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DIGITALIT PRIMERWorking your way through 21st century problems in art and literaturePeter NtourntourekasIntroductionLet’s be honest. Post-modern art can be intimidating and confusing. You might find yourself asking questions like, “Why does this poetry keep moving around and changing?” or “How is a Sherlock fan-made music video important for literary critics and readers?” We live in a world full of evolution and technological advancements that constantly change how art is created. This doesn’t limit itself to the creation of art, it also includes the consumption. Digital literature, for lack of a better name, suffers from symptoms associated with its poor naming conventions. It seems as though digital narratives can’t be viewed without the context of their analog counterparts: books. This becomes apparent when one examines the vocabulary associated with what I’ll refer to as digitalit for brevity’s sake. We are almost forced to describe digital content with words like webpage, ebook, and blog (a shortening of weblog, not unlike any other form of logging activities). This, of course, inhibits our ability to view digitalit with the unbiased lens it deserves. Digitalit challenges what we know as readers, and sometimes it causes us to read more into how the story is told rather than what it is telling us. This can require some patience and some separation from reality, but with the right amount of gusto it can be achieved by anyone. Here are some general points as we move forward:Digitalit is separate from analog booksSometimes the method of delivery is more important than the meaning itselfMany of these works are ‘unpublished’ and not academically recognizedMany of these works require multiple ‘reads’ and that’s perfectly fineNow that that’s out of the way, let’s jump right in. Fanfiction and Participatory Content190501487805Fanfiction has a reputation of being pop-culture run over. It is perceived as the work of those who obsess within their fandom and go as far as to rehash the plot to form their own extensions to the original story. This is only partially true, and it isn’t the obsessive part. Fanfiction is a story created by fans, for fans, that utilized either a character or a universe from an already established story. One theoretical example might be writing a story in which you and your friends attend the fictional school from Harry Potter, Hogwarts. Another example might be using characters from Twilight, namely Edward and Bella, and using them in your own story. Does that last one sound familiar? It might not, but it is actually the plot of Master of the Universe, a Twilight fanfiction that ended up becoming something we now know as the pop-culture phenomenon 50 Shades of Grey. E.L. James wrote Master of the Universe under the screen name “Snowqueens Icedragon” and periodically posted her work to websites like as a hobby. Eventually, the piece gained so much popularity that James redrafted it into 50 Shades of Grey and sold millions of copies worldwide. With fanfiction comes great responsibility, however. Many ethical and philosophical questions arise when analyzing the existence of fanfiction and the culture surrounding it. The work is of course the result of the labor of the author, be it their original characters or not. That being said, the authority of a fanfiction writer gets called into question frequently. How can a fan simply add on to the original plot and have it matter? Many modern critics would insist that interpretation of a text is separate from the interpretation that the author might have of their own work. That is to say, the reader is free to discern whatever meaning they find in their reading of a text. Fan work complicates this, as not only is the reader discerning their own meaning, but they are adding their own meaning and making it an essential part of the plot. Legal issues aside, this fan writing has caused strife in the writing world. It is not limited to traditional text, though. Remixes, much like fanfiction, take pieces of established works and run with them in a new way. This can result in something like a song playing in the background of clips from a popular television show, but it also can be much more nefarious. YouTube Poop is a more visual example of fan work, where editors take clips from videos and stitch them together to create new narratives. Many are crude and downright offensive, but they occupy the same intellectual space that fan writing does. With digitalit, many artists are finding new and innovative ways to reuse their favorite characters and universes. Important PiecesMaster of the Universe by Snowqueens IcedragonBoil ‘Em (Lord of the Rings Remix) by YTMND2012Things to Think AboutIs fanfiction as valuable as the original work? Why or why not? Does the value of the piece change if it was written by the original author of the story?Does publishing online on fan sites affect its perceived importance?Why do you think this is the case?Does the traditional publishing environment affect this?Is it unfair or unoriginal to reuse characters from other works?Even if your work is marked as fan work/derivative?How much does a fanfiction have to change to not be considered a ‘copy’?At what point does a character become an original one?Which details must change? (plot, characters, setting, etc)Pro TipsMake sure to read the tags on fanfiction and pay attention to the ratings. You wouldn’t want to read unwanted ‘mpreg’ fantasies or read about an uninvited genital.Exploring YouTube can be a worthwhile endeavor, but after a certain point you stumble upon low-quality content. This is inevitable as you fall down the rabbit hole.Treat fanfiction as what it is, not what it is trying to imitate. A Stephen King fanfiction is not going to read like Cujo right away.Interactive and Hypertext Interactive literature is where digitalit begins to break away from the conventions of analog media. Choose Your Own Adventure books used to be popular with middle schoolers, and with good reason. There is something special about being able to guide the story in the direction that you want it to go. At the end of a passage the page would read: Turn to page 21 if you perform X, or turn to page 34 if you do Y. This winding tale kept readers occupied for hours, and it never really got boring to explore the multitude of storylines. Hypertext takes this idea and runs with it, saving you page flips by substituting in hyperlinks that take you directly to the next section. An example of hypertext that is fairly easy to follow is Scott Rettberg’s The Unknown, which details a fictional book tour. You can read the narrative in whichever order you like, clicking on phrases and external media that offer new sections of narrative and supplementary experiences. This is non-linear storytelling; where the order of the pages doesn’t necessarily matter, and the reader is free to stop or start wherever they want. 2686050490220The advantages of hypertext over C.Y.O.A. are in convenience and media presentation. It is much faster and aesthetically cleaner to click on a word and be transported rather than flipping through pages searching for your next section. Being a digital medium also allows for hypertext stories to include things like music, videos, and pictures that can appear and disappear as needed. It gets tricky when the plot is attempted to be nailed down. How can you truly grasp the plot of a story that has no clear beginning, no clear end, and a multitude of different available paths to whichever point the reader decides is the end for them? Of course, it’s possible to reread the story enough times that one is able to achieve every possible path, but with fuller narratives that could take hours, if not days. When it comes to hypertext, sometimes the reader is simply okay with their experience with the story rather than analyzing every experience with it.Hypertext falls under a broader category of interactive literature, and this is a very wide umbrella. Interactive stories are simply ones where the reader’s input drives the plot, but this takes many shapes and forms. For example, a more visual piece like Deena Larsen’s Carving in Possibilities literally uses the input of the reader to shape both the image and the order in which text is presented on screen. Pieces like this not only allow the reader to experience the text in whichever order they desire, the text also fundamentally changes when the reader experiences it. When the order of the passages changes, so does the experienced meaning. This is the key to hypertext. Important PiecesCarving in Possibilities by Deena LarsenThe Unknown by Scott RettbergHunt for the Gay Planet by Anna AnthropyThings to Think AboutHow is non-linear storytelling different from a traditional novel?What advantages does this provide?How can this effectively be analyzed?Is meaning established when a story is published, or when the reader experiences it?Does this change when talking about digitalit?Do certain form factors have different points of meaning creation?Does one have to experience every plot line to understand a hypertext story?How does the use of the interacting reader shape the ways in which a story must be told?Does it truly matter that a story has a clear beginning, middle, and end?Does this rely on conventions of analog books?How does technology shape this?Pro TipsExperiment with starting interactive texts in different spots, if possible. Sometimes there is more than one way to approach things.Don’t be afraid to call I quits on a text. After a certain point your fatigue takes precedence over the side plots you missed.Sometimes it is worth it to delve all the way into a hypertext story, but part of the purpose is that you can go as in depth as you wish. Generative PoetryAnalog poetry is exactly what it appears to be. The reader is presented with words on a page; neatly organized and formatted to the liking of the poet. There is usually a clear, narrative that makes sense accompanied by some pleasant cadence or rhyming. It’s not a quick favorite for some people, but it has been around for a very long time. While it often takes some analysis to figure out what exactly the poet might be getting at, the determined reader can usually figure it out and enjoy the piece. Generative poetry is a style that takes full advantage of the coding aspect of digital literature. Where analog poetry is a classroom standby, generative poetry changes the game by making the product different every time. The idea behind generative poetry is to take chunks from other works of art, or even a unique word bank, and mash them together in a semi-random way to create a different piece of work each time.Imagine cutting out lines from all of your favorite poems and putting them in a hat, shuffling them around, and then randomly pulling out lines. Generative poetry is essentially a digital version of that idea. The normal method of doing this is through some simple language like Javascript and using a random number generator to select, and then display, the lines in a jumbled order.Take for example John Pat Macnamara’s work Take Ogre. The poem takes lines from a word bank that is invisible to the reader and generates a rolling poem right in front of their eyes. It’s like watching the computer do a mad lib from the chosen poetry. Of course, without any further investigation or reflection this looks like a jumbled mess. Some might find regular poetry kind of dreary and boring, but adding the layer of inability to understand the text might fully put off some new readers. How is one meant to read a generative poem like Take Ogre? That question is at the forefront of generative poetry.-57149390525Important PiecesTake Ogre by Pat Macnamara Along the Briny Beach by J.R. CarpenterThings to Think About How does randomly generating the poem change its meaning?Does randomly generating the poetry make it harder or easier to read?Why?Is this because of the format of the poem, or because of your expectations?How would this translate into a more traditional format?Does ‘meaning’ come from the poem, or does it manifest when one reads the poem?Does this change when the poem is static?Pro TipsPress F12 to open Developer Tools in Google Chrome and click around within the code of the website. You might be able to find the source word bank and analyze the poem from a new angle! If you mess anything up in the code, don’t fret! The changes are temporary and local, just refresh the page to reset it. -361315165735Don’t worry so much about what the poem ‘means’. Start to think about how it makes you reach that meaning. How does your reading style change when the poem is entirely random? TransmediaTransmedia is functionally simple but ethically complex, as it involves multiple mediums. If you were a movie goer in the early 2000s, you experienced the transmedia experience of The Matrix. This means that in addition to the movie, there were other stories that added to the main plot, but they were hosted on other mediums. There was a Matrix website where clues from the movie came to fruition, there was real world events and ad campaigns that alluded to the plot, there is merchandise and there was even a video game that added to the original plot, tying in clues from every other form of media. While transmedia may not utilize any particularly experimental forms of media, it combined traditional sources in a non-traditional way. In order to fully comprehend the entire plot of something like The Matrix, you have to experience every part of the transmedia experience and gain every level of comprehension. In a blog post on his website, Henry Jenkins outlines what are essentially the commandments of transmedia storytelling. It all boils down to a few things: additive comprehension, large scope of focus, and reader participation. Jenkins insists that additions in a transmedia story must add to the reader’s comprehension of the plot, not simply rehash old material. It isn’t enough to rerelease the same story on multiple media platforms. Transmedia requires new information to be presented at every level of the experience. Another key point is the large scope of focus. Transmedia tends to focus on a large world-based plot rather than detailing the story of one character. This means that while the main book may cover one main character, the external media might cover other, less developed characters, and their story adds to the main plot indirectly by expanding on previously unknown or underdeveloped information. Finally, and almost most importantly, transmedia requires audience participation. This doesn’t mean that the movie won’t progress unless you go to the website, but it means that in order for a reader to fully comprehend the story they must actively seek out new information. There is no passive way to experience transmedia, so the reader must have the drive required to seek out the rest of the story if they desire it.Important TextsPottermore Henry Jenkins Blog PostThings to Think AboutDoes transmedia include or exclude new readers?Is it possible that the reader can start in a different place than another?Does the order of transmedia have to matter?Is money a factor in introducing transmedia?Do you think part of this process is keeping consumers ‘roped along’?Does an inability to access transmedia stories change the meaning or does it limit it?How can this be remedied?Is it okay that some readers cannot experience the whole story?ReferencesAnthropy, Anna. “Hunt for the Gay Planet.”?Electronic Literature Collection, 2013, collection.3/work.html?work=hunt-for-the-gay-planet.Carpenter, JR.?Along the Briny Beach, 2012, collection.3/works/along-the-briny-beach/index.html.Hurricoaster.?YouTube Poop: The Sky Had A Weegee.?Youtube, 11 Nov. 2009, watch?v=3MnrAw8Icfs.Icedragon, Snowqueens. “Master of the Universe.”?, downloads/MOTU_w_Outtakes_Snowqueens_Icedragon_COMPLETE.pdf.Jenkins, Henry. “Transmedia Storytelling 101.”?Henry Jenkins, 21 Mar. 2007, 2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html.Larsen, Deena. “Carving in Possibilities.”?Electronic Literature Collection, 2001, collection.1/works/larsen__carving_in_possibilities.html.Macnamara, John. “Take Ogre.”?Electronic Literature Collection, 2013, collection.3/work.html?work=take-ogre.Rettberg, Scott. “Hypertext of the Unknown.”?Electronic Literature Collection, collection.2/works/rettberg_the_unknown/index.html.Rowling, JK.?Pottermore, Warner Brothers, .YTMND2012.?Boil 'Em (Potatoes). Youtube, 5 June 2010, watch?v=qrQVFZx7XX4.Reasoning:When designing this project I had a few things in mind. I thought about all of the times that I was confused during class and the times where I wished that I had spent more time looking at the texts before trying to discuss them. There are so many questions that arise when discussing and analyzing digitalit, but most of them didn’t come until class time for me. I understand the value of bouncing ideas off of your peers, but if I had these questions in my head before class I probably would have had a deeper understanding of the work and been able to go even further in class. All of the above is true for me, and I consider myself to be fairly tech literate and open to experimental work. For someone who is no so inclined to try out digitalit, I can’t imagine how off putting the work was at times. I decided that I would write this little primer to digitalit, the concept not the course, with the goal of levelling the playing field and explaining the value of digitalit in a way that isn’t super lofty and artsy. Of course, this does not only apply to English majors interested in the course. I tried to write this in a way that any willing adult could pick it up and have a solid chance at getting at the deeper meanings behind some of digitalit, but without even having a post-secondary English education like we all do. Part of the advantage of being an English major is that I have such a gigantic toolbox from which to increase my ability to comprehend something like digitalit. As such, I tried to do two things to help my prospective audience: explain as simply and basically as possible, and give them room to explore themselves. I can’t come into a product like this guns blazing preaching about the death of the author and how language is constructed and arbitrary. These are also ideas that aren’t 100% necessary to getting a solid grasp on digitalit, so I decided to forgo the theory and stick to the concrete aspects of a very fluid art form. Part of me feels almost like this project is incomplete due the nature of deadlines and ever changing digital media, but I also think that this provides a solid enough base that it can be expanded on intuitively by whoever has chosen to try. I don’t think that the jump from interactive text to virtual reality is a very big one once you get down to the nuts and bolts of it all.So once I finished my little spiel at the beginning of each section I tried to leave the reader with guided questions rather than dictating their reading myself. Instead of writing pages about whether meaning is created on publication or when the reader experiences the work, for example, I decided to leave it up to the reader, because it’s not a concrete answer and it’s not something that I would have wanted to be told about. I find great value in figuring out the answer for yourself, even if it’s slightly more frustrating. In trying to accomplish all of those things, for better or worse, I ended up with this. I am only mostly satisfied with it, and given infinite time I don’t think I would ever truly finish. I can only hope that by trying to explain these concepts to someone who has never confronted them I have enriched my own understanding; and it certainly feels that way. ................
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