For a school assignment, I had to develop an interactive digital magazine for tablets. I chose to make a magazine for surreal short fiction. I selected a few different pieces and created illustrative layouts that evoke the unknown in a similar way to the stories themselves. One of the layouts, in particular, was based on the grid M. C. Escher used for his woodcut Portrait Gallery that allows for a continuous spiral that in the original image is used to show a world leaking out of its own painting.
The final story in the magazine, This Could Be Your Past by Uel Aramchek, was originally published on Twitter and involves two parallel worlds that collide. It is originally written in interweaving Tweet threads such that it can be read either with the two parallel stories alternating sentences, or separated into the individual worlds. In order to replicate this experience, I illustrated the moment where the timeline splits by overlaying the text from the two worlds. Tapping this hides one and then afterwards alternates which is shown, allowing the user to read both versions. The illustrations subtly change depending on which timeline is visible, illustrating the differences between the worlds and underscoring the slight discomfort of the story’s ambiguity.
