Muhammad+Alatrash,+MSA

Overview:

It is a virtual dressmaking flash in which the reader is the tailor and the cloth pieces are the text. The reader navigates the text through the digital sewing. The reader choses between four different tools; unpicker, sewing machine, pins and scissor; then he/she plays with the tools to make a coherent text of these texts/cloths pieces. The texts are pieces of memoire written by a daughter about her mother, who was a dress-maker. //The Fitting Pattern// has four stages, each stage has four screens, in each screen the reader uses one tool at a time. After completing all sixteen screens, the layout pattern asks the reader if the pattern fits.

Textual Features:
 * The text is pieces of memoir in16 different screens.
 * Texts are varied from memories and questions.
 * It is a non-linear first-person narrative.
 * The text pops up after using the sewing tool
 * The reader has an agency over the text.

Media Features:
 * Black and white background with a fitting-pattern design.
 * Four sewing tools, unpicker, stitcher, pins and scissor.
 * Each tool makes a real action and sound. (i.e. with the stitcher tool, the background moves)
 * It is all performed by mouse, no keyboard keys required.
 * It is divided into four stages, each has four steps. (real sewing requires steps)
 * A map/layout of the progress is available.
 * The final shape of the pattern is film celluloid.

Performance/Reading Experience:

The readers of “Fitting the Pattern” will notice that the story being told matches the rest of the work. It is pieces of a memoire about a relationship between a daughter, which in this case the composer of the work Christine Wilks, and her mother a dress-maker. The readers navigate the text through the act of sewing to complete the pattern. The different components of this work are perfectly synchronized to make the reader aware of the pragmatics of the story being told.

Analysis/Interpretation:

In this work, Christine shares her memoire about her relationship with her mother who is a dressmaker. She admires her mother’s creativity in making dresses. Christine wants to be creative too like her mother, but in film making. She sees the similarity between the two, sewing and dress-making. Both go through steps/stages using different tools. Both need to be designed first, fitting pattern for dress-making and writing script for film-making.

Discussion:

Wilks says: “there are certain parallels between my mother's creative craft process and my own in new media; therefore the visual design of the piece is based on the aesthetics of sewing patterns.”
 * 1) To what extent do you think that digital work should have a classic theme?
 * 2) Since the author intention is obvious in this work, can we apply “classical” literary theories on a digital work, i.e. intentialism.
 * 3) Can the biography of the authors helps in interpreting their digital works?
 * 4) Is it the form, or the content that decides the critical tools?

Works Cited:

Wilks, Christine. "Fitting the Pattern - or being a dressmaker’s daughter: a memoir in pieces." //Electronic Literature in Europe//. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. .

Wilks, Christine. "Fitting the Pattern." //Electronic Literature Collection//. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. .