Project Overview

My final project for ENGL 273 at Vanderbilt University, "The Velveteen Rabbit - Exploring the Boundary between the Real and the Unreal," proposes a rereading of the famous children's story in light of ontology and technology. Essentially, I created a digital story book, a format inspired by The Patchwork Girl by Shelley Jackson and the “Digital Pinocchio” projects done by Brown University’s Italian Studies department. Both works exemplify interactive narratives using technology, and similarly, I wanted my project to allow its readers to freely navigate the tale and explore it at a new angle. Furthermore, I wanted to display the impact of technology on storytelling, since the website itself, in a sense, is a virtual world. 

 

Ultimately, The Velveteen Rabbit raises the question of what it means to be real, and different aspects of its plot blurs the boundaries between the real and the unreal. Interestingly, this is an impact that technology has broght to society today, with man-made entities approaching an alarming proximity to their organic, authentic counterparts that they stand at a murky region in the aforementioned boundary.

 

Hopefully, as you navigate through this website, you will ponder over the conceptions of realness and consider whether the boundary of authenticity can be traversed. Don't forget, however, to enjoy Margery Williams' classic tale, The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real.