eXistenZ and Immersion

eXistenZ. Immersion. 

I hardly have words for this rather strange film. 

The movie is about an Alternate Reality game that is (spoiler alert) found within an Alternate Reality game. It even leaves you with a twist at the end where the viewer is unsure whether the seeming reality was actually another layer of a game. It was confusing to say the least, and definitely a movie that needs to be watched more than once to really understand everything that is happening through out. 

This movie raises a question. Do Alternate Reality games count as a piece of Digital art?

The games are created through computers and in the end the games will tell a story. It won't be a text based story, but a story none the less. Giving the gamer the sense of living an alternate life through immersion. I certainly believe that games as a whole entity count as a unit of Digital Humanities.

When I imagine someone immersing themselves in a game I see a body wrapped in a strange light or submersed in some liquid. I looked up the definition of the word itself just to get a better idea of the word. Immersion: the act of putting someone or something completely in a liquid or the state of being completely in a liquid

Other parts of the definition mention that the act of immersion could be having complete interest in one thing and not paying attention to anything surrounding you. I find this to be very interesting. Before I looked up the definition for the word or before I found this nifty image, I allowed myself to create my own perception of the word and the act. I saw bodies in water, mindless and completely involved in something else. They were unaware of their current state, but living through their minds. Being under water you lose the sense of sight, taste, smell, and you lose the ability to hear. That muffled, blind state seems to really emulate the act of immersion. Even the act through a game. I think of the Matrix or even eXistenZ, where they put wires on or game controls leaving their bodies alone and lifeless. 

My mind is buzzing thinking about these games. If we can create Alternate Reality games and make our way through stories with new identities, then why can't we live through our favorite novels? I want to slip a helet on, or connect some wires to my body and experience the world of Harry Potter, or The Great Gatsby. I could even see myself leaping into Pride & Prejudice. Think of the possibilities?! Of course reading would never be the same if you could live out the story instead of reading it. But that would be so fascinating. Life would never be the same if we could simply live out our favorite novels. This needs to happen relatively soon. Im crossing my fingers that it will be possible within the next year or two.

 (simply dreaming.)

Do Games Count?

Do games count? Yes

To be studied critically and scholarly? I'm on the fence.

Let me explain.


I grew up with two brothers and even before their balls dropped and their voices changed we had video games in every room. They had gameboys of every kind and an Atari. We eventually were given a PS2 which then was traded for a PS3, and now we own a PS4 as well. Gaming is important to my brothers and as a child I grew up around them yelling and cursing at the screen or even at each other. I always looked at video games with disgust because I had always believed that they always revolved around killing someone. They played games for hours.

And now that I look back at the games they played I can see that the world of gaming has become much more oriented around killing other people. For some reason I have this terrible memory of my brothers playing some kind of "Pokemon" game, or a "Tomb Raider" game. Neither of which are terribly gory. So why did I always think that they were killing people?

Terrible Graphics, good story. 

I think it was the yelling. Yes it was this. The immersion.
They became so connected to the game that they physically became angry when they lost and would throw things, or they would fight over cheating. I guess I never bothered to look at the games that they played or I would have been confused at seeing a big chested lady in small clothing fighting mummies or a small yellow mouse cat throwing electricity at other small cute creatures.
Nonetheless, I have a hard time believing video games should be studied scholarly. Only because of that memory do I feel conflicted. But throughout this strange adventure of learning about the Digital Humanities I look at the question "do games count?" and find myself in the middle. Somewhere I did not expect to find myself. When I think about the one and only video game that I had played and completed to the end, with my new knowledge of DH, I see how this game could be counted as interactive fiction which would merit it worthy of being studied scholarly and/or critically.

Favorite Game of all time!

It seems strange to think about "Kingdom Hearts" being a piece of electronic literature, even interactive fiction, but with the views of DH how can I not see it that way?

The game revolves around a kid named Sora. He has a few friends named Kairi and Riku. Riku and Sora both love Kairi and one day darkness swallows up their world. Kairi vanishes and Riku, yes you called it, becomes evil. Sora ends up going on this quest to save all of the other worlds, which happen

So many overlapping characters from other disney games. Magnificent.

to be inhabited by all of your favorite disney characters, with Donald Duck and Goofy. Sora wields the Keyblade and it turns out that all of the bad guys from the disney movies are in this together. Play the game to figure out what happens in the end.

My point, I guess after all of my pointless babbling, is that I suppose games do count. Considering the amount of work that is put into creating them matches the amount of work put into movies and maybe even literature, games should be studied the same way the others are. In the end it is another form of entertainment right? So why are they not treated with the same respect?

Games do count.

I just changed my own mind (blown).

A Good Life: Overcast (Life of a UPJ student)

Threatening clouds almost continually overshadow the forgotten blue skies. Rain never fails in Johnstown.

Rain-boots are a must, but they have been on the list of things to buy for school since freshman year 2011. I have gone to shoe stores with intentions of picking up a shitty pair of rainboots to get me through the years of trudging around campus in hurricane conditions and in fact I work in one, but I remain bootless. The idea of committing myself to one pair of boots to wear on the massive amount of “rainy” days in Johnstown seems overwhelming. That means wearing the same shitty pair of rainboots almost everyday. Yes, I have contemplated buying a highly recommended pair of rain boots, but that would cost more than I can afford. And lets be honest, all extra money is forwarded straight to food. And not just the highly coveted ramen noodle soup or mac and cheese, but the really good shit; Sheetz.  

Many rainy days are spent plotting ways to skip class so me and a few friends can run fast through the rain, cutting through Biddle, past the crying flag on the flagpole, jumping over benches, zipping through Krebs, and ultimately making our way to Eastyabumfuck. 

 

The commuter parking lot. 

Why we risked our lives so many times to simply eat the delicious food of sheetz is beyond me. We never really risk our lives. It just seemed so scandalous to be skipping class. We have learned that professors don’t really give a shit if we miss, but it’s our loss for not going to class and possibly missing a quiz or something important. Also, it seems rather pointless to not actually attend something you pay so much for. 

The parking lots are laughable, it's nonsensical that we have to pay even more money to acquire a parking pass (not an actual spot, it's very limited) is even more comical. Many mornings are spent cursing those damn freshman, or screaming profanities at no one in particular just because I drove around every parking lot and end up having to park in the middle of no where just to walk a mile to class anyway. That empties half my tank of gas, because I ended up circling through the Biddle parking lot TEN times, and I even waited for a guy to pull out of a spot, but refused. When he did eventually pull out I had already moved on, circling the lot another time, when another car had beat me to the spot. The profanities fly.

Then there are the always exciting parking tickets that all students fear, but if they are smart they just secretly lose them or forget about them. Maybe even make their parents pay for them. I never register for a parking pass. I find myself to be one of those rebel kids, the ones that professors secretly hate when they see that the car parked in their spot (I never park in the teacher lot) has no pass hanging from the mirror. There is always a feeling of fear when I park my car because I know that there is a possibility that I could receive another $110 parking ticket, but then I come across those two shits that I don't give and keep on parking with no pass. I like to live on the edge.

These are a few of the things that I will take with me as I leave UPJ. The spring 2015 semester is to be my last one at good old UPJ and I dream of the moment where I will no longer trudge through torrents of never ending rain, or fight for parking as if my very own life depended on it. That moment will be a sweet one of realization that my college days are done (for now) and that I may finally be an adult (as if that's exciting). Which in the real world means a life in debt (Yay, college loan payments)The excitement is almost too much for me too handle. These last few months will go by quickly, but they won't be taken for granted (savoring every last day without monthly bills). 

UPJ you have sucked me of everything I am, (financially) but you have repaid me with ridiculous parking tickets, constant rain, a decent education and (yes, there will always be some sap) some really classy, grade A, bitchen' besties that will always be willing to make a sheetz a run with me. Cheers 

to that. 

 

(Where's the beer?)

 

Google Maps essay: The People You Meet

This Google Maps essay has been created to introduce a few important people in my life. They may not be people that I will ever see again, but I felt like I had to recognize their existence in some way. This essay takes you through five years of mission work. Four of which took place in Westmoreland, TN. You will meet a few key characters as well as learn a few embarrassing stories about myself. I chose to write about these trips because I knew they had come to an end and I wanted to cap it off somehow. I hope those who read it will enjoy it and maybe even laugh a little!

The People You Meet

Four Memes

Borrowed Image/Orignal Text    

Original Image/Original Text

Borrowed Image/Borrowed Text

Orignal Image/Borrowed Text

Carnevali on Clifford's interpretation of Cummings

       In Alison Clifford's "The Sweet Old Etcetera" we are given the ability to interact and watch some of E.E.Cummings most famous poems. While he was known for his use of "white space", he was also known for his ability to create the image of the thing itself he was trying to write about. Clifford uses five of his poems and two of those poems really show us thing Cummings was writing about. Even though he successfully showed these images without the digital world, Clifford has given life to his work and has helped to enhance the purposeful spacing and unorthodox line breaks that Cummings used so well.
        Clifford allows us to watch the poem unfold as if a leaf has literally fallen from a tree and has created the poem. We are given the opportunity to see this famous poem come to life. After we see the whole poem fall from the branch, the poem also disappears through itself and we return the beginning tree that holds the certain poems that Clifford had chosen for the piece. When one reads this poem for the first time, it seems confusing. I first ran into the poem my freshman year of college when I was still a young and was not aware of the true beauty of this poem.
        Whether you read this poem on a sheet of paper or you see the poem unfold in Clifford's complex landscape you will still see the simple beauty that it holds. A leaf falls in loneliness. That is exactly what the poem does. We can see that inside the word loneliness a leaf falls. It is brilliant and simple. And that is why it is so inspiring. You get a strange feeling inside when you read it. You question whether or not this is really poetry and that is exactly what a poet wants. Or even an artist. They want you talk about their work. They desire for their readers or viewers to react to the thing they have created and say to themselves, "hmmm is this really poetry?" or "what defines a poem?" Just as we can ask the question, "what is the point to Clifford's piece?" She is repurposing older poems that may have been forgotten. (Not that E.E.Cummings is forgettable.) She almost gives a new generation the access to these poems in a way that they will enjoy them. Most people do not read books of poetry, unless they have to for school and even then we are given online assignments. But I truly digress.
        Back to the poems involved in this digital landscape. One other poem I feel the need to mention is "Grasshopper". A poem that was written to give the reader the experience of watching a grasshopper hop into the air. Cummings tried to capture the wild nature of the grasshopper through this poem. He used a lot of white space and different line breaks to create this image for his readers.
        Just as Clifford creates the image of a leaf falling and creating the poem, she has taken the letters and had them jump around until they have formed the poem. It even helps the reader to understand what the poem actually says. My best interoperation of the poem is as follows. -Who as we look up now gathering into the leap, arriving rearrangingly to become grasshopper-. Cummings takes us through the act of the leap, and the strange image of the grasshopper flopping through the sky. He shows us how the grasshopper is wild in the air, almost coming apart and then coming back together in the end to be exactly the same as it was before it jumped.
        When it comes to the idea of taking these classic poems and turning them into something digital, I almost cringe because you  should not fuck with Cummings. But Clifford almost pays homage to the poet by creating such a beautiful landscape out of his own words. It is something I believe Cummings would enjoy, only because he tried to emulate these real pieces of nature into his poems and Clifford has created an image of nature from those poems. She honors him in her work. This is the kind of Digital Humanities that I both love and hate. I love this because like I said it really captures Cummings work and it is beautiful to watch unfold. But then I hate it because it has taken something that was meant for paper and has taken it and made it part of the digital world. Yes it appears as it does on paper, so really this is ok in my book. But I feel like I'm cheating on the hard copies of Cummings work. Still I will continue to not so secretly enjoy The Sweet Old Etcetera.

     

Curiouser and Curiouser: We Are One!-derkammers

Shelley Jackson's My Body a Wunderkammer takes the hypertext to the next level. Even though there is no real end to this text based digital narrative doesn't mean there is no point to the story. Like so many Digitally based stories we are given the freedom to search throughout the text to move forward or in this case simply go back and forth, connecting and learning about the writers body. Jackson takes on subjects that most women or even people have problems talking about, let alone writing about. She does a wonderful job at taking something uncomfortable and making it beautiful.

For example, one does not normally talk about touching themselves and masturbating but Jackson does, and she does it rather elegantly.

"I had already found that I could rope more into my orgasm than the clitoris itself. If I dug my fingers into the muscles of my inner thighs while I masturbated, my orgasm had a different flavor than if I rootled in my belly button. Once I had established a fingerhold somewhere else, maybe I could let go of my clit and proceed to unassisted thigh orgasms, elbow orgasms, earlobe orgasms. In the meantime I kept one hand between my legs" 

Her open curiosity invites her readers to be curious with her. The format of this narration allows us to click our way through a body and the way the owner of the body feels about certain aspects of it. Each body part is handled with such care and as the reader you never know where Jackson will take you through all of the hypertext links that connect each body part to the others. It almost seems like one giant loop of flesh and voice. Telling readers how to feel about themselves while creating art and inspiration. 

"With a sharp pencil I incise an arc into the paper to mark the crease where the mass of the buttock wedges into the back of the thigh. The fat swells on both sides of the crease, then smooths off down into the back of the thigh. If I smudge the whole area, I can take an eraser and slather the top of the buttocks with light, wrap a faint shimmer of reflected light around the undersides, run a little gleam down the curve of the tailbone. Could I mistake this doting attention for disinterested curiosity? Drawing is almost sex."


I would like to boldly say that in this moment and other moments Shelley Jackson's writing is sex! She is very fluid in her writing and her ballsy approach to speaking about the body is pretty inspiring. Looking at the digital aspect of the piece, it really would not be the same if somehow Jackson put this on paper, allowing us to leaf through the body instead of clicking on it. The best part of this piece is that you almost get lost in the text, you are not able to find your way back to a text that you really liked. It is almost as if we are becoming one with Jackson. 

Getting lost in our bodies as if it is out very own Wunderkammer. 

P.s 
Wunderkammer- A place where a collection of rarities and curiosities are exhibited.