You might ask... what does she mean specifically by transmedia? In this case, I mean the ways in which the story was adapted and translated (hence the title of this unit) across different forms of media for both works of art. In general, Moby-Dick is considered a hybrid, discontinuous text, in which Herman Melville wrote multiple kinds of prose: philosophical musings, adventure narratives, theatrical dialogue, scientific descriptions, etc. Melville was inspired not only by different textual sources (such as the Bible, Milton's Paradise Lost, science journals, etc.) but also different artistic and media forms. Examples of this might include Melville's use of Quakerian sermons, Shakespearean dialogue, and panoramic visual description within the text of the novel. In many cases, it is not only the material products of these that Melville refers to (i.e. literally, a panoramic drawing of the ocean), but the different kinds of experience and way of creating meaning as associated with these different forms of media (i.e. a "panoramic" way of understanding and thus describing the ocean which involves a greater degree of reflection and attention to the surrounding details).

Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, the director of "Moby Dick: Then and Now," also employs different modes of media and artistic expression. As evidenced by the performance, Pitts-Wiley was inspired by a diverse range of artistic and media forms including rap music, traditional Christian hymns, architecture, step dancing, theatrical lighting, and digital visual project. Not only did he include these media forms in his play, but he also let the characteristics of each of these inform his storytelling. One example of this might be his particular uses of rap (instead of regular dramatic dialogue) in order to heighten the sense of urgency during particular moments in the play.

The main goal of the unit plan, therefore, is to highlight this hybrid approach to creation, where techniques, tools and effects from one media can be applied in another. Students should learn to recognize this process within works of art as well as practice this transferring method themselves Because of our focus on new media literacies here at ProjectNML, it becomes important for us to focus on how this learning objective relates back to contemporary new media practices. Any examination of 'old' media that inspired Melville (including urban sketches, panoramic paintings, scrapbooks, or scrimshaw) should show students that media can be considered beyond their technology, material or tools. Hopefully, this unit plan should give them a model through which to think more deeply about their own media use.