by Michelle Donahue

I love art. My mother is an artist, so I grew up going to the LA County Museum of Art and ogling all the classical and modern creations there. So I find I’m really drawn to literary magazines that feature art. But what I love even more are multimedia pieces: works that combine a visual aspect with the text. That’s part of the allure for me of online literary journals; without printing costs online journals can print more experimental and multimedia work. I know here at Flyway that’s one of the many reasons we wanted to move online.

So here is a web rove of some recent multimedia pieces from across the Internet. Here we see a poem/video, illustrated fiction, an essay/video game and a schematic. So get ready to read, watch, and play!

“To Find Stars in Another Language” Poem by Elizabeth Bradfield, Video by Demet Taspinar (From The Rumpus)

Bradfield’s poem shines on its own as it explores language and story-telling, but coupled with the video by Taspinar, this work takes on a mythic, abstract quality. The shining water and ice with Bradfield’s well chosen, oh-so wonderful words create a unique experience. So sit back, relax, and watch this poem.

“Evacuees” by Simon Jacobs (From Paper Darts)

Everything in Paper Darts comes with beautiful art, but I particularly love their longer works of fiction that have more than one illustration. “Evacuees” tells the story of two space evacuees. Jacobs packs a lot of punch into a very short a piece, so check out this illustrated short story. Spoiler: Space dragons and David Bowie make an appearance.

“The Tetris Effect” by Eric LeMay (From Black Warrior Review)

An essay and game hybrid! You begin by playing Tetris and each time you complete a line you get a little more of the essay, which ranges from information on Tetris to personal information about the author who grew up trying to plan and order his life. Just as Tetris is addictive, so is this piece! The author tells us over 35 million games of Tetris are played a day. So why don’t you be part of that number and read this?

“Some Basic Holes and Their Associated Skins” by Roberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi (From Diagram)

I always love Diagram’s “Schematics” section where they feature old art, diagrams, excerpts, etc. “Some Basic Holes and Their Associated Skins” visually and textually explores the idea of surfaces, skins, and being filled.

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