Tag: Linking

Linking Task 12: Speculative Futures (Joseph)

ETEC 540 – Task 12: Speculative Futures

Joseph chose to use Twine as the medium to explore the two different futures — a utopian “sweet dream” and a dystopian “nightmare”.

This was a clever design decision, as “Twine was a natural choice [to display two different viewpoints] as I could have a split narrative path to contain both of these options” (Villella, 2022).

In the opening of the game, the player is prompted to enter their name and location in the text box, in which it is used as the main character in the narrative. This already immerses the player within the story, in addition to the background music and sound effects.

Utopian “Sweet Dream”

The utopian viewpoint had a more upbeat, cheery background music that plays throughout the game.
The narrative is set in a world where nature and humanity thrive in harmony. There is emphasis on renewable energy and eco-friendly technology, which is seen on the air-hovering eco-Translink buses and the newest model of Meta Headsets powered by oxygen.

The storyline splits into two side quests, one is finding your “brother”, and the other is the journey to school.

The brother provides more context of the world through the dialogue you have with him. The player finds out that it is 2025, and personal assistant driod eRobots help with taking care of your everyday needs. There is reference to the continuing existence of technology moguls, namely Elon Jr.

On the journey to school, physical classrooms that afford collaboration still exists, yet with heavy utilization of VR headsets. The classroom environment is surprising to me, as one would think there would be complete digitization and heavy emphasis on virtual interaction with the ubiquity of VR Headsets, such that a physical classroom could be deemed unnecessary. However, it seems there is still a focus on human interaction and physical presence in the classroom, especially given the set-up of the desks to be conducive to collaboration.

Dystopian “Nightmare”

The dystopian viewpoint had a more somber and desolate background music. The narrative is set in a somewhat post-apocalyptic and barren environment, where humanity seems to have reach destruction and is in the process of rebuild.

The education environment has become a mere “virtual daycare” where students are there to be supervised as they learn digitally. Remnants of technology is strewn across the classroom, interspersed with analog methods of teaching, yet students lacking the literacy skills to successfully learn.

Through the dialogue between the player and an “officer” with the same name, context of the current world is given. The hyper-development of technology has broken down the geopolitical borders between nations, and the influence of politics has created fear and paranoia of cyber-information warfare, which in turn causes a regression of civilization to the early 2000s. When asked about the origin of this dystopian disaster, we are left on a cliffhanger and wake up from this nightmare.

Reflection

I thought the world-building was very interesting and reminds me of very distinct futures.

The utopian narrative reminds me of the vision of a solarpunk future. Solarpunk is an imagination of the future where nature and humanity are able to maintain an equilibrium without exhausting all natural resources, even proposing that technology can enable humanity to exist sustainably.

On the other hand, the dystopian narrative, “technology has replaced our own abilities” (Villella, 2022) reminds me of the grungy textures of dieselpunk , especially with reference to the “retro-futuristic” aspect of technology. It very much alludes to the downfalls where “humanity collapses on itself” and the unforeseen consequences of needing to revert to previous technology, yet without the ability or skills to do so, due to over-reliance on technological advancement.

Overall, one main aspect I really enjoyed in this Twine game is that the narration brings the player to explore both the utopian “sweet dream” and dystopian “nightmare” scenarios in a way that flows with each other; there are paths that return back to a previous point and allows the player to explore the other option, while staying cohesive to the overall structure within a dream.

References

Dieselpunk (n.d.) Wikipedia. Retrieved August 10, 2022 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieselpunk

Solarpunk (n.d.) Wikipedia. Retrieved August 10, 2022 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk

Villella, J. (2022, August, 3). Task 12: Speculative Futures. ETEC540 Joseph Villella. https://blogs.ubc.ca/jvillella540/2022/08/03/task-12-speculative-futures/ 

Linking Task 6: An Emoji Story (Trista)

Task 6: A Emoji Story

I wanted to link to Trista’s post, similar to my Emoji story, the title was not in an English language, therefore we both had to go in roundabout ways to describe them.

Please take a look at Trista’s post before reading the following, as it will contain spoilers to her Emoji story!

 

 

The movie that Trista chose was Mulan, which is not very apparent from the Emojis that she chose, UNLESS, you know Chinese.

Mu: 木 is the character for wood

Lan: 蘭 is the character for orchid

 

Given that, I presumed that Trista has knowledge of the Chinese language, which I was able to confirm after going back to her Task 1: What’s In My Bag blogpost. I was able to know that Trista was born and raised in Shanghai, China, and moved to Canada 7 years ago.

“I started with the title, and actually, I chose this movie because I feel that the title is easy to visualize by emojis” (Ding, 2022), which contrasted with  the comments from Jessica and Emily about unable to figure out what movie it is. Some guesses included “wood flower”, “log flower”, “log blooms”. I found this quite amusing , as this is definitely a case of information being lost in translation!

I am unsure if this is the case for Trista in Shanghai, but The Ballad of Mulan is a required piece of poetry in our education curriculum in Taiwan. The context in which I learned about it is very different to the one that of a Western audience.

I think most people know of Mulan in the context of the Disney movie. Therefore, if Trista were able to narrow down the category of movies to “Disney”, it might be a helpful hint, especially for those who do not have the linguistic or cultural background that Trista and I both share.

Trista then continues a chronological re-telling of the story through emojis. Similar to my experiences, Trista mentions “spending a lot of time selecting events that the emoji can represent” (Ding, 2022) as the emoji choices can feel limiting when it comes to more general and abstract concepts.

Even without the movie title, given the events that happened:

Mulan deciding to cut her hair to look like a boy, enrolls in the army on behalf of her father was one of the big transitions in the plot, which Trista made clear with the “haircut” Emoji, and one that reaffirmed my guess.

Reflection

One thing that Trista’s post made me think about a lot is this concept of “common ground” in Linguistics. For successful conversation and communication to happen, there is a presumed background information shared by participants in the conversation.

From the phrase ” I chose this movie because I feel that the title is easy to visualize by emojis” she is leaving out “the title is easy to visualize by emojis (for her given the cultural and linguistic context)” which is normal and natural for someone who is immersed in that context, after all, how would a fish know it is in water?

Along the same topic, Trista ties multi-modal communication with Kress’ commentary, adding on that “it illustrates how speech and writing are controlled by the author, and the interpretation of pictures largely depends on the viewers” which can be seen here in this instance of the author (Trista) intending “[wood emoji] [flower emoji]” to be “Mulan” whereas the viewers (Jessica and Emily) interpreted it differently.

All in all, this is to say, that in the same time we are using multi-modal communication to express ourselves, there is also a need to review and unpack what we assume to be “common ground” amongst us and others participating in the conversation, in order to meet each other in the middle such that what we are expressing, is also what others can interpret.

References

Ding, T. ( 2022, June 25) Task 6: A Emoji Story. ETEC540 Personal Web Space. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540trista/2022/06/25/task-6-a-emoji-story/

Linking Task 8: Golden Record Curation (Mark)

[8.2] Golden Record Curation

For this linking task, I decided to take a look at Mark’s post, specifically knowing his background in music, as I wanted to see how he approached this task from that perspective!

Coming from a music background, Mark definitely draws from a lot of music theory when it comes to analyzing and justifying the songs he chose. For his criteria, he wanted to find pieces that “contain an obvious example of universality of musical elements, tempo, harmony, melody and texture” (Pepe, 2022). Some common element included “ostinato patterns, chant, call and response musical phrases and representations of nature”.

The first 4 tracks he chose belonged to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Stravinsky, some big names in classical music history. Mark explains his choice with some musical jargon, but then adds more information in an accessible way  for those who might not have as much background knowledge in music. He also points out the significance of the composer or the piece, and uses very descriptive expressions to compare and contrast it with each other, providing some context in the realm of classical music.

"Compared to Mozart where emotions begin to surface, Beethoven brings it to a boil" and later on "If Beethoven brought emotions to a boil, Stravinsky boiled them over"

Mark then picks some tracks in the world music genre, and uses them to demonstrate some of the universal commonality between them, such as the call and response in chanting, pulsing trance-like rhythm, and nature imagery.

Lastly he chose a more contemporary blues song, Dark Was the Night to complete his curation. Mark chose this song specifically as blues took elements from the world music previously listed, and became a foundation of North American popular music.

Reflection

I thought Mark’s post was very insightful, as much of this information about these songs is unknown to me, as I do not come from a musical background and therefore do not have the skills to decipher them directly from the music tracks alone.

The way Mark put each piece next to each other for comparison and contrast helped with extending it into a greater context such that one can see why it was significant to include a certain track. He did not look at each track solely on its own, rather, he built on more to the foundations that he had laid down, such that his track-list curation and decisions felt cohesive as a unit!

References

Pepe, M. (2022. July 10) [8.2] Golden Record Curation. Mark Pepe’s ETEC540 Course Site. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540mpepe/2022/07/10/8-2-golden-record-curation/

Linking Task 5: Twine Game (Jessica)

 

Task 5: Twine Task

Cardiac Arrest Management is a hospital simulation game where you are a nurse making your rounds, helping your patients stabilize in various  cardiac arrest scenarios.

Though it was a “text heavy game”, it was interspersed with many vital chart graphics and pictures. It also offered a lot of clues and hints when returned to a previous step upon a mistake. This allowed for the continuation of the narrative, while providing correct information without taking the player out of the scenario.

The bustling hospital environment and sounds of beeping machinery makes it a very immersive experience reflecting the day-to-day as a nurse in medical care.

This game is very much catered towards those with a background in medical care settings, as there is a lot of medical terms and jargon. One should also be literate in ECG charts and know what the visuals mean to make the right decisions of what to do next to save the patient.

Once the patient has been stabilized, the player can return to the main menu and move on to the next patient. The “onus was on me to ensure this virtual pathway through my game was well planned out” (Presta, 2022) given the details and true-to-life nature of the game, was an important detail to keep in mind.

Reflection

This was a very anxiety-inducing game, because 1) I am not from a medical background and 2) I don’t know anything about cardiac arrest management!

Only a few minutes in, due to my medical malpractice and neglect, I already had to perform CPR on Patient #2 and use a defibrillator with maximum of 360 joules and some injection to get him breathing again (ಡ‸ಡ)

That aside, I thought it was very informational, and though I don’t know how to read the ECG charts, I came out of the game with more knowledge about defibrillators than I had in the beginning!

Using Twine as a medium for this game was a great idea, as it co-creates a learning environment where the player is an active participant of their own learning through this hospital simulation game to manage cardiac arrests. I am grateful that Jessica took the time to share her medical knowledge in a step-by-step manner, making professional experience and information accessible in an interactive way!

References

Presta, J. (2022, June 13). Task 5: Twine Task. Jessica Presta’s Blog ETEC540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/jpresta/2022/06/13/task-5-twine-task/ 

Linking Task 7: Mode Bending (Erin)

Task 7: Mode-Bending

I chose to link to Erin’s post because of her unique audio and visual form to share what is in her bag in a very familiar, effective and clever way through Tik Tok.

Erin approached the task in a very literal way, showing the contents of what is in her bag. In terms of the content in her bag, I would say we both have similar items with similar purposes. One main difference is that Erin drives and I rely on public transit, which might be the deciding factor of the divergence in our blog posts.

Erin’s post expands across both audio and visual media,  with a few components that work cohesively in conjunction, which is distinctive of a Tik Tok:

  • Background Music: considered the mood and length for the Tik Tok
  • Text: visually displayed the key words on screen next to items as they appear
  • Audio Speech-to-text Description: brief text-to-speech description “with key words to describe a sentiment without actually saying what it was” (Duchesne, 2022).
  • Video: using trending zoom-in/zoom-out effect of items in her bag

Should one isolate any one component, they might not understand the context of what is happening as they rely on each other to make-meaning.

Though it is not required, having some background knowledge of the trends on Tik Tok can help understand the context of the presentation format and why it is “entertaining”.

Reflection

Though I have seen Tik Toks and understand this format of social media, I personally do not use the platform at all, so I am impressed by her use of the functions that the app has to offer. It is a very entertaining way to condense information in such a short amount of time, and grab one’s attention!

” It forced me to think about many possibilities that I normally would not pursue and work out the creative details of different ideas until I found one that would fit the criteria and that I could execute.” (Duchesne, 2022) reminded me that social media can be a powerful tool and robust platform for the intent of creating and sharing information in the realm of educational technology. It definitely breaks down the barrier and idea of “educational technology” being confined to the structure of institutions, and is more ubiquitous than we make it seem!

References

Duchesne, E. (2022, June 30). Task 7: Mode-Bending. Erin Duchesne ETEC 540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/erinduchesneetec540/2022/06/30/task-7-mode-bending/

 

Linking Task 4: Potato Printing (Katie, Simin)

Looking through the blogs of my colleagues, I noticed most of them opted for the manual script task, so when I saw Katie and Simin’s potato printings, I wanted to do the linking task on their project observations.

On Katie and Simin’s websites, they included a picture of their completed print, with a written description of their experience and process.

Katie made a colorful potato print of her dog’s name “DAiSY”
Simin made a bright yellow print of the words “Light”, with the letters “g” and “h” mirrored in the print.

Below is a brief categorization of the themes I found in their observations:

Tools

Katie used a paring knife to carve on small potatoes.
Simin used a larger carving knife that is about 5-inches long.

The difference in tool size and length definitely affected the carving experience, which in Simin’s experience was difficult to carve with precision to create legible letters.

Typography

Both of them forgot that the letters would appear in mirror image when printed, and didn’t realize it until they created the print!
This can be seen in Simin’s print, which I am glad they kept instead of correcting it, as it reflects part of the learning process.

They also noticed the symmetry and mirror-ability of some the letters, such as the “D”, “i”, “S” in Katie’s print, and “i”, “t” in Simin’s print.

Katie deliberately chose to use uppercase, whereas Simin used camel-case. With more curves and roundness in lowercase letters, it can pose as a greater challenge compared to the angular and pointed uppercase letters when carving on potatoes. Both were in san-serif fonts.

Katie mentioned it was difficult to maintain a consistent size and style, which can be illustrated through Simin’s “g” looking more like an “e” in comparison to the size of the neighboring letters.

Printing

When making the prints, Katie was able to maintain a fairly consistent spacing in the duplicate words. The only noticeable difference would be the pressure when stamping them, as seen in the uneven-ness in the “D” “A” and “S”. The paint seemed pretty consistently spread onto the stamps in a thinner layer, so the letters seemed to be a bit transparent.

Simin mentioned the sliminess of the potato made it difficult to pick up, which made the print blurry by slipping around on paper. Looking at the prints themselves, it seems like Simin’s layer of paint was thicker as well, which could also have contributed to the slipperiness.

Time

Simin’s prints took around 30 mins to complete, with most time spent on planning and cutting. Katie’s prints took around 10 mins to complete.

Both mentioned how labor-intensive and inefficient process was to create these prints manually. Katie mentioned the “perceived” value of traditional processes and how they developed a certain personal attachment to the potato stamps, knowing how much work went into it.

Connection with Readings:
“Human connection” + “Accessibility”

Katie centered her reflection of the task around “what is lost in increasing efficiency” during the mechanization of printing — mainly the connections people have with the physical medium itself. She believes that the earlier practices do not need to be completely erased in favor of new developed technologies.

Simin centered their reflection on mechanization or print “creating a base understanding of tangible language to reach beyond limited repetition”, placing emphasis on breaking down the barriers of writing as a scholar-limited tool to one that is more accessible to the masses.

I think this resonates with some of the similar sentiments I had while writing about the revival of risograph printing, in particular the “human connection” and “accessibility” aspects behind the many reasons that artist continue to use risoprint to create and distribute their artwork.

Reflection

Having been introduced to linocut and other types of printing early on, their observations reminded me of my own learning process when I first started experimenting with the method and medium, and how different our experiences were.

I first encountered printmaking in a classroom setting, therefore I had access to suitable tools and materials with a more structured learning process. I was able to fast-track onto experimenting with carving and printing technique, as I didn’t need to spend as much time trying to figure out the peripheral technicalities of the tools and materials like Katie or Simin did. However, it was through their straightforward approach through trial and error that highlighted the importance of exploration and learning through hands-on practice.

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