Framework Questions for Writing in a Digital Age

1. What would you like to learn about “Writing in the Digital Age”?

Everything!!

Like most things in life, there are people who are good at what they do and there are those who are not so good. My knowledge of contemporary literature, especially in the digital space, is very sparse. Currently my knowledge doesn't go much past the fact, the wife has
a Kindle!!  

I would like to be able to produce a reasonable plausible script, not award winning but able stand up to scrutiny to my colleagues. With acceptable grammar, structure and syntax, maybe get most of the spelling right too!!

2. What do you already know about “Writing in the Digital Age”?

While bandwidth/memory have grown exponentially over the last number of years, consequentially standards have slipped.  The sentinels of the analog mediums have been brushed aside by the Jackass loving barbarian hordes. The ancient scribes of early Christianity who so carefully recorded the Greek and Latin text in colourful pigments and dyes, then embellished in goldleaf, so painstakingly in the dimly lit monastic cell of monastic Ireland, must shudder
to think of a Text speak Bible (Yes, there is one).

Slang and colloquialism erode away at the standard of the past. Careers that were built on these standards, surpassed by some blogger with a “book deal” or some ex-Taoiseach’s daughter with a film deal.

In reality digital media has finally put the mass in mass media. The 20^th century had seen the manipulation of the media taken to an art form, from Lenin and  Goebbels through to Turner and Murdoch. But as in the anarchic years of the early 20^th century, the peasants
are on the rise again.

Writing in a digital age must be looked on as a hybrid.  Well marshalled talent can still create hysteria, when one sees the Harry Potter mania that swept up the last decade. From an unemployed aspiring writer to a billion dollar industry in a relatively short space of time, Rowling has shown us that good creative writing can still flourish. Bear in mind that the Jackass loving horde are only a tweet away.

3. What are your strengths/abilities/past experiences with the digital media industry?

In terms of digital evolution, my generation were the first up on the shore.  The early Atari, Sinclar and Commodores of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s bore no resmblance to the slick laptops and ipads of today.

Line 10 “Geoff is cool”

Line 20 go to Line 10.  

The ABC’s of BASIC,  nowadays  JAVA and FLASH any amount of program languages are left to the hands of the professional programmer tucked away in the dark of some foreign land, accessed via a modern contraption we know as the internet.

An ironic twist of fate combined with a mediocre Leaving Certificate led me to the regional college in Athlone. It was there where I first laid my hands on an Macintosh Classic all to myself, kindly donated to the college by an American company who had recently set up in Ireland, Apple.  One of the few applications was from a company called Adobe, Illustrator 88. It had Bezier curves!! how cool? All were to figure in the desktop publishing craze emanating from America.

From the regional college in Athlone to the National College of Art and Design in Dublin,
my journey continued.  My only respite from my education was a stint in France. Instituional Design was a traditional typographic studio, which gave me experience digitizing the lead typographer works for some of the top brands in that country.

It was at NCAD that the two Macintosh computers were for final year student only, so as a second year student they were off limits to me.  This in turn drove me to invest. I became proud new owner of a Macintosh LCII with wait for it, yes, a colour screen.

Hour upon hour I honed my repertoire, Illustrator Photoshop and Quark Express. Each fortnightly module ended in my project somehow involving an A4 monochromatic laser print.

Upon graduation the bleak world of Ireland in the early 1990s did not appeal to me, so a bit of luck and I was off to be with my Uncle Sam.

A few months sampling the world of Kerouac, out on Route 66. I decided that no trip to the United States would be complete without a taste of the Big Apple. So I took my Chevy and wandered north up I-95. What I found there was a media behemoth where the DTP movement was gaining traction.

Initially I found work in Master Eagle, a type bureau down on West 27^th. These kind of bureau was where the creative industry of Madison avenue would send their days work,
to be rendered over night in time for the process to start all over again the following morning. Where the creative idea became realities. 

My bosses as Master Eagle were not long spotting that unlike his coworker, yours truely
had a knowledge of all three of the main applications, QIP, as they were known as, (Quark, Illustrator and Photoshop). Enough of the night shift, this was America, land of the free, home of the brave. I was off to ply my wares on the open market.

I was seven years in New York working as a freelance digital artist, seven year in the top agencies of the world, culminating in Landor and Associates, the Xanadu of the design world.  Each place I took apart their IT systems from top to bottom.   Analyzing, learning and gleaning as much as I could before the boredom set in and I moved to the next place.

The boom in Silicon Alley in the late 1990’s, the proximity to education in New Media and considering the surfeit of talent that the shining lights of NYC draws, many of whom I got
to rub shoulders with.  I had a ringside view of the digital goldrush which was the rise of the internet at the hub of corporate America.

As the great Jimmy Buffet maintains “It can all go to shit in an instant” unbeknownst to us
all, far away in some dusty cave, some guys were plotting the demise of Capitalism.

We all know where we were the morning of September 11, 2001. I was in bed right at the other end of the city. Fortunately for myself, I was working as a consultant to Scholastic Inc, in their new media department, it was an interesting position so I hung around for another couple of years. But in my heart I knew that the bell had tolled for me.

The subsequent demise of the economy in America, and despite other potential opportunities, life lead me back here to Ireland. With my experience I saw through the snake oil peddled by the former government, about Ireland being at the cutting edge of the silicon revolution, sure we had some influence but small fish, big sea.

I believe that good things lie ahead.  I have a very unique insight to digital media, one I certainly could not have achieved here on these shores. Fingers crossed it will have some legacy for me, somewhere in time. 

4. What are your strengths abilities past experiences with creative writing?

I've spent most of my life as a closet writer, yearning to scrawl at every opportunity. None better than a pen and clean sheet of paper, endless options.  Down the years my thoughts, policies and philosophies ended up on bits of paper here and there. Captured thoughts that resurface from time to time during clean ups. 

Very popular are notes written while traveling, while in some faceless hotel room or suspended on long haul flight.  I have written on journals, sometimes on sick bags of whatever international airlines whose service I was availing of. While waiting in hotel rooms
I took to writing to my daughter prior to her birth, personal feelings about her imminent arrival and afterwards observations of her early months.

As a child, it was my task to clean out trucks on their return from the various destinations that my father's company would be employed to dispense goods to Ireland, UK and some far flung reaches of Europe on occasion. In the bunk beds or between the seat there were discarded novels. These had wiled away the hours waiting to load, waiting to sail or stuck
at some customs post along the way for the drivers. These were my first foray into reading, Sven Hassel novels whisked me away to the Eastern front for nightly combat, beneath the quilt of my bed.

My imagination was honed at an early age, I was a "war" child. The comic books of Commando, Warlord and the Victor gave me an appetite for militaria which has never left me.  World War Two, then the Korean War led on to the Vietnamese saga, the images of
my early youth recall the fall of Saigon.

However hand-to-hand combat with the Red Army at the gates of Berlin was replaced by carpet bombing, where’s the fun in that? you ask?It is  just not the same. The modern wars of the late 20th century have no appeal to me.

As a teenager my English teacher would castigate me for my bad spelling or poor grammar but never for my imagination. Often requested to orate the latest self-penned edition of "Behind Enemy Lines" or "Eddie Spills Brains", I quite fancied myself as the next James Herbert.

Then life came along, school became college then work took me away from having the
time to spend dreaming.  Of recent years I have gotten back to jotting down a few ideas, whenever I can steal a moment.

5. Where would you like this module to take you? What would you like to achieve through this course as a whole? Consider both personal and professional goals when answering.

I would like to be able to convert a few of the ideas that I have bouncing around in my head (and jotted down on some pieces of paper) into some real life workable projects.  I have two definite projects a screen play and the perennial children's book.


I would appreciate being able to recognise the chaff from the wheat. It seems to me that there is an awful lot of the former making the grade in this arena.  I came to do this course out of curiosity to see how far on that digital publish world has most since I toiled in it's trenches.

I hope that this particular will enable me to finish off what I started insofar as my formal education.  Academically I was never driven and tended to do "just enough".  Now with
a few more years chalked up, I see that just enough is not a standard to go by.

Professionally my goal would be to open a media Lab of some description to service the Small/Medium enterprise business community.  My home town has no dedicated multi-media producer so I see a gap in the market.  The long term goal would be to 
set up a small educational establishment so that others could create in the digital space.

6. Favourite's

What is your favourite song?

Rain drops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens....Favourite is a big word like marmalade
or umbrella, not to be used lightly.  It is in the superlative class, along with Greatest and Coolest, never very definitive.  My favourite piece of music is Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" but for the purposes of this exercise I must go elsewhere as it might not be classed as a song.

My shortlist should contain some Johnny Cash. All the way through from his “Sun Recordings” through to his final “American Recordings”.  But through a short list of The Pogues with "Thousands Are Sailing", Kris Kristofferson's "Smoke Too Much" and Jimmy Buffet's "The Weather is Here I wish You Were Beautiful", all of which have a unique place in my little sphere.

For the sake of this exercise I must get of the fence and commit, so for universal appeal,
it is hard to see past "Amazing Grace" by John Newton. When one considers the context around it's creation, it is a very powerful piece.

What is your favourite piece of writing?

As a layman in terms of literature, my early engagements were of the fictional variety. 
The first writer that I took a shine to was a little known Danish writer, Sven Hassel.

Hassel served in the German army during the Second World War, I read his complete works and although they might not merit too much critical acclaim, they passed hour upon hour of my childhood.

My own library is a potpourri of biographies, history, sports and militaria. I never seem to be able to pass a bookshop without a quick peruse.  Nowadays I have jumped the fence into the world of non-fiction and currently my favourite writer is the war historian Anthony Beevor whose works adorn my bookshelves.

However to answer the question I will have to remain in an ecclesiastical genre, as per my previous answer, so to the Good Book and St Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 1-13.

At a philosophical level for me it sums up what a good citizen should be all about.

What is your favourite piece of Visual Art?

My favourite piece of visual art is Eddie Adam's 1968 Pulitzer prize winning photo "General Nguyen Ngoc Loan Executing a Viet Cong Prisoner".  Here we see a  South Vietnamese officer head of the Police executing a suspected spy during the Tet Offensive of the same year. The photojournalism pioneered by the likes of Robert Capa, was a relatively new concept, it allowed for journalist to get right into the frontline, none close than this.

This particular photo exposes some wonderful themes, where we see raw rage, arguably the strongest known force, and hate among brothers.  On a different level, we see two pawn caught in the vortex of the Cold War. 

What is your favourite taste?

The taste of raspberries.  Those little red berries who herald the arrival of high summer. More sophisticated that their tasteless common cousin, the strawberry. The raspberry has so much more to offer.  

Our senses have an amazing ability to transport us back to our initial introduction to that particular taste smell and feel. Raspberries with their hint to tang hidden inside sweetness.

As a child my mother's eldest brother so often held the title of "favourite uncle". Eric would always share his time with you, and regale us with a bit of Rolf Harris or some song from Showboat etc. Combined with this, he was a master gardener.

Eric's jungle of a garden, climaxing in a terrace of raspberry canes whose welfare was paramount in his horticultural realm. When I pop a quality raspeberry into my mouth and
the flavour hits my tongue I’m whisked away to a summers day "with an old Australian Stock man lying, dying...."

What is your favourite smell?

The odour of asphalt for me is synonymous with summer growing up in the proximity of the main Dublin to Galway road.  The tarring of the roads, which would have always been done during the heat of summers past. It is a universal smell that emanates from road constructions all over the world, regardless of the latitudes or longitudes it takes me back
to the home of my youth.    

What is your favourite texture?

The texture of human skin is my favourite. As opposed to ostrich or snake skin, though some leathers have their merits, human skin for the most part is soft, smooth and warm
to touch. (NB. Dead folk's skin does nothing for me).

A popular misnomer that it has a colour, it is actually translucent.  It's alabaster like qualities make us covet it from those who have fine complexions. Though over time UV and oxidation can take their toll texturally, none can compare to fine healthy skin.

How would you communicate it to someone who couldn’t experience that particular sense?

To communicate a particular sense to one who is devoid of it. First one should ascertain the person’s vocabulary.  If possible, consider isolating their other senses by some means of sensory depravation, blindfold, earplugs etc.  Then can one begin to articulate the various characteristic of the sense to be described.  Ideally if one has access to props or audio one can introduce these throughout the description they can be of great assistance to aid or reinforce the concept one is trying to convey.

7. What's up with the fonts on this page?

The fonts in use on the page in question point to (a) lack of any typographic aesthetic on
the questioner’s behalf.  (b) the questioner is deliberately using his/her tragic selection as
a starting point for conversation.  (c) having a very poor selection of only eight fonts on
one's computer and trying to utilized them all on one A4. Or (d) All the above.

With a degree in visual communications, and years working in the design arena, (part
of it digitizing fonts in a traditional typographer's studio) this is a topic that I am particularly sensitive about.

Type awareness is often overlooked when modern youth are learning their desktop publishing skills.  Modern communication courses seem to be content with mediocrity in regards to font use. This is remarkable when one considers the ease that one can access any amount of type styles, just how little thought this topic is given.

However, every cloud has a silver lining and in an effort to glean positives from this particular layout we can see by the time the writer had reached question seven, he/she have forgone digital inscription and had resorted to handwriting, albeit in a not so elegant cursive but a functional script.