reflections
Relating this to Florian Hartling's "Hypertext and Collective Authors: The Influence of the Internet on the Formation of new Concepts of Authorship," I found that his definitions of authorship are applicable in this project.
- Genalistic Authorship: The reader's interaction with the digital washroom graffiti changes as they can now not only read what they want in a comfortable environment (versus the washroom stall), but also they can decide what to read further if they are interested. The links that are provided by the digitizaton of washroom graffiti allows the reader to have the choice of expanding their knowledge on certain issues. In addition, because the washroom graffiti is viewed on a platform that requires internet access, readers can also look for their own research on certain topics. Also, there is no set reading as to how one should be reading this new form of narrative, as the reader is free to explore as he or she wishes.
- Collaborative Authorship: The ability for collaborative authorship is different from the physical sphere and the digital sphere. In the physical sphere, readers can become authors and easily express their thoughts, concerns, and opnions on the physical bathroom stall wall as long as they have the proper writing instrument. As more comments are added, a narrative forms and creates a collaborated graffiti work. On the digital sphere, I have created a forum that invites users to talk and add their opinions on the graffiti artwork that is presented in this website. However, due to the difference in spheres, users cannot directly add on to the "wall" of the washroom stall. As a result, the collective work is no longer aesthetically appealing.
- Marginalized Authorship: The marginalized author in the physical sphere is the writing instrument that is needed to comment and contribute to the graffiti written on the washroom stall. On the digital sphere, the importance of the marginalized author is very evident for the author who wants to transfer the washroom graffiti onto the digital space in a way that is user friendly and aesthetically appealing. I had to use programs such as Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 and certain websites to help me create what I wanted my digital washroom graffiti to look like. In addition, I also used Adobe Photoshop to help enhance the quailty of the pictures that I took. Most importantly, without the knowledge of HTML or JavaScript, I would not be able to create the digital washroom graffiti that is avaliable on this website.
conclusion
- Overall, I am satisfied with what I have created as I believed this enhances one's experience of reading the bathroom graffiti. It also creates a wider range of audiences, thus increasing the visibility of it. The most interesting part that I found in this project is how I am connecting the private space of the washroom stall to the public space of the internet. I believe this emergence of the two spaces creates an interesting experience for the reader. In addition, it also allows an interesting study as to what types of topics are written about in a female versus a male's washroom stall.
- With this project, I hope to create more works of digital bathroom graffiti and have others contribute to this project as well. I hope that in the future, bathroom graffiti would be accepted as a norm because I believe it does bring the community together, especially when the graffiti is an expression of the self or is part of the culture of generosity.
