"Variations on the Word Sleep" E-Poem

Notes

This poem is one of my favorites by Margaret Atwood. I was reluctant at first to perform an e-poem of it because it is as dark as I am lighthearted, but I went with it to see what I could come up with. I wanted to see if I could recreate the vibes of the poem with electronic media.

Sounds

I tried to use dark but smooth background music to reflect the somber and mysterious tone of the poem. It took some work to sync my typing and the video clip lengths to the dramatic shifts in the music, but I got the hang of it after 3-4 tries. It was easier once I figured out where to trim the videos 

Some of my sound effects were audio effects already in the video clips, like the eerie cave noises. I decided to keep them because they were unsettling, which was what I was going for. The gondola ride already had rowing sounds and background noises, but I kept these because it created a nice ambience without interfering with the mood the background music created. Sometimes I had to delete audio tracks from video clips. For example, the video that I got the blooming white flower from had beautiful music that I really enjoyed, but the notes clashed with the ones from the background music I selected. I opted for the background music, because it fit the mood of the video better. For the candle scene, I used a separate audio clip with the sound of a crackling fire. Candles don’t make that noise, but to me, the gentle crackling captured the intimacy created in “…a flame/in two cupped hands/to where your body lies/beside me, and you enter/it as easily as breathing in.” 

Visuals

Again, keeping the dark theme in mind, I decided to use lots of cool colors. I focused on purples and blues. My highlight colors were mostly silvery, like on the branch photo I pull up in Preview, and the forest highlights in the painting time-lapse clip. Together, the color palette reflected the mystery of the second and most of the third stanzas: “and walk with you through that lucent/wavering forest of bluegreen leaves/with its watery sun & three moons…” 

For imagery, I tried to follow the poem as closely as I could while keeping the color palette and mood in mind. I did run into some trouble- for example, it was difficult to find a video of a white flower that could be used in a somber setting, and many boat rides occurred during the day. However, the imagery from the poem was relatively flexible. The “boat that would row you back” was vague enough that I interpreted it to be a simple wooden boat. I was reminded of Charon from Greek mythology. Finding a gondola ride at night with light bouncing off the dark water was glorious.

Layout/Design Elements

Four Panel Setup

As for the layout, it just worked out that I had a four panel setup. I had enough imagery for every stanza that fit nicely into quadrants. I did have some pictures that did not fit well, but I arranged them so that it wouldn’t interfere with the videos. For example, my silver branch image is off to the side and takes the place of older imagery still on the screen. 

Sticky Notes Application

When Professor Anderson performed his live e-poem for us, I noticed that he used the Sticky Notes app that comes with MacBooks. We had also experimented with TextWrangler in class, but I decided to use Sticky Notes for its simplicity. That way, having multiple windows open wouldn't be overwhelming or distracting. The windows were also collapsable, so when I was done with a stanza, I could move it away. I also enjoyed the fact that I could change the colors and font. I used the color options that fit with my color palette.

Mission Control

I have a 4 finger touchpad shortcut on my laptop that opens mission control. This was convenient to pull up the media I needed. I placed the windows in the quadrants that I wanted them in beforehand, so that they would be ready to play once I selected them. I also liked that the viewer would be able to see all the media that would be used for the video laid out. It felt like a sneak peek. The downside was that the transition between the desktop screen and the windows spreading out could be distracting. To lessen the effect of this, I tried to make it quick.