Sharing Digital Texts - Abby

 Cardamom of the Dead by Caitlin Fisher: Cardamom of the Dead (caitlinfisher.ca)

After being inspired by Caitlin Fisher’s Mother/Home/Heaven, I decided to take a quick look at her other works. What I found was Cardamom of the Dead, a virtual reality lyric and literary narrative centered on a 21st birthday party in which all the guests are dead. The player is encouraged to explore the surrounding landscape, examining the different artifacts to read the three-part story. The first narrative is about illness and euthanasia, the second is about sex, murder, and coming-of-age, and the third is about collecting as a means of consolation after death. Interestingly, some of these elements I’d already considered using in my project – I’ve been really fascinated with the idea of exploring characters through objects and memories, and I was thinking of using a three-part narrative to do so. Now that I think about it, I’d say that Mother/Home/Heaven was a huge inspiration behind these decisions! 

I think what really draws me to Caitlin Fisher’s work is how she tends to bring out the empathy of her players and readers. Something about connecting to the past – yours, or someone else’s – is incredibly nostalgic, and this link to a stranger can often bring about a wave of sympathy. At the same time, this can be incredibly disturbing. When I first saw Mother/Home/Heaven, for instance, the effect was very unsettling and ghostly. I felt something similar when I saw Cardamom of the Dead, though to a slightly lesser extent. Maybe it’s because when you connect to the past, you are touching on something that has passed and that has no physical place in the present or future. Seeing and hearing something that should only belong in memories or stories become as good as real through VR and AR can definitely be unsettling. Yet I also feel like this is something to be celebrated – it’s not every day we encounter something like this, and I think that Fisher’s ability to master both the sympathy and spook is a great testament to her skill as an artist!

Comments

  1. Dr. MApril 16, 2023 at 3:08 PM

    The sympathy and spook, I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cameron WhitneyApril 17, 2023 at 8:32 AM

    I really loved this line you wrote, "Maybe it’s because when you connect to the past, you are touching on something that has passed and that has no physical place in the present or future." That is so lovely and such an intelligent piece of commentary. I completely agree and I can't wait to see what you come up with for a final project!

    ReplyDelete

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