Creative Response-  My Boyfriend Came Back from the War

In this piece, the interactive art was very interesting- for example, the window image flashing reminded me of bombs for some reason, timebombs specifically, like there was only a matter of time until the end.  It’s repetitive flashing causes an uneasiness that I couldn’t shake.  The flashing window also reminded me of a pulsating heart which could stand for the love between two people, or the quickening of a pulse because of nervousness, whether it be from love or fear.

During the part where it says “Where are you, I can’t see you”, I felt sad which shocked me.  This kind of broke my heart because of stories I read about PTSD and coming back from war.  Sometimes people change so much that they are unrecognizable.  My husband’s cousin died in Afghanistan, and this question “Where are you, I can’t see you” resonated with me as well.  I never got to meet his cousin, and my husband sometimes says he can feel him around, but not see him.  I’m still undecided about the whole afterlife thing, but that is what this part of the media reminded me of.  A bit strange and hard to share, but there it is.

“Look, Salute, In Honor of You”…. The words on the bottom right side of the page that you can click are positive words, but then they change to read: Red, GREEN, Blue.  I found this very interesting, this change of our country’s colors really stood out to me, although I wasn’t sure what it meant.

Also interesting was the graphic in the middle of the soldiers and helicopter.  The background was black and the image white, but when you click on it the colors reverse to a white background and black image.  This could portray many things, such as the change that occurs in a person because of war, or the changes that war causes in general.

The repetition of clock images as I clicked through was also interesting to me.  Overall, this was a very thought provoking piece.