"Whereas talking flows in a single direction, writing occupies space as well as time. Tapping that spatial dimension-and thus liberating readers from the bonds of linearity-is among typography's most urgent tasks."
Ellen Lupton
Welcome to the world of Prezi. Get ready to enter into the spatial world Lupton argues, in the "Linearity" section of her book Thinking with Type, is the most urgent task of typography in the digital realm.
To play the presentation, click on the arrow on the bottom of the screen. Keep clicking that arrow to move throughout the presentation or select 'autoplay' from the more tab.
Prezi is a presentation tool I was first introduced to last semester by my Multicultural Education (EDMUL) professor. We had projects due every couple of weeks and he showed us this presentation tool the first week of class. It is essentially the same thing as Powerpoint, but you don't have to work in linear mode. With Prezi you are free to place text, video, and sound files wherever you want to on the blank canvas. There is plenty of space to zoom out or, as I showed, to zoom very far in. I made this presentation for a final project for that class. I included text and YouTube videos. I also played around a lot with the zooming and looping functions.
When I first started with Prezi I got a little frustrated. I have been used to Powerpoint presentations all my life and personally, I don't see anything wrong with that presentation tool. My EDMUL professor did not tell us outright not to use Powerpoint, but he explained the concept of a presentation in a way that I had never considered before. He argued that any presentation should tell a story, but the story does not always have to follow a set of rules. I believe these rules are essentially what Lupton is insisting we need to break free from with all of the digital media we have access to now. She says on page 92, "although digital media are commonly celebrated for their potential as nonlinear potential communication, linearity nonetheless thrives in the electronic realm..." I believe Lupton is right in saying we are still centered around linearity on the web, look at the linearity of our Facebook pages for crying out loud. However, Prezi is an example of how we are beginning to break away from said linearity.
Lupton gives Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign as examples that allow users to work spatially. I thought I would add to this discussion she started in the text to broaden your horizons in a tangible way. Let's be real, we are not going to go out and buy those programs. Prezi is a free presentation tool that we can all learn to use. It just take a little bit of patience and a lot of creativity. And apparently the New York Times loves this tool too! So get your Prezi on! (Cheesy, I know.)
kthxbye,
rachel.l.marten
Linearity is a hard concept to steer away from. I find myself to be a very uniform in all the presentations that I've ever done. I think the source Prezi is an interesting way to break away from that! It's interesting how although things placed in what seems to be disarray, all work together to say something meaningful. Thanks for sharing the tool! It could definitely be helpful in my website. -Diana N.
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