Pottermore: Multimedia For The New Age

In the chapter, No Theory But For Practice: Born, Multimedia, & the Avant-Garde, Anmarie Trimble and Jennifer Grotztalk about how there is a blending of media’s in this era of the web. One example that springs to mind is the website http://www.pottermore.com/en-us. On this website J.K. Rowling is blending many forms of media to create a whole new experience for her readers and a new dimension for her books. One aspect of the site is the art. The art was originally hand drawn by an artist, these drawings were then put on the website, and then they were animated. This one part of the site includes three different types of art composition. Another part of the site is the music and the sound effects that go along with the pictures. This added layer of complexity is an art form in and of itself, but when added to what is already on the site, it brings the experience to deeper level.  The site also contains things written by Rowling herself. This brings in the written form as yet another medium of composing. Than the site has user interaction. The users are allowed to comment and favorite and share. They gain house points and compete for the house cup. The user interaction adds a life and an ever changing element to the work as a whole. As a whole this site is truly an example of a blending of mediums that came together to create a whole new art form that lives on the web. It is interactive, informative, and beautiful.


-Kailee Snyder

Poetic Form in the Avante-Gaga

Oh Lady Gaga, how does thy become so popular? Well I think I know the answer. Orginality of course, and the lack of fear in being simply the most avante garde pop star in the music industry.
Most people think of her top hits when they hear the words GAGA come out of someone mouth. However, I think of the meat dress and crazy shoes.
According to the article, No Theory But For Practice, Born Magazine defines the artist in the digital world of composing as to be someone whom uses " a visual representation of how the narrative unfolds in the designers mind—as such evoking specific images, artists, styles, and traditions"

In my mind, Lady Gaga is an arist whom puts these aspects in her sense of fashion. She is using her body as a visual representation for unfolding a narrative of her own individuality as an artist. This is an evoking image nonetheless, but I feel the message is for a reason pertaining to her stance on such an issue. Read here about what she has to say about the meat dress. 

Lady Gaga is not a literary composer though some might argue that her work, being her fashion and her music is of great poetic form. I would have to agree, and like Born Magazine defnies this Avante Garde, Lady Gaga is indefinatly a visual inspiration for many.

Written by: Taylor Cameron

No Theory But For Practice by Hailey

In Born, Multimedia, and the Avante-Garde, the author discusses new media by means of interpreting literary works, and about nonverbal media as a literary form. The author discusses how published works were crafted in print and then interpreted into multimedia. In thinking about the magazine Born and how it is a new work of composing, people tend to find a tension between old and new technologies, and “that such uses of technology suggests an anxiety that poetry is insufficient in itself”. The theory discusses the composing and cross-pollinating between media and how it affects the way that readers view the content. At Texas State University, there are weekly book and poetry readings that students and faculty members are encouraged to attend.  On April 17^th, author Jorie Graham read some of her poetry aloud to attendees. It made me think about how the event would have been different if she had used technology to share her poems with the audience instead of just reading them. It would have been interesting to see people’s faces if there had been an interactive online version of her poetry that she could’ve showed. A multimodal presentation of poetry would add a new dimension to Graham’s poetry because writing cannot truly capture sound, yet multimedia can actually capture the spoken word within its text. The authors of Born magazine discuss how there is controversy when people take literature and add technology to it. I believe it is controversial because it is so different from what people have known for so many years. The tension that occurs when you “cross pollinate” technology with literature is interesting to study, and I wonder how members of the Texas State community would view the multimodality. 

-Hailey