Monthly Archives: October 2025

student blogs

Feeling Like a Guest

Facade and Welcome Home

Facade

Being asked to choose a letter to pick a name and the somewhat mysterious music playing at the same time reminded me of the game Resident Evil when it first came out for PlayStation. There would be certain scenes when the character is in the save room and a certain music, piano, singing bowl chiming like there was a purpose to fulfill played. The same for when the conversation or argument was occurring behind the door with Trip and Grace. As we are brought closer to the door a few commands as tips are shown along the screen quickly once again creating the interaction but with a feeling of something eerie is happening were we then interact with Trip after once we are inside the apartment. I really paid attention to the background music as I entered after being invited by Trip, a loud harmonica, maybe accordion like annoyance fills the air while Grace is being rude and arguing loudly in the kitchen not allowing Trip to get a word in to comment, only half utters.

 As Diana is finally greeted by Grace the conversation seems forced, and fake showing the lack of compatibility. When it came to the responses to Graces decorating, any welcoming response about her abilities to decorate lessens the tension some before Grace could get angry or upset and gave Trip the opportunity to step in and further iterate her good sense of style and artistic vision. Grace was getting jealous though before that from the comments made by Diana on the Italy photo and it gave Trip a big head from all the compliments. It also felt weird, awkward when they thanked Diana for introducing them 10 years ago and some fo the words used to describe their relationship overtime were abrupt and not the adjectives I expected, or transparency found in a couples usually reply such as Pain. The argument between them started to heat up and then they raised questions to Diana about what a marriage or relationship should be and if couples should make each other better. Diana’s responses were taken offensively it seemed or not the answers either Grace or Trip wanted to hear. They both wanted to be right, and Diana was only there to justify each of their positions in the marriage and how they felt between each other. Anxiety kind of also got higher in what I as feeling even though I was just watching and not really there observing through the YouTube social media link. This becomes a entirely new way of interaction.

Welcome Home

If there could be any two contrasting Elit content it would be Welcome Home and Façade. Right away the color palette makes you feel warm, welcomed and wanting to know what’s going on here, let me further explore. The experienced of joy and “home” is really emphasized with all the content that was found and restored from this children’s TV program in 1969, created to have a treasure trove of happiness at the click of a mouse. The Playfellow Exhibition and “It’s for You” interactive phone really sparked some ideas but also shows how challenging it would be for someone from most recent generations to just sit there and listen to the recordings on a rotary phone, not being able to type or text, or respond in any way to justify their being. I wanted to experience more of the recordings and attempted to click on the active hypertext link to their merchandise page but there was nothing there to go to, only greeted with the acknowledgment that I went too far out of the page. I was impressed though when I clicked on The Neighborhood button and all the different residents who resided there and the description each had.  The colors again made me feel welcomed unlike the theme of interacting with Façade and the tension, anxiety that was always present. The transcripts were very long and fun to read even the extensive conversation of dialogue involved in each catchphrase.

I think out of all the characters I can relate to Wally, since I too am an artist who enjoys expressing and connecting with others through painting and lending a helping hand with similar mannerisms, characteristics mentioned in his description being a neighbor who is “soft spoken, patient, kind, and observant, regardless of his surrounding circumstances concerning his over-the-top neighbors.” It seems he is someone who always tries to make the best out of his situation and keep a smile on his face for not only himself, but also for his neighbors to feel welcomed and joyful. We can learn a lot from these characters and the moods, examples they portray that we can try to display in and around our own surroundings.  Neighbors should be anyone who we have the pleasure of interacting with, not just a person or persons who lives next or across the street from us that we feel obligatory to interact with. Welcome Home is a great interactive restoration of a children’s tv show that I am sure touched a lot of hearts when it was aired and also influenced happier times, interaction with others as they related to each character.

student blogs

Welcome Home & Facade

Welcome Home might be my favorite piece of e-lit we’ve walked through. I was a little confused at first when going through the website. When I came across the “About Us” section I didn’t quite understand what they meant by “The Welcome Home Restoration Project is a team of anonymous individuals dedicated to compiling, restoring, and archiving what few remnants of Welcome Home have been uncovered.” because I had never heard of Welcome Home. I did a little bit more perusing through the website and saw that it was a puppet show. I then had done a quick Google search and got a little bit more detail. I then dove deeper on the restoration website and looked through all of the characters and how fun! I love that they included sound bites but my absolute favorite part of the website was the “discoveries” tab.

I’m not sure what it is but I love seeing stuff like that like the old Valentine’s Day cards, cereal boxes, cookbooks, etc.. I would love to know why the show was abruptly pulled from the air. One moment that made me feel eerie was when I read the quote “Slowly but surely, we have begun to uncover media that confirms Welcome Home was once on the air!”. In today’s world we have proof of things that existed with physical artifacts sure but digitally as well. When this show was on air, they didn’t have a website or the internet to archive the show/episodes, products or merchandise. The creators of this have probably had to search high and low and dedicate so much time to uncovering these pieces of media and merchandise to even prove the existence of the show. I absolutely adored my experience looking through this website but it also somehow gave me a slightly unsettling feeling (which I weirdly still enjoy).

I did have trouble accessing Facade but I did watch some videos that were sent to us. I found the second one most helpful since the user spoke to the audience. The first link I watched was still entertaining but I really liked watching him play through and talks us through it. For some reason, most pieces of elit we walked through have given me an uneasy feeling I’m not sure why. Facade seems like iconic piece because of the way users are able to interact with it. The piece obviously has some structure like the Grace and Trip bringing up the paintings from Italy, the wine/bar, etc.. But it is so fascinating to see that Grace and Trip interact with whatever the user says. The last video was cool because the user interacted with the space and seemed to have a lot of knowledge of the game based on the text he was putting in. I thought each of these videos brought something new to the experience which was very cool because it shows how many different ways you can approach it.

student blogs

Welcome Home & Facade

Welcome Home

Right off the bat, I must remark that the opening page of Welcome Home reminds me of Purble Place. This downloadable game was available on all Windows computers for a time, and I used to play it on my Mom’s laptop all the time when I was younger. I’m sure some of you may remember this game. It is so interesting, though, how something that seems so recent, the technological boom, can actually be nostalgic for some people — including me! Growing up with such computer games, especially immersive at the time, is quite the experience that most recently turned adults have. It brings to the table such interesting questions and implications.

Well, it seems I was on the right track, sort of. It’s really awesome that there’s electronic literature for children. Though Welcome Home is a restoration project, it still bridges the gap between analog techniques of entertainment as well as newer versions of content creation. I suppose, despite Purble Place being considered an educational game, can, in some ways, be considered electronic literature. There were familiar characters each time you opened the game, so you knew what to expect, but you were not interacting with characters or text in the way we have been doing with the forms we have read thus far in class. That is similar to Welcome Home, but in this case, there is a more diverse set of characters to interact with and a plethora of ways to interact with them. Whether you watch and listen to the storybooks, or you listen to the featured radio station, or simply click around to see who lives in which house, there are different ways for children to connect and be transported into this world, where, “home is where is the heart is”.

This project also provides an intriguing source of not only restoration, but re-creation, too. In theory, any animated show, or really, any show, could be recreated online for people to interact with. For example, Bikini Bottom can be recreated into an electronic hub for kids who want to be immersed under the sea in a different way, and possibly, a way more conducive to learning about the technological mediums around them. This way, there is still a core of where SpongeBob began his legacy, but it is continued on to abide by the changing needs of society. I’m not saying television is obsolete — I think it is far from it — but the way in which we rely on computers or tablets is so different than how we rely on the television. Frankly, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being frank. (Ha! Thanks Frank)

Overall, I thought Welcome Home is a really great project that can set some really interesting standards for the near future.

Facade

Unfortunately, I was unable to go into Facade and actually play the game. Some of you may already know this about me from past conversations in other classes, but I am not a gamer at all. For some reason, I just cannot wrap my head around what is actually supposed to be done in the game. Identifying the plot line within a video game has always been difficult for me, but I was greatly looking forward to playing Facade because, from the excerpt, it seemed really intriguing and pulled from a lot of different disciplines to support its creation. Though, I did take a look at the walk-throughs on YouTube…

First off, it was really cool to actually be inserted into the narrative. The way in which the scenes are coded so that what you see mimics what you would see if you were actually there was a great way to include the reader/interactor. Additionally, being able to actually type what you say, and Grace and Trip responding, truly brings home the idea of immersion. It’s almost as if you forget a bit of your current surroundings, and feel as though you are really in the home of Grace and Trip.

Though, this is a really interesting way to discuss what is ELIT and what is, say, a video game. From what I understand, the main difference here is that you are actually contributing to the storyline. In a video game, you can move around the room and shoot the bad guys down (or whatever you do in video games), but it’s more action-based, rather than narrative-based. In a video game, you have to kill that one bad guy to move onto the next part of the game, but with Facade, you just keep going no matter what you say. I supposed what I’m trying to articulate here is that there are no requirements in terms of what you say or do within Facade — the scenario still moves along whether you express agreement or disagreement with Grace or Trip. I think this is a great distinction between literature and gaming, as both are quite similar with the detailed storyline and inclusion of language.

As an ending note, I really hope Facade makes it back online at some point. I think it would be really cool to actually play it for myself and experience just how interesting dinner would be like at Grace and Trip’s that one fateful night…

student blogs

Welcome Home/Facade


I feel like I was going down a rabbit hole going through “Welcome Home”. I’m not gonna lie, I went through the entire website and got a little overwhelmed because I just wasn’t understanding the purpose. I guess I was expecting a storyline, rather than a website which is the story itself…if that makes sense. Granted, I was doing this assignment in the dark and when I was playing some of the Discoveries where it included snippets of the radio.. I was getting a tad freaked out. Especially when they wrote “But we believe there is someone trying to stop us or make light of our efforts”…like who is watching you? Why are they watching you? It was just giving me an uneasy feeling and I didn’t help myself by googling and reading creepy conspiracies about “Welcome Home”. I digress. When I opened this story, I was inclined to click on “About us” because I literally did not know what this piece of e-lit was going to be about. I then moved onto to meeting the neighborhood cause whats a story without a character.

Overall,  I think my thoughts would be that this piece was interesting to say the least. I’m not sure why they included sections that were clickable but didn’t really lead to anything. For example in “Guestbook” the page literally said the guestbook will be closed for the foreseeable future…so why add it there in the first place? Maybe I am analyzing this too much and missing the bigger picture?

Anyways, I will say the section for News was pretty helpful in the sense of keeping their readers included. They would provide updates and I was able to figure out when certain pieces of information were found or “given” by this anonymous source that shall NOT be named for some reason. The section where we were introduced to “The Neighborhood” was probably my favorite plot because thats the only time it felt like a story but also the full house intro theme song kept playing in my head while reading about these characters. Finally, I will say that every section had a voice of the same person which I appreciated. At no point did I think the speaker changed since we knew there is more than one person contributing to the piece.

Honestly in the year 2090 if something like this but Spongebob related comes out, it was probably me preserving it lolol.