Charting Galaxies: A Form of Exploration
Mentor Information
Heather Sellers (Department of English)
Description
“Charting Galaxies” is a both a form of exploration and an exploration of form. I created a hybrid literary invention that combines storytelling, website design, game theory, and interactive mapping. I wanted to create a new literary form that represents the spatial distances inherent in multiculturality and the role of memory and creative writing in developing individual and collective identities. I also wanted to move the reader from a passive and receiving role into an active and intentional role. In “Charting Galaxies,” the reader must actively engage with every component in order to develop its meaning and, due to its interactive elements, the form unravels differently for each reader. Through this project, I learned that hybrid literature is an alternative form of storytelling that not only combines various artistic mediums, replicating our diverse and multicultural world and my own multicultural identity, but also becomes a true and alive conversation between two people, the artist and reader, separated by space and time. Art, including “Charting Galaxies,” connects people by serving as a platform through which authors can chart their own galaxies (the stories they carry) and make meaningful connections with their audience, no matter the distance that separates the two entities, whether that may be in terms of space, identity, background, or beliefs.
Charting Galaxies: A Form of Exploration
“Charting Galaxies” is a both a form of exploration and an exploration of form. I created a hybrid literary invention that combines storytelling, website design, game theory, and interactive mapping. I wanted to create a new literary form that represents the spatial distances inherent in multiculturality and the role of memory and creative writing in developing individual and collective identities. I also wanted to move the reader from a passive and receiving role into an active and intentional role. In “Charting Galaxies,” the reader must actively engage with every component in order to develop its meaning and, due to its interactive elements, the form unravels differently for each reader. Through this project, I learned that hybrid literature is an alternative form of storytelling that not only combines various artistic mediums, replicating our diverse and multicultural world and my own multicultural identity, but also becomes a true and alive conversation between two people, the artist and reader, separated by space and time. Art, including “Charting Galaxies,” connects people by serving as a platform through which authors can chart their own galaxies (the stories they carry) and make meaningful connections with their audience, no matter the distance that separates the two entities, whether that may be in terms of space, identity, background, or beliefs.
