VII. Discussion
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A. Rethink | B. Engage | C. Adapt | D. Afford | E. Limit
C. Adapt
Additionally, another kind of invention influence tools exerted was "adapt," or working out a new alternative for creating a desired effect imagined or seen in another project. One example of an “adapt”-type influence emerged in the drafting process RR2.
Working with the candle photo from the previous presentation put me in mind of an effect I’d seen on Boyd’s opening webtext page, in which scrolling over a spool of thread changed its color and led to a new section. I wanted to try to emulate that effect on the homepage for the navigational scheme of the attempted RR draft; however, that effect had initially been created in Flash, and I was unable to use the “developer” view to see how I might recreate that effect in HTML/CSS. Instead, I used Illustrator to try to insert each of the candle segments as separate images to see if I could set up interaction with them in a similar, if not precisely the same way. This sort of tool-based influence is different from “engage”-type influences in that the tools I was working with didn’t allow me to create precisely the effect I was looking for in the design. Rather, through a process of negotiation, I was able to enact a similar effect based on how my tools’ affordances allowed me to proceed.
Another “adapt”-type influence was enacted in DM4.
Per my collaborator’s suggestion, I was looking to include some kind of animation in deploying the text as a pop-up box to show how the curves and movement were the driving force that exerted influence even over the text itself. There were some JavaScript animation elements already included in the pop-up code I found in an online example. However, because I had copied the code from elsewhere and was not able to write my own JavaScript, I was not sure how to enact the desired rhetorical effect. Instead, with some searching on Google, I found out how to create and manipulate a sort of s-shaped wave curve that I could then insert as a subtle layer on some of the pages. This was not precisely the imagined effect, but with the tools available I was able to create something that emphasized Odissi-based movement with a similar rhetorical effect, even if not the same technical execution.
Thus, an “adapt”-type tool-based invention influence characterizes an effect enacted on pieces that is a variation on an imagined effect. Although this adapted effect serves a related rhetorical function or purpose, its deviation from the initial plan reflects how ideas shift at the practical intersections between pieces and available tools. “Adapt”-type influences highlight processes of negotiating with tools in a key way: composers are required to weigh what is desired with what is possible, and determine what of the initial idea can be retained and what abandoned without damaging the implicit argument’s coherence. These compromises highlight the significant role tools play in mapping systems of distributed webtext invention.
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