"Blue Rooms" is my senior thesis for the Vassar College English Department. This project has been assisted by many spirit voices. I have also had much support from the living and one of those creatures is my friend, guide, mentor, and officially--my thesis advisor--Michael Joyce who invited me into this medium and taught me to swim in it. I am so grateful. Michael has far too many accomplishments to gloss here with a list. So instead of writing a pale summary I instead direct you to his homepage where you can have a look-see if you haven't already. More than words...
The text of "Blue Rooms" was originally composed in the hypertext program that Jay Bolter and Michael Joyce created--Storyspace--which allows for complex linking and link guards (which the internet currently cannot provide) between spaces that can host images and text. Early on though, with the encouragement of Michael, I realized I wanted to dream "Blue Rooms" into the Web so that as many as possible could visit and have a look around. The Storyspace files were exported directly into html, keeping all the original text and links, and then collaged with the images.
Yet another creature I must acknowledge...several of the images used in "Blue Rooms" are works of my far-away friend Stephen Bodin who is currently living in northern California and creating in various shapes and forms (all other images except for the blue-swamp image are photos I took). The paintings and collages which are thumbnailed here are scattered amongst friends and were done in the past few years. These images are copyrighted and if you are interested in or wish to use any of them Stephen can be e-mailed at (astroboy142@hotmail.com). He is currently applying to various art schools around the country.
"Blue Rooms" invites you to embark on a journey. The layout is rather simple--there are various streams of text which fork along the way but always return to the collective flow. That means that you most likely will not encounter all the text in one visit so I invite you to return and explore overlooked passages if you so desire. I have recently added image links and these links allow for more movement between the various streams.
Please send me words if you have any comments or questions--I would love to hear from you. I have two accounts which I check regularly: elcrain@vassar.edu and lizardcrain@hotmail.com.
Thank you for visiting...now lull away... sweet dreaming....
--April 2000