornish, but this class was the most unusual class I’ve ever taken. Having a blog as a home ground was really great! Never before have I been able to look at other classmates work with free reign to talk to them about it. I wish more of my classes were like that. Having such convenient access to each others work made the book’s chapters flow together much more smoothly as a whole. The e-book could have just been a place for a bunch of individual projects all somewhat relating to digital literature. Instead, we are all here working on our individual class goals and ambitions while supporting and critiquing one another at the same time. That was rather sappy, just now, but having a blog was really efficient. 😀 Do it again Jentery!

I don’t really have any plans for the future of the e-book as a whole. Except maybe, to brag about it. My chapter on the other hand will be used as the beginning of more comic collages. “Convert Converse” is the first comic I’ve ever created and the second major collage I’ve made. I think it was successful! My goal with the collage was to, “Convey through my comic that communication in text is possible particularly when various intentional text placement distractions are applied. Ex: Gertrude Steins repetition formatting and Windsound’s letter re/placement.” When you read the comic, that’s exactly what you find. Even my original script describes this.

Before this class, I never though about the boundaries of text, in art or just in literature. When I think of text, I think of letters on a screen or a book. Forever digitally intertwined, and with strict order. After doing blog 1 and 2, I began to realize that most of what I knew about digital literature (however little) was misinformed. Suddenly, text was a moldable thing that could be more than the strict rules of my highschool days (and first year of college) and my computer was going to take me places! When Jentery handed me two books, “Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein” by herself and “Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art” by Scott McCloud, I took it and ran. The result is “Convert Converse”.

What is missing? I wish I could say that there was something. Yet, I’m perfectly content with the way it is.

About new knowledge, besides learning how to make a comic myself, my chapter wasn’t intended to create new knowledge but to show how text communicates. As someone who did not really know anything about text communication and the possibilities it holds, a lot of what was presented in this class was new to me. But if we were talking about new knowledge as a whole, something that you could not find anywhere but this original source…”There is nothing new under the sun”. No, really, I’m serious. All I did was discover for myself by looking at other peoples discoveries(from other people!). I looked at John Caleys work, Raoul Hausmann, G. Stein, M. Davis, S. McCloud… the list goes on. It was all new to me, but not to the world. So maybe this new knowledge will be useful and ‘new’ to those who don’t already know. Regardless, I feel a bit more enlightened. 😀

(((Thanks for everything Jentery! Sorry if the above disappoints in the creative department, the pain of making this into a poem is not worth it. Haha. I’ll let you know if I make anymore comics. See you at the BFA show?? You would like it! It’s all about art and design and people not buying art and really enjoying the fruits of the graduates labor. It’s in May. I’ll send you an e-mail around then about the opening. Lastly, because I’m pretty sure that we will meet again (how does May work for you? :P), Ta Ta for now!  -Stephanie)))

Portfolio |pôrtˈfōlēˌō|

noun ( pl. -os)

1 a large, thin, flat case for loose sheets of paper such as drawings or maps.

• a set of pieces of creative work collected by someone to display their skills, esp. to a potential employer.

• a varied set of photographs of a model or actor intended to be shown to a potential employer.

2 a range of investments held by a person or organization : better returns on its investment portfolio.

• a range of products or services offered by an organization, esp. when considered as a business asset : an unrivaled portfolio of quality brands.

3 the position and duties of a minister of state or a member of a cabinet : he took on the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

Though the dictionary does not offer the exact definition of a portfolio fitting HS 208, one could conclude that fitting definition would be: “A collection of works and or items relevant to each other in any way/shape/form created by one person or a group of persons.”

Using the above definition above, I would conclude that my portfolio was overall a success. Seeing as this course of only fifteen weeks at Cornish’s Humanities and Sciences department, I am of the opinion that there is so much more that could be, and should be created and added, however time did/does not permit. Though small, the portfolio that I created is a one-of-a-kind, and offers incite into my mind and how I believe and interpreted each and every aspect of the class. As I look upon the work I created, specifically my e-chapter, I was able to capture images and ideas that reflected my topic and research question while I also managed to provided and accurate and creative prospective. My project, or e-chapter I aimed to express and show the increasing informed opinions of text, literature, and electronic literature as we move into a more electronic age. The final product, “Defining Literature” seems to be accurate to my goal.

If given the time and appropriate resources, I would very much like to have expanded on the group project that was discussed in the beginning of the semester. I feel that the “full” completion of my portfolio would have included more from group projects, where I was a contributor, but had more significant influence from others in the course.

Overall, thousands of ideas, pieces of inspiration, and great works came from HS 208. I believe that there will be many times in the future where I will be looking for all different types of cultural, technological, metaphorical, sociological, etc inspiration, and will turn back to the work of myself, classmates, and instructor of HS 208 to fulfill this.

Being in a course based on technology was one of the best ideas brought to Cornish this semester. Rarely before have I been involved in or even heard of a class forming and e-book. This idea and final creation is something unique and should defiantly be done more often. Not only did they style of the course broaden my knowledge, it increased my skills and a researcher, thinker, and artist.

To touch on the last line in Prompt 6, “After all, HS 208 was an experiment from the get-go.” Yes, I agree it was an experiment, however I believe it to be one of the upmost success! It takes a great person to take risks, and even greater to admit achievement. Jentery Sayers, is one of those people and I feel that he did an exceptional job leading us through this class symposium and maturity. Bravo!

Hakuna Matata. . . . .