@ -278,6 +278,7 @@ My intention is to facilitate a series of collective performative readings of bu
As I sit in the waiting area at the gate B7 in the airport preparing to come back to the Netherlands, I am writing the last lines of this text. I am thinking of all these borders and gates that my body was able to pass through smoothly, carrying my magical object through which I embody power- at least within this context. However, I yearn for a reality where we stop looking at those bodies that cross the multifaceted borders and get crossed and entrenched by them, but on the contrary we start interrogating and shouting at the contexts and the frameworks that construct them and render them invisible, natural and powerful.
---
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## references
@ -323,3 +324,4 @@ Mouffe, C. (2008) ‘Art and Democracy: Art as an Agonistic Internvention’. Op
Pater, R. (2021) Caps lock: How capitalism took hold of graphic design, and how to escape from it. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Valiz.
Picozza, F. (2021). The coloniality of asylum : mobility, autonomy and solidarity in the wake of Europe’s refugee crisis. London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Wink is a prototype for an interactive picture book platform. This platform aims to make reading into a mindfull and thought provoking process by using interactive and playful elements, multiple stories within one narrative and sound elements. Especially today where consumerism and low attention span is a rising issue especially amongst young readers, this was an important task to tackle. The thought of Wink emerged to find a more sustainable and creative way of reading for elementary school children.
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Working as a children's literature editor for years, I came to a realisation that picture books were turning into another object that kids read and consume on daily basis.
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Teachers and parents were finding it difficult to find new books constantly or were tired of rereading the same book.
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As a young person in the publishing sector, I believe there should be more options for children as there is for adults; such as ebooks, audiobooks etc. But moreover a "book" that can be redefined, reread or be interacted with... So I revisited an old story I wrote, translated to English and called it, "Bee Within".
Bee Within, is a story about grief/memory and it is based on my experiences throughout the years.
I erased it, rewrote it, edited it, destroyed it multiple times over the past years; simultaneously with new experiences of loss. In the end, I believe the story turned out to be an ode to remembering or might I say an ode to not being able to forget or an ode to the fear of forgetting which I now think is a great and sweet battle between death and life. I think it is an important subject to touch upon, especially for children dealing with trauma in many parts of the world.
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Over the past two years, experimenting with storytelling techniques, interactivity options and workshops with children and adults, around reading and doing various exercises on Bee Within, I improved the story to be a more playful and interactive one which can be re-read, re-played and eventually re-formed non digitally to be reachable for all children.
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I would like to clarify and introduce some terms for you in order to read this text in the desired way. For a while, we will stay in the bight of this journey as we move into forming loops, theories and ideas on how interactive picture books can be used to foster curiosity for reading and creativity for children. I am building a web platform called Wink that aims to contain a children’s story I wrote and am making into an interactive experience, in relation to my research.
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Through this bight of the thesis, I feel the necessity to clarify my intention of using knots as a “thinking and writing object” throughout my research journey. Although knots are physical objects and technically crucial in many fields of labor and life, they are also objects of thought and are open for wide minds’ appreciation. Throughout history, knots have been used to connect, stop, secure, bind, protect, decorate, record data, punish, contain, fly and many other purposes. So if the invention of flying -which required a wing that was supported using certain types of knots was initiated with the knowledge of how to use strings to make things, why wouldn’t a research paper make use of this wonderful art as an inspiration for writing and interactive reading?
## KNOTS AS OBJECTS TO THINK WITH
### KNOTS AS OBJECTS TO THINK WITH
There is a delicate complexity of thinking of and with knots, which ignites layers of simultaneous connections to one’s specific experience; where one person may associate the knots with struggles they face, another may think of connecting or thriving times. In a workshop in Rotterdam, I asked participants to write three words that comes to mind when they think of knots. There were some words in common like strong, chaotic, confusing and anxious. On the other hand, there were variations of connection, binding, bridge and support. Keeping these answers in mind or by coming up with your words on knots and embodying them in the practice of reading would make
a difference in how you understand the same text.
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Seeing how these words, interpretations of a physical object were so different to each other was transcendental. In this thesis, I am excited to share my understanding of knots with you.
My three words for knots are resistance, imagination and infinity. Keeping these in mind,
@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ This map will reveal your mode of reading. The order of reading will be indicate
as an exercise for concrete thinking. See you at the standing end! and a number on top of the sign with a color. This is the numeric order you should follow to read the thesis, if you choose to read with a mode.
Every reader starts from 1 and continues until 12, with a consecutive numeric order, according to their color/mode.
After many loops of thought, we are here at the standing end of the thesis. There is room for
more loops and knots in the future to secure this string of thought but for now, we have come to
@ -603,7 +603,10 @@ I am looking forward to making more knots on this long and mysterious string at
</section>
## Bibliography
<divclass="bibliography">
## Bibliography
Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M. (2009) ‘“multiliteracies”:
New Literacies, new learning’, Pedagogies: An International Journal,
4(3), pp.164–195. doi:10.1080/15544800903076044.
@ -646,8 +649,9 @@ Vega, N. (2022) Codes in Knots.
Sensing Digital Memories, The Whole
Life. Available at: https://wholelife.hkw.de/
codes-in-knots-sensing-digital-memories/.
</div>
## Acknowledgements
Thank you Marloes de Valk, for your enlightening feedbacks and ideas. Thank you Michael Murtaugh, Manetta Berends, Joseph Knierzinger, Leslie Robbins and Steve Rushton for sharing your time and knowledge with me throughout these years.
Thank you XPUB friends for funny, hectic and memorable moments we made together.
