The main concepts or ‘take away ideas’ that I got and or found interesting from the Landow reading this week were:

ONE: The idea of ‘web-novels’

TWO: The four points of hypertext describing narrative and

THREE: The idea of plot in hypertext stories

ONE: The first idea of the ‘web-novel’ was interesting to consider. This is where ‘the HTML links solely to provide sequence.’ This is different from a lot of the concepts of hypertext and hyperlinks we have been reading about and exploring so it was good to look at another use for it.

TWO: The four point that Landow uses to describe the use of hypertext in narrative really helped to clear up some fuzziness I had surrounding the concept of hypertext as a whole. The four points that separate hypertext narrative from other forms, as described in the reading, are:

1. The reader’s choice, intervention and empowerment.
2. Inclusion of extra linguistic texts (images, motion, sound)
3. The complexity of network structure and
4. The degree of multiplicity and variation.

These points helped me to understand the ‘point’ and reason behind hypertext and the way in which narrative works.

THREE: The fact that hypertext story lack a plot in the classic sense is interesting to think about. When someone mentions plot I think of the events that navigate the reader/ audience/ listener etc. through the story being told. In hypertext the hyperlink and the consumer are what navigates the story. The usual linear experience becomes individual to each reader. In the classic form of plot there is a beginning middle and end. When it comes to hypertext there is no clear beginning or end.

Hypertext has created a new way of experience the idea of ‘plot’, as the consumer of the text you create and mold the text.

Figuring out this niki thing has been interesting. After last week’s workshop I was able to gain a clearer understand the task of our niki project. David Anh and I had been slowly researching David Weinberger (I have linked our wiki page which is currently empty but will hopefully full of information in the next couple of days) and planning how to present our information on our wiki page but hadn’t really moved past the basics.

Jasmine helped us expand our ideas and create a strong idea of how to present our information. We now have the idea of creating a press conference with various reporters asking Weinberger about a book that he is releasing in the present. Obviously the book is not real, but we feel this approach gives us the opportunity to create an original presentation of a range of factual information. It will allow us to include information from the whole of his life and his work.

 

Two days left of uni before the mid-semester break and I can’t seem to focus on just getting through those two days. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy uni and my course (which some people think is really weird #mybiomedfriends) but this morning my friends and I purchased tickets to the Falls Festival at Marion Bay and it is all I can think about. I am from Tasmania and can’t wait to take my friends from Melbourne there! When trying to touch up my blog essay or pick my best blogs to hand in tomorrow, I find myself watching this:

 

I guess I just had to blog about it because I am bloody excited!!

121 days.

This week’s un-lecture/ symposium was really insightful. I enjoyed the questions from my class being answered and thought the range of topics covered was extremely interesting and gave everyone something to think about.

From clearing up confusion about hypertext to discussing the death of the book, many topics were given to us to consider and to develop knowledge by exploring some of the ideas put forward.

One of the main ideas that stuck with me was the death of the book.

When Adrian first brought up the idea that the death of the book was indeed occurring I almost didn’t want to listen as the idea made me sad and almost scared me. One of my favourite things to do is to sit in front the fire with a cup of tea and to read a physical book. However when he separated the book as a physical thing and literature was when I began to agree with and come to terms with prospect of the death of the book.

He used the example of a mechanic flipping through a grease-covered manual compared to using a database on a computer or tablet. Obviously would be much more practical and efficient to use the latter. This is the same when it comes to a student carrying round kilos of texts book as apposed to having exactly the content that they need on a laptop or tablet.

These are the cases where I am totally fine with the concept of ‘the death of the book’. It is the possibility, and likelihood, of literature, as in novels, being no longer printed in the book format that somewhat bothers me. As I said reading a physical book is one of my favourite things to do, as is collecting books. However I don’t think I have to worry about this anytime soon, books, when it comes to novels and literature, are not going out of fashion in the near future.  

When discussing our take away ideas form this week’s reading, Anh David and I all had similar views. We found it interesting reading this compared to the Communication Histories and technologies reading and how hyperlinks, which seemed like huge and new thing only 20 or 30 years ago, has now changed the whole way in which we write and communicate. Just adding hyperlinks to our blogs makes it much easier to communicate our ideas and points.

Reading things online is not like reading a book; one hyperlink takes you to another and to another, these links may be have different or similar opinions. Hyperlinks make it easy for us to access many different form of information from one spot.

I have never been a person who writes for fun. I have never aimed to be an author or a poet. I have never considered the real importance of writing and how it influences society. I have always loved book and literature and have seen the importance and influence of books and literature have on society. I had never thought about, however, how much more there than that there is to writing. For example without writing we would not have had laws and regulations pasted down as easily. Passing things down through word of mouth and verbal communication has always fascinated me and I have always thought it would be lovely and would bring about a stronger sense of community if we still did that, however facts and elements get lost and people can be tempted to put there own spin on things for personal gain when reencountering stories. Without the art of writing, much of the influence that the history of the world has given us would be lost.

Reflecting on last week’s reading I found this video that shows the power and influence that the creation computers has had on society is greater than anyone could have ever expected or imagined.

 

At my student accommodation it is currently ‘angels and mortals week’. All 250 students are given another student’s name and this person becomes the mortal to your angel. You deliver gift and surprises to them every day without them knowing whom their angel is. Even though they will not read this blog, I want to thank my angel for spoiling me this week! There is nothing better than coming home to a mini picnic at your door. I hope I have been doing as good a job for my mortal!

Hmmmm it’s a bit hard to write about a lecture that did not happen.  What I can say though is that the contrast between the students who were involved in the rally and the ones who couldn’t have cared less was extremely evident. As a group of students rallied and a chanted about the fact that ‘our education is not for profit,’ not 20 meters away students sat nonplused that the noise from the rally was interrupting their lunch and Facebook time.

After touching on the topic of design fiction again in the un-lecture, I found this video and I found the questions at beginning, ‘where do you see things going?’ and ‘Where would you like things to go?’