BLOG PROMPT: My Boyfriend Came Back from the War
PLEASE ANSWER BY POSTING COMMENTS.
After exploring the site "My Boyfriend Came Back from the War" made in 1996 by Olia Lialina, what do you think the piece is about? How does is challenge expectations about web design and linear narrative? Keep in mind this is a work for net art from the very early days of the web. Imagine how people might have felt seeing it at the time. Here is the URL:
http://www.teleportacia.org/war/
I think the site is conveying how this girl's boyfriend came home from war and after dinner he confronted her about how she cheated on him with her neighbor while he was gone, and the boyfriend threatens to kill the neighbor. After this it gets a little confusing for me because then they are talking about getting married, and there is discussion about a possible dress. So, I'm not sure how it went from the boyfriend being mad because his girlfriend cheated on him while he was at war to the two of them talking about getting married.
ReplyDeleteYou can easily tell this site was designed a while ago because of the graphics and the lack of color and sharpness. However, the interactivity the site has is quite remarkable for the year it was made.
I think this piece is about a soldier who came home to find out that his girlfriend had cheated on him with her neighbor. There were many different options to click that lead to different conversations and images. This challenges linear narrative because these different options lead to different scenarios and you could "go back in time" and click the different options. I imagine this was shocking at the time it came out as it relates to a scandal such as cheating and the web page was somewhat intricate for the time.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first got onto the site, I was very confused on what I was exactly I was looking at. After messing around a bit, I started to see that it was somewhat of an interactive storybook where each option that you click on takes you to a different scenarios. I think this piece was trying to tell a story of a guy who came back home to find his girlfriend cheated on him with her neighbor. After the first couple slides, I got confused on what the rest of the story was supposed to be. It started talking about a dress and marriage. For a web design created very early on, it was quite interactive. It also does not follow the expectations of a linear narrative because the different choices you can click on led to different conversations and scenarios.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a story about a couple confronting the issue of what happened while the man was in war. The woman had an affair with the neighbor, and the man is obviously angry. It is interesting how the dialogue switches between anger and the possibility of a normal life. I think Lialina was trying to show the uncomfortableness of the situation and how the couple didn't want this issue to arise even though it needed to.
ReplyDeleteI was very impressed by the set up of the site, I could imagine this even in a current museum.
I view this interactive work to be a subjective "Pulp Fiction-esque" piece; one that does not have a definitive chronological order; the "story" is up to the audience. All that is really provided is the "backbone," or base, somehow involving a man, a woman, a promise, a war and a death. Everything else is fill in the blank. One could "read it" with a more literal interpretation as such: a soldier came home only to somehow find out that his girlfriend had cheated on him in his absence, thus, killing their relationship. On the other hand, it could also be viewed in a more abstract manner as such: a man and woman were happily married until some promise was broken and things quickly got out of hand; they were "at war" and constantly fought until their love for each other died. Both of these examples are just as likely and so is basically everything in between.
ReplyDeleteAlthough linear narratives are probably the most popular form of storytelling, they are not the only one if there is even one [a form] at all (as this piece demonstrates). As for the web design, it would have also been rather impactful (just like the content would have been) and this was mainly because there were not a lot of "you choose your own story" options. It was more "here is my piece and this is what it means." In other words, it broadened the art world and its standards. Plus, it was very hi-tech for its time.
At first glance I was confused about the main theme the web design was trying to portray, due to the non-linear plot. Immediately I noticed the mood of the piece, which seemed to be angry and mysterious due to the grainy, highly saturated black and white images. It was then apparent after a second look that the dialogue was a heated conversation, between two lovers. The way the artist blatantly states the single word "neighbor" gives the viewer the idea of what has caused this tense relationship, and that maybe the woman had cheated on the man, who then falls into a path of fury and questioning.
ReplyDeleteThis piece challenges the bounds of design due to the uncharted territory the artist seems to cross, contributing such a new concept to a time period unfamiliar with this style. I think people at the time, viewing this when it was released in the 90s, were shocked by the vague plot and non-linear structure, and probably questioned the motives of the artist. I am guessing she received a sort of push-back from general society, coming from a place of not understanding the true motives of her piece.
After clicking through the story, it seems as though the person at home cheated while the other was away at war. It also seems as though the person who cheated is trying to manipulate the one who was away, sort of making the entire problem appear as though it stemmed from them.
ReplyDeleteI thought the entire thing was pretty creepy, with the black and white color scheme and pixelated, choppy imagery. I'm unsure of the reason for that being the weaker technology then or if it was meant to look like that. The uncomfortable feeling could have been purposeful, to portray the uncomfortable situation.
I'd assume that even in 1996 this was a sort of unsettling thing to click through, and as far as linear narratives go, it definitely pushed the boundaries. The story did have a start, middle, and finish, but the way to move through the story depended on where the viewer clicked first. However, every viewer would end on the same scene. It was a unique spin on a linear narrative.
I think the piece is about a girl who cannot connect with her war veteran boyfriend, even though he is right there in the room with her. I'm not sure if the slow download speed was intentional because it builds up suspense between scenes. It looks like it tries to mimic the silence and tension between the girl and her boyfriend.
ReplyDeleteThe use of frames and the way they are organized leave it up to the readers to choose where to click first. Because of this, the narratives of the story will be different for each individual.
The disorganized plot line had me thinking that there is something wrong with the web page. Most people are used to a linear sequence of events when observing a story. I was pretty confused the first few times through the story. Maybe the artist was trying to play on the viewer's general sense of unease with the subject matter, and mirror that effect with the unease of viewing a nonsequential story.
ReplyDeleteSince the video is from 1996, maybe the point of the page was to act almost like a game as well. The viewer clicks through the page until they can find the correct sequence of events. Computers weren't always as capable they are now, at some point this page was cutting edge technology.
The piece itself seems to be about a couple. The boyfriend is in the military, and the story seems to follow some of the struggles both ends that relationship. The wife cheats with the neighbor; and the boyfriend appears to witness some kind of tragic experience while deployed.
I think the piece is about two lives trying unsuccessfully to come back together after one goes to war. At times, it is difficult to discern who the narrator is. I think the non-linear narrative heightens this overwhelming anxiety that comes with these situations. Most web point-and-click stories give the option of choice as a direction, but here it only seems to confuse the reader more. Often, no one knows what to say or what they should say. The high threshold on the images amplifies this intensity.
ReplyDeleteThe site struck me with a pick-your-own-story theme, which was original for one thing, but still unintuitive. The concept was refreshing, but delivered with sub-par execution. The sequence of events was not linear in my mind, but had many different outcomes based on where and how far you clicked. Once I realized this, I was still distracted by the quality of the pictures. On the other hand, I can see how the chaos of the website as-a-whole reflected how she felt about her boyfriend being so far away and at such risk.
ReplyDeleteThis site was pretty original, going by the title war is an obvious topic. It doesn't look like an average page. I believe the story line is saddening as it allows you to chose the way that the story is told. You can understand what is happening through the words and animations present. It shows a female upset about her spouse being gone away at war. Pretty interesting all together.
ReplyDeleteI had to go through the website two or three times before I could figure out the intent. I love how the audience is allowed to choose the order of events in the story. The possibilities of plots and the links leading to each new page layout must have been impressive at the time it was created. The breakdown of space using boxes, text, and pictures conveys the feeling of the couple analyzing or breaking down their relationship to decide if they can salvage their love after the man returned from war. I would love to see this story interpreted using modern technology for clearer imagery.
ReplyDeleteThis project seems to be about the girl and her boyfriends relationship as they deal with the stresses of military relationship. She cheats on him while he is away and he is rightfully angry. Half of the panels seem to cover parts of their argument about that while the other half seem to be memories from happier times in their relationship. (ie the parts about looking at the dress, "kiss me" and discussing marriage.)
ReplyDeleteAs for the web design and user expectations of the time, it fits early web users expectations of a simple web design with lower quality images. However I think many users at time would not expect the level of interactivity that this piece has. Namely the abilities to choose a story path and at the end to move the lines separating the panels, though this seems to be an arbitrary feature.
This piece challenges ideas of a linear narrative by presenting a story that within the first couple of panels appears to be a straightforward linear story but quickly expands into multiple panels. No panel is listed as the "correct" order to be viewed in which leaves viewers to choose what order to read the story in. After reading all the panels the viewer can still get the general gist of what the designer wanted to say even if the story wasn't presented in a linear fashion.