Project 1 Poetics

The page of the slideshow of pictures of the beach was designed to be a collage of perspectives of the virtual me and then the more personal real-life me, I looked for pictures that represent both.  The photo of the surfer on the 30 ft. wave and the photoshopped picture of the surfer and the shark represent an idea of the beach that other people and I in the public sphere share, mostly those who haven’t experienced the beach firsthand.  Then I picked the tide pool picture and personal photos to represent what it is I experienced in person and show a side of me that can not necessarily be experienced by others via the online community.  I put a clip from Youtube and a music piece in the “family” section of my home page since they show pieces of important memories from my childhood that holds personal value to me and yet can be experienced by others via an online community and yet may hold different meanings to different individuals.  In making my music page I focused on how being a fan of a band puts you into a community of other fans and that band.  The video of the guy on stage with Billie represents a more real-life connection between the band and fans yet at the same time that isn’t restricted to in-person experiences as the clip itself and the music on my page come from sites where fans such as myself have free access and can be a part of the community even if they aren’t with the band live.  On the “career” page the clip of the Bioware team discussing a future game title shows me as part of an online fan base where videos of the company’s achievements are available to those interested while the actual Bioware site means a different kind of participatory culture where the actual career info is and forums to the team are located.  These forums and pages of requirements are more competitive by nature and the experiential nexus is completely different from the online fan base.  On the “family tradition” page, the community story was supposed to show that this ritual of pounding mochi means something deeply personal to me and yet the online public sphere allows others with access to the Youtube community to experience this also, granted only on a surface level, but there is a connection.