Sharing Digital Texts - Gwen W.

 For my final project, I want to use ThingLink to create a project rooted in textures and metaphor. The work of electronic literature that partially inspired me was Cruising by Ingrid Ankerson. I really loved her use of metaphor in this piece, The concept of love and trying to find it in a fast-paced world, as someone in the backseat, the idea of a car you can't yet take to the world. Anderson presents a metaphor for being young and not quite knowing how to "drive," or interact romantically with one another. The way that the poem moves so fast on the screen once you open it forces the reader to try and learn how to slow it down, speed it up, make it larger or smaller. This experience as a novice is similar to the feeling of learning to drive, or figuring out how to be romantic and interact with partners. The different layers of this poetic piece of digital literature inspired me to want to play with textures and layers in my final project. My concept is to use images of textiles and fabrics to create a piece of literature where they each tell a personified story of their creation and use in the art of garment design. I want each type of textile to share its purpose and story as if it were a human, and instead of humans creating the intention behind different clothing designs, the fabrics are the creators, with their own sense of creativity. Cruising's many layers have inspired me to use ThingLink's features to tell this story of genesis and design.