a looking-glass book

why...

why should books end at all?

memory vs. media

kurt and i had a talk on the way home about the difference between memories and media. i feel like my thesis (once again) opens up all kinds of issues about how memory functions. how does one change the other?

i have long held the belief that photos have changed and shaped the way i remember my youth. this is true for video tapes as well, though only footage (for me) exists from my high school years. but i worry that these types of recording media allow us to forget things we might otherwise remember. i can remember boss patterns for nes games but not the sound of my grandparents voices? would i have been able to remember it if i didnt have other useless stuff in my brain?

how do we use media as a crutch? its not something that is easy to answer, but i think its really important, esp when we start talking about recording everything we see in during a day in our life. will i come home and want to rewatch my day - both for the nostalgia factor as well as a memory tool? will it make us less observant during the day, focusing more on what is to come rather than what is presently occuring?

big questions. i have a feeling some of these will become apparant once filming begins (and i welcome any of you volunteering to wear the camera for my thesis if you want), but i welcome your opinions now as well.

serial

i might be reading too many comic books, but there is def something there about the serialized comci book/soap opera/blog thing. i see this as part of my thesis...i just havent figuredout exactly what it means yet. exactly what following a set of characters over time says as a viewer. but theres def something to that.

on character

character is defined by situation and reaction only.

to say "i am depressed' means very little. there is no context, no proof, no understanding, no trust. this is the difference between showing and telling that is commonly taught in writing classes.

to show is to explain, to place in context, to prove.

all you know of me is what you witness. the situations and my reactions to them are what define me in your mind. and the situations i place myself into and how i react is how i am defined as a person.

this holds true for both fictional and nonfictional personages.

it is the only way we can have any real understanding of another person. action and reaction.

'thesis sentence'

pleasurable narrative derives from specificity and consistancy.

frustrated thoughts

(written inebtween classes today, on the patio at lucas. ~1:45pm)

i'm frustrated by media. by art. by interactiveness. the shifts in thinking allowed by the net are not going to happen again in regards to games on phones or platformers. the model is feel almost complete already. the advances now are how we program the stories not the stories themselves.

(end pre-written diatribe)

i think i get frustrated when i want to create the end all-be all and can't. when the things i do aren't going to change the world, i feel like im not living up to my potential.

whine whine.

so pity-party aside, where does that leave my stories? i need to concentrate on them, not on how they might change the face of civilzation forever.

in my haste to post, im filling this blog with crap. that sucks.

first thoughts

i came into the program extremely interested in 'narrative across media'...it said this on my app and that desire hasn't really changed. what has changed is the way i think i will go about dealing with. i really wanted to concentrate on multiple mediums and dynamic stories. this too, has remained constant. but now i am looking towards mobile media and networked solutions integrating with theater, film, the written word, art...there are so many opportunities.

much of the talks (esp last semester) centered on world building vs narrative. but while there must be a balance between the two to achieve a compelling user experience, i dont believe that they are truly opposite ends of a spectrum.

with a little creative thought, many elements can be woven between the two element which allow a flexible story to be told. this massaging could occur between the two elements or perhaps in the actual media used. computers offer so much flexibility - in presentation, computation and organization...

this all sounds so vague. ill try again later.