———-
From: Andrew Choate <braxlove@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 08:33:19 -0800 (PST)
To: feisal ahmad <feisal@rhizome.org>
Subject: Fwd: page space


— Andrew Choate <braxlove@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 08:49:58 -0800 (PST)
> From: Andrew Choate <braxlove@yahoo.com>
> Subject: page space
> To: list@rhizome.org
>
> Under the auspices of the Superbunker Machine
> Poetics Research Unit, the Los Angeles area recently
> played host to page_space, and event comprised of
> several readings, two exhibits, and the launching of
> 10 web experiments exploring the places where texts
> (can) live. The selected artists for the web-based
> works were invited to create new spaces for text;
> these frames were then given to another writer to
> compose within, thereby reversing the traditional
> dynamic of designers and programmers working within,
> and only to complement, the pre-existing aesthetics
> of
> someone else's finished work. The exhibits and
> readings gathered several artists intent on
> abolishing
> the assumptions to primacy that words typed on paper
> exert over our culture; these page_space
> collaborators
> constructed vehicles and environments to adequately
> transmit conditions of contemporary writing to an
> audience.
> "Clippings," a web-page designed by Jason Nelson
> with
> text by Pedro Valdeolmillos, allows the reader to
> navigate and recognize multiple layers of text
> simultaneously. You can zoom in and out of each
> layer
> as desired. You can slide photographs, paragraphs,
> and other visual elements from the dominant layer
> according to each moment's intrigue. The large
> quantity of negative space surrounding each block of
> text (or other storytelling device) encourages the
> reader to keep moving, hand on the mouse fast, and
> absorb the piece's flashes of wandering thoughts
> with
> traveling eyes. Many of the texts are brief enough
> -
> "He said love. Did you notice?" - to be absorbed
> while
> still moving through the space; the brevity and
> fragmentation of the information offered
> subconsciously influences how you maneuver (within)
> the story, as the reading literally takes you
> places.
> As the memories and details of the piece accumulate
> in
> your brain, the reading, the writing and the actual
> experience described within the story inextricably
> mesh. In a medium so typically focused on the
> sophistication of the technology involved in its
> creation, the text itself can easily appear
> secondary
> or even irrelevant to the functioning of a hypertext
> piece. "Clippings" successfully avoids this pitfall,
> and instead affirms the potential profundities to be
> found when the same level of care is applied not
> only
> to the generation of text or page individually, but
> when it is equally as devoted to the coalescence of
> text and page as a singular significant creature.
> Another web piece, "Dibagan," uses the space of the
> page to provoke associations based on single words.
> geniwate's text - words like "terror," "death,"
> "television," "now," "is," "consuming," "blood," -
> rises vertically on bars from the bottom of Brian
> Kim
> Stefans' page; the height each word reaches depends
> on
> how long the mouse rests on each bar. An audio loop
> describing the violent aftereffects of a Kurdish
> troop
> advance on the town of Dibigan begins once the page
> is
> entered; this information is delivered amidst
> ambiguous shuffling and unintelligible shouting in
> the
> background, as if it were the recording of a
> reporter
> in the line of fire. Sometimes the words get stuck
> rising into the screen or pile up in indecipherable
> jumbles, making our only ammunition for sense in
> this
> space a haphazard variable. An ominous,
> frighteningly
> accurate portrayal of life during wartime.
> Free from the constraints of the web, the exhibit
> at
> Machine Gallery featured an arcade-sized video game,
> a
> sculpture, an interactive video, a computer game,
> and
> access to all the collaborative web experiments.
> The
> sculpture by Alexandra Grant, based on a text by
> Michael Joyce, features yards of bent coat-hanger
> wire
> suspended from the ceiling, roughly shaping a six
> foot
> egg. Each line of wire twists to form words, many
> of
> which are written backwards, compromising quick
> decipherability. The combination of its slow
> rotation
> with the large empty spaces outlined by the wires
> provides an instant physical representation of the
> writing process: blank spaces, constant movement,
> and
> the dual emergence of transparent and inscrutable
> language. Spending time with it hanging and
> spinning
> in the air, I felt an attraction towards inhabiting
> the writerly space it advertises, letting words
> appear
> and disappear through my eyes and in my mind. The
> appeal was not simply cerebral, as I saw more than
> one
> child literally attempt to get inside it.
> Sara Roberts' untitled game, also at Machine
> Gallery,
> presented the exterior of an arcade game in
> conjunction with a car's gearshift - here acting as
> a
> makeshift joystick - along with one pedal to brake
> and
> another to accelerate. As you shift into any gear,
> individual words appear onscreen at a rate
> determined
> by your pressure on each pedal. You can control the
> tempo, but the language feels like it's out of
> control: social observations, office jargon gossip,
> and interior monologues speed across the screen into
> your consciousness. The faster the words appear,
> the
> more they feel like they spring from your head and
> not
> your field of vision. 2nd gear: "I feel warm."
> Pause.
> 1st gear: "Water. On. My. Back." 3rd gear: "No,
> don'tturnoffthewateryetI'mnotdoneshaving." This
> piece
> finally revealed the linguistic faculty to be a
> motor
> that no amount of mechanical mastery completely
> regulates.
> While actualizing ambitious visions of abodes for
> future writings, page_space also established a
> value
> for social events when considering technology's
> place
> in textual production - promoting the experience of
> digital, internet and media-based art in public.
> The
> readings and exhibits demonstrated
> non-computer-based
> methods for imagining page spaces, deepening the
> resonance of the project's aim: to open spaces for
> text and writing that do not strictly depend on
> either
> historical or contemporary tropes of design - like
> the
> book or the web-page, respectively. The danger of
> investing so heavily into the design of the writing
> space was that the texts - what the words said -
> could
> appear superfluous in comparison. But the
> importance
> of seeing and doing things with words not only
> activated and communicated alinguistic or
> pre-linguistic stories, it reactivated the
> significance of reading as an action that takes
> place
> beyond the (misleadingly) black and white space of
> print publication.
>
> All of the web pieces are available through the
> Superbunker page at
> www.superbunker.com/machinepoetics/page_space
> Links to Jim Andrews' "Arteroids," which was part of
> the exhibit at Machine Gallery, as well as Deena
> Larsen and geniwate's most recent collaboration,
> "The
> Princess Murderer" (portions of which were read at
> UCLA and CalArts as part of the event) can also be
> found through this page.
> The exhibit at Machine Gallery (1200-D N. Alvarado
> St.
> in Los Angeles) ends on March 14th.
>
>
>
>
>
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