Stitch Bitch Mutt (dog pun intended)

I found this weeks’ reading thoroughly interesting and surprisingly motivating.  Shelley Jackson, or possibly a monster imposter, makes some very interesting points and has a very stylized way of conveying them.  She would most likely balk at the idea of a style, but she does have a style in her free-flowing, tangential form.  Her style contributes to one of the main points of the article, write mutt.  The idea behind writing mutt is essentially throwing caution to the wind.  She prefers to write with a style that is impure, improper, and disorienting.  Seeing as I had to read this excerpt more than twice, she’s succeeding.  Why does she prefer this style?  She thinks the motivation for creating should be based on what you think is important.  She doesn’t want others to dictate what she thinks is worthy and important.  A concept I find encouraging.  I think this can be applied to any type of creation, whether it is web-design, photography, etc.  Hopefully, new/interactive media will provide a more flexible platform for creativity than previous mediums.

How do we use this idea to understand interactive media?  She uses books as an example of how a medium can be unnatural and limiting.  I’ve never thought about books in this light before, but she discusses the idea of turning the page: a momentary blackout in the story, a breath.  Also, she discusses the thoroughly linear models of books.  With new media, there is no beginning or end.  She uses a quote from Kafka to emphasize the idea of starting from the middle.  The web provides a seemingly endless trail of links and content, allowing the user to create their own non-linear (or linear if they choose) experience.

In reference to user experience, she discusses several ideas that can be applied.  To quote her:

“Sentences always say more than they mean, so writers always write more than they know, even the laziest of them.”

Humor aside, this speaks to the intent of your content and to your intended audience.  Everything you create for an audience must be done under the notion that each user will interpret it differently, a helpful idea when creating interactive media.  Although you can’t predict how every one will interpret your creation, you can try to gain an understanding through different methods i.e. focus groups, surveys, etc.  Jackson has written an interesting piece that could be applied to a variety of concepts.  Maybe I’ll put some of her concepts into use with future posts.  It’s not all what you think it will be.