First of all…I’m a little upset I spent like 15 bucks on one 1 megabyte of information on the Jackson cd-rom. Anyway…
I thought Patchwork Girl was an interesting experience. I am not really sure how I should describe it outside of that. I actually found the ability to go off on tangents to be rather unsettling and injured my ability to appreciate the actual work itself. Despite this, I thought the endeavor was quite original. Linking on the internet may lead a reader down paths completely unnecessary to the main narrative line they are following. Jackson’s work, however, is meant to be read in sections; and thus, the tangents combine to form the overall monster of a hypertext.
The monster herself was a nice touch I think as well. She appears to be the physical manifestation of the various lines of narrative pieces coming together in one entity. Her body is a patchwork of various parts which have independent qualities. The edges where they join one another may become torn or separate, but they may be repaired and maintained with care. The individual pieces also have a history of their own. Their backstory makes the tale of the monster more unsettling. The girl is assembled of so many memories, but they are now focused on new goals which they never had before.
The scars and beauty are obviously important issues as well. The work is scarred up and chopped into several different pieces strung together by links. Like the monster, we do not know what to make of it, but it can still be beautiful. If I remember one section correctly, there is mention that the stitch work made the monster all that more attractive during a sexual encounter. She, like the text, is the joining of so many things that the beauty is justpart of her being-like any other part from the graveyard.
As for Mark Amerika…
I do not know what is going on here. Is there a great message in here, or is this weird for weird’s sake? I guess I can say that the website was well designed. The random little bugs who come down and say something like “raise the dead” were undoubtedly entertaining. I just couldn’t get into it. However, I guess this Filmtext was supposed to be a cross-media project. This including music, art, etc. Perhaps If I experienced this project fully, I would be able to be a better judge.
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Hi Louis,
I agree with you on all of the above except for Mark Amerika being a well designed website. When I first opened it, I thought of a seizure inducing strobe light. There was so much going on it felt like my brain was seizing up from overhaul. My God, all the red, black, gray, and white is so hard to look at. Then, when you click on links other than the Filmtext I had no idea what was going on. I guess I can say that it was a cool experience, but good golly, there should be a warning before you enter the site.
Allison
I enjoyed reading what you had to say about Jackson’s Patchwork Girl. I’m also not so sure of what to make of it, other than it was an interesting experience. I found Jackson’s tangents both intriguing and hard to follow, but I like that they work to form the overall hypertext. In addition, I didn’t really know what to make of the monster and the monster’s scars, but I like how you found the monster to represent the manifestation of all of the existing narratives. This idea makes sense considering on one occassion Jackson states that the monster is a formation of the known and the unknown. Last, I didn’t see the scars as representing a joining of several different concepts, but I like that take on it. See you in class!