I remember disobeying my childhood rule of eating at the table and instead taking my bowl of dinner into the bedroom so I could watch the silly ways of Maruko-chan. The creation of the Chibi Maruko-Chan x District 6 special is the high concept product of the very memorable childhood TV show – “Chibi Maruko-Chan” and the dominant community at District 6 Elementary in HangZhou that communicated and established a large portion of my rudimentary values. The school life became so mundane that I did not realized I spent nearly 70% of each day under the influence of such a community, unconsciously wrapping my thoughts around the basis of school and its expectations. Markers of this community are present within my project, elaborating this culture. Originally, I had planned to use Prezi to embody the concepts of my project, but found that Wix allowed me to better integrate and organize my multiple forms of media – jumping from page to page for various media surfaces. This design permitted my desire to organize my project in an easy-to-navigate fashion and incorporate a childish style using bright colors (that coincided with the colors of the Chinese flag, as well as the colors of Maruko-chan’s infamous outfit) to the aesthetics of the page following the matching, dark and sensual aesthetics of “These Waves of Girls”.

 

As a subject of Ulmer’s interpellation, my story is told through the hands of my community and entertainment sectors, both embedding values that create my identity. Ulmer’s endocept is again noted through my adult realizations of these values of obedience and the importance of submitting oneself to the schooling environment while Maruko-chan sought after the rebel in me against tiny rules I was in the absolute mindset to follow. This system that organized my life is said by Ulmer to work “not usually as explicit explanations of concepts, but through the repetition of behavior” (130).  I related to my culture via the transmission from exteriority to intimacy – “extimacy”, bringing the set peripheral parameters onto my internal identity. Those unconsciously adapted values are disclosed via this diegesis as “electracy adds to orality and literacy the possibility of writing the unconscious”.

The new relays shown in class greatly influenced how I maneuvered and assimilated the components of my project. “Dreamaphage” exposed some of its content using medical journals. I borrowed this use of integrating a personal account in the eye of an eight year old with the creation of a diary page, which is intimate to the individual, much like the comments noted through medical accounts. I also attempted to resemble the style of what the diary page would have looked like based on the individual’s vocation (a child who enjoys doodling) like the doctor’s format in Dreamaphage. I also inserted soundtracks that would resemble each “station” of my project, like the radio stations from “What They Said”. For instance, loud beats were vivid in the party station, parallel to the television opening I included into my opening television page. This creates an inviting mood to the setting that supplements the realm of my diegesis. Another relay, “The Imaginary Year” was very successful in creating the setting and characters purely from use of dialogue. I attempted to do so with Grandpa’s mini-ficelle character that assisted the production of the main character and amplify the values of the setting. Dialogue is a practical means to convey an impression without explicitly stating something that could otherwise be felt. One of the most important parameters I followed belongs to Carpenter’s “The Cape”. Each link accompanies the text with visual support, often using moving images – gifs. I created many gifs, adapting short, crucial scenes that supplemented the atmosphere of the project without obscuring the memory element. Not only did I capture minimal scenes to visualize the community of Maruko-chan, but also added digital artifacts capturing footage that embodies District 6. In the opening, I mashed both communities into one single gif for the idea of high concept, using a bit of the “switch” and visually portraying syncretism.