Secret Language of Desire in Norway for ELO 2015

It’s been a busy couple of weeks as I’ve just travelled to Bergen, Norway for ELO 2015; a major conference and exhibition on Electronic Literature. Secret Language was exhibited as one of the curated electronic literature works, where projects were exhibited in several locations around Bergen, including the Bergen University Library from which these photos are taken. It was a great launch – every artist briefly spoke about their work; and then the conference attendees raced to interact and experience the projects and talk to the artists. It was jam packed, I only had a moment to grab a few photos in between speaking to people and showing the work. A wonderful experience to share the Secret Language of Desire with an international audience – thank you Copyright Agency Career Fund for your support in helping me to attend this important international conference and exhibition!!

Megan Heyward introduces The Secret Language of Desire at ELO artist talk in Bergen, Norway, Aug 5 2015.

Megan Heyward introduces The Secret Language of Desire at ELO artist talk in Bergen, Norway, Aug 5 2015.

Reading and triggering objects and sounds from Secret Language at ELO 2015

Reading and triggering objects and sounds from Secret Language at ELO 2015

Reading and experiencing Secret Language of Desire at ELO 2015

Reading and experiencing Secret Language of Desire at ELO 2015

Crowding around the iPad projects at ELO 2015 in Bergen, Norway.

Crowding around the iPad projects at ELO 2015 in Bergen, Norway.

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Background to Secret Language on Authoring Software

New media pioneer Judy Malloy kindly asked me to write about the background and development of The Secret Language of Desire for her July issue of Authoring Software – you can read it here.

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Secret Language app launch, Sydney, June 14 2015.

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Secret Language website

Last week we recorded some beautiful saxophone with musician Martin Kay, and have worked very hard to complete all of the sound design. The project has now been submitted to Apple for review. Meanwhile I have built a quick WordPress site for The Secret Language of Desire.

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Secret Language is in the AppStore!!

The Secret Language of Desire has been approved by Apple and is now available in the AppStore!! The Secret Language of Desire is an interactive narrative app for iPads, in which 27 ultra-short stories merge with interactive elements to create an intimate, surprising and unique storytelling experience for adults. The project explores the haptic and multimodal capacities of electronic literature for tablets.

This project has been supported by Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. Official launch coming soon!! Further information at the Secret Language website here. Or download the app from the AppStore.

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SLPromowide

 

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Notes for Walking presentation at AR Meetup, Sydney

I’m speaking tonight on Notes for Walking at the AR Meetup at the Metropole Hotel, 6-9pm, cnr Bridge and George St, City OR Click here for the dedicated Note for Walking site.

Notes for Walking, locative artwork by Megan Heyward, 2013.

Notes for Walking, locative artwork, app and insrallation by Megan Heyward. Sydney Festival, 2013.

 

 

 

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Secret Language is coming to Norway…

JapScarfSPromoFLT600Final touches to sound design, final tweaks, getting closer to finalising The Secret Language of Desire. Coming soon to a tablet near you…And very excited to announce that the work will be premiered at ELO 2015 in Bergen, Norway, in August 2015.

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Animations, sound design

Further updates on Secret Language… I am getting closer –  yes, I keep saying this but building every little thing from the ground up is very, very time consuming. The writing is done; the app has been designed and built by me, I am now finalising all of the animations which will add interactivity and “accents” to the text. Close to finishing most of these- last night and this morning animating seaweed for a sequence ( see image below)… I am about to animate 27 chapter titles..wish me luck ( for I keep finding an excuse to delay, such as writing this post). It is very, very finicky as they need to perfectly match and then be laid on top of the main menu, all as separate files…it will probably take me a couple of days to do… Heaven forbid that I want to change anything…!!

I am also working with sound designer Michael Finucan to add sounds to the animations and interactive sequences- this is also quite tricky primarily because of the very short time frames we are working with, along with limitations regarding the capacities of tablets themselves and what they do to audio in terms of compression… Aaaahh, please remind me never to do any of this again!!

Below is a screengrab of the Edge Animate file I built to animate the seaweed.

Edge Animate

Edge Animate

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Getting closer

I am getting closer to finalising the new creative work, The Secret Language of Desire, a digital narrative written and designed specifically to take advantage of the intimate and haptic nature of electronic tablets. Secret Language is comprised of close to 30 ultra short, highly compacted narratives / textual episodes enhanced with animation, sound and interactions that are triggered by the reader’s touch of various onscreen elements. The Secret Language of Desire is a kind of digital pillow book and electronic text, exploring – what happens to intimacy in a world of instant gratification?

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Secret language

SLtest2CopyrightCOPYMore work, more animation, more writing … more soon.

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Scratch ‘n’ sniff

ScratchGrab2TINYSpent most of today working on a lovely little haptic effect for this new work… scratch ‘n’ sniff ( well, scratch at least)… A nice way of revealing hidden contents…

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