“Rendezvous at 600 Hours” by chocokel
Experiencing design in electronic literature via an interactive YouTube narrative
Even proceeding the computer age, much thought has been put into the design of literature. From before the Gutenberg press, when scribes had to figure out how to edit mistakes artistically, to Mallarmé’s ingeniously arranged works, people have been experimenting with the basic elements of layout in literature. One can argue that the user not speculating on how something works or came to be is an aspect to good design. Nonetheless, today our society still doesn’t contemplate the process of which our textual media is displayed or why this practice matters. To provoke thought on this subject, I have created an electronic narrative on YouTube that is designed to purposely give the audience ambiguous choices as to how to move the story forward. I did this by writing a short story, using iMovie to illustrate it, uploading it on to YouTube, and then using YouTube’s annotations feature to create possible links between the segments of my story. Through this process, I discovered that creating a sense of abstruseness required more effort than anticipated and even more precision in operating movie editing and sharing programs. The knowledge I’ve gained is not the only goal I hope to accomplish with this project; I also hope that it will prove helpful to others who view it on YouTube. Ideally, once I obtain more web-based traffic, my project will inspire others to analyze the way design in literature affects them and how they may expand on the idea as well.
Halla's perspective on "Rendezvous at 600 Hours"
Get ready. You are about to experience literature in a whole different way. I think that this e-chapter has brought the idea of "electronic literature" to new levels, showing how the "electronic" part of e-lit can be incorporated and compliment the story so well. I’ve been working with chocokel and her e-chapter throughout the semester, and I’m impressed that she stuck so well to her original idea. She definitely had it worked out ahead of time. 
I really like that you can click around during the video; it reminds me of those "choose your own ending" books, but much more entertaining. This e-chapter has taught me that you can merge "literature" in whatever sense, with technology, and get good results.
