My Elit piece will be a video showing a few of my experiences and feelings about studying and living in the U.S. for the first time as a foreigner. But it won’t be a video like a documentary. Instead, it will be something like the Peaceful Dream which combines moving texts, music, and pictures together, mainly conveying a vibe. I’m now working on the text part. I’m trying to make it concise and easy to read because it will be something shown in a video where the audience won’t be able to control the reading speed unless they pause haha. I will start working on the music and picture selection this weekend and editing next week.

Hana Feels is a fun elit. I like how its pages are designed. He really resembles the Orange Light game that was so popular when I was a kid. Our dialogue choices point to different outcomes. In Will’s part, I tried to play the role of a patient operator trying to help Hana, and what struck me most in this part was actually Hana’s diary. It was a vivid representation of the mental activity of a girl with mental health problems before and after she tried to get help. I began to wonder, can everyone with a tendency to self-harm receive effective and patient psychological guidance when seeking help? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Will’s professionalism as a professional operator was such that he was fortunate enough to give Hana the comfort she needed. But just think, not everyone who needs help can seek it properly or get it effectively. I’m reminded of the story I read a few years ago about a stressed high school student who finally tried to get help from his parents and had a conflict that led to the high school student’s suicide. It was heartbreaking. When a desperate child cries out for help to those closest to them, those close to them don’t realize it’s a cry for help. Too many of these problems happen every single day. It is my sincere hope that everyone who is prone to self-harm will receive timely and effective psychological help even though it is difficult.

Until I read this piece, I had never thought such problems existed in modern prisons. I don’t know the American prison system, but I’m sure this kind of problem is happening in prisons worldwide. The entire work is documented in chronological order. The author uses all capital letters, huge font, and frequent subdivisions to tell the story, which made me feel like I was watching a trailer for some movie. I skimmed through half of the stories, and they were eye-opening. I can’t imagine how desperate it would be to be in an enclosed space without air conditioning and fans in July. During a pandemic, while people on the outside are trying to do what they can to prevent the spread of the virus, these people in prison who have done wrong have to endure such torture. It is deplorable.

Created in the context of the physical and social isolation caused by the 2020 global pandemic, Dial expresses the tenuous lifeline offered through text messaging and instant messaging, according to the editorial statement. Dialogue is generative, shifting through emojis and brief phrases conveying the weather, seasons and the passage of time, the two voices fusing into a monologue. This work is a deeper reflection on the malleable time experienced during the blockade, when minutes felt like days and months passed without discernible memories to separate them.

I found similarities between this work and the interactive mechanics of peaceful dream that I had previously reviewed – capturing text and image changes through the eye. The rapidly changing background colors and the text in the dialogue bubbles show the passage of time. Most importantly this work reminds me of how people lived during the height of the pandemic. I was reminded that I spent my entire freshman semester at home during the beginning of the pandemic. I spent 90% of my day on my phone and computer during the initial lockdown. My message dialog was just as this work shows – rapidly changing and sometimes confusing. The sense of time also seemed to change during the pandemic. The difference between day and night seemed to be the same except for the presence or absence of the sun – the streets were always dead. I started reversing the days and nights to escape the abnormal days, because the nights seemed to go by faster. Those were the days when I found the least meaning of life. I was grateful that people worked hard to make the blockade permanent and not come back.

The chat dialog box, Google engine, video games, Amazon, map navigation, and various apps are so close to life despite the theme of robbing a bank, which is unusual. The background music and sound effects of the whole work are also very appropriate to the plot, giving people a sense of immersion.

Although the whole work is about a young Bonnie and Clyde-esque love story, but when I was reading it, my biggest feeling was the influence of electronic products on people or we can say people’s deep reliance on them. The main character uses Google engine to search a lot of information about “how to rob a bank”, “test your morality”, “how to walk in the woods “ even “how to keep a man”, which reminds us that we live in a world of ready-made information. Everything we can think of can be searched using engines. This is likely to lead to one result – the solidification of thinking.

Also in the last chapter: sister sister, there are some weird Chinese recipe pages.

The picture was keeping flashing. This left me with some confusion. In fact many of the plots leave me confused and they seem to be illogical sometimes. I’m looking forward to a more in-depth discussion by Nicole in class.

A kiss is the most romantic elit I’ve read so far. it’s a bit like twelve blue in design, each short story seems connected but at the same time independent. The best difference is that I can return to the previous hypertext page. “words that might describe the shade of lipstick she prefers”, “her favorite sandwich”, “what she orders more often than sandwich”, “She eats like a rabbit, basically”. I’m addicted to these tiny sweet details described from the male perspective. For me, this expresses love more than the most direct physical contact. They are so real, touching and tender. What surprised me the most was the map that showed all threads.

There is no doubt that this is a huge work. The interweaving of these threads is exactly the way love, marriage, and life are made up. The mundane and trivial pile up together to form greatness.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GgZyD-wT3xOUon4WtcJ4NzzvvdJFVV4WBICJasdFEjc/edit?usp=sharing

Forgotten Nights is a really beautiful elit work which combing audio and visual perfectly.

I like the simplicity of the page design: black night sky background, the moon in the middle, so many stars around the moon spread out on the page. There are four buttons at the bottom of the page: Another Night, Reveal Stars, About, Stop. As a casual person, every time I read elit, I don’t read the About or Guidance first, but explore in my own way. Only after I’ve figured out the rules on my own will I check the About to make sure I’m on track.

“This is a breaking memory…, this is an aftermath memory…, this is a lamplight memory… ” Every time I click on a star it disappears, thus constituting another night, leading to another audio mini-poem. When I click on a blank space, a new star may or may not appear. Clicking on the ANOTHER NIGHT button changes the entire order of the stars. Overall, each time the night sky changes, the corresponding poem changes. I love the concept it reflects: each night’s starry sky is unique, and so are the memories.

The most surprising thing for me was the REVEAL STARS button. I didn’t notice any change in the starry sky when I clicked it at first. Later, when I long pressed it, countless darker stars (the stars that were previously erased) all appeared in the night sky, which is stunning. I tried to think about the meaning of the author’s design of this button, as it did not seem to have the function to connect with the poem. I think these stars are all memories. Whether they are memories that we want to erase or memories that we want to keep, their existance is beautiful. They make up the whole of us.

I really enjoy this game of words.

The visual design is clear. I feel comfortable seeing the screen and playing this game.

I did not click on the guidance link talking about what blackout poetry is at first. Instead, I clicked on Thesis Mode, which makes me confused. I don’t know what the meaning is of clicking on a certain word and it turns to pink color. After that, I kept exploring the four modes left. The antithesis mode gives me a good example. The synthesis and symbiosis modes are the most interactive mode in this game. They remind me of the online Five in a Row game. The last mode is Visual. I cannot really distinguish this mode from the Antithesis mode. They are both bot selects. If I have to tell the difference between these two modes, I think the Antithesis has the animation effect of scanning and selecting while the Visual mode only shows the results.

Here is my poetry under Symbiosis mode:

Thunder for a soft ears on a little man as the marble so seemed.

I think it is beautiful at the beginning of the little poem—“Thunder for a soft ear on a little man” even though it is a lil bit messed up at the end. It shows the contrast between horrible thunder and “soft ear” & “little man”. A picture of a little kid being afraid of thunder shows up in my mind.

Heyyy! This is Ming (Melanie) Wang, a Cancer+INFP Chinese girl. Nice to meet you!

I’m an exchange student from the Kean China campus, Wenzhou-Kean, a senior majoring in English with a minor in communication.

I’m typical introvert but could be going insane with familiar friends.

I love music. I’m in the school singer team and also make my own music. Music makes me complete.

I love cooking. I can cook really good Chinese food. You really need to try someday.

I love traveling. I went to Florida during spring break, where I had so much fun in Universal and Disney World. Also, I’m planning to travel to Boston and New Orleans this semester. I’m trying to explore this country as much as I can.

This is my second semester and also my last semester here at KUSA. 2022 means a lot to me. It begins in a brand new place and I live a brand new life here. I travel new places, eat new food, meet new people. I have to say this whole year is the best year ever in my life where I explore myself and find myself.