Ch7 & Text Rain

In Chapter 7 of Electronic Literature, Rettberg discusses divergent streams. Rettberg opens up this chapter by introducing locative narratives and technologies, stating how every smartphone nowadays has a GPS installed in it allowing the phone to give its current location. Rettberg states the benefits that come with our technology knowing our location, like traffic and weather updates. However, this access to our individual locations does come with cons; a surrender of privacy. However, Rettberg brings out good points about how locative technologies can benefit narrative and poetic experiences. Today, radio frequency identification (RFID) and QR codes have allowed us to tag stories on locations. For example, Snapchat. Snapchat allows us to take a picture and enable a geotag that includes the current location of the individual.

Text Rain is an interactive component that requires the individual to give body movements to interact with the falling letters. Sometimes the individual can catch enough letters, leading the letters to transition into actual words or phrases, usually about the body and language. This is interesting to me because it seems very interactive, and doesn't work to its ideal extent unless the individual actually interacts with it. This is demanding more from the students than just a raised hand, this requires the individual to actually interact with it.

Ryan Donahue