Evolution of Immersion

Evolution of Immersion by Lawrence Bruce

Immersion has been in evolution behind technology in its leaps and bounds. In multimedia ranging from games to interactive fiction its forms are progressing. From years past to current advancements I research and show how it has developed and what the future may bring with today's products and predictions.

Artificial Intelligence in the Future - Travis Moulayianis

It is unclear what the future for Artificial Intelligence has in store.  Ray Kurzweil has made many predictions for what might happen in the future.  Uploading the mind and consciousness to a storage device is one of the many things that can be done with the technology.  Using Moore's Law, in combination with the predictions of Kurzweil, the perfection of mind and consciousness uploading is expected to be here within the next 30 years.

Literature Based Smartphone Apps- Jeremy Staffen

Literature Based Smartphone Apps are a new type of smartphone app that is starting to climb up the chart rankings.  There are two main types of literature based apps that are used.  They are traditional text converted digital and literature specifically designed for apps.  These apps have excellent benefits and are an under studied field in digital humanities.

Virtual Reality Therapy - Kiri McCoy Final Essay

Virtual reality therapy is helping people across the world with various techniques and strategies. It has been seen to help with phobias, PTSD, and stress in general with different ways of immersion. So far the studies have shown that a significant portion feel positive outcomes after submitting to this therapy. Even the military helps fund one of the therapy applications called Bravemind.
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The Sticky Note Killer Prologue - Kiri McCoy

*THIS IS A HYPERLINKED NARRATIVE WHERE A WORD IN THE STORY LEADS TO THE NEXT PART OF THE STORY*



I was walking through the woods by the PPAC, nearing the small bunker that resides nearby. I encountered a strong smell that made me want to throw up, so knowing me I had to investigate. I slowly walked closer to the bunker and saw a pair of shoes outside the doorway. What I saw next was something that would haunt me to the end of time.

The body.

The body was something so unimaginable.  It was something I've never seen, and the smell was so putrid. It took days for the smell to leave my nose. I could not make out who it was that had been there for so long. I immediately called the police and waited inside of Krebs for them to get here.

I was interviewed and brought in for questioning, because I found the body. I was only told that the person was female and our age, so I assumed she probably went to Pitt-Johnstown. I would find her name out later once word got around and people starting gossiping, but mostly because I read the paper.

Two days later she was front page of the local newspaper. Her name was Allison Berekely and she was twenty years old. I knew her from somewhere i just could not place where. She died at the same age as myself. I was freaking out and pacing in my room for hours until my roommate calmed me down, gave me a cup of hot chocolate, and helped get me to sleep.

I kept thinking about Allison all day. I was excused from Tuesday classes to help me cope with what I experienced. I could not stop imaging her mangled body in that bunker. It was terrible that something like that could happen at this campus. The one thing that took me aback about the body was the random sticky note I found on the arm of the person. I took the note and kept it from police not even thinking that it was important evidence.

It said: "I favor the trail between the two tree homes and the place of unification."
There was not a signature to go off of, so I decided to find the killer myself.

Sticky Note Killer Clue #1 - Kiri McCoy

I knew that whoever the killer was wanted this evil scavenger hunt to happen otherwise he or she would not have put the note there for someone to find. I started analyzing the clue to see if I could figure out if it was a place on campus.

First I started with the "two tree homes" which makes me think actual trees, but campus is covered with them and trails so that seems so useless right now. Then I thought about the part that talks about "place of unification" because that could be taken multiple ways. Unification means to bring together several things so it could mean marriage therefore the chapel, or a gathering of sorts, but that is all over campus mostly.

I thought about the note for days and days, but I could not ask for help or someone might tell the police of my little hunt. The riddle made sense but no sense at all at the same time and it frustrated me so much. It kept me from my studies and I lost my focus on everything besides that stupid little note.

Until one day when I dropped the note and a stranger picked it up to give it to me. He had just enough time to read it before I snatched it away from him. He looked at me funnily and I just started walking away. He chased after me and asked why I acted so oddly. I could not just tell him everything, but he noticed my concern on the topic. He then looked at me and said I bet that leads to the trail between Laurel, Oak and the Student Union, and just walked away without another word.

I found it odd that he knew the riddle so quickly, but it shook me that I may or may not have found where the riddle leads. I started running from Biddle Hall to that particular trail. Once I got there I just stood at the top nearest to Oak. I searched the trail up and down and even off a little from the trail, but found nothing.

I got so frustrated that I just lumped onto one of the stones and sat there for a few minutes. Surprisingly (not really) it started to rain, thank you Johnstown for the crappy weather whenever I feel horrible. I stared up into the sky and a yellow paper caught my eye in one of the holes in the one tree. I ran to the tree and figured it was about six feet high from the ground. I jumped to grab it and successfully at that. I then ran back to my dorm to read the note.

The Sticky Note Killer Clue #2 - Jeremy Staffen

Now that I am back at my room, I am able to read the clue on the note.  The note read:


"You'll find me in a place of stone, 

Where silence cloaks the ground.

Be warned, many may fool you."

Now this clue stumped me at first.  I wasn't entirely sure what it meant, so i took it to a close friend.  After looking over the clue a few more times we realized it was talking about a cemetery.  The last line of the clue still stumped us.  We thought there was a nearby cemetery but we couldn't locate one. 

A couple days went by before I overheard a conversation in the student union.  A couple students were talking about Indian burial grounds on campus.  This immediately caught my attention.  They were saying how they are located deep in the woods on campus.

I texted my friend and told him about the new discovery in the search for the next clue.  Later that day, we went on the search for the burial grounds.  After walking for a while we stumbled upon a small cemetery with very old tombstones.  It was a very creepy place to be, especially since the sun was starting to set.  There was a very odd detail that caught our attention.

There were sticky notes everywhere.  Notes were on trees, tombstones, rocks, and some just on the ground.  So, we started to collect all the notes and read them.  A lot of these notes were blank or had irrelevant sayings on them.  I was now able to understand what the last line of the clue meant.  This was very frustrating.  Some had jokes on them.  Is this killer trying to prank us?

After much sifting through notes, we finally found a note that had stars all over it and this note had the next clue.

The Sticky Note Killer Clue #3 - Travis Moulayianis

The note says, "You'll find me in a place where Thursday comes after Friday. Tip toe around and don't make a sound."

The sun was nearly set and I needed to get out of the woods.  I did not even begin to think about the note yet, my first priority was getting back to my room.  Slightly frighten because I have never journeyed into those woods, I was unaware of the direction I came from.  I started to freak out until I realized I had my phone in my pocket with a GPS so I pulled it out.  I unlocked it and saw it was only on 7%.  I typed in UPJ's address and by the time it found the location and I was ready to head back it was already down to 5% and losing battery fast.  I needed to hurry if I didn't want to be stranded out here tonight.  I started to run along the path until it started taking me in the wrong direction.  I ducked under trees, jumped over logs and ran straight through bushes.  It said it would take me 20 minutes to walk back but I got out of there in 5 minutes I headed back to my room where I immediately fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning still holding the note in my hand. I read it again. "You'll find me in a place where Thursday comes after Friday." I had no idea what that could mean. "Tip toe around and don't make a sound."  My initial thoughts for the whole note were blank. I started with this line.  I thought about the last part that said "Don't make a sound." I assumed it was somewhere that you need to remain quiet to either be or get to.  Obviously the first thought is the library.

I headed to the library to try to find a note. People probably thought I was crazy because I was looking everywhere and one of the librarians even asked me if I needed help with anything. "No thank you" I said. I read the first part of the note again.  "You'll find me in a place where Thursday comes after Friday."  Was it leading me to the title of a book? Was it a history book that had events that happened chronologically on a Friday of one week and then the Thursday of the next week? Friday comes before Thursday alphabetically. "It's a dictionary!" I yelled in excitement. The librarian ran over to me with a mean look on her face and told me I needed to leave the library right now and never come back or she is going to call campus security.  I didn't know what to say so I just walked out.

I was in shock with a million questions running through my head.  What should I do about the note that's in the dictionary? Should I try going back in? Or do I ask someone go get it for me? I got back to my room and decided to ask my roommate to go into the library to retrieve the note for me.  I said don't read it just bring it back to me.  Sure enough the door to my room swung flying open as my roommate returned and said, "You need to read this."  I rolled my eyes and grabbed the note.

eXistenZ

The movie eXistenZ was a movie that surprised us all. There were a number of plot twists, and pieces missing that were revealed in the end, but even then we were left questioning the ending. The movie starts out with the game "eXistenZ" being released and a group of people were to test the game out before its official release to the public. The game designer Alexa Geller made an appearance to download the game system into the chosen players from these flesh looking pods. As she is downloading the game a rogue gamer steps up and shoots Alexa in the shoulder announcing death should be upon her. Chaos erupts, she is given a body guard, they run for their lives. Once they are safe, Alexa wants to test the game to see if it is still working properly. Throughout the movie the two are playing the game and an entire plot twist makes the ending (watch the movie to see what happens).

The movie is filled with moments that make you think "What?!" the entire time. The is no strict plot for the movie that stands out enough for the watchers to understand what it going on. It is not until the end of the film that everything pieces together and the plot is understood, however, the ending still leaves us at that "What?!" moment. There were also moments where the movie sort of grossed out the people watching, because of the odd nature of the film. The pods are fleshy looking and they move in an odd fashion that gives you that creepy feeling and a shiver up your spine.

The film was interesting to watch and would definitely recommend it on your watch list. eXistenZ is action-packed and keeps you on your toes throughout the movie. Each scene has its own flare and keeps you interested to the very end. From the beginning to the end the thrill never ends. Also watch for the small changes throughout the story it may help you figure out the end. It has its own style of producing a very confusing story, but keep that popcorn going, because you are going to want to see the end of this.

Gaming Humanities

Gaming should definitely be apart of the Digital Humanities, because games also have a story. Most games in fact have a 'story mode' built into the gaming experience so that the player can follow and experience the narrative playing out while they play. Without a story games would be boring and the goal for the end would be dry.  A story keeps the reader or player in this sense an entertainment that entices them to keep finding out more. Video games are not just a vice that entrances a person into playing, though they do, they can provide morals within their stories.

Games do count on the fact that they can be informative even with little information for the player, for example; the game could tell the story of World War II or the murder of someone that happened and the game leads to the the player figuring out who the killer was. Though games like these may or may not exist, because most games are based on fiction, but could ultimately lead to a lesson. Game developers add small little hints that most do not pick up on, but if they are found from analyzation can mean something.

Video games are a form of interactive fiction which is an electronic literature piece therefore counts as part of Digital Humanities. Players interact with the game to find the end of the story. Some games are lacking a story, but that does not mean games do not count. A majority of games have a backstory that therefore introduces the goal of the game or the game could tell the story during the playing. Some games also have 'missions' that could resemble a chapter in the story. It is a stopping point that allows the reader to either stop and continue later or continue immediately. Video games are like movies that can be changed by the player or played out in first person whereas a movie plays it out for the watcher, same as a book. The only difference between games and movies and books is that the first person player holds the story.

Anon

Gronk

BY: JEREMY STAFFEN

Breaking Flowers

Original

Broken

Original

Broken

Original

Broken

RedRidinghood

In RedRidinghood Donna Leishman retells the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The story can be followed in multiple windows and although the story is mostly linear, there are several clickable objects that can be missed and affect how much of the story is shown. I really enjoyed this and am glad Leishman did not follow the same interaction that was in deviant. I did not have to search constantly for what to click on to advance and was interested and surprised on a second viewing to see new material. Discovering Red Riding Hoods diary added to the story but was not necessary to finish giving me enough time to play it again rather than get frustrated at how long it took to get through once. The diary reveals she had a crush on the boy who pursues her on his scooter however things went in a darker direction after breaking her heart and he is portrayed as the wolf. Giving him hairy arms was a particularly clever way of displaying the visual representation. There are many hidden clickables in this story to search for and is worth the time searching them out for new creative additions to the storyline.

Is Code Language? Why is Digital Literacy Important?

 Code is most certainly a language but it is the language of the computer. The computer can't do what you don’t know how to tell it. Digital Literacy is important for several arguable reasons, first and foremost the computer will always be faster and remember more than the best person in any profession. As in the old saying two heads are better than one, the best professional is even better when they can program a computer to make their job easier or expand their abilities where they are lacking. Currently a lot of fields use a programmer to write their programs for them but the information can be limited when the programmer knows little about the field he is writing the program for and in turn the person that knows the field does not realize the potential for what the software may be able to do for them. Aside from the fact you can have a single person do the job of two, making it cheaper, the time two people take communicating and restructuring software could take much longer. What I consider particularly important is the missed creativity from an individual to bring a fantastic story to life the way they see it or an idea enhanced the way they envision. As pointed out in We can code it! by Tasneem Raja software developers who were working on a website in Boston found a way to not only help the community, but to save lives as well. You do not need to be a programmer, just to understand a simple interface with computers in their own language. Just because a person is a banker should not limit his creativity to banking. Knowing how to produce that interactive story or idea could provide the world with an otherwise missed achievement of brilliance.

Google Maps Essay

On a journey I go!
by Travis Moulayianis

This is a google maps essay about the journey of a dollar bill;  where it was made, where it will end up, and where it ceases to exist.

Google maps essay

My travels with my best friend since childhood.
 By Lawrence Bruce

 Travel stories from New Jersey to Las Vegas with my best friend.

Google Maps Essay

An Unforgettable Week
By: Jeremy Staffen

The stories and route of the awesome vacation I took this past summer.

Google Maps Essays

June Weekend by Kiri McCoy 
Description:

In the summer of 2015, I went to see Imagine Dragons and Hershey's Show of the Summer, and my adventure was full of hidden surprises along the way.

Uncreative Siberia

Kenneth Goldsmith is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and he teaches a class called Uncreative Writing where the students are encouraged to plagiarize and the more plagiarism the better the grade. Goldsmith goes on to describe the content and expectations in the classroom where he explains that his students transcribe audio clips, write screenplays for films, and as a final he has them purchase a paper online for them to present as if they had written that paper. I feel that this is an exceptionally informative class that allows students to be creative in a different way. This class allows the students to rewrite works and bring great ideas together into one work in a way that gives those ideas new meanings and perspectives. Yes, plagiarism is stealing, and stealing is wrong, but if everyone including the writer already knows that, then why is it so wrong? Many give credit anyway to the works they use, but writing seems to be the only work that is criticized for using other's ideas in a creative way. Why does writing have to be so publicly perfect in the views of others, if the work is a creative recreation in the view of someone else? If artwork was as criticized as writing is, then only one artist could do particular types of landscapes or objects, or even people as well as different types of painting, drawing techniques, and so forth. We would have very limited pieces of works with only one perspective to look from, and that would get pretty boring after awhile. Fashion is the same way, if one person wore a certain shirt then would it not be stealing their look of you also wore that shirt? That is plagiarism, but nobody looks at it from that perspective. Think about this more deeply and you may just have viewed the subject from a different perspective. 

Sydney's Siberia was a very interesting piece to read and interact with. The piece started with an image with a red square that the reader can voluntarily move. The reader then clicks a section of the image only to be zoomed into more images. Next the reader chooses an image to reader and the process is then repeated infinitely. I sat for about two hours just repeatedly going through the piece, because you never knew what images were going to pop up next. The images did not relate to each other in any way, and each one had a phrase or two that somewhat pertained to the photo. Also each phrase was slightly vague on the concepts, but it kept me thinking about them all individually. My whole goal in reading this for as long as I did was to read everything and see every image which is probably achievable, but I do not think I got to that point. I kept seeing new images every time I clicked to see more, and I kept telling myself that I would eventually see everything. It was a very interesting process, and I started to use tactics to try and see everything, but to my knowledge, if I would have kept going, it would have been for a long time more. I do believe this piece was fun and very interesting, but I recommend viewing it when you have time on your side. 

The Last 88 Goodbyes to Wunderkammer

The Last Performance was quite interesting but also confusing. It was a text based, visual art that moved and created images with the text. The piece allows the reader to explore through the words and click on certain text to be taken to another page with short posts from the author. I liked how it drew the reader in with the moving text among other things. At first I was not sure how to take the piece but after a short period of time I started to understand the piece. 


88 Constellations was another beautiful piece of literature that allowed the reader to explore using the 88 constellations in the sky. Each constellation took the reader to an audio clip that talked about a subject that was connected to the constellation or the constellation's name. Each audio clip was very interesting in the fact that it went into depth about subjects that most people would not talk about. Each constellation had its own unique idea and it drew the reader in from the start. 



Almost Goodbye was like those adventure books that allowed the reader to choose the ending and story line with given choices. In the beginning of the story the reader is given five choices between names on a list. The reader chooses the name and place, to which they then watch the scene unfold with may be another choice within the conversation. The reader chooses how they story ends and they can keep going to see different endings by choosing different options each time. I found it interesting, because the reader had the choices and could choose the story they wanted. 


My Body a Wunderkammer was slightly disturbing in an interesting way. The author took body parts of herself and wrote a story about each one. Each story pertained to the author's discovery of herself and how she came about with her conclusions. Some pieces were very graphic, but others had a sense of innocence that made the reader remember what it was like finding these things about themselves. I felt at times that the author was just a scientist trying to figure out her body on her own, but in a mad scientist type of schema. The story was long, but alluring in the way that the reader wanted to know everything. The reader could also choose any part part to start with and each story had hyperlinks that led to another body part, there were many to choose from throughout.This story is a recommendation in part, because it was so alluring in the first place. The author did a beautiful job on the piece, and it takes a special reader to understand. 

Deviantly Secret

The piece Deviant really caught me off guard at first, because of the way it was set up. I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do in the beginning until I finally realized that I was to go through the story by clicking on certain sections of the whole scene. Once the story started I was really confused at to what was exactly being told, I only knew what the backstory told me. As I went farther into the story, I was still slightly confused; it started to get more and more intense. Certain images actually started to frighten me due to the intensity and the darkness of the story. Depending on the scene that was interacted with, there were certain goals, I would say, that had to be done per scene. So many scenes had to do with images being clicked on so that other images or scenes would pop up into view. Many items did not even have a story, but were moving images that showed the story to the reader, which was very interesting. Deviant was slightly spooky, but a very interesting piece, I must say, so it was worth the interaction. Also the fact that the piece took on two perspectives at once was interesting, because one perspective was in the eyes and mind of Christian, while the other perspective was in the eyes and mind of those who witnessed the story. At the end when the entire piece was typed out to be read, which made everything much more clearer, but kept the mystery as well. The back-story was just as invigorating as the interactive story was just from the content. Although, I was kept on my toes the entire time even while reading the ending, and I loved the piece myself. 

Public Secrets was a very interesting piece. The piece was definitely an interactive piece, because in order to view the stories they had to found and clicked. Some had audio clips while other had to be manually read. It was a pretty easy piece to navigate through, which in my eyes, kept me a bit more focused. I really enjoyed hearing the stories from the point of view form multiple women imprisoned. This piece of electronic literature really caught my attention. It is something you don’t hear of everyday. You do not get to hear the stories of what actually goes on behind prison doors. The stories were so detailed and you could tell that they came from personal experiences which pulled at the heartstrings even more. I believe I learned a lot about prison life. It can be a very brutal place to live. The things that go on inside and outside an prison can really change  person for either better or for worse.  It really gives me a different outlook on life, and definitely makes me want to stay away from breaking the law. I liked how you actually heard the voices of the women. It was much better than just reading text the whole time. Public Secrets really had my attention until the end and kept me wanting more.

What Is Digital Humanities?

I believe digital humanities is how people use and interact with digitalized material. It's how people use digital technology to its best capabilities to learn and do research. I believe digital humanities utilizes all technology like; computers, smartphones, social media, etc. to teach and learn all the ways history and arts can be used. In the digitalized world it is much easier to access information therefore people can learn quicker and share information much quicker. Also, digital humanities is a study of how digital technologies influence and change our lives on a day to day basis.

-Jeremy Staffen

Digital Humanities is the study of the aspects of the internet, it’s tools, and the objects within its boundaries, but also the study of human culture. The ‘Digital’ part refers to the computerized perspective like computers, smartphones, laptops, tablets etc. as well as applications, social media platforms and multimedia. The ‘Humanities’ part refers to the arts like education, fine arts i.e. music and writing, history, literature, foreign language, sociology and psychology. Digital Humanities is the presentation of human culture on the internet and medias connected to the internet.

-Kiri McCoy

The field of digital humanities is not a concrete field with a strict definition like science, but rather it is an open field with many interpretations and dimensions and putting a strict definition on that is next to impossible. Many humanists have different variations and ideas about the following. Digital humanities encompass many different types of humanities and adapt them to a digital format. These include databases, scholarly research, or creating digital art. Digital humanities include many values including but not limited to openness, collaboration, and diversity. These values allow the field of digital humanities to continuously expand and become better understood by everyone. Allowing the ability to open up the digital world to the many different disciplines of humanities allows for instant intelligence collaboration amongst humanists in different locations otherwise not possible. Databases open up the world and give access to books and readings in an instant that otherwise would not be able to be obtained by individuals. With every individual that reads a piece of work comes another opinion on that topic. Digital humanities allow the opinions of normal or emerging faces in the discipline to be heard. The digital humanities realm gives possibilities to things otherwise thought of as impossible.

-Travis Moulayianis

Digital Humanities is a field of study mixing the various disciplines in traditional Humanities with current technology and computing. It is a continuously broadening definition trying to encompass all the facets within the two fields and more are being added every year. Digital objects are created and enhanced in new ways with the continuously expanding and evolving spectrum of tools offered written in a poetry of code. The process is done under ethical guidelines of openly sharing resources and results in an unrestrained community welcoming everyone to teach or learn.

-Lawrence Bruce