EDUCATION: New Media

Posted on August 15, 2005 by Susan

Okay People, here’s your chance to learn about the world that is exploring new boundaries and types of creativity that is the latest and greatest hot new setup!

Available once again for the Fall Semester at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, CT, the New Media course run by Steve Ersinghaus, John Timmons and Bill Kluba is one of the most exciting and current (versus, let’s say, history or statistics, which don’t change all that much) studies available anywhere.  This is a NOW course that prepares one for what will be the job market in the immediate future.  Artists, writers, techno geeks, anyone with the ability to conceive ideas and the urge to work along with others to fruition of concept into working projects is strongly encouraged to sign up.

I loved this course, and made up a book from my enthusiastic babblings in posts here at Spinning (hard copy or downloads may be available).

Here’s the info on the course, available for signup through the Tunxis website (admission and registration required):

Communication & Broadcasting *
Sts CRN Subj Crse Sec Cmp Cred Title Time Date
A 3172 COMM J101 01 M 3.00 New Media 1: Perspectives  Thursdays

06:30 pm-09:25 pm

 08/26-12/10

Posted in EDUCATION | Comments Off on EDUCATION: New Media

NEW MEDIA: Behind the Facade

Posted on August 15, 2005 by Susan

I think that I’m going to try to wind up my exploration of Facade today and post some final thoughts on this most interesting and enjoyable project.  (I do apologize for not always providing the link within the many, many postings I have already made, but will put up a permanent link to the piece along with the guys at Grand Text Auto which is already listed under my New Media links to the left.)

At this point, I have read lightly through the guidebook, "Behind the Facade" and taken note of any scenarios I may have missed, although it seems that between Steve and I, we’ve covered almost all of the sequences in one form or another, and have brought up almost all possible dirty laundry belonging to Grace or Trip.

There is an astounding amount of work behind this piece, and while I’ve been seeing it as more than just a game, I am floored by the plotting and planning that lies beneath Facade on a technical level.  As a writer, I might have some problems with the storylines, but I’ll get more into that in one or two final postings.

All in all, this has been quite an experience for me, and has relit my enthusiasm far beyond the silly little Powerpoint presentation of Red Riding Hood that I helped put together as a project for the New Media class last year.  And here I thought we were so cool with Photoshopped images and four different story paths and sirens and music and even an unscheduled appearance by a couple of Cheech and Chong lookalikes!

Posted in NEW MEDIA | Comments Off on NEW MEDIA: Behind the Facade

REALITY: Sudden Changes

Posted on August 15, 2005 by Susan

There is a strange pleasure in being forced to switch gears because of a sudden change in a routine.  Shortly aften ten last night the electricity went off.  My husband was already asleep, but I was left in the dark sitting on the couch when the TV, lights and air conditioners stopped functioning and I found myself in the dim glow of the laptop which had switched to battery power.  Unused to this, my immediate response was to shut down the laptop as I would with any computers (since I hadn’t been smart enough to shut down the other two with the warning of the storm).  This move left me in total black silence. 

I put the laptop back on, thinking, Hah!  Curse you, Storm!  But without internet access which is dependent upon electricity for the cable modem, and without the inspiration to work on story, I used the screen’s glow as a $2500 flashlight to shut off the TV and A/C then shut the laptop down as well.

Finding my way through the dark familiarity of my home, I sought to find a flashlight while shutting down as many of the lights and gadgets that I remembered were left on, knowing that the power surge might be too much when the juice was turned back on.

Then I went to bed.  Shortly after five this morning we got the electricity back.  All the lights were off except a nightlight in the bathroom, and I made my way through the rooms resetting all the flashing "12:00" digital clocks. 

A blip in the day, an event that changed what I otherwise might have done, and in the end, what difference did it make in a lifetime of opportunity?  Would I have otherwise spent the time writing the best story I have ever written? 

Or, just not missed the rest of Crossing Jordan and a visit with Trip and Grace.

Posted in REALITY | Comments Off on REALITY: Sudden Changes

REALITY/NEW MEDIA/WRITING: Disharmony

Posted on August 14, 2005 by Susan

Within the New Media phase of my learning, I’ve been involved in the marital problems of Facade’s Trip and Grace. 

In my writing exercises and learning, I need to add conflict to my stories; it’s not enough to write well.

In reality, the worst part of hummingbird season is upon us; the territorial fighting over who owns the feeders and the immediate surrounding area now that the male is over his infatuation (sex) with the female, and the kids have grown up and have access to the feeding grounds.

In returning to school as a college student a few years ago one of the biggest barriers I had to overcome was the belief that the instructor is God himself up there in the front of the room.  To be encouraged to argue was as alien to me as saying "no" to my mother when I was six.  (I wasn’t always obedient, just sneaky instead of belligerant and bold.)

I dislike argument.  I dislike the noise and the possibility of hurt feelings (hurting others, more than being hurt myself).  Yet I’ve been overdosing on it this past week or so, and maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to transfer the conflict that I try to avoid in my personal interactions with people to the characters in my writing.  This story that came to me out of nowhere yesterday appears loaded and ready.  Let’s see if I am.

Posted in NEW MEDIA, REALITY, WRITING | Comments Off on REALITY/NEW MEDIA/WRITING: Disharmony

NEW MEDIA: Facade: Fun with Trip & Grace

Posted on August 14, 2005 by Susan

Very odd:  In about close to ten sessions, or stageplays that I’ve conducted, it was only in the last one where Grace walked out of the apartment and her marriage.  Then, on the very next stageplay, Trip walks out!  Now nothing new has arisen–although I guess I’d have to go back and see if perhaps the trigger is that I as (whoever) simply did not do enough to help them work things out.

So to me, without peeking yet at the Guidebook, I’m guessing that there is an accumulation of my responses that triggers one of maybe just a few possible results:

1.  If I’ve been helpful (it seems that either Grace or Trip repeat the same key responses I have given to specifically their questions, or whether I have "pushed" them or not), then they calm down, admit some inner feelings or even indiscretions but seem to understand and be willing to talk.  They thank me, "cue" me that I don’t have to say any more, and lead me out.  (Can’t fight against this one, I’ve tried running away from them and hiding while refusing to leave–it doesn’t work.)

2.  If I’ve been either overly agressive sexually or egg them on towards divorce, they strongly suggest I leave, and seem to band together against me.  I’m shown the door.

3.  Grace will leave — and this I haven’t yet discovered what I’ve said or done to bring this about, and it is done without any anger, just a kind of "this isn’t going to work, it’s over."

4.  Trip will leave — same as above, usually comes after an acknowledgement of their own needs and desires.

5. This hasn’t happened yet, but I’d love it if they hugged and kissed and brought out the chips and dip.

Posted in NEW MEDIA | Comments Off on NEW MEDIA: Facade: Fun with Trip & Grace

NEW MEDIA: Grace Leaves Trip!

Posted on August 14, 2005 by Susan

Ohhhh!  I feel so badly!  I had to answer the real phone in the middle of a visit with this couple and by the time I got back, things had gone from bad to worse and within a few minutes, Grace decided to go be an artist and walked out!

Now I did get the "Behind the Facade" guide but didn’t do more that scan through it so this came as a total surprise to me, that one of the characters could leave.  Just when I was beginning to get bored, this new twist makes me want to explore further.  And without looking at the guide, because I’d like to discover as much as I can on my own (or with Steve’s coinciding sessions to help cover ground) without resorting to the hints.

And I’ve discovered that your questions are directed to whomever you are facing.  For example, while still facing Trip but listening to Grace (who was out of view) I remarked "you should paint" and Trip took that to mean him and responded.

I do wish they’d change clothes though.

Posted in NEW MEDIA | Comments Off on NEW MEDIA: Grace Leaves Trip!

REALITY: Moments

Posted on August 14, 2005 by Susan

Life is made up of moments.  Today the punk hummingbird has turned into a little man; his feathers smoothed down, he has lost his angry look.  A necklace of coral beads catches the sun to shine with an intensity that will one day soon become the flaming ruby on this throat.  It is a treasured time measured in the moments a day or two apart that I can watch him grow into maturity because he lets me see by visiting the lilac tree to sit there watching me.

Posted in REALITY | Comments Off on REALITY: Moments

LITERATURE: April Fool’s Day

Posted on August 13, 2005 by susan

Ah, after controlled prosaic and refreshing bluntness in his story, Josip Novakovich gives us some wonderful poetry:

"In the morning, loud rain knocked many yellow leaves off beeches and oaks.  Drops hit the mud, splashing it.  The wetness carried the smells of poisonous mushrooms and old leaves, not only of the leaves that had just zig-zagged to the ground but also of the leaves from the last year, and from thousands of years ago, with mossy, musty whiffs of old lives in the soil, and new lives that slid out of the cloudy water and soiled eggs:  snails, frogs, earthworms.  When the rain let up, the leaves sagged, and a cold wind swayed them, and water continued sliding down in large, slithering drops, which hung, growing luminous, glittering, before falling onto the men below, into their shirts, down their hairy necks.  Most men sat beneath green tents, and some, including Ivan, sat beneath oaks.  Water darkened the bark.  Ivan wondered why the oak bark was cracked–beech bark stretched like rubber, but the oak bark burst open, shaggy and jagged."

Ivan is now a reluctant soldier in an army fighting against his own Croatian forces.  The narrator is beginning to show us an Ivan who cares a bit more about what is going on around him, less reluctant to go with the flow, a trait that has held him up through the traumatic changes in his life that mimic what is going on within his country as well.  He seeks normality, and has managed through attitude alone to make whatever situation he finds himself, be the normal for him. 

In the bit of eloquence quoted above, we see the difference:  the beech that adapts, the oak that is wounded by its own growth.

Posted in LITERATURE | Tagged | 2 Comments

NEW MEDIA: Looking to Reality

Posted on August 13, 2005 by Susan

We must look around us to learn about people and nature and we learn more by reading what other people find out and write about people and nature. 

I am watching Big Brother 6 and I can say that I use it to learn about how people react to an unreal situation so that I can better understand a character that may pop up in my writing someday, but honestly, I’m hooked and watch it without really thinking about it.  But what if, what if a game similar to the basis of Facade were made on the premise of Big Brother?  Or how about Survivor? 

What I would like to see in Facade right now is a different apartment to visit, or at the very least, to see Trip and Grace wear different clothes.  The repetition of the opening scenario with the phone ringing and the invitation to go over there, and then to knock on the door and see Trip greet me again is really getting to be a drag.   

Does Grace ever answer the door?  Please?

Posted in WRITING | Comments Off on NEW MEDIA: Looking to Reality

WRITING: A Good Sign

Posted on August 13, 2005 by Susan

For no traceable reason, no magic thread that I can rewind to its source, no breadcrumb trail to follow back home, I have begun again to write.

A full page–a good beginning for one who starts with opening lines that end in perhaps a paragraph of inspired story.  I have an idea where this is going, but I’m not sure where it began, and then again, it may change when I sit down again–need to sit down again–to tell some more.

Alas, this story is not one of three I need for a deadline that hisses at me late at night when I try to pull the cover of unconsciousness over a weary mind.  I cannot force myself to write a story, I cannot ask the question what happened then?  and come up with an answer that sounds either logical, or non-logical but intrigueing or any answer more than I don’t know.

So this is good, this nudging of my instincts.  The keyboard feels right this time.  I feel right.

Posted in WRITING | Comments Off on WRITING: A Good Sign

NEW MEDIA: Aha! Facade’s Grace Admits an Indiscretion!

Posted on August 13, 2005 by Susan

Well now, we’ve just found another little bit of info about Grace, who just seemed upset about her career and Trip’s phoney baloney aspirations:

GRACE
Trip…

GRACE
uhh…

GRACE
In college…     I was in love with someone else.

TRIP
What?!

GRACE
An art major, named Vince.

TRIP
An art major named Vince —

GRACE
And…

GRACE
And I slept with him.

TRIP
Y — y — you what?

AUDREY
Grace, don’t say any more

GRACE
The night before you proposed to me.

GRACE
I jinxed our marriage, Trip.

GRACE
I jinxed it.  I’m sorry.

GRACE
This is all my fault.

AUDREY
That was so long ago

TRIP
Uhh… huhh… ho… wow… uhh…

TRIP
Uhh… I’m glad you finally told me.

AUDREY
Trip how do you feel?

TRIP
Jesus…!

But all ends well, and they’re going to sit down and talk some more.  My only problem was getting Trip to move so I could leave:

TRIP
Audrey,  Thanks for coming over, you… I think you helped us.

(AUDREY hugs grace.)

(AUDREY hugs grace.)

(AUDREY hugs trip.)

(Trip opens the front door.)

AUDREY
Goodbye Grace

AUDREY
Bye Trip

AUDREY
Trip get outta my way

GRACE
Bye.  Thanks.

AUDREY
Trip, move it

Posted in NEW MEDIA | Comments Off on NEW MEDIA: Aha! Facade’s Grace Admits an Indiscretion!

NEW MEDIA: Endurance

Posted on August 13, 2005 by Susan

As I play Solitaire or Freecell between writing or framing, I’m wondering why I can keep going back to these–for years, even–and still play them.  I can’t do that with Silent Hill 2–though I do need to because I haven’t "finished" it, and I am getting to the end of my attention span with Trip and Grace.

Facade, however, has offered something that most video games don’t; it can be played again and again and new things keep coming up, changing the outcome, changing the whole scenario, and that scenario is just a very small segment in the life of Trip and Grace, limited to a single visit to their apartment. 

Just thinking out loud…

Posted in NEW MEDIA | Comments Off on NEW MEDIA: Endurance

EDUCATION: Nutrition

Posted on August 13, 2005 by Susan

No, I don’t have to retake it; passed it with flying colors.  But as with some learning, it sticks with you and this course in particular seems to haunt me with guilt.

To make up for yesterday’s total intake of two slices of raisin bread with butter and a half bag of leftover popcorn, my lunch today was selected from the dairy section of the Great Food Pyramid where I was taught to worship and evidently, I selected three servings from it.

C’mon; does anyone truly agree that one-half cup of chocolate ice cream constitutes a serving?  Maybe for a three-year-old.  Or after a full-course dinner from appetizers and a main dish of prime rib. 

So now I know how to read the label, and the news is that I just consumed 69% of my daily value of saturated fat, and 25% of my alloted 2000 calories–not too bad here since I can scarf up the other 1500 at dinnertime.

One of my biggest arguments in the Nutrition course was the serving sizes.  It was me against 35 students and the professor (who probably counts as 5 rather than just a mere person) saying that serving sizes are ridiculously small while they all argued that it was too much.  Come on, get real; a half-cup of chocolate ice cream?  In my family, leaving that much in the freezer would be as serious a crime as leaving a tablespoon of milk in the carton.

Posted in EDUCATION | Comments Off on EDUCATION: Nutrition

REALITY: Susie Fixit

Posted on August 13, 2005 by Susan

Okay, down from my lofty literary position for a moment and back to earth as a sweaty picture framer and boring person.

It’s hotter than hell outside, and my shop is not being adequately cooled by the little air conditioner that’s trying so very hard to maintain both temperature and my mood.  After a bit of box moving and air flow consideration, I have managed to get it working a mite more efficiently.

This laptop is only six months old, but the E key is already starting to look like L.  As a picture framer, I have all kinds of neat tools and things and will, at the end of the business day, shut it down and re-mark the key with a white pen to re-establish it as an E.  No, I don’t need to look at the keys usually, but upon occasion, as in typing in a code, it is helpful.

Last night at the premiere I got the rare opportunity to seek out a pair of pantyhose without runs and wear the filmiest, coolest dress I could find to outwit the warm summer evening.  Not big problems. Then came the shoes.  I am a shoe fanatic, and have boxes and boxes of shoes that are up to thirty years old because I love them (how could you get rid of three pairs of woolen–one herringbone, two plaid—shoes?  Or the orange leather platforms?).  But to find a pair last night that would match a cream colored dress I dug out my wedding shoes (no laughing please; no, I couldn’t wear white–I was forty-two years old, after all!).  Here I found a problem, with a half-hour left to leave the house.  The little black rubber tip at the bottom of the high heel was missing. 

Ever resourceful, I soon crafted a tip back on using black electrical tape, scissors and glue.  I hope to God no one noticed that I may have been walking a little lighter on my right foot than on my left.  But it lasted the couple of hours it needed to, and with any luck, I’ll remember to have it properly shod before I need that pair again.

Posted in REALITY | Comments Off on REALITY: Susie Fixit

NEW MEDIA: Using Facade

Posted on August 13, 2005 by Susan

The purpose to my own exploration of Facade is multinatured.  As a writer, I am furthering my steps into the world of new media that has lured me beyond the pages and into a moving visual and audio world of story.  As with Patrice’s film last night, and those presented at the writers group meeting this past week, I am learning to ask the questions of choice of presentation.  My first question from the three films seen at the meeting was "how would you have written this, how would you put into text the overwhelmingly beautiful ballet of five women preparing a meal in a small kitchen?" as seen in Family Tree.  Would then the answer be that it was written for film, or enhanced by it?

In Facade, I question at greater depth the possibility that one of the characters, Grace, is lying to us about whether or not she produced the painting on the wall.  It is more serious a question than it appears:

If the characters with whom we are interacting in a story are capable of lying, then that adds another dimension to the piece.  If it is just another plot–and previously, I had noticed that while new revelations come out in the stageplays (not all is revealed in each) all details were alike, i.e., Grace’s parents are wealthy, Trip had an affair in Barcelona, etc.–that would indicate a different basis of "past" and therefore more paths to take for their future (paths to explore in the game).  Or, it could mean that someone messed up in the programming–easy enough to do when so much is going on with producing such a work.

I am currently planning a "pseudohypertext" piece that will be comprised of three stories tied in by the main characters, but it will be done in text–that’s book text–form.  Bringing the new technology of something like Facade or interactive fiction back into the old printed page format.  Why?  ‘Cause I wanna.  Obviously for this endeavor I am learning something from Facade as I  have learned from Borges’ Garden of Forking Paths.

Posted in NEW MEDIA | 2 Comments