Brief Thoughts (about this week's literature)

 

 

The Last Performance by Judd Morrissey is somewhat confusing to follow. There are three sections: The Dance has words dancing in different formations; The Performance Space introduces you to the 6 "C's"; sectors such as Consider the style of old words in new times and Collaboration as architecture: double building and The Dome where you see hundreds of words and non-words all across the screen. The Dome which has most of the information takes you through different  sectors and lenses. To be honest I became more confused - too much information that didn't make sense, at least to me. I did get to one quote that was just plain and simple; it read "Last words by Conrad Hilton, founder of the international hospitality empire. Leave the shower curtain on the inside of the tub." Ok, so where does this fit into a dance performance??? And also why do we hear goat sounds???  I clicked on the bottom right of the page which cleared up the goat sounds and the meaning of the title - Morrissey was a member of Goat Island, a Chicago-based collaborative group, who gave their Last Performance in 2009.

 

88 Constellations by David Clark is another e-lit piece that takes you "all over the place." It focuses on the philosopher Wittgenstein's thoughts on life. When clicking on LEO, I did learn a bit of trivia on how the MGM studio mascot lion got his name - from one of the founders Samuel "Leo" Goldwyn. I also got a laugh when some of Goldwyn's sayings were mentioned like "anyone who goes to a psychologist needs to have their head examined" or "this verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it is written on." I clicked on Blog and it links to a website dedicated to 88 Constellations and gives you Clark's own view of the piece. It also helped clear up why the words "to be played with the Left Hand" are in parenthesis next to the title - it was a tribute to Wittgenstein's concert pianist brother Paul who lost his right arm in WWI but still played with his left hand.

 

Almost Goodbye by Aaron Reed contains no sound, just text. The story is about Muriel Ross, a scientist leaving the earth forever who has yet to say goodbye to 5 people on her list. The reader has the option to click on who (her daughter, former lover, biggest fan, mentor and best friend), where she should meet them (diner, the park, etc.) and how the conversation should end (always a choice of two, for example, say you will or say you won't). As you move through each person, no matter which order you use, Muriel doesn't get to see the last person on the list because the time has come for final boarding. She does have the option of sending a message to that person or not; if you click on send message, you see that it is only one word, "Goodbye." This is an interesting piece that gives you a snapshot into Muriel's life where you can sense the sadness and even the regrets that she has about her life.