The Near and Far
For my final project, I created a blog on which I posted in different pages the different sections of my multimodal analysis. The project itself was a mammoth of a deed, because I wanted to get the tone of a blog just informal enough so that it fit that intended definition, but I did not want that to come at the expense of the caliber of analysis.
I chose to present it as a blog, because I specifically enjoy the presentation freedom that a blog gives — for this, I really chose a theme that was fitting. Its presentation just in this theme is reminiscent in font-choice and header-image filter of the 70s and the invention of the personal computer, which is the first device that connects a general public together with the invention of the internet and that very fundamentally digital historicizing relates to my artifacts: The Familiar because of my discussion of Hayles’ “digital born” truth of literature and the Guardian article because it is the internet connection between people which brings about the controversy of surveillance in the digital age.
The reason, though, that I specifically chose to present it as a blog as opposed to just as a paper or image with specific fonts and an image was because my project seeks to argue that the way an artifact appeals to emotional connection or perception means it can create an affect of closeness and distance simultaneously (and in a way paradoxically) to ultimately prove that reading in itself is experiential. So, that being said, I wanted a way to show that. A blog shows emotional connection to our reader base because of its often informal tone and in a brief presentation method—like how Buzzfeed does listicles. This emotional connection enables my readers to connect with the familiarity and colloquium of its presentation. Further, the blog creates a sense of distance, too, because of its lack of physical existence. This paper is not printed out and does not exist in physical form, which means for most readers that it is in a bit of a different world—the world of the internet, of computer memory or connection. This is also paradoxical in a way, too, because despite being “in a different world” it is still able to be printed out and is still readable as a blog and is therefore not necessarily other-worldly or without the possibility of physical existence.
In the blog itself, I used several images from the Guardian article, for example, in that section and other images I found online that artistically represent the points I make about the emotional connection to create closeness and distance and the experience of reading. The relevance of these images vary depending on their application to each point; but, for example, I use an Escher drawing of a hand drawing a hand which is drawing a hand. Much like a lot his drawings, this Escher drawing is paradoxical and a comment on the nature of meta-expression. I use it at the beginning of my Narcon section because my argument in that section is about the meta-fictive levels of power in The Familiar creating both closeness and distance. All of the images I chose are an attempt to visually illustrate my points, ultimately also illustrating that the relation to my blog is an experience in itself.