Potter, Potter, Potter

Potter, Potter, Potter, Potter, Potter, Potter... A Snape, A Snape, A Snape... (I very much like the sampling of the HP theme...)

But is it useful? And I quoteth myself from a short essay I wrote for my digital studies class: "To recall McGann, new media studies must embrace play to survive, to thrive. Digital studies is serious, but it cannot be too serious. Digital studies is about experimentation and entertainment, but it is also about evidence, history, technology, and education. It is no wonder that my graduate class on digital studies exhorted play and the investigation, close reading, earnest analysis, and further creation of “toys” -- both analog and digital, both scholarly and popular, both useful and playful. In a manner, then, even a seemingly frivolous site like www.badgerbadgerbadger.com can be illuminating, if not important. The badgers are algorithmic, rhythmic, iterative, illustrative, mathematical, communicative, evocative, narrative, and colorful; though linear (though the syncing of the sound and image does begin to slip creating a new text) and not playable, the badgers are definitely playful and intertextual and meaningful (badger as metaphor, folklore of the mushroom, and symbology of the snake). With a little time, the right technology, and imagination, the rolling loop and various pieces of the flash animation can be taken apart, reconfigured, exported, imported, and reassembled into a new digital text. In fact, the bouncing badgers have spawned a number of other texts. It is this transportability, this modularity, this encouraging borrowing and reimagining that is the heart and spirit of new media. It is the reason texts are made, made again, and studied. It is the heart and spirit of play."