Pixels:
A Collage of Pictures and Text
of the Life of Jo Stevens
For my remix project, I decided to use images and text to create a
character sketch of a character from a story that I'm currently working
on. I'm writing a short story for my Fiction Writing class, and the
main character is a college sophomore named Jo Stevens. I'd been having
trouble getting to know her as a character, and so when this project
was presented to us, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to
explore this character a bit further.
To start the project, I searched through Flickr on the Creative Commons
website to find pictures that I could remix. My intention was to create
an electronic version of a bulletin board, depicting a collage of
photos that Jo has collected. With each of the six main images, there
is a link to some text. Each piece of text is a note that is written by
Jo to her girlfriend, Andie. I used the format to be able to write Jo
in first person, and allow her to describe some of her memories and
experiences.
Using the images I found, first I created a
background collage of photographs. Then I created an HTML image map to
make six of the foreground images clickable. Initially, I had planned
on just having one main image with six different image links on it. As
I put the text pieces in order, I realized that there was a slightly
chronological order to the photos, and that it would make more sense if
they were clicked on in a specific order. To achieve that, I started
out having just one of the photos in the image be clickable. When that
photo is clicked, it is linked to the first piece of text. From there,
the user can go to the next screen, which now shows two new photos, and
the second photo is now clickable. By adding one photo at a time to the
board, it gives the illusion that someone is adding to the bulletin
board as the user goes through it.
Though I only had time to create six clickable
images and their corresponding text for this project, I'd like to take
it much further in the future. My ultimate goal would be to create an
entire online persona for Jo, incorporating her photos, notes, and
journal entries to create an extensive background for her character.
To view the project, click the link below and find the links on the image map as you go through the site.
View
the board
Back
to Home