My Short Animation

Here's my short animation. I am so proud of the way that it turned out! Before you view it, make sure you have the volume turned on onto your computer, as there is some music to listen to with it.

To view my masterpiece, please click here!

What Ideas I Want to Hold On To (from today's class...)

Today's class was insanely thought-provoking. The balance between the novel and the familiar, the experimental and the same-old same-old.... what is it about the tension between these that is so difficult?

When we are presented with that novel or experimental thing (whether it is a food, a text, a movie, or clothing style), unless there is a little bit of familiar in there somewhere, it can be difficult to comprehend.

Even now, my brain can't really summarize or complete my thoughts. Grr!

Response to Autopiesis...

Hands down, this text was one of the most difficult readings of my entire life. I thought that Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment was tough to get through. This was worse. (But in a good way).

I am not saying that I didn’t like reading this piece. It was very interesting, but very intense and long. By the time I finished, I wanted to take my computer screen, close it, and never open it again. Or gouge my eyes out because they hurt from reading all that the tiny white type. I digress though.

Like many, when I hear the word “novel,” I imagine the mass-produced, “must-have read of the summer” or people dressed in costumes lining up to read the newest book by the most recently popular author. But these things aren’t new. This reading reminded me that novel is something much more than that. This semester, I am taking English 504, which is an 18^th century literature class on the development of the novel. One key thing that I’ve taken away from that class is that when the novel was first being written, it was something completely different than anything that had been written before. The novel was novel. These were long stories with meaning and depth, character development, and an entertaining quality. They were new for its time. I believe that one of the main reasons the novel has survived is because of the combination of meaning behind the text, as many of these 18^th century works were written with moral principles and instructional intentions in mind. They became sensational because of the new format they were presented in; they have lasted because of the meaning that the author has placed behind the words.

"…readers expect, and search for, the identification of an author in a text at least in part as a means to assist them in their own sense of differentiation and establishment of a sense of self. … If everything embodied in a text is so novel, so new, as to be alien to and entirely external to a reader's experience then that text will likely remain opaque and difficult to engage. Readers will be unable to differentiate the author in such manner that they are able to internalise the authorial voice and establish the required internal dynamic where meaning, and differentiation of self, can arise."

In this quote from the text, Biggs is explaining exactly why there are some written works that stick around, and some that do not last beyond being scribbled in an author’s notebook: It’s all in the meaning behind the words.

When people read a text, they automatically search for meaning behind those words. This is true for 18^th century novels, for experimental poetry, Shakespeare’s sonnets Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and even that must-read-summer-novel. In the self-generated texts of the piece we read, there is a lack of the identification of the author, and so there is a lack of identification with the texts. Sure, the grammar Nazi in me smiles when reading these self-generated texts, because I could sit down and dissect all the sentences for you- subject, conjugated verb, object. Grammatically, the texts are readable, yet they lack that meaning and depth behind them that can only come from the mind of an author. The words that are placed together are foreign (despite being able to be read), and so as a reader I cannot understand them. The concept of the self-generated text is so new and so different that, like Biggs said, I “cannot engage”.

In looking at experimental texts this semester, from the concrete poetry in our very own 328 to the 18^th century novel in my 504, all these texts have the authorship and the meaning behind them. Sure, at first, the concrete poetry was tough to get. But in the end I could grasp a meaning behind it. Whether the meaning I understood was the same one that the author intended, I’m not sure. But the point is that I understood something. The same is true for my own work. As an author, it is my responsibility to produce things that others can understand. If I don’t do that, and I’m just trying to do something new and innovative, I’ve lost the point.

Coming soon...

For the 2nd draft of my short animating project, I don't have any new animating to show you.

What I can show you, however, are some of the images that I've been creating that I am going to incorporate into my animation. (Yes, I edited all of these myself...) Keep an eye out, and look for them in my 3rd draft.....

enjoy!

P.S. I'm feeling much more excited about my project now. It's gonna be great! ~SE

Thoughts on my feedback

Most of the feedback I've received for my short animation project left me a little frustrated. While everyone seemed to like the color/text styles presented (the red, black, and white), a few people thought that visually, it was pretty boring...

How can I add more depth to my animation?

I'm really not sure how :-(

I still feel like I'm struggling with the animating software, and when I try to do things that are more complex (like making things morph and change, or transitioning from one thing to another, etc...) I feel like whatever I do doesn't "look right," or I totally goof something up and want to take my computer and throw it out the nearest window because everything I did looks silly then.

Is there anything simple (emphasis on simple) I can do that will make it more visually interesting? Would maybe making some background motions add to the overall presentation? (Or would they simply distract?)

The purpose of the animation is to sort of challenge the viewer to go out and find their own "one"... not necessarily define what my own is. Hopefully by the end of the animation that becomes clearer.


P.S.- I am considering adding some music in the background... nothing wordy, just instrumental. Any suggestions?

Rough Draft: A Short Animation

Here's the first draft of what I'm working on for our short animation project.
Hope you enjoy it! Feedback of any kind is appreciated :-)



Here's a better link.

Transparency and Materiality: The Struggle

Loss Pequeno Glazier tells us about the struggle between transparency and materiality of both print poetry and electronic literature in “Between the Academy and a Hard Drive.” This struggle is in part the recognition that writers have been dealing with for years: how much of the meaning of our writing are we getting across, and how much of the physical text itself adds or detracts from this? While this has always been a struggle for traditional poets and traditional means of poetry (or rather, pen and paper), this struggle between the materiality and transparency is even greater for electronic media. Since this is a relatively new medium in the history of the text, and the realm of possibilities with this medium are seemingly impossible as technology continues to advance, it is important to realize a really great point that Glazier makes: “Innovative practice has pioneered not only new media but also new ways of perceiving through a given medium, a practice that has localized art not as a way of representing but as a way of making.” (173)

What Glazier means in this quote is that in new mediums (like electronic literature), the reason they are considered innovative is because they create new ways of looking at the world, and not just simply understanding things and interpreting them the way that you always have. This is especially true with today’s electronic literature. While some online poetry or animated texts are very cut-and-dry with little room for interpreting things and understanding them in a new way, others are different. Some can stretch your brain and cause you to struggle with it, and when you’re done with that text, you walk away completely confused. Just because you’re completely confused, however, does not mean that you’ve stopped thinking about it. Suddenly, a light will go on inside your mind, and you will not only understand what the author has been trying to say to you, but you will think to yourself, “Wow, I never thought about it like that!”

This has happened in history with written texts. In the earlier days, I’m sure most people would have been completely confused with the way Shakespeare’s sonnets were placed on a page. The development of the novel in the eighteenth century brought innovative ways of moral instruction and entertainment in one revolutionary text. Today, writers are having the same struggle with online stories and poems. They are met with resistance, but this is only because many do not understand the innovation behind what they are trying to do.

In my own readings and writings this semester, I too have struggled with transparency and the materiality. Many of the things I’ve read for this class this semester have caused me to stretch my brain and look at things differently, and many things I’ve read this semester have caused me to struggle with the materiality of the text itself. In my own animations, while I don’t think I could ever consider them to be truly innovative, that struggle itself [between materiality and transparency] has caused me to think in different terms that what I have been before I animated. Every choice I make in my work has ramifications, and do I want my viewer/reader to be hung up on the technical things I have done, or do I not want them to notice those things at all and instead grasp a deep meaning behind it? While there is really no answer to this (each work is different and will have individual answers), it is interesting to consider as I move towards the final animation projects. What do I want to convey? Transparency, materiality, or perhaps a combination of both? How can I find this balance between the two?

Marlana and Sarah's Conversation Project

It's the animation you've all been waiting for!

To view it, click here.

What we have yet to do...

For our group project due on Thursday, Marlana and I (Sarah) are planning on finishing our animation. We still need to work on taking the two parts we've created and combining them together into one fluid animation that captures the attention and the hearts of our readers.

We received a lot of great feedback from Kendall and Alanna during class today, and their suggestions will help us to fine-tune and adjust portions of our animation so that it is totally awesome. :-)

I Can't Believe It's Time To Start Thinking...

...about the final project!!! Wow. The semester has really flown by.

There is so much that I have learned, and so much I want to try out and play with in my own animations that I'm not really sure where to begin.

I've really enjoyed viewing the examples in class, and one thing that I'd really like to try is working with just text... except I don't know where I'd like to begin!

I have done a lot of more lighthearted things this semester, and for the final project I would like to challenge myself and perhaps create something more serious or gloomy. My main problem is that once I actually sit down and begin animating, I get inspired to try out all sorts of other things, and then my completed project is never anything that I intended to start out with.

As for the specifics of the project, I'm really not sure where I want to begin or what I want to do. I just know that I want it to be on the serious side, and work a lot with text and written word.

I'll keep you updated with what I figure out :-)

A Group Project In Progress

Here is the project that I (Sarah) and Marlana are working on together. We still need to finish it up, but any feedback we can get on it would be greatly appreciated!!!