Artifact 2 by: Omar Martinez-Roldán

     Instructions:

     Navigate through the website. Click on links to view animations, images, and audios. These mediums allow for a deeper understanding of the motives regarding Cadence MackArthur. 

     Abstract:

     This multimodal assignment let's students or viewers see the motives for Dr. Behar towards Cadence MackArthur. The multimodal piece takes the viewer through visual and audio elements that enlighten them to Cadence MackArthur's actions. The motives that might have led Dr. Behar to act out towards Cadence and why? 

     Process:

     Hi, the process I took on this multimodal assignment was difficult. I found the hyperlink assignment to be hard. But this one was harder for me. This is because not only did I have to work through links. But I also had to add in visual, and audio elements into the presentation. I am not a computer wiz and this was not an easy process to comprehend for me. 

     I started by trying to find another place from which to begin my presentation. I couldn't use the same page that I had used in the previous hyperlink assignment. This made it harder to create this piece because I had to use a completely different format. I went through many different sites and used google a lot to find the correct site or page from which to begin the creative process. But every site I tried seemed to confuse me more. I couldn't find the right site to construct my multimodal piece. 

     I began by using sites that allowed me to use a web editor. I created a web page on one site. But I couldn't get the process down pat. And the design of the site and the construction of the presentation was not going to what I had envisioned in the beginning. I was just putting in parts that seemed to make the piece more multimodal. But even the smallest changes made the site feel out of place. And it made me confused about the construction. Then I would make one change and the entire site would change and I couldn't get back to the way it was before. This frustrated me so much that I ended my association with that site. This only made it more difficult because I had to find another site from which to start over. 

     I believe I went through five to six different sites on the list provided to us from the student resources on the course blog. But no site seemed to work for me. Or maybe, I didn't seem to work with any of those sites. I then found another site which was more easy to navigate and with which to work. I ended up using weebly. I didn't find this site any easier than all the others. But I was able to create a site within this site. I was able to add some multimodal elements to it. Although, the process of construction in this site was also hard because if I wanted to add more multimodal elements then I had to upgrade and start paying the website. This hindered the process because I had to find other ways to make the site more multimodal. But I think I was able to modify the site into a multimodal site and create a presentation which gives motives for Dr. Behar towards Cadence MackArthur. 

     Additionally, I also tried to use a website such as Flipagram to create a visual slideshow presentation. But that was also ended before I even began creating. I tried to download the program on my phone. But the program would download and then it wouldn't open on the phone or on my laptop. I stopped trying to use this program. 

     Thankfully, I was able to use Zeega to develop a slideshow presentation to add to my multimodal piece. This was not an easy process to do. But I found some pictures and animations and was able to formulate a story in the slideshow to make it interesting. I added some text to make it easier to comprehend for myself and those viewing the presentation. 

     Thus, I was able to create what I think is a well thought out multimodal presentation. It may not be the best representation of a multimodal piece. But this is my first attempt at creating a multimodal piece. I learned that creating this type of piece is hard. But I also found that I can use different sites and programs to create interesting things. Things that I enjoyed crafting and that give the piece a deeper meaning with the use of multiple modes. 

    O's Cafe and Bistro 

   

   
   

Review of "Carving in Possibilities" by Deena Larson by Omar Martinez-Roldán

"Carving in Possibilities"

By: Deena Larson

Literature and writing must be text to paper. It must be read from left to right and line by line. This has been the predominant idea regarding literature and the way it is viewed and read in the educational and professional areas. But it is not the only way to view and read text or literature. A new way of experiencing literature has been around for years now. This new method of experiencing literature is known as Electronic Literature. Electronic Literature has become popular in this electronic age. An age that allows users to interact with the text or literature in an immersive way that plain text does not. Electronic Literature permits the user to read or experience the text with combinations of text, audio, visual, animation, images, sounds, and within an electronic environment, rather than through text in books. 

Hence, no longer are books the primary way to read and experience stories. Readers can experience stories or storytelling through the combination of audio, images, animation, and texts. This combination of these mediums allows the users or readers to interact with the stories in many ways. For example, “Carving in Possibilities” by Deena Larson allows users or readers to interact with a short flash piece. A piece which plays out like a movie but lets the user or reader interact with the piece by clicking with the mouse pointer onto the actual image of the piece. This clicking allows the piece to change and brings about different options for the user and reader.

For instance, “Carving in Possibilities,” includes information regarding the biblical story of “David and Goliath,” and the construction of Michelangelo’s sculpture of “David.” In order to understand the short flash piece better. The user or reader must delve into the background of both stories. By reviewing the background information. The reader or user can better understand the phrases or words within the short flash piece. The short flash piece includes phrases and words around and above the blurry image of Michelangelo’s face of the sculpture of “David.”

The image of the sculpture of “David” is blurry and as the user or reader clicks around the image. The mouse passes over the phrases and the words to clarify the image of the sculpture of “David.” The words or phrases reveal information about the story of “David and Goliath” and the information about the sculpture of Michelangelo’s “David.” But the information is only relevant and understandable if the user or reader has researched the background information on “David and Goliath” and Michelangelo’s sculpture of “David.” Then as the user clicks over the words or phrases in the short flash piece. The blurry face of Michelangelo’s “David” begins to become clearer and clearer.

In essence, the short flash piece allows the reader or user to become the actual sculptor of the piece. The reader or user is actually sculpting away at the marble sculpture and creating the face of “David” as they click from phrases to words. The phrases and words emerge from different sides and angles. They appear in different texts, sizes, fonts, and colors on the screen. This gives the reader or user the illusion of creating their own “David” through their choice of words or phrases. The process of clicking different words or phrases can be different every time the user or reader interacts with the short flash piece. Yet the outcome of the sculpture is always the same. At the end, the user, reader, or sculptor finishes by creating the same face of Michelangelo’s “David.”

However; the process of interacting with the short flash piece is fun and informational. The reader or user ends up learning about the story of “David and Goliath,” and the story of the creation and sculpting of Michelangelo’s sculpture of “David.” Additionally, the user and reader experiences the feeling of creating an actual image through their interaction with text in a completely different form than simply reading text on paper. The reader or user is reading the text at the same time as interacting with the text to sculpt the face of “David.” This is literature on a completely different level. The literature is brought to life with the use of multiple mediums, and interaction on the part of the user or reader.  

This is one of the experiences created with the interaction provided by Electronic Literature. This interaction has made it possible for readers or users to make text come to life in more than one way. For readers to feel like they can image and view the text on a multilevel platform instead of linear. Therefore, “Carving in Possibilities” by Deena Larson gives this experience to readers or users. The short flash piece brings to life the actual feeling of sculpting a beautiful artistic marble sculpture like Michelangelo’s “David” with the use of words or phrases, literature.     

Omar Martinez Electronic Lit. Artifact 1

     Omar Martinez Artifact 1

     Instructions:

     To have a successful experience, viewers must navigate through the information and retain crucial data to build successful motives and ideas about what really happened between Dr. Thomas and Dr. Behar.

     Abstract:

     This hypertext assignment leads the reader through events depicting moments in Dr. Behar and Dr. Thomas professional and personal relationships. Additionally, the artifact gives insight into situations between the two which may have led to motives on the part of Dr. Thomas regarding Dr. Behar. The artifact allows for some speculation on the viewers/interactors parts.

     Process:

     Hi, I created this artifact through a what I believe to be a complicated process. At the beginning, I found it hard to really have a process for creation since I was not experienced at all in creating hyperlinks. I started by going to google docs and trying to figure out how to create a hyperlink assignment. I could not figure out whether to include text or images or to put in animations. I did not even know how to create any of those except for text. I thought to myself that the easiest thing to do would be to go to Microsoft Word and make an outline of what the assignment is and of what I should and am able to do with my abilities. I went to Microsoft Word and created an outline of the text and conversation that I wanted to include in my hypertext assignment. At this moment I was only concerned with developing a basic idea for what was to be included in the hypertext assignment or artifact. The inclusion of images, animation, sound or any other aspect of creativity was the least of my worries at this point. I went forward and outlined a whole idea of the steps I would take and how I would insert and the text and link them together to create an understandable artifact and story. Then came the hard part. Actually creating the hypertext assignment or artifact.

     I thought to myself how in the world do I make this text interesting and how do I link it to another page? Do I use PowerPoint or one of the sites provided in the resources to create a wonderful artifact presentation? But all this was a problem for me because as I traversed the sites provided I found myself more confused and further from creating a comprehensible artifact presentation. Therefore, I chose to simply go to www.google.com and search how to hyperlink on google documents. I could not understand the directions that google gave me. I followed up by going to google documents and just going from option to option until I figured out one that worked for me. I ended up trying to create a google document presentation that would allow me to insert and animate images. But no matter how many images I inserted into the document. I could not figure out how to create hyperlinks or make the images and text work in my favor. I decided to stop using a document presentation and settled for a straight forward google docs document.

     I created several documents and inserted different yet connected story text into each document page I created. Afterwards, I went to www.youtube.com and looked up how to create hyperlinks in google documents. This option worked out for me and showed me how to make links in google documents. It became more difficult from that moment forward because I had to figure out how to copy the proper addresses of the links and share them so that they could be linked and viewed. Suffice it to say that this process took me several days to figure out and to work into my artifact. I finally came to comprehend how to work links in my presentation towards the end of the week.

     I spent the rest of the week connecting my hypertext, text, pages, and working images into my artifact presentation. I have not included any animation, voices, sounds, or anything other than text and images because that would take me another couple of weeks to search and comprehend. I finally put my hypertext assignment together with my outline ideas about the story and what it should reveal about Dr. Behar and my character Dr. Thomas.

     Although, this process took me time to understand and complete. I found that I learned a lot about creating hyperlinks and linking things together. I learned to utilize text to tell a story a little better and I learned to use images that complement the actual dialogue. Hopefully, this will come through during the review and viewing of my artifact presentation.

     Artifact 1 Hyperlink

Dr. Thomas Private Files

Blog about hypertext ideas.

     I want to create a hypertext project that is interactive. I want the person to interact with the project. I want to create a hypertext project that has the main character making decisions that affect their surroundings and affect the other characters opinions of the main character. I have not completely developed the hypertext project yet but am still brainstorming ideas. I am working on the hypertext links and the sites and connections that I want to connect to the main page.

     I have also created a google mail account for my character Dr. Alexander Thomas. His e-mail account is thomasalexanderdr@gmail.com and I created a twitter account for Dr. Alexander Thomas at #@drthomas1969 

Generative Lit Character Creation

I think a good character to create is Dr. Alexander Thomas. Dr. Alexander Thomas is forty-five years old with two doctoral degrees from Oxford University. One degree in Biochemical Engineering, and a second degree in Business Finance. Dr. Thomas owns his own billion dollar pharmaceutical company, OME, and was acting supervisor of operations, and research at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Behar worked under Dr. Thomas during her doctoral work with drought resistant native plants. Dr. Thomas became intimately acquainted with Dr. Behar's work, and Dr. Behar herself. It was assumed that Dr. Thomas, and Dr. Behar had an intimate relationship during her stint at the research institute but those were only rumors. What is true is that Dr. Behar left the institute, and never again spoke to Dr. Thomas until recently when they were seen speaking, and attending many dinner parties together around town. Dr. Behar, and Dr. Thomas were also working on research together at Theopolis College. But the extent of their recent working together was kept secret between the two of them, and the work remains incomplete. The extent of Dr. Behar, and Dr. Thomas's relationship, work, or otherwise is still unknown.

Soliloquy, and Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky

    After reading both of these electronic literature. I have to say, I like "Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky" better than the other. One of the things that attracted me to this one is that it had both music, and an entertaining presentation. Soliloquy was full of stories, and I could go in order from 1, and forward through the stories. But I didn't like that there was a break between the lines that started something completely different than the rest. Plus, the visual elements of "Soliloquy" were not as attractive as the other. The void of music within "Soliloquy" made it less appealing than the other. Further, the visual aspect of "Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky" was more enticing than the other. The ability to interact was more appealing in this one because of the ability to click on the stars, the background music, and the interactivity. "Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky" was just more visually stunning, and more engaging than the other, and I found the stories to be more enjoyable. I just couldn't find myself getting into "Soliloquy" even though I did love the fact that the navigation was more controlled, and I could conduct my navigation with more order. "Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky" was just more fun to navigate because of its visual appeal, music, and the interactivity of navigating through the stars, and plotting out a story.

Twelve Blue

     I approached twelve blue by trying to go in a number sequence from one, two, three, and so on. But when I would press one number, and the following number would begin a completely different story. After trying this strategy I just ended up reading several different stories because I found myself reading several different stories. I thought the number strategy would help me keep order in the readings, and in the hyperlinks but they didn't. The links were not in chronological orders, and although the numbers were in order their stories were out of order.

     However, I then tried to pick one number, and then following the hyperlinks within each story or paragraph. Each hyperlink led me to a completely different story. Some didn't even have hyperlinks within the paragraphs, and I had to click on one of the pictures in the top left corner which only sent me to a completely different link. I was hoping following the paragraphs, and their links would lead me from a beginning, to a middle, and to an end. But the links didn't lead me to any of that just a bunch of interconnecting stories that seemed similar but were different.

     Then I tried just following the numbers placed on the left hand side of the start screen of Twelve Blue. But the numbers on the left hand side don't actually link to anything. The numbers are there, I don't know, just for show. Trying that strategy didn't work out. I was hoping the selecting the numbers would link me to the same story in some order.

     After interacting with Twelve Blue, and trying these different strategies I found the electronic lit to be very frustrating, and lacking of any order in the stories, and links. I just wanted Twelve Blue to be direct, and to let me finish the stories. But it didn't, and I didn't find it too entertaining because I thought it would be more captivating if it allowed more order.