Thursday, February 11, 2010

On Hypertext

-Hypertext (and its media specificity and its potential for vuser interaction) was birthed from itself: we, as vusers, are able to think in a free-associative, connection-making way that hypertext both requires of us and allows us because of our exposure to and interaction with technology: our access to hypertext is both digitally born and bred.

-Self-reflexiveness: Why is electronic literature traditionally self-reflexive? Books do not always reference the page, television does not necessarily reference the screen. Is it because the form is so new in comparison? Will this tradition change? Or is it because there is such an emphasis on form (coding and interface) that it cannot be separated from content?

-Hypertext is a perfect illustration of the notion of the death of the author: once completed (if ever completable), the author turns over his/her work to the vusers. Their exploration changes depending on each person, their own way and order of accessing a piece. Hypertext lends itself to this theory more than any analog text could, rivaled only possibly by the 'Choose your own adventure' stories of childhood.

-Breeding geniuses: Humans evolved tremendously with the advent of handtools in prehistoric times. What will the incorporation of technology yield? A species of geniuses? A truly universal language?

-Patchwork Girl: Self-reference - different parts from diverse sources of anatomy sewn (linked) together - the needle and thread is analogous to the coding generated by Storyspace, which, in turn, is analogous to our DNA. Jackson's piece also brings up the relationship between body and machine, humans and creation.

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