Out of all the projects linked on the assignment, John Ashbery’s Nest stood out the most to me. When I first visited the website, I was taken aback by the animation zoom that took me from the end of the sidewalk to the doorstep. The audio of footsteps that supplemented the introduction made me feel immersed in the setting. The way the website presented information about John Ashbery and his home was very creative.
The team members of this project extracted the sources by collecting the various excerpts from interviews, journal and sketchbook entries, and major milestones in Ashbery’s life. These team members also selected particular photographs that highlighted important time periods for Ashbery. Most importantly, two major sources of this project is the house and John Ashbery himself. The team members wanted to create a virtual tour of his only home to introduce people to Ashbery’s antique collections and creativity through his poems and the artwork displayed around the house.
The house (and information about it) was processed through digitizing photographs and making Ashbery’s interviews accessible through audio. The virtual tour was made possible by a 360-degree camera that seamlessly panned the entire room. Important milestones about Ashbery’s work with the Hudson house were displayed through an interactive timeline that began with his grandparents’ homes. The team members of this project also selected unique artifacts throughout the main rooms and supplemented the artifact with an auditory explanation or interview from Ashbery about it.
After sourcing and processing the data collected about John Ashbery and his interest in homes, the team members of the project presented this information by publishing an interactive website that walked users through notable artifacts of the house. In addition to the main interactive portion, information about Ashbery’s life was presented through a timeline on a separate page. A short biography was also published on that page. Interviews that mentioned the process of populating the Hudson house were published on a separate page in a question-and-answer format with images supplementing his answers.
For users who wanted less of an interactive experience with the house, the team members listed out all the unique artifacts in the Center Hall with small descriptions on a separate page. There is also a written page that highlights some of Ashbury’s poems and their relations to the collections throughout the house. Another page linked to full versions of some poems that were mentioned in the interactive tour.
Overall, the team members published a great project that examined John Ashbery’s house and his creative life. They presented the data in a simple way that helped viewers like myself to quickly understand and digest the information. I would love to learn more about how they integrated the interactive aspect of the website through animations and supplemental audio files.
Hi there,
I liked your introduction to the site because you explain your first impression of it and how you felt looking at it. It made me feel like I was looking at the site myself. I also like how you link to the site throughout the blog because it made it easy to follow your deconstruction of it. I think you did a good job of summing up the project by reflecting on what you liked about it. However, it would have been nice if you included what you though they could have done better.
Hi,
One thing that I really liked about your blog post was how you hyperlinked important references to the appropriate links from the site. I feel that that makes it convenient and accessible for individuals who want more information about John Asbery’s Nest. I feel that I can use this in future to organize and provide more detailed information for my future blog posts. Overall, I feel that your post provided in depth information and that it was well organized. Thanks for your post!
Your post really prepared me for the experience of navigating the website, and actually helped me find some of the information I wouldn’t have caught just looking casually myself (like the biography and timeline). I think the importance of audio to a project that archives poetry and lived experience / possession is so integral to the success of the project, but like you said it’s also a digestible medium to be able to listen to the poems. Thanks for your post! I was interested in visiting the site especially after Ashbery’s recent passing this fall., so it was great to see engagement with his work.