MSA: New expectations come with new capabilities

I found Lexia to Perplexia to be a little too ergodic. It wasn't the physical effort to explore and find links, but the mental effort to make sense of it that wore me out.

I think a large part of my experience was shaped by the "medium ecology". While the work explores how our human experience is shaped by technology, it was exactly this environment that undid any initial enjoyment of Lexia. When I'm sitting at my computer--as I do so many hours of the day--I'm in information processing mode--answering student questions, grading assignments, writing webpages and programs, and surfing for quick, accurate answers. When I surf webpages in this mode, I'm constantly evaluating whether this page is reputable and useful, and I'm skimming it for the gist. Lexia reminded me of those times I've taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on some incomprehensible "crazy's" website, where normally I quickly hit the Back button--time is short and I can find what I'm looking elsewhere. (And having to wait for Lexia to preload over a 28.8k connection, and then needing to switch browsers and download again, already wore on my patience.)

However Hayles chapter did improve my estimation of Lexia somewhat. Lying back on my bed, I could peruse her examples. Following her orientating lead, I better understood the work's intent. Then I was able to catch the wittiness of constructions such as "cell.f" and "I-terminal". It reminded me that many (fine) things in life--wine, beer, literature, jazz--need to be studied closely to understand their subtlety to be enjoyed. Yet this means more ergodic expenditure on my part, overcoming my Web-based expectations of clear structure, quick information, and obvious navigation.

I also wasn't all that impressed with Memmot's code "creole." I've seen much better examples of witty and insightful "code poems", clearer both in the code and the underlying sentiment. Admittedly, these were mostly very short works (usually on T-shirts).

Though I'm embarrassed to reveal how impatient a "reader" I was of Lexia, I do think much of this was shaped by my expectations of the Web medium. I think being aware of this is important for Web authors, as well as for me, next time I try to approach a piece of digital literature.

"Frustratingly Inert"

"Lexia to Perplexia" must be my most frustrating encounter with digital literature to date. As Eugene Thacker put it, the work is "frenetic, sometimes frustratingly inert" (Hayles 57). While I can intellectually allow for the stimulating nature of creating an English/HTML creole, of engaging the "mindbody" and of "signif[ying] a trajectory in which we become part of a cybernetic circuit," the actual implementation of such elements (in this piece) leaves me feeling hollow, dissatisfied, and down right annoyed (Hayles 51)! Memmott's piece to me represents a very disjointed and "cold" implementation of such efforts, one that seems completely unconcerned with aesthetics.

Perhaps I did not spend enough time with the piece. Perhaps trying to view it in two different browsers was not enough. All I know is that after opening the piece multiple times, in two different browsers, and never being able to move forward or backwards or uncover new links/portals, I was always left feeling as if I reached a dead end. I did mouse sweeps religiously but to no avail, was confounded by links that appeared and disappeared, and thought I was losing my mind when the little drop down menu in the left hand corner disappeared as soon as I tried to make a selection! Was I experiencing technical difficulties or merely becoming part of the "cybernetic circuit?"

I much prefer Matt Gorbet's view on the nature of such pieces. In his response to Camille Utterback's essay, Gorbet supports the "practical" interface over the "poetic" interface; "the simple and physically familiar interactions" that afford the reader/user a real "sense of control" (Wardrip-Fruin 218). Does a piece have to be mind-blowing, uncontrollable and frustrating in order to be successful? I would hope not. I'm all for pushing the boundaries and creating new forms/methods, but would it be hypocritical of me to want to impose some limits, some level of normalcy and aesthetics?

Finding a new language

Resistance to change was the sense I had as Hayles described her journey into Digital Literature. Not her resistance, but the resistance of the people around her, the people in academia. What came to be called the “bathtub theory of literature” probably best sums up their opposition (Hayles 36). Fortunately, she continued to explore this emerging new field. As she discussed her journey of discovery, I found myself wanting to experience some of the artist’s books she mentioned.

While reading her book, I was reminded of our classroom discussion about the pieces. Her frankness in talking about how she needed to learn how to read and interact was the pieces was refreshing. It also served as a reminder to me to revisit this works at different times. I was also reminded about how I need to change my expectations when I’m engaged with one of these pieces compared to my expectations of traditional books.

After looking at Lexia to Perplexia a few times, I think she said it best, “Lexia to Perplexia is a ‘nervous’ document” (57). I explored the piece prior to reading the Writing Machines as suggested. Even though I approached with an open mind, I found myself getting frustrated by its “nervousness”. I managed to loop around once but restarted it a couple of times too. Later, I revisited with Hayles book in hand. Her explanations helped some as far as explaining some of the artist’s intentions. But I think this piece might be like Cubist painters, they’re not my cup of tea.

I’m left with the feeling that Digital Literature will continue to change and expand as new technologies become available. How they will change the way that the artist constructs their piece and how the audience interacts with it remains to be seen. By attempting to define a lot of terms now, I’m wondering if we’re trying to do too much too soon. The differences between the 1st and 2nd generations of Digital Literature illustrate this point. Perhaps, we need to agree that we don’t have all the terminology yet - and might never - and simple enjoy and create new pieces before we have to learn a new set of skills!

Over My Head...

Both “Lexia to Perplexia” and “windsound” went way over my head as far as poetry goes. I had no idea what to make of Lexia. It was kind of interesting; I kept clicking, hovering, and moving my mouse from one location to the other. I started with the one that looked like it said exe.termination. That sounded like something interesting, so I probably gave that the longest look, still left with a feeling of, “WTF?!” The wotclock wouldn’t work on Explorer or Firefox on my system. It would just have “ET” on the screen and then freeze my Quicktime player. The “windsound,” which I watched for about eight minutes was actually kind of creepy, but in the end still way over my head.

Some of these more “techno-edgy” pieces confuse me. I do not know if “edgy” is the right word for it, but they seem very abstract and modern. I was following the guy’s creepy voice during “windsound” and the whole time I thought of “Fear.com” (this really bad movie). Whenever it would switch to the louder, less creepy woman’s voice, I would follow along, trying to connect that piece of the story to the last, to no avail. I kind of liked “windsound” because the title somewhat tells what the site/poem/experience is like. It is kind of like wind blowing through trees, happening to make weird sounds. Until the woman-voice speaks, it really could just be the wind blowing, and our paranoia providing words to the madness (if we did not have the words on our screen, obviously). That was a little bit cool, but still, I do not think I could have handled that for anything over ten minutes.

“Lexia to Perplexia” was weird. I liked how I could interact with the text nonstop. I could just move my mouse around on most screens and something happened. I like when the background changed because sometimes I would try to figure out what the picture was. Sometimes when you would click stuff, green words or “Manifestos” would appear. I tried Googling these phrases, but only the site I was at came up. I see some poetry in the paragraphs, but with all the techno-jargon mixed in, maybe I am just misunderstanding the symbols. I also did not understand if I needed to start at each one, because some seemed linked to others. The colors were kind of dark too, with shots of fluorescent green mixed in, somewhat painful for the eyes.

The two pieces I was able to view were interesting, but I would call them art more than poetry. Are they supposed to be poetry? I do not even know, and in no way am I putting down these artists’ works. I think they have messages, but these messages are breezing right over me. I hope at the end of this semester, maybe with a little more experience with this stuff, I will be able to get more of the subtleties of these pieces. I think it will be very interesting to view these pieces at the end of the semester and see what I think of them then.

Well until Tuesday….That’s all folks! -AJ

Never-ending digital literature

In Lexia to Perplexia, there was utilization of many different images and flash techniques to create a piece that was quite overwhelming. This piece was prompted by the mouse-clicks of the viewer, which consequently had an effect to the images or text that you would see onscreen. There was so much text and confusing juxtaposition of drawings, images, and moving images. I couldn't compute and take in that much input, so I ended up just clicking wherever onscreen and not even reading any of the text.

This piece seemed to parallel the readings from Writing Machines by Hayles and First Person by Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan. These texts are so dense with loaded words and terminology that really confuses and frustrates me. I'm not used to all of this computer tech lingo. It's like I have just dived into another world where I don't understand the language that everyone is speaking in. I also had a lot of trouble with my html page. I tried to create links and upload them to the ssh uploading tool and uh-server, but to no avail. This week has just been quite frustrating for me.

Lexia to Perplexia

While browsing through the Lexia to Perplexia web site, I have to admit that at first, I found myself trying to search for all the possible links and didn't read any of the text. I am always amazed with web sites that are visually stimulating and this site is definitely a (confusing) visual piece of work.

I think I find sites like these a little intimidating. There's so much information packed into this one site that I don't even know where to begin...or end. Every time I went to the site, I found a new link, more images, more words, more confusion. Eventually, I think I came around to the same place I started at, but as I kept moving forward, I couldn't find a way back to the place I was at previously.

Personally, I think that's something I have to learn to get over. I'm so accustomed to being in control of what I read, especially in a book. I can leave a book marker or post-it in a place that seems important in a text book but online, in a site that has no address bar, makes that more difficult if not impossible to do. Most of the text in the site could be copied and pasted into a word document but I wouldn't know for sure how to get back to that text, at least not without spending time searching for it.

I could go on and on about the design of the site but I think I should at least mention that I did enjoy Memmott's use of neologisms and creole words. It reminds me of trying to decipher the personalized license plates that make no sense when you first look at it but seems clever once you figure it out.

These three pieces were very interesting. I found that out of the three, aesthetically, Faith by Robert Kendall was the most visually stimulating because of the actions and motion of the words. There was also a lot of colors used to direct the viewer's attention from here to there and to put emphasis on some words more than others. I felt that the "buttons" that appeared which would take us to the next section of the flash presentation was very helpful because it gave readers a break in which to soak in all of the information.

In contrast to the many words of Kendall in Faith, Murmuring Insects written by Otagaki Rengetsu and designed by Ingrid Ankerson gave viewers only a few words to visually read. The rest of the piece incorporated very subtle images such as the fade in and fade out of the twin towers. These images and text were accompanied by music and insect sounds along with actual news reels with people's voices and sounds from 9/11.

Jason Nelson's Hermeticon was a very complex piece that had an overload of information. There were many different squares in which different images would appear depending on the keystroke that you used. This keystroke would appear as the faint background behind the grid and squares. The keystrokes that the viewer typed in would be displayed and the old text would be pushed out of sight as you typed more and more. This technique that Nelson used engages the viewer more proactively, but also confuses and frustrates the viewer in the sense of reading this piece. There is bits and pieces of actual text, but otherwise this flash piece is a combination of old commercials that have been all put together and are displayed somewhat randomly it may seem to the viewers.

I saw a parallel between Hermeticon and The Matrix (Revolutions - I think it was the second one). In The Matrix Neo confronts the architect who is seated in a room of hundreds or thousands of different television screens. These screens all depict the different possible reactions that Neo could have and one of these possibilities is actually true. These screens juxtaposed with each other create an influx or overload, rather, of information that gives viewers headaches and causes frustration when they are trying to find meaning and understanding of this piece.

And Little is New

In a sense, digital literature - kinetic text - is a new version of old ideas. The new medium allows us to experience literature in a different way. This is similar, I think, to way our view of stories changed as society shifted from an oral tradition to a written. We weren’t confined to mnemonic devices to preserve or create a piece. With digital literature, we’re no longer confined to the written page or to lines of text. Whether we are trying to produce something new or to preserve old knowledge isn’t really important. What’s important is how the new medium affects the old and how the old affects the new.

Hermaticon might be the “new” The Waste Land. It’s confusing. It doesn’t seem to have a point. Maybe one day critics will point to it and called a masterpiece. Masterpiece or not, like The Waste Land, I’m thinking that if the author/creator annotated it, the notes would need notes. That being said, I plunged into Hermaticon. I tried the suggested spell and then proceeded to experiment with different keystrokes. The sense of bafflement I felt wasn’t reduced by a second or third visit. This experience paralleled my experience when I read The Waste Land.

I was left wondering how I was going to react when I saw the pictures and clips used in the piece. Would I view the advertisements differently because I saw them used in a different context? Or would I think of Hermaticon when I saw them? Would seeing them in the context that was intended, help me to understand Hermaticon better? Perhaps a better question would be, would it help me to start to understand it? Perhaps, like the notes to The Waste Land, seeing them would only increase my bewilderment .

Touching on emotions...the third time around

I agree with Zach when he said that all these pieces of works could not be duplicated on paper, at least to the same effect. The first couple of times I looked at "Murmuring Insects" by Ankerson, I didn't have the volume on. Then when I went back to the site again, I noticed that it said "Sound bytes from..." Viewing that poem, and allowing it to have all the modes of communication required, allowed it to become very powerful. Those sound bytes gave it a different meaning, a meaning I wouldn't have gotten without those clips.

I'm not even sure how a poem like this, using words, images, and sound could be duplicated on paper. Maybe the sound clips made a huge difference for me because in 2001, when the attack was in the news, I only had a TV with no cable and virtually no picture in my dorm room. I remember listening to the news, and hearing that lady's voice (the one heard when you click on "air"). I couldn't see the picture they were showing while she was saying that and could only use my imagination. I'm sure had I been able to actually see what she saw and heard what she said, it would have had a different effect on what I thought and felt.

Similar to the emotions brought on by the TV (the emotions supposed to have been brought on with the picture and sound), the emotions felt while listening, and seeing the poem unfold on the computer screen cannot be reproduced on paper with words alone.

A new medium demonstrated?

I felt that all three of this weeks' short works are strong evidence for the existence of a new medium--none of these works could be reproduced faithfully in an older medium.

Faith, with it's cute animated intro concerning the imperviousness of faith to logic, requires motion for this message. It prompted me to question whether the rest of this "poem" could be printed in a traditional anthology. But how would you print a morphing poem? Print the 4 screen-pages sequentially; or print only the second-to-last screen-page when the poem is most "complete"? It would fail to capture the sense that one poem could contain/reveal another within it.

I found the contrast in Murmuring Insects to be quite striking. At first, the scene only seems to highlight the content of the original poem (much as in last week's "Origami")--the peaceful night sounds, two fluffy airplane lines over a still moon:

In the sky, flocks of departing geese
In the weeds, murmuring insects
Tears like dew well up in my eyes

But as the poem is revealed, we find other sounds that correspond instead to the faint early image of the Twin Towers and the 9/11 date we had to click on to start the experience. These sounds are not natural evening sounds, but human chaos and suffering. The sadness of poem is attached to the events of 9/11, promoting many interesting image and emotional comparisons. This was my favorite work (though I agree I found the "apparent" link from the moon to be confusing).

Some of the scenes from Hermeticon were nostalgic for me, but overall, I found this work less enjoyable. The background beat put me on edge. Possibly due to my lack of rhythm, I failed to make any interesting "spells" from the work. If found I'd rather press many keys quickly and use the resulting noise to drown out the background beat. Yet, in a way, it reminded me of dipping into the "communal consciousness", of being aware of all the messages being simultaneously transmitted on all the different communication channels, and the futility of personally making order from it.

Though none of these works could have maintained their effect through print, I also found that the interactivity was important. I often had to go through each of the works at my own pace, pause to evaluate each scene, back up and play it again to evaluate it closer. This suggests that they may not have done well as video either.

I think that the piece "Faith" best represents the true nature of the kinetic text. Though the beginnings of this medium probably dated back to the earliest forms of Internet technology, with more advanced programs such as Flash, moving texts like "Faith" aren't all that uncommon. Therefore, when giving an opinion on such a piece, I must judge it in the light of today's technology, if only in the light of design philosophy.

The concept of faith is flexible enough to play with; I especially liked the beginning when the word "logic" was bouncing off the word "faith." When the words began materializing, I began to concentrate too hard; this I believe is the main weakness of the piece. Though I was able to make out the various shifting sentences rather quickly, it took away from the enjoyment of the animation itself. Only after I was sure I was reading the message correctly could I then step back to enjoy the various animations and fade-ins/outs. There were also many other combinatiosn of sentences that could be formed as the text appears. I don't doubt that the author wanted us to pick up on these phrases (ones that clearly weren't part of the original paragraph), but as I mentioned before, these intricacies are lost when the viewer tries to keep up with the moving text.

Compared to the other piece that I feel is most similar to it, "Murmuring Insects," although "Murmuring Insects" is much easier to follow, Faith's message is a bit more complex and interesting, and I prefer it. "Murmuring Insects" is a bit too artsy, but it gets the job done. I won't even bother going into "Hermeticon," I absolutely detested it. The main reason is though we are encouraged to put together "phrases" consisting of different combinations of key-presses, the grid itself is by no means intuitive and the short sound bytes and video clips aren't enough to lead us on to pressing other sequences of keys. The piece doesn't generate sufficient enough incentive for the viewer to bother trying to spam all the letters just to see what happens.

You gotta have Faith! (AJ)

Logic bouncing off faith, now that's an interesting visual.

I just read professor Zuern's rules for posting, they are so very strict. My thesis, my topic sentences, and things of that nature usually do not concern me on a blog, maybe that is why he has to mention it. But c'mon John! Whatever happened to casual writing? Well who knows, but I do think these kinetic texts are the new "thing."

All of these kinetic texts had something interesting in them, but I found Faith by Kendall to be the most interesting. I loved trying to actually figure out what he meant, what he was "trying" to say. I loved the introduction, with logic bouncing off of Faith. I love how Faith is typed in nice script, while the other stuff is just colored, nothing too fancy. I think the imagery and message was cool. It's like the dropping words made the thought whole. I enjoyed that piece the most.

I did not understand Murmering Insects. I clicked on it first because my parents own a pest control company and I thought it might be something relevent. It was not. I saw that the soundbytes were pulled from all over, but for all I could tell they were off one, very fuzzy transmission. I could barely understand the message. It had something to do with the two towers falling on 9-11 right? I got that from the date you have to click on. I tried to click on the crescent moon looking thing in the center, but nothing happened. Was something supposed to? Earth, Air & Water all worked, but not that crescent thing. I just watched it for the fifth time and noticed the beautiful, almost illusion-like towers in the background, very cool in that respect.

Lastly, the Hermeticon, the one I thought was in the middle for overall likability (is that even a word, I think it is), which Sheela Jane really liked, I find irritating. I had it on my computer, with the sound on, and my roomie had to ask me to bust out my earphones. I kept trying to make some kind of real message form. I typed things like "so far, so good" and "spellbinding." I didn't type numbers until I saw the example say to, and I didn't get why they used that example. What was going on in those commercial clips? I watched the My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite commercial clips like six times each trying to pick up what they were. Very throwback, but I think I am missing the message.

The pieces were all very interesting, and I think poetry should be headed in this direction (for those who would want to). I mean, you could always choose to print just words, like some/most book poetry, but the pictures, movement, added messages, are very cool. I think this class might expose us ("us" meaning people like me who have read pretty much no poetry online like this) to really new (maybe some old, because that'd be new to me!) technologies in poetry publication. I enjoy this format and I look forward to talking about these interesting pieces in class.

SHOOTS! - AJ

Hermeticon - A Shocking Experience

Nelson's "Hermeticon" is what I'd consider my first, truly SHOCKING exposure to the field of digital literature. And I use the term "shocking" literally and in uppercase for extra and very necessary emphasis. Sitting at my computer at 11pm this evening, I was taken completely by surprise at the noises and images that erupted on my screen at the simple touch of the keypad. I literally jumped and yelled something like "Oh Jesus!" which brought two of my three roomates running (I'm sure the third would have joined us if she were not already asleep!). Between the three of us we pressed numerous keys simultaneously, independently and for various lengths of time, laughing, shouting and trying to make sense of it all. If this piece and our response to it do not completely and brilliantly support Hayles' argument regarding the importance of "materiality" and "media-specific analysis," I don't know what does.

"Hermeticon" demands the reader's full attention to the materiality of the medium - keypad, screen, letters, sequence - while at the same time challenging her to create a literary production that has some semblence of coherence and meaning. There is no way for this piece to make sense without the unique combination of the material elements that are necessary for its viewing as well as the physical actions and intellectual capacity of the viewer. Like the book that Hayles describes as "an artifact whose physical properties and historical usages structure our interactions with it in ways obvious and subtle," "Hermeticon" truly succeeds in "transform[ing]...the relation of word to world" (Hayles 22-23).

On the flip side however, despite its stimulating, mind-blowing and exciting form, "Hermeticon" does run the danger of losing its literary purpose admist the technological hoopla. While I am titillated by the seemingly infinite possibilities, I find it extremely frustrating and almost impossible to make sense of the work's literary meaning. What is the author trying to SAY? What is the central MESSAGE? These are questions that I cannot answer at this point in time - perhaps because the materiality of the piece is so overwhelming and perhaps because it requires multiple viewings and more non-trivial effort (was this the term we discussed last class?) than I am willing to put in at this point in time.

First Post

Hey everyone, just testing my first post for this class.

Another Intro

Made it here without too much trouble. This is my first blog post (ever). :)

Hi There!

Hi everyone!

Finally made it after jumping through a couple of hoops to regain my still active account from last semester! :)

See you all tomorrow!
~SJ

HTML & CSS question...

Aloha kakou!

I've been playing and have at least some of the basics down...I need to learn how to set a margin when using text wrap...anyone have any luck with it? Maybe give me a nudge in the right direction? Here's what I've done so far;

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~mesulliv/

Any comments? sugguestions? snide remarks?

A hui hou i ka Po'alua,
michael

Aloha!

I made it! Had a firewall issue to correct before i could get here...

Quick Post

Hey guys,

Just doing my quick post. Hope you all have a great week!

Mahalos,
Shaun

Welcome to HiDiLi

The Hi(Hawai'i) Di(gital) Li(terature) is your space for conversation and reflection while you're a student in the 2006 Junior Honors Seminar on Digital Literature at the University of Hawai'i. As you'll read in the class assignment descriptions, you're required to make weekly postings in response to our assigned readings and activities. You may also want to use the blog to coordinate your teams' work throughout the semester and to alert fellow students about interesting discoveries on the Internet or changes to your own online projects.

I very much look forward to working with all of you this semester.