(Play this on loop, because I never found a way to play the sound in the game)
Artist's Statement:
This project was a great exercise. It was definitely the most frustrating project yet. I tend to create by excessive experimentation, and I had many ideas for this project. The part that frustrated me was the fact that I was completely unfamiliar with the medium on which I was to present this. I wanted an image? Google it. I wanted the text to not be on the edge? No answers. I wanted to have the same image throughout the whole thing but it lowly would pan up as the story unfolded? Not possible. I had to work with the restraints of the medium. And it was a whole new language. Nothing made sense.
As a whole, I’m a bit disappointed I wasn’t able to do more on this, but I think the images I was adding — while a cool idea — didn’t add to the poem. The thing about poems (especially this one) is the way they provoke powerful mental images with the words. As I experimented with images, I felt that it defeated the efficacy of the words. It took away from the grotesque scenes that one’s mind would naturally conjure as they read the words.
Armed with this knowledge, I went about trying to utilize the program of Twine to only enhance, and not detract, from the source text. I deleted the images, and scraped my original idea of having Nina Simone sing each line in the background of each slide.
The color seemed like a simple thing that might help convey some emotions, especially using contrast of color. My favorite is the stark red blood. Another creative tool I employed was the use of sounds. I listened to several soundscapes, trying to find one that at first felt serene, but as the poem progressed, became more ominous. Of course, it wasn’t that the audio changed, but the person’s perception changed. Sadly, I was never able to figure out how to add the sounds into the project.
In conclusion, was this poem optimized for use of Twine? Perhaps. If it was, however, I may have not utilized it in the best way possible. That being said, I still would not consider this project a failure, as I learned the importance of knowing the technical language of the medium I was using, and that substituting more elements and flashy, cool gimmicks won’t necessarily serve the story. Sometimes, less is more, and the most important thing to do is get out of the way of the story
-Tanner
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