Hypercompendia

(UPDATE: via Dorothee Lang (Blue Print Review), this most interesting echo of my own feelings: Jason Sanford, in storySouth — this may even call for another post.)

Just remembered that May is Short Story Month (no, I don’t know who started it) and since I made a conscious effort not to conform, I’m thinking of writing a short story a day throughout June.

This goes contradictory to my nature of editing and polishing (though some of my best published stories are those written on the fly). Last summer I wrote a story a day in hypertext for 100 days. While some are really good, the majority are eh and have more value as a learning of format and narrative than for actual story I think. I’m still working on editing them and this is a lot more time and work than I’d already put into them–probably an average of ten to twelve hours per story–originally. Particularly now, when there are several places on the hard drive and in different forms (Tinderbox, html) as well as the online version to update if a change is made.

So do I write my June away? Traditional or hypertext? Or should I just play with clay…

Just saw Sony’s new iSweep panorama camera ad with Taylor Swift. Simple process of pressing a button to keep the camera open as it is swept along a view.

As a framer, I’ve framed many a 360 degree image and when I saw this ad it brought me back many years to a gentleman named Michael Lawton who shot for National Geographic and had some of the first panoramic images I’d ever framed. Mike is a true artist and he was as precise and demanding as he was interesting and willing to share.  It looks like he’s still active, and it’s taken a while for the industry to catch up to him.

One of my framing customers and friends, Kevin Osborne, surprised me with a DVD he left at my shop door when I wasn’t around. I knew that Kevin, an artist, had been working on a project of some Japanese prints but this DVD is a complete story in visual and text form.

Mutekikon is the fable of a boy who befriends an eagle and the lesson learned through the transition of changes that affect them both. Kevin’s narrative voice is strong yet gentle, completely bringing the reader into the story. His artwork has been filmed in a manner that suggests motion that follows the story, yet allows a contemplative background to the text that invites deeper reading and consideration.

I love what Kevin has produced in this merging of audio, video, text, and story. Here’s the website where a trailer and purchasing information (unbelievably reasonable) can be found: Mutekikon

This is one of the first physical DVDs I’ve had the pleasure of viewing in this new media method of storytelling, and it’s getting me more excited than ever about the possibilities it opens for writers and artists alike.

So the leaves have turned into a naked pregnant lady. And this is going to take more than a day for each, I can see that already. I sort of play with the object and add to it, form it whenever I am in the mood. This is the roughest, keeping-it-clunky stage because I’ve learned to get the form down first before any detailing is done. If I made her neck and face the right proportion at this point I just know that in working I’d likely knock off her head.

Also realized that if I photographed my work on this as it progresses, I could use it for a flash piece. Unfortunately, I lost all of the beginning of this piece, from the time the leaves were crushed into a snake, then a duck-like thing, and becoming more and more what she is at this point.

I’ve got this idea that using the same block of clay I can reform and tell a new story each day. I’m practicing now, with my first venture being these leaves. Mainly I’m trying to get the feel of the clay and one was too hard to work with (for me) while this 4.5 lb. block of white clay is really nice to work, but may be too soft to hold up to some of what I have planned for it.

Years ago, in clay class I found that I was not one of those who could manage throwing a pot on a wheel and getting it much higher than five inches, or thinner than a half inch. But I did love working with clay, and made several plaques, including one with my stuffed shrimp recipe in visuals and I molded a seated nude figure (she’d be about 14″ tall if she stood up, but she couldn’t of course, being clay and having only one arm). For some reason I threw her away just a few years ago and regret that now. She was unable to be fired since the instructor was afraid of air bubbles within her and if she blew up in the oven, she’d take all my classmate’s work as well.

So the idea is to mold a piece a day that holds a story, photograph it, and remold the piece into something else the next day. I’m also planning on playing with clay and photos to make stop-motion animation.

(NOTE: Realized that this will not be published until May so I’m making the images really small so as not to take away from the originals)

It occurred to me during last summer’s 100 Days Project that my tendency to work with Tinderbox in its Map View rather than Outline, Tree, etc. became an integral part of a story as I wrote. The visual effect of a narrative, as a writer, was not something I consider other than for imagery in the writing process whether it be poem or story and yet Dorothee Lang, of the Blue Print Review and Karyn Eisler, whom I’d met on this project, made that link.

Dorothee had emailed me about an idea for a hypertext poem she was working on, and with my Tinderbox program, I showed her how it would look in that format. From there and in working with Karyn, she layered the images and text into a piece that included the Map View and submitted it to the e-zine, otoliths, which accepted and will be publishing it next month in their journal.

I was happily surprised to not only see my great-niece Zoee since she’s in a Navy family so I don’t get to see her and her brother and sister growing up but exciting to see that she’s, at fifteen and likely a junior, doing film projects for school. (She’s the shortest one–which cracked me up since that’s from our side of the family!)

I really like the fact that new media is being made available as courses in the high schools; this evidently was “Intro to Film and Video, and Zoee along with three friends produced this as a class project back in January. Particularly at the high school level–and probably earlier as well–and with kids so savvy now about technology, such courses are fun as well as necessary entry points into the college and career field of choices.

Hooray for this Tennessee high school!

This morning I received an e-mail from Amazon.com where I frequently purchase books.

Dear Amazon.com Customer,
As someone who has purchased or rated books by Roland Barthes, you might like to know that Health Insurance And Health Savings Account Made Easy is now available. You can order yours for just $9.95 by following the link below.

I’m still trying to figure out the connection between Barthes and Health Insurance and even with the longest stretch, I cannot see one. So? Obviously a sales gimmick to push a current hot topic on some configuration of their customers.

This is what bothers me about social networking and internet identifiers. Bad enough that folks don’t seem to “get” us in real life, but on the net where we’ve so carefully (and carelessly) let ourselves be judged by what we write, link to, photo-share, and buy? The old Animals’ tune is running around in my mind: “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good/Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” It’s one of our  fears, for many of us, one of our biggest.

So is an internet identity as cool as we think? Is what we put out there–real or wishful fantasy–something we want hanging in cyberspace well beyond our own physical presence has mouldered (or been crispy-fried) away? Interesting, this new technology, eh?

This in, a link to what Steve Ersinghaus had spent 24 hours working on at the Tunxis Art Marathon.

Though I crept out at daybreak, just three hours short of completing the Tunxis 24-hour Arts Marathon (I’d run out of creative juice and was feeling a bit grumpy) I did manage to complete a new hypertext story during the first half of the session. Thanks to all who participated, and particularly Carianne Mack Garside for hosting this annual event which for the first time included a gallery classroom for creative writers along with the art, sculpture, and photography which drew the largest number of students. And of course to Professors Steve Ersinghaus and Jesse Abbot who oversaw the writing division, and fellow writers, Dan, Nick, Trent, Megan, and others who drifted in and out to spend some time writing and sharing. Steve did quite a bit of work on a new novel that he’s been considering, Jesse wrote a poem and recorded a great audio I hope to find online soon, and I know that Nick, Trent, Dan, and Megan were close to completing their own short stories and animations during this period.

So I offer now, since I couldn’t upload it online direct from campus, and after a couple hours’ sleep:

On The Very Last Day, He Imploded