Collaborative Introduction
--> With Those We Love by Porpentine
--> Public Secrets by Sharon Daniel
--> Faith by Robert Kendall
--> Brainstrips by Alan Bigelow
Abstract: (Argument)
With Those we Love
With Those We Love Alive by Porpentine is a e-literature work that focuses on the exploration of self through a fictitious story about a girl who creates artifacts to impress a skull empress. The story incorporates lighting, sound, and symbols in order to connect the reader the best they can to the literature. The story highlights certain aspects of society, such as violence and friendship, in order to create a story that more readers can relate to. The story also exemplifies the core of e-literature. Everything that is told is personalized for the reader, the reader is able to choose what they want to read first and which path they want to take in order to explore their self that they are creating in the game.
Public Secrets
Digital Media Artist, Sharon Daniel, creates pieces that serve as commentary for public institutions that foster and perpetuate social injustice. In the work, Public Secrets, Daniel investigates the injustices of the prison industrial complex through a compilation of audio recordings of incarcerated women speaking on their experiences within the system. As a piece of hypertext media, Public Secrets is a multi-vocal narrative of hundreds of statements taken from the female prisoners in California. The work was originally created on the popular technological platform, Scalar, and provides users with "an interactive interface to an audio archive" ("New Media Art | Interactive Documentary"). Daniel's intention for the piece was to be an abolitionist project in pursuit of a more human world (Vectors Journal Editorial Staff). With this information, users look to the work as a proposal towards absolving the barbarous prison system through those most affected by it, the incarcerated.
Faith
Brainstrips
Brainstrips is a hybrid of web comics and interactive modules that cover a vast array of topics concerning philosophy, science, and mathematics. Written by Alan Bigelow, an author and college professor, he attempts to teach these concepts and answer life's most thought-provoking questions in a satirical manner. This is done mainly through reading comic strips, completing quizzes, and self-reflection on a rating scale. Although the order in which the story is told cannot be manipulated, the reader has the opportunity to explore and relate its content to themselves and society as a whole.