redlining & remixing

this past week, during our exploration of games, we've focused a lot on the concept of remixing, which is an important element to recognize in such a unique class as this. a few weeks ago, we put questions into the padlet we shared with Maha's students in Egypt; unfortunately, we didn't receive responses, but that didn't stop us! instead, we created the supposed answers to those questions, and put them together to form a mock / imaginary interview, speculating on how the game creators might have answered them. we used audacity while doing so, which involved a lot of recording, splicing, and editing, in order to make it coherent and consequential.

background ambiance courtesy of freesound

i guess for me, it was hard to be 100% direct in answering these questions, namely because they're not mine to answer. i feel like this game prototype specifically was meant for the story to be told by someone from Egypt who experiences gender stereotypes in that culture. while there are similarities between how female and male individuals are expected to behave and perform their gender identity throughout both cultures, it is not even close to being the same story, and that story is not mine to tell or fictionally tell. instead, i tried to speculate as what and how they would answer, but i think i just ended up with more questions! haha.

still, i had fun with it, and i wish we could have heard from Maha's students. until then, i hope they continue with their prototypes - each one has a great story to tell and lesson to teach and would make for great developed empathy games.

our other project we completed last week was also a remix of sorts - we discussed the concept of redlining, and what that means in a geographical space, and how that can translate into a digital space and create analytical, qualitative questions. we took two different images, played with layering, cropping, and finally juxtaposed them together. first, we were told to pick another map of Newark to explore against the redlining zone, and i chose to try and find one of the McDonald's location to take a screenshot of. i couldn't get it to just be all fast food places - google maps was not a fan. however, i feel like the McDonald's locations did raise an interesting speculation and analysis.

in the heart of newark, there are considerably a lot of McDonald's next to each other - reminder, just McDonald's, excluding all the possibilities of fast food locations probably also in close proximity. the heart of newark is not especially rich, and McDonald's provides a cheaper option for people who do not have the income, time, and convenience to spend on healthier choices. it's a quick, inexpensive warm meal, which creates a correlation between poor individuals and poor dietary habits. additionally, it can lead to health complications, which is another problem and financial strain if the person has already found themselves in not the best monetary situation.

again, it's only a speculation, but it's not an uncommon hypothesis we've heard before. below is the map i've created through the image juxtaposition tool in H5P:

with that being said, i'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of remixing in the world of electronic literature in the coming week! i'm exciting to explore different types of e-lit, as well as different pieces, and create/remix some of our own.

(and yes, i heard that bots were coming back... this should be fun!!!)