Entre Ville Main Interface
1 2018-11-17T20:05:03-08:00 Macin Sheeder 7fe718065819f618eca588a54be47c69481f46b7 32111 2 When users open the work, they are presented with this screen. Author JR Carpenter said in an interview that this page changes for every person. plain 2018-11-17T20:05:52-08:00 Macin Sheeder 7fe718065819f618eca588a54be47c69481f46b7This page is referenced by:
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ENTRE VILLE
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By: JR Carpenter
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A multi-sensory homage to creator JR Carpenter’s old Montreal neighborhood and its residents, Entre Ville was published in 2006, though fragments of the work had been compiled since 1992. Entre Ville is a unique display of poetry brought to life by a number of techniques that allow us to relive Carpenter's memories. Play it HERE.
The interface of Entre Ville consists of a central notebook, on which Carpenter’s poems and drawings of the neighborhood can be seen. Surrounding the notebook are photos and icons, which are linked to new windows containing videos that capture the sights, sounds, and “texture” of the neighborhood, Mile End. Though all of the visual aspects contribute to the experience, the videos especially help users form a full, enriching perception of the imagery presented in the poems. As poetry critic Leonardo Flores says, "The beautifully framed short videos interspersed throughout scrapbook-like interface enrich the already vivid imagery of the central poem in the work" (Flores).
In conversation with Authoring Software, Carpenter describes her inspiration to create the piece, explaining, “My home office window opens into a jumbled intimacy of back balconies, yards, gardens and alleyways. Daily my dog and I walk through this interior city sniffing out stories” (Malloy).These daily interactions with neighbors inspired two poems that provide a thematic foundation for the entire work, “Saint Urbain Street Heat” and “Sniffing for Stories”. Specific lines of these poems often accompany the videos. This helps users to make connections and know exactly what they are seeing, while also aligning them with the author's headspace--a continuous theme throughout the work.
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ENTRE VILLE - JR CARPENTER (2)
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Entre Ville is a complex exploration of a slice of life, one that is specific and very much real. By subjecting ourselves to the experience of the work, we become a part of this life. The work employs many techniques to immerse users in the mind and memory of the narrator. Entre Ville was created as a way for others to experience JR Carpenter’s memories of her hometown in a uniquely structured and deeply personal way. Because of this, there is no doubt that Entre Ville encourages empathy and identification with a unique perspective.
One of the most obvious examples. We see moving, living, breathing clips of the neighborhood and its smallest intricacies from the point of view of a handheld camera; we are not simply being shown these back alleyways, but we are experiencing them as firsthand memories. We are affected not only by visual stimulation but also by the sounds accompanying each place--each scrap of a memory. By clicking on the No Dogs sign, we see the dog as he is described in the poem, his tags clinking together as he runs down the alleyway.In other windows we hear sounds from the street, like cars, birds, sirens, construction, babies crying, and people talking, though we never see any of the things that produce the sounds. There is a general sense of hopelessness and abandonment. In one video, the streets are covered in what can only be described as junk, toasters, lamps, and toys, pieces of lives left behind and forgotten. By documenting this, Carpenter captures the desolation of a neighborhood that once was lively and bustling. In the poem “Saint Urbain Street Heat”, Carpenter describes her neighbors as she remembers them: the vulgar Greek woman, the French trumpeter, the sex-crazed couple upstairs. There is a large sense of fragmentation, of contradictions between the past and present. These small pieces of experience come together in a patchworked frame of consciousness that is both nostalgic for the past and separated from it. We experience mere moments, which are weaved together and layered by text and mechanics to create an overarching experience of life.