Sharing Digital Texts - Cam

Over the course of the Spring 2023 semester, we have been exposed to numerous works of electronic literature, and these works ranged in genres from hypertext to virtual reality (VR). While each work was significantly unique from one another, all of them accomplished the same artistic goal: each work had a story that could only be told to its full extent in a designated digital modality. I recently came across a VR 360° story titled Lightning while scouring YouTube for different VR experiences during this past week. Lightning was created in 2019 by Jeremy Casper and the story has an original score by Andy Luiten. The story follows a young firefly named Lightning who has gone through an experience where he had his light scared out of him. The story takes place in a forest during the night. and in order to save himself and his friend from what lurks in the darkness, he must go through a transformation to find it in himself to turn his light back on. I wanted to bring back a quote I cited from Chris Milk's TedTalk, in which he describes the experience of viewing VR as feeling "your way inside of it. It's a machine, but inside of it, it feels like real life, it feels like truth" (Milk 1). While viewing Lightning, I felt completely immersed in the beautiful art and the story that the art was able to tell without any words. Being able to see the art that Casper created in a 360° perspective added a large amount of depth to the narrative. The story may be mildly cliche in plot structure, but the delivery of the story is stunning and well developed. While my final project will not follow the story of an animal finding strength within themself, the art inspired me to imagine some of the scenery that I will describe, in words, in my Twine/Google My Maps hybrid story structure. I'm very excited to begin developing my final project's storyline and refining my skills on both of these platforms!

Comments

  1. AnnaApril 14, 2023 at 2:45 PM

    I love your project idea. Twine and Google My Maps are both great options for combining text and images it would be cool to see what you could come up with.

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  2. Dr. MApril 14, 2023 at 3:56 PM

    This looks like a cute story. I read the production notes, the film was created in VR using Oculus medium. I wonder if there is more of this composing within the medium happening now. I look forward to your story too!

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