Collective Introduction
"my hands/wishful thinking", analyzed by Maddie Tobias, is an electronic memoir written by Mendi and Keith Obadike in 2000 for Amadou Diallo, a black man wrongly killed at the hands of the police. The loss of his life was incredibly impactful for the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as a push for social change. I approached this piece by reading through it twice, then working to understand the minimalistic interactive aspects of the game and how this limit relates back to the theme of loss. This work is navigated by opening the webpage, then clicking somewhere in order to call upon a pop-up that contains the written story.
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Exhibit 2:
“The Lobotomy”, analyzed by Kyle Yuan, is an electronic narrative made by Nicholas Swann in 2018. "The Lobotomy" tells the story of the deranged Dr. Grubel, who performs extremely brutal and unethical brain experiments. These experiments include separating and torturing twins, as well as performing his first and only lobotomy. Loss is a central theme in “The Lobotomy”, specifically symbolizing the loss of humanity and the loss of sanity. In order to progress in “The Lobotomy”, one must press each image on each page. Only after looking at all of the images, a brain will appear on the bottom of the page allowing the viewer to advance to the next page.
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Exhibit 3:
"Dawn" created by Alan Sondheim in September 2005, and analyzed by William Siege is an electronic poem describing a child's grief after the loss of her mother, and the solemn understanding that she will very soon lose her father. The piece is composed of lines of text slowly appearing on a scenic background depicting different forms of nature, and then slowly fading out. The entire work is woven together by fading words and images, so it can become difficult to distinguish when the scene is changing and when it is still. The gradual continuous feel of Dawn helps to evoke the feeling of passive constant grief of the speaker, and their slow progression towards acceptance. I worked through this piece three times before deciding on it, first focusing on the words, then just the images, then understanding both in context with each other.
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Exhibit 4:
"To My Bones" is a work of interactive fiction created by Mireia Reverte, depicting eating disorders and beauty expectations. This story was analyzed and curated by Jerry Chen, diving into the effects of eating disorders and how the horror of mental disorders can be conveyed through visual, digital and narrative cues. Through this, we can analyze how bullying and anxiety can lead to a great loss in someone’s livelihood and well-being. This work can be navigated by clicking on many of the different visual cues that are clearly indicated by arrows that guide the reader into the depths of the narrator's mind, into horrors of the anxious and disordered mind.
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Each of these works deals with different aspects of loss as a part of life. "my hands/wishful thinking" and "Dawn" deal with the loss of life and how that impacts the lives of those close to those that have passed on. While "Dawn" focuses on a more realistic approach to dealing with and accepting loss, "my hands/wishful thinking" is a memoir that creates an idealistic situation that contrasts sharply with the actual situations that caused an unfortunate loss of life to happen. "To My Bones" and "The Lobotomy" both combine the themes of loss and mental illness to convey the loss of ones self over time. "The Lobotomy" depicts a mentally ill doctor losing himself and his morality through gruesome experiments on humans; "To My Bones" is about the loss of ones self and their own self-image. Each of these pieces creates a different image and conveys a different tone about loss, how it occurs, and its implications.
A. About the Authors
B. Works Cited