Smriti Singh Portfolio Reflections

Upbeat dance music pulses
The camera follows a man as he walks through an airport
The words “A take on digital literature” appear on screen, and then the words “Created by Smriti Singh”

Digital literature. What encompasses this concept of pouring traditional texts into mediums that infiltrate our twenty-first century lifestyle. In a digitally globalized age, we are constantly connecting as human beings through interactions over text, social media, photographs, videos, and online articles. There is a world of information around us, and the internet exists as a body of endless knowledge, and at just the snap of our fingertips, we can access it all.

[0:45] A sliding presentation of various documents against a white background.

 Just as the globalization of our world has enabled us to change the way we interact, the addition of literature into the electronic realm has shifted the perspective we have, and the way we read, digest, and think about poetry, short stories, and novels.

[1:04] The words “Espen J. Aarseth wrote his book Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic that ‘it is possible to explore, get lost, and discover secret paths in these texts, not metaphorically, but through the topological structures of the textual machinery,’” appear in blue text over a white background.

[1:20] A video of a girl drawing in dog in air with her finger.
A green text bubble appears from her head, saying, “I have a cat… Do you have any pets?”
A boy she is talking to replies in a text bubble as well, saying, “No.”
A grey text bubble appears with the words, “Did You Know: In India cats are considered bad luck?”

To get my ankles in the water, and slightly acquainted with visual literature, I chose a physical lense to analyze the poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens. The lense focused on the depiction of stanza five on New York City’s Library Walk, and the entire poem strewn across a nature-filled walk in Stevens’ hometown in Hartford, Connecticut. Even with this physical lense, the analysis and discussion of the poem’s literary elements felt familiar, as I’ve written countless papers dissecting past forms of literature in an essay format. Working with such a direction was tricky…

[2:25] The words “Literature is one of our best ways for sharing thoughts, facts, ideas, stories- both fictional and non,” appear against a white background.

But with a careful balance of research and critical thinking, I was able to make a connection between the material and how we as readers take it in based on the presentation, font, and context.

[2:37] The words, “Thus, electronic literature is a hybrid art form that requires its readers to utilize various visual modalities such as sight, sound, touch, movement, when experiencing it.”- Dr. Gene Grigar, Associate Professor/Director, The Creative Media and Digital Culture Program, Washington State University,” appear.

[2:55] Books are shown against a white background. The words, “Lit-er-a-ture - noun… Written material such as poetry, novels, essays, etc. Especially works of imagination characterized by excellence of style and expression and by themes of general or enduring interest- Word English Dictionary,” appear.

[3:16] The words, “Literature remains as our largest collective reference of all information,” appear against a white background.

[3:25] Clip plays of a man swiping and tapping on a newspaper as if it is an electronic tablet. The “newspaper” reacts to his inputs the way a touch screen would.

[3:43] A close-up of a woman’s eye as makeup is applied. Clips from Michelle Phan’s YouTube videos are played.

Similarly, my e-poem works to visually demonstrate themes expressed in William Wordsworth’s poem, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” This time, however, the materials, processes, and connections came from other stems. Materials were from Michelle Phan’s artistic public YouTube works: insights into her life, and conveys of her life, and the processes emerged from the Camtasia editing process, as I played around with cutting clips, layering visuals, and integrating transitions. Connections mostly arose when pairing certain lines of the poem to certain stories shown in the video.

[4:28] A video of a man and woman walking to the edge of their building’s “green roof,” which is covered in lush vegetations. A wide-shot of their city block shows that many other buildings have a similar set-up.

It is a method of innovation, it is a method of transcending literature into an age of new individuals, an age where we learn and connect in a digital space, where we can express ourselves and be more creative than ever before.