reality

I really enjoyed creating this final project. I think it was a great end to a pretty cool semester. I was debating between doing an ARG and a short story. However, I ended up choosing a short story because I felt that my ideas could be expressed more clearly in a short story than an ARG. Once I began to think about all the movies and short stories we've read, I began to find connections within each one. I found that each one focused on a reality that was unlike our own and that each of these realities were undefinable. I especially focused on Level Real of Avalon where that reality was static and posed the question if it was real or not. In my story, I tried to pose that same question, how do we define reality? and is our definition of reality the right one? My story deals with the idea of dementia and schizophrenia and how those realities connect to our own. I guess you just have to read the story for yourself because it has a twist ending that I'd rather not give away. This semester has definitely taught me to look at what I consider reality very differently. Like someone previously said, for all we know, we could be sitting in a comatose in a nursing home.  read more »

For my final project, I decided to further explore ARGs (more specifically lonelygirl15) and the “actors” within them, to help shape and support my theories about the switch that turns our worlds on and off. I used an MTV article about lonelygirl15 to help.

Whether created or pre-existing, a world is reality.

ARGs are thought of and created. To the creators, players, and puppets, it is a reality to them for some time. The creators put real time and effort into the lift-off of the game. Players invest time and energy into solving the puzzles. The puppets, or actors, are really being filmed and really doing their job. In one way, or another, it is reality to everyone. The story itself may be made up, but it is itself a part of reality. Are lies not a part of our daily life—our real life? New Media has basically forced me to take another look at what I consider reality, what I consider truth.  read more »

For my final project, a short story, I explored the idea of shifting realities and the potential for a variety of realities in what is perceived as one reality. The story is based off of a couple of different people I ran into in the nursing homes in which my great-grandmother and grandfather lived. One woman was convinced she was a cruise boat director. Another man appeared to be the sweetest old man and, before his illness set in, was just that, however, when approached would do nothing but yell obscenities at people. for a while I was struggling with my own grandfather's rapidly progressing dementia due to Parkinson's and realized that many times these men and women, though they appear to be in the room we're in, are in a completely different world that we cannot access. Who are we to say that our world is more real than the one we're experiencing just because it happens to be the one we are experiencing. To me, it's kind of like the "real" level in Avalon, where reality is never something static, defined or even definable. How are we to know that we aren't hallucinating our whole lives?  read more »

Looking into ARGs, I'm beginning to understand why people find htem compelling. Though I'm not particularly good at puzzles, I see why people would enjoy solving them and having a more substantial sense of accomplishment than other kinds of puzzles (this sounds weird, but I always thought being a hacker would be "fun" and playing an ARG would maybe let people like me act out this fantasy without doing any harm). I am more interested in the plot/character aspect of it, however. I definitely have the tendency to get attached to characters and I could totally see myself getting into that aspect of ARGs.  read more »