One of
the most important conceptual elaboration of multimedia is
Fluxus' idea of intermedia. As defined by Dick Higgins,
intermedia is the "art form appropriate to people who say
there can be no artificial boundaries between art and life.
If there can't be a boundary between art and life, there
certainly cannot be boundaries between art form and art
form. For purposes of history, of discussion, of useful
distinction, one can refer to separate art forms, but the
meaning of intermedia is that our time often calls for art
forms that draw on the roots of several media, growing into
new hybrids" (Friedman 1989). Derived from reflections on
intermedia are the contemporary oppositions of mixed-media
and intermedia, to distinguish the illustrative mixture of
text, image and sound from the organic combinations as in
visual poetry of the 1970s and 1980s. Important developments
of these concepts can be found in the theoretical discussion
on experimental poetry from the 1960's on, as stated in
Friedrich Block's "The form of media: the intermediality of
visual poetry" and Philadelpho Menezes "Poetics and
Visuality".
In hypermedia hybrid
combinations and new possibilities of codification are
possible: "One surface fits all" (Beressem 1999). As the
development of the audio-visual media show, there is an
increase of visualization but at the same time an increase
of semanticization (cf. Schneider 1997). It is the most
important development, caused by the audiovisual media, that
the attention especially in artistic contexts is turned to
processes of sign production and that these processes are
more and more perceived as aesthetic functions. Signs do not
refer as symbols to meaning but refer selfrefentially to
themselves and make the reader aware of his or her own
perception.
Machiná by
Philadelpho Menenez combines the image and function of a
calculator with sound and text.
We can type in a combination
of numbers (612309), which will start a sound file
pronouncing the sound of single letters. When we finally
choose the "="-symbol, the voice starts to combine the
single sounds to the word "POESIA", which appears at the
same time as the mirror image of the calculator, turning the
numbers into letters. The integrative effect of this example
can be described as a doubling: first, an electronic medium
has been transferred onto the desktop of the computer - the
calculator we all have used several times as one of the
standard tools our computers offer. Second, the numeral sign
system has been interconnected to the alphabet, not because
of a semantic relationship but because of a mere visual
similarity between numbers and letters. This example
highlights, the numeral basis of digital literature in
general and focuses on the limited possibilities of
interaction digital media provide.
The user produces a new form
of media poetry within a very limited environment. Besides a
playful and interactive approach towards literature the
reader should gain an awareness about the control and
limitation which is inherent in digital literature at the
same time. We are not dealing with a transformation of form
and content from one medium to another, but instead with a
sort of synthesis. In such an intermedial form individual
components complement one another but could not stand on
their own.
1
>
2
- 3
- 4
