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The Computer as a
Writing Machine
The
computer is a machine that apart from its mechanical
construction is composed of
writing.[1]
What I will propose in the following is a literary
interpretation of the computer, which of course does not
cover all aspects or uses of the computer, but focuses on
possible transformations of writing and reading. Such a
literary interpretation of the computer is of course
important for literary studies, but I believe that the
literary approach can also contribute to a general, critical
understanding of the computer and some of its cultural
impacts. Therefore I shall in this paper propose an outline
of a digital poetics, and briefly point to current digital
literary examples. My aim is to demonstrate how this
rephrazes concepts from computer science as poetological and
literary concepts and vice versa; how digital literature
through its writing process demonstrates the literary and
cultural significance of programming and of the computer. As
a consequence this paper argues (by taking some initial
steps) for further crossdisciplinary research in the field
of digital writing between literary theory and computer
science as a way to understand the general cultural impact
of the computer and as a way to further develop creative
innovation.[2]
A
machine composed of writing is of course a great opportunity
for contemporary writers. As it has already become clear for
most writers through their use of word processors and the
Internet, the computer is a great tool for producing,
storing, editing and distributing text. Most published texts
today have passed through computers and probably using the
computer as a tool has influenced the writing in some sense,
though it is difficult to survey such an
influence.[3]
The next challenge, however, arises when writers move beyond
regarding the computer as just a tool for their writing;
when writers move beyond writing only for the printer and
the screen. When writers start interacting literary with all
levels of code in the computer and they take advantage of a
great new range of codes - writing with the code at all
levels of what writer-programmer, John Cayley, has called
the 'programmatron'. [7]
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Notes:
[1]
Although the computer is currently marketed as a visual
multimedium enabling intuitive, 'user-friendly', visual
communication, there are no images beyond the interface.
Everything is stored as bits and bytes, an electrical form
of notation that can be approached as a development of
writing in the sense that it shares and develops some of its
defining characteristics: All levels and data in the
computer are in principle open for editing and thus for
writing and re-writing since both alphabetic writing and
digital code are arbitrary sign systems (as opposed to some
forms of visual and auditory data, that could not be edited
to the same extent until the advent of the multimedia
computer). In fact already alphabetic writing is digital in
the sense that it is composed of discrete data (letters)
from a finite set (the alphabet). See also [10].
[2]
In this sense this paper continues the crossdisciplinary
activities within the Hypertext community (which I do not
have the space to enumerate here (cf. eg. [9]) but
moves beyond the concept of hypertext to include broader
algorithmic and cybernetic concepts of text and programing
as well as multimedia and net art. This paper aims (given
the limited space) to argue by pointing to examples and
carrying out brief analyses instead of setting up a
theoretical framework and discussion. Hopefully, however, it
will lead to theoretical discussions.
[3]
Which does not mean that it is futile as an interpretative
perspective on modern literature. For a starting point see
e.g. N. Katherine Hayles: "The Materiality of Informatics"
(in Configuration, 1992, 1: 147-170).
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