portfolio

Having a good looking portfolio is obviously very important, as it can make your work stand out from others. I came across the website http://prezi.com/ during a class i had where everyone used powerpoint presentations to display their work. Everyone in the class was very impressed with this particular presentation, as most people had not even known about this website, including myself. I this site is can be viewed as a powerpoint of the future. The way each slide changes is very interesting and even fun to watch. It keeps you interested throughout the whole presentation. The portfolio will also be very easy to show others while using this site.

sites that scan

Two websites i looked at were absolutepunk.net and prosportsdaily.com. Absolutepunk is a website for music news, and Pro Sports Daily is for the latest sports news. I visit both websites very frequently, and the designof both layouts definitely has something to do with that. One thing i noticed immediatelywas that the layout both sites were very similar. Both had the main news right down the middleof the page. After all, that isthe main point for the sites, so it should be the biggest and most noticeable thing on the page. Down the left and right sides of the pages, there are many other links that you can click on, that are relevant to the site, however not the news that is on the main page. Placement for these definitely works well because all of the links are smaller and you dont lose any focus on the main news. However they are noticeable enough to where you can see something interesting and want to navigate to a new page. These sites also dont include many pictures, so its not very hard to get confused with the ads. The ads on these websites are almost in an identical spot, on the upper right side of the page.

In future websites, i will definitely make sure to keep things as simple as i can. the more simpler a page is, the easier it is for a user to read. I will also definitely keep the most important information towards the top of the page.

skyWriting

This interactive narrative portrays a plane while it is skywriting. As you click on the arrow, you are required to drag the arrow in order for the text to show up, just like how an actual plane would do in skywriting. To start off, this really seemed like a great idea. The animation of the narrative is done very well, and i enjoyed moving the mouse around and creating the text just like a real plane would. However, the space that is given is very small, causing you to move the curser upside down, which means the text will be turned around s well. I could not read any of the poem, and even stopped after only the second screen. This narrative was very interactive, but failed to get the main message out to the public, which was the poem. I think that what should have been done is instead of limiting the user to only the small space given, the screen should have advanced vertically as you move your curser to the right. With doing this, you would never run out of space and could then actually read the poem. I definitely did enjoy watching the animation as each slide would change though. A new background always entered the screen flawlessly and the text would cleverly disappear from the screen. Once again though, feel the main purpose of creating a narrative in the first place was sabotaged for this narratives animation.

http://www.bornmagazine.org/projects/skywriting/

Snowbound

One of the interactive narratives I looked at was Snowbound by Elizabeth Tornes. I really thought this narrative was very well put together. It seems to be based on the basic slide show form that we all have seen many times, but is more of an updated style. Instead of just watching pictures change on the screen, new text pops up as each slide changes. You are also required to click the slide once you are finished with the current one, so that really keeps you involved in the story. Also, the pictures that would pop up really help enhance the story as you read it, and actually bring it to life. There was even some animation occurring as you were reading which was a great touch. Definitely my favorite slide was, "I step onto the lake to test the ice, and my boot sinks into a foot of snow." As you are reading this, the texts takes the action of the boot and starts sinking into the lake, which is in the background. I would say this narrative definitely takes the form of a distributed narrative. There is definitely no set beginning, middle, and end to this story that Tornes is telling. Also, the story ventures out to multiple locations, and even multiple days. Programs used to create this interactive narrative could have definitely been flash for the animation, ad photoshop for the pictures.

http://www.bornmagazine.org/projects/snowbound/

Distributed Narrative

Typically, all narratives follow a very similar style to each other. They have a beginning, middle, and end, and tend to happen in a single session. It's almost like having a blueprint for storytelling. However, distributed narratives completely shake up the basic form of writing stories. In Aristotle's "Poetics", he describes his three unities, which consist of the unity of time, space, and action. These "dramatic unities" basically state that the play should take place in a single day, location, and have a single idea. In "Distributed Narrative : Telling Stories Across Networks", Jill Walker describes how todays modern media is breaking the rules that Aristotle set for narratives, with the use of distributed narratives. A distributed narrative is a story that doesn't take place in any single location, time, and doesn't focus on a single action. This leaves the author with much more creative flexibility on their story, opening up the possibilities of what can happen to the characters. A lot of modern media today can be seen as a distributed narrative

Walker describes how only only short narratives, such as movies or short stories, are meant to be taken in one session. Most narratives now are better experienced over a period of time. Examples of works that are better with more time include most games and full length novels. These are generally divided up into chapters so the story can be completed in multiple sessions. Other examples could be soap operas or sit-coms that are put on TV in a weekly or daily format.

When I started thinking about Distributed Narratives in current media, I immediately though of the TV show Seinfeld. Seinfeld was a weekly comedy that dived into the lives of four friends who live in New York City. I feel this show is a great mix of the classic narrative that Aristotle envisioned and the new age distributed narrative. A large portion of the show is located in Jerry's apartment, as the characters are always meeting up there. This can be related to Aristotle's unity of space. However, the show still uses other various locations such as a coffee shop, the New York City streets, and a few other apartments. Another way the show can

relate to Aristotle's unities is through the unity of time. Most of the episodes occur in one single day, though there are times when an episode will show two days. The show agrees with the distributed narrative when thinking about the unity of action. Aristotle described how stories should only have a single overarching idea. Seinfeld completely turns this idea around. Throughout each episode, there are multiple plots going on with each character. Most of the time, you will get to view four different stories for each individual character. Some intertwine and some are not as detailed as others, though it is still normally separate problems the characters deal with for the whole episode.