code here i come!

I’m really looking forward to “Creative & Comp Lab” because I know it will be a challenge where I’m simultaneously elated and extremely fearful, both of which seem to effectuate my best work.  The overarching outcome I hope to achieve from this class is to feel like I stepped (or leapt!) out of my comfort zone and skipped away with a new skill set in my pocket. With no prior knowledge of code other than a secret password, I am here to explore new programs and technologies, to acquire new skills and techniques, and to subsequently gain a sense of new attitudes and possibilities.

As I explained in my brief presentation last week, I am a storyteller at heart. So I view “Creative & Comp Lab” as a way to enhance my storytelling by exploring the interactivity of narrative: to make my stories more dynamic, more organic, more personalized/connected to the viewer/reader/ audience/user, and thus (hopefully) more compelling.

More specifically, I want to play on an analogy between Arduino and the human body. Both are systems designed to receive input from the environment, to process this input and to respond with output. I’m thinking of taking a provocative approach to this analogy, focusing on reproductive organs. One idea is to look at the way sex is often portrayed in mainstream media as formulaic, emotionally monochromatic and entirely predictable, as if it were electronic. Another idea is to to draw upon gender clichés, with men as ‘hard’ware and women as ‘soft’ware. Finally I’ve recently started working as a volunteer with CAGeM (Campaign Against Genital Mutilation) and would like to incorporate that theme into my work as well, starting with my interactive story!