Individual Work
Dear e.e

Lori Janis’s title, “Dear e.e,” refers to E. E. Cummings’ poetry, whose free-verse poems are famously written in all lower case letters. In “Dear e.e,” the speaker addresses an intruder, presumably Cummings himself, accusing him of visiting her apartment and re-arranging the furniture. Hand-drawn objects scroll quickly across the screen, some moving in odd angles while random letters fly around, resembling a disoriented dream. Bubbly music with discordant undertones plays during the sequence. Moving the mouse over a picture reveals hand-written words that describe the previous night’s events. The encounter leaves the speaker confused and disoriented. The apartment most likely resembles the speaker’s mind that is constantly being disrupted by outsiders.

Users can operate through the random fragments of the author’s dream until they decide to “wake up,” by pressing the command at the top of the screen. A fuzzy picture of a view from the ground looking up at trees fades in to resemble the grogginess of early wakening. A short bio is posted on the screen, which explains Janis’ difficulty in thinking clearly due to mental obstacles, as symbolized by her fuzzy dream of her apartment (her mind) becoming trashed (her consciousness unsettled). The user then may choose to click “sleep” to go through the poem presentation again.