*sings* You Better Shape Up

Okay, so the gif above might not exactly have anything to do with the shaping that I am going to be talking about in a second, but come on… GREASE! Talk about a story eh?

Anywho, hello inhabitants of Earth! This week I have been asked to think about the shapes of stories because there’s obviously a ton, right? I appreciated the humor in the video of Kurt Vonnegut as he gives this brilliantly sarcastic presentation of a few far too familiar storylines and their outcomes, but all while mapping them on an x,y axis grid. Maya Eilam was very creative in her attempt to take a more visual approach to Vonnegut’s theory of the shapes of stories. Every story has a shape, and whatever that shape may be is going to be undeniably unique from other stories and their respective shapes.

So, my first thought in relation to the Networked Narratives course is what the shape of this course would look like. How can one go about shaping a college course that is constantly veering around corners and flipping us in the air like El Toro at Six Flags? (In a good way of course because El Toro is one of my favorite rides) However, I honestly have no idea. The spreadsheet that Professor Levine linked to that is tracking the twitter activity is a pretty neat way!

But there are so many ways that a story can be shaped, and there is indeed a plethora of ways that this course can be shaped. When thinking of just the blogs that each student uses for this course, I am automatically drawn to the statistic pages of each blog. Think about what this course would look like visually if we put each statistic grid of views, visitors, likes, and comments side by side in a huge thingymabob! That could be pretty cool as well. I am not really that great at thinking off of the top of my head, but that is just one idea that popped up first. Hmmm… now I am starting to think about how interesting tracking heart rates would be when doing the petchaflickr improv activity

 

Okay, onward and upward!

 

Media Projects

Four Icon Story

The first media project that I chose to do this week was the four icon story. This activity was basically summing up a movie, book, story, or maybe even a TV show into four icons to have one’s audience guess at what it could be. Well, did you guess what I am about to insert in next? Yup, thats right. KABLAM! My icons:

I didn’t have to think long about this media project assignment at all because as soon as I finished reading the directions, I knew what I was going to do with it. I am excited to see if everyone else gets it as fast as I was able to drum it up into this noggin of mine. I will give no hints.

 

Wait, did you heart that? That’s right! We’ve got MAAAAAAIIIIIIL

Postcards from Magical Places

Boy oh boy am I excited to mention my second media project!

My mind began racing with ideas, and I couldn’t contain my joy for this assignment, so I began to do a sort of dance that goes a little something like this

I chose this particular project out of the four given because I have personally never created a postcard for purposes such as the ones given. Soooooooooo, I am a creative person (*audience murmurs* duh we know this), but I have a tendency to gravitate toward creative ideas/concepts grounded in historical truths and so on. What kind of Richonda would I be if I didn’t think of a place, and then place that place on an actual map of the world and bound it within a sort of real context? (Did you just read that sentence at a faster pace than you have been reading this entire time? Good!). Let me introduce you to Alnnihaya, Egypt.

 

 

This postcard idea is actually based off of a story that I had started writing YEARS ago. I wrote the message on the back of the post card as if I were Eliza Wazowski (Ethan’s wife). The place that she is visiting is Alnnihaya, Egypt. Alnnihaya is actually Arabic for “end”, which then suddenly gives that tagline on the front of the postcard a different meaning *menacing smirk inserted here*. I have placed this magical area right in between Alexandria, Egypt and Mersa Matruh, Egypt (along the highway from the Nile River and the Libyan border). Alnnihaya is right up against the Mediterranean Sea. The gist of the backstory is that Eliza is trying to finish what her father (an archeologist) started, but then got killed doing. She is trying to solve the mysteries of the ancient myths and legends about a god known as Quintundester (despite a real geographical location everything I just said about the myths is made up, but then again so is this place so we’re good).

I had a ton of fun doing this assignment, and I just can’t wait for those who choose to read my blog to see it. Thanks for tuning in guys!

 

BYEEEEEEEEEEEE!