Hypercompendia

Got excited this dark morning about the Electronic Literature Organization Conference in Vancouver, WA. Day late, dollar short as always, but boy, I’d love to maybe go to this one.

Also signed on at Literatronics which is a different hypertext online form that looks sort of interesting and I’ll be posting on that later on today.

Am now about fifty spaces into The Hanging and confident of the way it’s working out. No, this won’t be the one with the enhancements of audio/visuals; I’m still trying to do that with words alone.

Reading Fast Fiction Forward (CW class) is working its magic to a certain degree in getting me going on action–though episodic for this longer hypertext piece–and some of the stuff on Literatronic (A Show of Hands) is helping me get back into the groove of lovely language, just as the reading of poetry would serve.

Noticing here in MarsEdit that even while the text markup is an easy click away, it is often faster and more efficient to simply do it yourself as you write–like now.

From Grand Text Auto, a posting on Erica , what looks to be a generator of poetry that has been developed by Jim Carpenter.  Haven’t tried it yet, but marking it for further discovery.  Here’s a screenshot (forgive the netnewswire background):

This idea has been tossed around before, and I was thinking about it again tonight, more than a combination of visuals and audio with the Storyspace setup, but an infusion of IF as well.  Steve Ersinghaus and I sort of touched on it a while back, and he’s been super busy and I’ve been just starting to learn the hypertext medium and the way it can change the development of narrative.

What I’d like to learn and learn in a helluva hurry, is the workings of IF.  It is text based, it is choice-oriented or even dependent upon it, and the difference being clicking on a piece of text to proceed, or typing words to find the right one that will carry you further.  Both hypertext and IF required careful planning to allow for all types of readers and all possible choices of path. 

What intrigues me as well is the ‘adventure’ theme of IF, and while hypertext also includes some element of adventure, it may get away with less action-packed plotting, focusing on depth of event, character, or idea instead.  I’d like to try something in Storyspace with the notion though.

Found via the Sycamore Review, James Tadd Adcox, a former editor at SR, is offer what he calls a ‘synaptic novel’ on this website, Fiction Volante.  What he’s aiming for is a short story each and every weekday for one year.  From his site:  Synaptic Novel: a long prose work composed of short narratives connected (or linked) to each other through associations of phrase or image.

Today’s entry is interesting and enticing: 

Each time we kissed, something new sprang up from the ground. Daisies, violets, poison ivy, kudzu. “Stop, really,” Rose said. A jumble of chrysanthemums shot up. “It’s too much,” she said. A cherry tree.

I don’t quite see the links or associations, but then I haven’t gotten the chance yet to go through the site to see when Adcox started this.  The writing is neat, the concept contemporary, and I, of course, am a sucker for magical realism such as the above.  I did expect some form of hypertext, having been so mentally invested in it for the past several months.  I’m not sure that the stories couldn’t be linked to each other physically but it appears that the narrative is the ‘link’ to which Adcox refers, though the characters and scenarios are different in each post (or so it appears, on a brief look-through).

I do love the idea of sharing story and the weblog is an excellent way of doing so.  I’ll be going back for some reading there.

Good post at if:books this morning regarding creating a perfectly sustainable book.

I’ve long fought against the notion of a disposeable society starting with appliances that can’t be fixed up through age discrimination in the workplace.  It takes me maybe an average of five years to reluctantly toss some odd-shaped bit of plastic that came as part of packaging because I just knew I’d be looking for something just like it someday.  Don’t laugh.  My absolute best method of keeping the turkey stuffing in the bird and his/her legs neatly crossed at the ankles includes a couple of thin wire ‘safety pin’ thingies that I used to get at the drycleaners that held a group of five hangers together.

The writer of this post, Kim White, tried unsuccessfully to donate slightly used toys to the Salvation Army:

On principle, I try (really hard) to give away anything that is not completely worn out. But it is getting harder and harder to do. Nobody wants my old furniture or clothes or books. And they especially don’t want used children’s toys.

So, I’m hoping to stir up some interesting discussion and serious contemplation of the perfectly sustainable book: one that is constantly revised, but never needs to be reprinted (or repurchased); one that is lean and simple and doesn’t require a small server farm or a special device; one that makes an enormous impact, but leaves a teeny tiny carbon footprint; one we can live with for ever and ever without getting bored or satiated.

Had fun yesterday making up the New Year Greeting both here and at Spinning.  I do love playing with Photoshop and while I’d like to take the Animation Course that teaches Flash, there’s really no justification for what can be learned by just dipping in and doing when there’s nothing on the line such as career or project or some such stake in the knowledge.  So I’d enjoy it, yes, but I’d enjoy the CW  course or screenwriting or a semester of philosophy too. 

So I’m still on a seesaw with all this, and even considering retaking that final Algebra course to bring my GPA up to 4.0 because I walked out on the final exam (for a good reason). 

Or maybe I’ll just plod along with Storyspace and Alice and diddle around in Adobe at my own tortoise pace.

Well this is what I came up with and stopped when I like it.  Now I’m thinking it looks a bit too much like Gateway’s cows.

Likely I’ll do it again, wanted to incorporate real hypertext activity into the banner but it got too complicated for this little blog.  Or maybe I’ll do it anyway, just for practice.

Me do like designing banners.

As a side note here, my own project name of Paths is going to have to change.  It was a temporary "holder" title and I’ll start thinking of something new to name it if I ever get it done.

Kate Pullinger, one of the authors of what is described as a network novel, Flight Paths, was gracious enough to address some of my questions here, particularly about the beginnings of the story itself.  But what it has me thinking about is more on the marketing of something like this, or any non-physical project available on the web as its main dispersal method.  How soon is too soon to offer something to the public?  And once something is online, you can bet–and hope–it’s considered available.  Even in my younger days in Production, Marketing, and Sales, there was always the argument that the product wasn’t ready even as the brochures were being printed.  I used to work for EFI, a company that made educational audio flashcards and you try to drag those units back out of the hands of five year-olds.

Two more things come to mind.  One is the intricate work on Storytron that had me more than interested in it until my interest waned with the seemingly slow progress (this is the microwave effect: the idea that no matter how much quicker something new is over the old, it’ll never be quick enough for some folk!) and the realization that it wasn’t exactly what I was looking to do with any creative force I could muster.

The other thing that the question brings up is that with the internet accessibility, and given the artist’s anxious nature, we often put things out as they begin to allow others to see how they develop.  Me, well I’m as guilty as the next guy, evidenced by my highs and lows, it’s finished–no, it’s not, workings with any project here or  in the past, on Spinning.  Right now, I’ve made one poor overworked professor read a work in progress in my initial wonderment with Storyspace (not Storytron; Storyspace) and through subtle hints he made me aware that it just wasn’t working.    On Spinning, my nature for literary review is to post as I read, just as my workings here in reviewing Storyspace, Storytron, Facade, Alice, Scratch, and anything else I’ve stuck my nose into.

As far as the lengthy and fine-tuned Terms and Conditions of Flight Paths, I’m sure there’s a good reason behind it.  It could be pressure from those that granted financing, or it could be something as simple as my own dopey little Acknowledgement in one of the first Writing Spaces I filled out in Storyspace.  When you’re into a project but you’re not sure of the next step, you tackle a different portion of it and hey, that’s done.

So patiently I’ll wait, check in on progress at the Flight Paths site and I’m sure we’ll all see some real directions laying themselves out soon.

Uh, not for nuthin’ but I’ve been through the Flight Paths site again and the actual narrative appears to only be 2 paragraphs total so far while the terms and conditions of particpation are about 23 paragraphs long.  It’s nice to cover all bases, but is this where the creativity was spent?  There also appears to be plenty of backing for this project but I’m not fond of the machinations of the site, which is is rather a confusing pattern that brings you into Word Press with a single click from your main sign-in page.

Nevertheless, I shall be patient and watch as this thing develops.

So, how do I apply for a grant?