My first E-Poem

Mike Mulvey
Dr. Liu
PowerPoint Software Writer Response
March 3, 2010
My electronic poem titled "Crash", tells my personal story of all the various car crashes I have been in throughout my life. As a power sports enthusiast I spent a great deal of time in my earlier life driving a variety of vehicles which I eventually crashed. The goal of my e-poem was to reveal how each successive crash was its own unique experience. I attempted to create a piece of literature that could accurately depict my experiences through the use of sound and animation. The options provided by Microsoft Powerpoint allowed for a perfect venue to express what a car crash is like. I will begin by detailing what visuals, sounds, and animations I chose for this electronic work, and why I chose them.
The electronic poem "Crash" begins simply with a blank blue screen. The word Crash then rockets onto the screen accompanied by the sound of a car screeching to a halt. The word Crash then halts at the center of the screen. The poem continues as the word Crash fades and text detailing my first crash appears on the screen. "The first time was the worst. The fear. The uncertainty. Even the PAIN!". This blurb details my feeling after the first time I crashed a car. Each successive phrase appears just after the phrase before disappeared from the screen. The word "Pain" appears in the color red and in bold letters. After the final statement has faded from the screen another blurb rockets onto the screen beginning with "The second time wasn't that bad. Just a bump on the head and a broken rib". Just as "and a broken rib" appears on the screen the reader hears a loud cracking sound. After the words fade again, another phrase appears; "The third time I don't recall. I only remember waking up in the hospital two hours later". When the second statement appears an ambulance siren rings out. The poem continues as the blurb on the screen disappears, and the sirens go quiet. The poem concludes as the phrase "The last time was the only real 'Accident'" spins onto the screen. The word "Accident" is also in bright red letters. I feel it is important to note at this point that this work is still a work in progress and I hope to make several additions and alterations.
I found the Powerpoint software to be very helpful in developing my electronic work. I must admit that until recently I had underestimated the capabilities of Powerpoint. The program was very accessible and easy to interact with. At the same time I did find some elements of the program difficult to use. For example, when I first began animating the text in my e-poem I found it very difficult to adjust the timing properly. I wanted to make sure that each phrase appeared on the screen only after the previous one had disappeared. It took me a great deal of time to understand how the timing of certain animations could be customized. The tutorials and help files did not really detail anything about how the user could customize the timing of the animations. Still, to Powerpoint's credit, I must admit that after roughly an hour of playing around with the software, I was able to determine how the user can adjust the timing of the entry/exit function of text on the screen. This limitation was actually due to my own negligence of the fact that each slide has a pane on the right side of the screen which has a timeline of the animations in the frame, that can be adjusted with the mouse. Apart from this small complaint, I had very little difficulty interacting with the software. In fact, I feel that the electronic elements of my poem allowed me to express myself more than I would have been able to with simple text. I feel that the motion of the words on the screen helped convey the feeling of what it is like to be in a crash. Also, by putting some text words in red I was able to effectively highlight which words and emotions I was trying to convey to the reader. The spinning motion of the words at the end of the poem were also critical to help give the reader the sense of dizziness that I experienced after each crash.
Overall, the limitations of the software were very few. I would like to continue adding more effects to this piece not in an effort to dazzle the reader, but to help them feel what it is like to be in a car crash. Ideally, I would like to make the poem more interactive, by including video as the background. Rather than simply watching the words rocket onto the screen, I feel I could evoke a stronger response from the reader by letting them watch a crash through the eyes of the driver. I also hope to make a change to the last slide, in which the words will first appear upside down and then right side up, to help the reader feel what it is like to have everything upside down as the car rolls over. I am pleased with what I have seen from the software thus far, and I am excited to see how the technological tools available will continue to improve my work.