Interactive

(According to MIT’s Moments of Innovation)

The use of the term ‘interactive’ in our contemporary era has a twist. The user doesn’t simply activate a static text; rather, in interacting, the user co-creates the text, making choices that define their experience.

I like this definition of interactivity: users as co-creators. What do I want users to co-create with me? 1.  Stories (about the farm, about losing home, about remembering past home spaces, about the UP), 2. The Experience of Being at the Farm (cultivating sense of community + engaging in deep reflection + developing creative/artistic projects)

Immersion

This morning, I’m checking out an amazing interactive site about the history of documentaries and technology. The first section is about Immersion. I wanted to make note of this passage:

The word ‘medium’ has many meanings in English, most going back to classical Latin. But by an odd chance, two ‘new’ meanings first appeared around 1851: medium as a channel for mass communications (‘the photographic medium’) and medium as an intermediary between the living and the dead (‘the medium organized a séance’). One transmits information from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’, and the other ‘makes present’ that which is impossibly distant. The immersive urge that has accompanied our media from the very start seems to embrace both definitions, to tell us about another place and to make that place as present as possible.

I’m struck by the line, “as present as possible.” A key part of my project is to craft a space that replicates the feeling of being at the farm. As much as I want people to “feel” like they’re farm, I know that that farm feeling is only always a replication, an approximation. Is there a way to make that acknowledgment visible in the project?

I’m also struck by the line, “make present that which is impossibly distant.” The farm is impossibly distant. Now that it has been sold and I can’t visit it every summer, it is forever “there,” when it used to be “here.” The only way I can repeatedly access it is through old photographs, stories/interviews and video footage from the early 2000s.

Wow. I want to think about this passage some more and find ways to incorporate it into my project.

Serendipity

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I’m really enjoying Cowbird. Since I’m planning to use it, I wanted to get a feel for the community and how other people tell and share stories. One feature that I’ve been using to see different stories is Serendipity. It’s an icon located in the upper left corner of the home page. When you click on it, it takes you to a random story. Scott has a similar feature on his blog called Spin the Wheel (which is a WordPress plugin, random redirect).

I like this idea. I think it would be cool to have this tool in the database. Users could click on the icon to find a random photo, video, archival document, question, etc. What should I call it? Hmmm….

follow-up note: I’m still not sure what to call the random item generator but, since it will be in the “scraps of memory database” section, which is connected to the “banging on the loom” interactive documentary, I’m thinking the name should be loom/rag rug-related.

An App?

I’m not sure whether or not I want to develop an app for this project. Are they the best way to tell and share stories? To get people engaged with the project? I’m not convinced that an app is needed. While browsing through the Cowbird FAQ the other day, I came across their answer to the question: Do you have an app?

No. We think Apps are destined for obsolescence — they’ll be the CD-Roms of tomorrow. We believe in the open Web. That said, you’ll find that Cowbird works well on your smartphone.

Cowbird

I like this answer. And, I like how the site works on my phone. In a post a week ago I mentioned how my embedded story wasn’t responsive. It kept getting cut off on the phone. Not sure if that’s a problem with Cowbird or with my theme? For now, I’m not sure it matters; I like the idea of directing people to Cowbird.