The literal error

This week's lecture I found really interesting. Probably because it was full of not technological jargon and complicated coding but instead more philosophical and conceptual ideas.

When you think about it, technology is almost infinite; it is something that is constantly expanding. At the moment, when I hear 'technology', I think of an iPhone. But in a few month's time, will it be iPad? (It's also interesting how Apple are almost a figurehead for notions of anything 'technology' nowadays. You think technology and see that little 'i'.)

Technology is like another world. Especially with the internet. This place with so much information... and its own set of rules - "affordances and limitations". However, like Michael said, the limitations of the internet are constantly changing. Who knows, maybe a few years from now it'll become a way of transporting physical things, like teleportation. That probably won't ever happen because we'll want to eat food digitally instead rather than buy it from Woolworths Online and have it appear through our laptops. But anyway. Because affordances and limitations are constantly changing we need to be able to adapt, and in turn that means that design conventions for example with change. In an example more relevant to us, how we make media: this could change. How we show it, too, will change. How it affects the audience. And so on.

The design conventions of a website seemed so relevant, too, especially seeing as that's what we're handing in this week. And when I thought about the websites I frequent most, it was easy to see why those conventions worked.

Speaking of our websites... mine's alright. I mean, it's still a massive work in progress. It took a little while, but I found/decoded the URL for the Twitter API I'm hoping to incorporate into my project. The problem is trying to format it into my page so that there's a little box with a nice little live feed making many happies. I bet it's really simple but I'm doing this in typical style by over complicating it and missing the point.

Basically my exhibition is writing - The Six Word Story. Ernest Hemingway once claimed that he could write a story in six words; and, sure enough, he did: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn". I think it's a little, for want of a better word, wankerish, to assume it's amazing and everything, but I've found it interesting enough to exhibit it.

You see, the six word story has become a trend. Literally, on Twitter (#sixwordstory or #6wordstory). Twitter has become the perfect form for people to post their own six word stories, probably because the character limit allows not much else aside from incoherent babble, and they can show it to the world. Mind you, there are some pretty poor stories on the trend, with some people using any trend available on Twitter possible to advertise, themselves or otherwise.

But this is all part of my project. In the very first lecture the death of the print media was brought up; now with the internet, people can essentially do whatever the hell they want. Exploit the six word story, use it, appreciate it. Most do the first, in my very humble opinion, but I'm no critic. So I guess my exhibition... well, exhibits that very thing.

Along with general background and such to give a background to the Twitter thing(s), I'm hoping to link in some journals and communities I found on LiveJournal.com, all dedicated to producing six word stories. Have they exploited the art form? What defines a good six word story? To me most of the ones I've been coming across are pretty poor. But maybe I just don't understand it.

I've also found a group on Flickr that is dedicated to photos depicting their very own six word stories, as decided by the photographer. I've worked out how to use Flickr APIs, so hopefully I can add this in too. But really it'll just be something extra I'll add in because my exhibition's more on the writing part. The Flickr group will be good to show how the story form has spread, I guess. Maybe I'll find some weird Youtube videos called "My Six Word Story" and people read them out. That would be epic.

At this stage my project's called The Literal Error, which is apparently a synonym for typo. Rather fitting.

Also, I looked up the trailer for The Runaways because I like romanticised retellings of musicians.

Frigging Kristen Stewart.