As we have learned, many writers, such as Aristotle, believed that when print occurred the words and stories lost feeling and we became lazy as story tellers and as students. In the readings from Electronic Literature by N. Katherine Hayes she speaks about how people have used technology to tell a story with words, in creating 3-D designs as well as how technology is ingrained into our minds nowadays and how all books are now technically digital, with this in mind as well as after watching "Bust Down Your Doors" by Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, do you believe that technology is ruining the print industry, like Aristotle believed print ruined story-telling? Please explain, and use an example besides Bust Down Your Doors.
In the articles Katherine Hayes explains authors that use 3D animation with their words with an expensive projectile system at some colleges. Like in David Knoebel's "Heart Pole" where he has a curcular globe of words, and two rings spinning in 90 degrees having to do with the story of the narrators mother singing him to sleep and the moment between waking up and sleeping. Or like in Screen, where David uses three CAVE walls and while the narrators are reading them, the words start falling off the "walls" and the readers can't put the words back as fast as they are falling down.All finally ending on the ground.
This is my example of how technology has enhanced print media. Print media can now be interpreted in different ways. Not in acting but in a more symbolic sense. If I watched a scene like this occur in front of me, the words would not only be telling me a story but would be showing me a story. The feeling of Screen would be intense, and stressful as I tried to read the words before they fell on the ground. Sound that can be added, like in Bust Down Your Doors, change in pace of words showing, where they are shown, or where they fall add an extreme drama to them.
So I believe that technology is helping portray written words in a more poetic way. If I'm reading a text and it has soft somber music with it, I'll find it peaceful. If I'm reading text and they are flashing in all over the page, I will feel intense. Technology will help us and let us go far in life with written text and changing it to feelings through action, it is our new form of story telling. Instead of us using our hands, voice, and facial expressions we are using font size, digital sound, pictures, swooping, sliding, rotating, flashing, etc text, and more. We are changing, and to me upgrading.
Wow, I really like how you approached this! I was also very interested in how we are gaining all of these digital attributes in literature. Way back in the day, books would start with the hanging indented letter, which was artistically valued. Today, we've replaced things like this with digital art and sound. Absolutely amazing.
ReplyDeleteNot the greatest question, since it asks what you "believe" rather than leading one toward an argument that can be carried through in a response; a better question would be (along these lines) something like "In what ways has technology [which of course would have to be defined here, since clay tablets and the printing press are both examples of technology, after all] enhanced or detracted value from printed texts, and [something specific about the future]". This would have afforded you the opportunity to present specifics in support of an argument-as-answer.
ReplyDeleteI found the way you discussed electronic literature interesting. Most people focus on the negative, yet you found something positive about it which made me think about it in a new way. But one thing, does some of the new things sometimes take away from the literature by limiting the capabilities of our imagination and possibly serving as a distraction? For example you talked about the somber music, but what if you were not thinking of it as a somber piece at the beginning, or a peaceful one, would it not sort of give it away and keep you from trying to figure out what kind of piece it was?
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