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Talan Memmott's "Lexia to Perplexia"***
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From 1996 to 2001 Memmott
was production director of the web development firm
Percepticon
in San Francisco.
He started in Mai 1998 to edite the BeeHive
Hypertext/Hypermedia Literary
Journal (since
volume 3 in collaboration with Ted
Warnell, replaced
since volume 4 by Alan
Sondheim) for
Percepticon. Since 2001 he accepted several assignments as
teacher and lecturer. In 2003, meanwhile his fellowship as
"first electronic graduate fellow" at the Brown
University in
Providence, Memmott developed the "Semiotic Oscillator" in
its
Cave, which allows
observers via projections on four sides (walls and floor) to
navigate with stereoscopic glasses through virtual rooms.
The result of the fellowship was a Master of Fine Arts
degree in Literary Arts. Currently (2004) he teaches as
"first Distinguished Visiting Graphic Designer" at the
Wesley
Center for New Media
(Georgia
Institute of Technology)
in Atlanta. His move to Atlanta caused the dissolution of
the band Television
Astronaut based in
Providence. Memmott
marks "Lexia to Perplexia" as "theory/fiction".
1
The project thematizes relations between observers/readers,
screen and digital(izing) processes via textual parts,
ciphers derived from formulae and picture signs. "Lexia to
Perplexia" consists of ten linked web pages (chapters) whose
source code is written in DHTML and Javascript: "...each
page is excessively layered. So, one dwells on a page."
2
The ten chapters of "Lexia to Perplexia" are constituted by
ten source codes which include the instructions for all
possible modifications of monitor presentations. Cursor
movements and click activities of observers/readers fix the
appearance of a chapter´s parts on the screen. It is
possible to activate coded movements of elements, but no
elements are moveable. Some parts are only as long
observable on the screen as the cursor moves on certain
letters and icons which function as `opener´. Other
parts cannot be closed without leaving the chapter. Further
parts can be opened via click (or cursor) activities but
often they can be closed only via clicks on other parts (or
via cursor movements over unmarked regions and directions).
If several layers with texts and icons can be opened and
will be presented one in front of the other than the
observers/readers can´t influence the sequence of
strata. Deena
Larsen and Richard Higgason describe "Lexia to Perplexia" in
"An Anatomy of Anchors" as "montage" with "embedded", "non
distinguished", "selectively animated" "connotative anchors"
which "reinforce each other as they crowd over and occlude
each other." Many of these <anchors> are marked by
colored letters. Some colored textual parts don´t
function as <anchors>, other <anchors> are
"strictly undifferentiated". 3 Neologisms
serve Gregory Ulmer and – in his footsteps – Talan
Memmott 4
to develop a theory language for explanations of experiences
with hypertext and the internet. Memmott uses its poetologic
interesting aspects in his "theory/fiction". Punctuation
marks are used as visual signs; they add a further
interesting dimension which provides a transition to icons
in Memmott´s model-like presentation of the
transgression of hypertext (via hypermedia) to hyperfiction.
Punctuation marks like the both kinds of round brackets
(normal round brackets and braces), obliques, double dashes,
semicolons and others knot together not only the textual
parts and icons with each other on the screen, but they
combine the screen with the source code, too. Text and the
programming code penetrate each other in different kinds on
the levels of source code and screen presentation which
refer to each other. Memmott
used collected phrases of Gilles Deleuze, Sigmund Freud,
Félix Guattari, Martin Heidegger and Friedrich
Nietzsche to develop parts of "Lexia to Perplexia" via
iterated modifications of these quotations. 5 In a textual window of
"minifesto 3" in the chapter Metastrophe:
Temporary miniFestos
the "Corpus Artaud" is circumscribed as "an elaboration on
the Body Without Organs as outlined by Deleuze and
Guattari". Memmott refers to the sixth chapter of Gilles
Deleuze´s and Félix Guattari´s «Mille
plateaux» with the heading «28 novembre 1947
– Comment se faire un Corps sans Organes?». This
chapter refers to and explains parts of Antonin
Artaud´s banned radio programme Pour
en finir avec le jugement de
dieu. Artaud
speaks: Memmott
adds the "<body with organs elsewhere>" to
Artaud´s conception of «un corps sans
organes», "in reference to attachment to the Internet
apparatus and the distribution of <being> across it -
- as data, as pixels, as energy..." 7 "Remote" "<bodies with
organs>" are in the "hyperlobe [internet,
networks]...temporary and only accessed." (Textual
window "Corpus Artaud") Software(applications) and computer
operations process data on characteristics of real bodies
via reduction and compression: Here "Communification" means
obviously the digital mediated communication between remote
users´ <bodies with organs>. "Simplification"
helps to reduce the amount of data. This data traffic
without organs connects users "with organs" and
thrills/electrificates ("electrification") or confuses them.
"Communification" constructs a "body" which exists as a
communication process in data streams called or initiated by
users at terminals. Perhaps this body exists on a mental
level in <Communifictions> (as a neologism derivate of
"Communification"), too. In "Lexia
to Perplexia" serve schemes of monitors, eye icons, bracket
signs and textual parts to characterize the situation of the
observer/reader before a screen. The chapter
Cyb|Organization
and its Dys|Contents –
Sign.mud.Fraud
includes two terminal´s (monitor with keyboard) schemes
with the headline "X-terminus" above and the capture
"I-terminus". These schemes can be opened along the vertical
central axle. Eye icons are located along this axis above
and below the schemes of terminals. Text parts define
"eye/I"-relations 8
as parts of the I-terminal.
The term "I-terminal" marks computers which offer
observers/readers interfaces to networks. Processes in and
between computers constitute the X-Terminal. The legend of
Nárkissos and Echó introduces
observers/readers in the chapter The
Process of Attachement
to the "bi.narrative exe.change" "between remote and local
bodies". "I-terminal" and "X-terminal" as well as present
and (the dates of and on) remote bodies constitute
"bi.narrative" lines. The "I-terminal" presents a screen
projection to the "eye" of an observer/reader. These
projections for "eyes" provoke observers/readers to
integrate them into projections which constitute their "I"
(see below). The "X-terminal" contains (not only, but as
part within parts) the organization of the possibility to
repeat successfully internet accesses to the same files. The
hits on specific URL-addresses leave traces in the
"X-terminal", f.e. in server protocols, access statistics
etc. The files of visited net addresses are stored temporary
in the "I-terminals" without any loss in quality. If the
"X-terminal" transmits immaterial dates on bodies
("I-components", see below) via telecommunication to
"I-terminals" then the process of multiplying the access as
well as the data is comparable with the incorporeal
Echó: "[(I)...(X)]" (chapter Cyb|Organization
and its Dys|Contents –
Sign.mud.Fraud). Hieroglyphs
with origins in the Egyptian cults for the dead (Osiris),
bracket signs and cross-sections of monitor tubes serve to
thematize in the chapter Ka
Space: encryption >book< of the
dead the
"X-terminal´s" relations between "user" and "TECH.txt"
9: A "Cell.f"
is a digital double of an "original". "These <little
puppett repeats> of the Original" (chapter
Exe.Termination)
are replaceable electronic dates which stand for real
elements. It can happen as a consequence caused by
retranslations of the digital data into the material world
that living bodies are treated as if they are replaceable
like data. Memmott presents this problem in his language
with neologisms and code elements – "a jammed,
fractured diction full of slashes, dots and brackets"
10
– in the following way: The informations of remote
bodies in the digital data traffic cause, if retranslated
(or reconstructed), material bodies "in a devalued state".
The real body dimensions before a digital translation remain
a comparative measure because Memmott proves the opinion as
an error that the real body is a "mask": "...even the body
is a mask, a surface. This is completely false." The
digital "lexia" are "inanimate"; the
observers´/readers´ examination of the
"Cyberorganization", which combines data(processes) and
remote terminals, causes "perplexia" 11,
if retranslations of digital bodies into (imaginations of)
corporeal properties and action possibilities in real rooms
are wanted. The "animated" look of "inanimated" digital
substitutes is able to irritate observers: "These <little
puppett repeats> of the Original are...de.parted,
animated yet inanimate." (chapter Exe.Termination)
Animations of non animated body dates can provoke the false
conclusion that properties of digital transformations like
substitutability and reversibility are transferable to real
bodies. Memmott´s conception of the "bi.narrative"
lines containing original bodies as well as the
communication with and on remote bodies helps to develop
differentiations and to avoid false conclusions. The "self"
was the subject of the world´s history in <the
philosophy of consciousness> ("Philosophie des
Bewußtseins"): Local and epochal histories were parts
of the world´s history. This "self" (as <instructor
of places>/"Platzanweiser") constituted fields of
knowledge and sorted out what and who receives which place
in which field: 12:
"– whole as a self contained apparatus, the
metahistorical I that I am that pretends at singularity and
despotism over any/every other." Possibilities for changes
offer modifications of the conception of the term "Original"
as well as the term "We" of "communification": "We meet as
media" with the "self" in brackets ("replaced with
[I]"). (chapter Exe.Termination) Memmott
uses in chapter Metastrophe:
Temporary miniFestos
the head of Leonardo da Vinci´s study
of proportions after
Vitruvius and
André Masson´s drawing of the headless
«Acéphale» (for the cover of Georges
Bataille´s journal with the same name) 13
as visual ciphers to thematize relations between head and
body. Masson presents innards meanwhile Leonardo compares
surfaces by marks of ideal scale proportions between parts
of the body. Both present parts in more detailled manners
but they do it in contrasting regions: Leonardo details the
face and Masson the guts. Leonardo´s head and the
«Acéphale» remain unnoticed if the five
manifestos ("miniFestos") will be opened one after another
until the black ground is covered by grey areas with text.
Both visual ciphers on the black ground are activated by
cursor movements on textual parts of "minifesto 4" which are
marked by lighter coloured grey areas. "Minifesto 4" covers
the visual ciphers: The ciphers constitute a level
<behind> the text presentation. This layering is
comparable to the psychology´s differentiation between
psychic strata. Cursor movements on the headings of
"Minifesto 1" until "5" cause the closing of all other
"Minifestos´" windows and open the sight on the level
with visual ciphers (ill.1). The visual ciphers with
origins in art history are used to deepen the introductory
theme about possible combinations of language and source
code: "FACE"
appears at first between tags which open "HEAD" and "BODY"
but don´t close them: "FACE" belongs to "HEAD" because
it stands after that tag, it doesn´t belong to "BODY"
because it appears before its tag (The tag allows to open a
"BODY" as a separate element after the tag "HEAD", which
contains "FACE"). 14
Then "FACE" is placed as a part of a "BODY" between its
opening and closing tag. The relations between the body part
"FACE[...]as sup|posed other" and the "FACE" split
from the body provoke "perplexia" and are integrated parts
of Memmott´s play with (and between) Codeworks and
icons provoking association fields (see below). fingertips and the
screen...our fingers, digits reach back to poke us in the
eye, reaching back toward the Original through a series
of hand-offs -- playing hot potato with the self and
Cell.f. (chapter Exe.
Termination)
Memmott locates these
relations between eyes, hands and the whole body, which can
be segmented culturally but not divided physically, in the
chapter The
Process of Attachment
within the following context (and anticipates with his
formulation the title of the second chapter): He
modifies Sigmund Freud´s "Das Unbehagen in der Kultur"
- in its English translation: "Civilization and its
Discontents". There Freud discusses in the first annotation
to the fourth chapter the "fatal process of civilization"
("verhängnisvolle[r]
Kulturprozess[...]") of the "erection of mankind"
("die Aufrichtung des Menschen" ) and the "predominance of
facial attractions" ("Übergewicht der Gesichtsreize")
caused by "organic suppression" ("organische[r]
Verdrängung"). 15
Does Memmott try to expose the digitalization as a
continuation of the "fatal process of
civilization"? Memmott´s references to
Georges Bataille and Antonin Artaud create a distance to the
"process of civilization" as well as to Freud´s manner
to explain culture. A socialization which suppresses needs
and functions of the body ("organic suppression")
establishes a segmentation of head and body. Bataille
presents in «L´Histoire de l´oeil»
(1928) the transgression of taboos by the "pleasure ego"
("Lust-Ich") causing a continuing partialization of the
body. This partialization effectuates the isolation of the
eye which Memmott thematizes in "Lexia to Perplexia" via
pictures and schemes of isolated eyes. The relation "eye/I"
becomes a cipher of relations between "the fatal process of
civilization" and its transgression, between the
"predominance of facial attractions" by suppression of the
other senses and the liberated gaze which may initialize
further transgressions. Artaud´s conception of a "body
without organs" (see above) is a plea for arguments for a
liberation of the imagination from "organic suppressions"
resp. socialized segmentations of the body. The "Cyberorganization"
changes the civilization´s problematic constellations
via relations between "I-terminal" and "X-terminal" without
dissolution of the "Discontents" ("Dys|Content(s)"): Users,
who live in hybrid forms between "Communification" (see
above) with digitized signs ("Sign") and the social world
with present <bodies with organs>, can´t escape
the "mud" of the suppressed psychic life (with the return of
the suppressed) and either recognize or are beaten by
deceptive ("Fraud") ambiguities. But users
can live with these ambiguities in another way than with
"organic suppression". The guts of the
«Acéphale» and the Minoan labyrinth
presented in the chapter Cycl(ad)ic
Trading: The Minoan Network
are relatable to each other: The labyrinth is not only an
edifice but the inner body (its organs) and a
<picture> of psychic experience. The headless
«Acéphale» appears in the chapter
Metastrophe:
Temporary miniFestos
at the bottom of a triangle meanwhile Leonardo´s head
is presented in a circle on its top (ill.1). Bataille uses
the pyramid as an expression for the rational manner to
search a way out of the labyrinth but the ratio negates the
inner experience: These efforts of rationalization cause
imaginations of the labyrinth as a prison. 16
Memmott´s constellation of visual ciphers provokes
interpretations with a background based on Bataille´s
writings. Memmott outlines the Minoan
trade network in the chapter Cycl(ad)ic
Trading: The Minoan Network
in a text which jumps and slides to digital networks as wall
as in pictorial strata which link aspects of both (trade and
digital) networks. From the suppression to the opening of
the labyrinthian inner worlds by social and digital
networks: The labyrinth is presented as a "central
processing location for the Minoan Network" as well as a
"macroprocessor" and an element of a "connectivity" from
"terminal to terminal". The textual parts of the
last chapter Exe.Termination
are only partially readable because they are overlaid with
other textual parts as well as with punctuation marks,
cross-sections of tubes, eyes (as line schemes), signs of
files, beams and other things. The source code presents the
textual parts without interferences with overlays.
Observers/readers can select the source code after
unsuccessful trials to modify the screen presentations until
textual parts are readable: The monitor presentations refer
back to the instructions which generate the screen
projections. Observers/readers may try to
coordinate the modifications of the screen projection via
mouse operations with their pleasure in looking. The monitor
presentations can appear as back projections (or
reflections) of the "I"-imaginations: Jacques
Lacan outlined relations between eye, imagination, image and
a depicted object with the help of two (inter)penetrating
triangles. 18
In the chapter (s)T(ex)T(s)
and Intertimacy
Memmott sketches relations of gazes between
observers/readers and screen projections via icons of eyes
and overlays of mirrored outlines of a typical cross-section
of tubes which are readable as modified
triangles. The
interpenetrations of tube´s cross-sections overlay
letters which form up into the term "Exit". 19
The letters of the word "Exit" are located between two eyes
on the left and right side. The eyes are connected by lines
which deviate from straight horizon lines by wavy
curvatures. This horizontal axis constitutes a level
above/on the cross-sections of tubes. A mirror relation
exists around the vertical central axis between the eyes and
the (inter-)penetrating tube/gaze relations not without
deviations. The mirror relation is repeated in the formula
"(s)T(ex)T(s)". That formula appears below the term "Exit"
(and became the heading of the chapter; ill.2).
"(s)T(ex)T(s)" can be decoded in the following way (as one
of several possibilities): "s" is not only a place
holder/substitute for "subject/self", but for "sequence",
too; "T" is placed not only for "text", but for "temporary",
too. The origin of the temporary modifyable screen
projection of the text "T" (either downloaded or temporary
loaded) is the source code´s text "T" which includes
the instructions for possible modifications of the screen
projections: "T" emporary from/"(ex)T". It seems that the
formula "(s)T(ex)T(s)" outlines what "Lexia to Perplexia"
shows and describes at once: Sequences of textual parts
(sequences "s" of "T") on the monitor are modifyable with
mouse operations in time dimensions ("T"emporary) by
observers/readers/subjects "s" in the manner programmed by
an author/subject "s" and <executable> by computers
after reading the text of the source code "T":
<(s)T(ex[e])T(s)>. The
reduction of media specific characteristics in
Conceptual
(Textual) Art around
1970 is superseded by the likewise self referential and
reflective "technotext" 20
"Lexia to Perplexia" with an exemplary demonstration of
certain media specific possibilities. The screen projections
of the reflective textual parts are organized in the ten
parts of the source code as <Conceptual Performance>.
21
Relations between concept and presentation gain new meanings
in net projects as relations between source code and monitor
presentations. The thematicizing of these relations
doesn´t cause any more <poor> presentation forms
which reflect art conditions. But now it leads to projects
which involve observers/readers in experiments which
investigate parts of the extremely manifold manners of
programming and presenting. Gary
Hink rejects N. Katherine Hayles´ term "technotext"
because she uses the term hypertext in "Writing Machines" in
a way which doesn´t follow Theodor Holm Nelson´s
criterion of its non-translatability in print media. But
Hayles argues for a differentiation of the "materiality"
respectively of the media characteristics. 22
Characteristics of a medium can return in other media in
very similar as well as in modified or impeding forms.
23
Memmott integrates procedures of the literary avant-gardes
which are developed for the print media. He transforms
unusual segmentations of the plane and passages between
signs as pictures and pictures as signs into dynamic screen
presentations. Memmott´s use of the source code for
this dynamic presentation provokes reconceptualizations of
the reader´s activation which the avant-gardes
anticipated. A
central theme in the debate on interfaces of the nineties
became doors to the virtual world and the navigation in it
from the side of real rooms: This theme was exemplary
concretized f.e. in reactive installations. 24
Memmott thematizes the "I-terminal´s" screen, mouse and
manual as interface to the "X-terminal". He combines the
debate on interfaces with the elder discussion on hypertext
which was actualized for internet applications.
25
He reactualizes and connects these discussions in "Lexia to
Perplexia" with each other in his browser dependent screen
projections and source codes using recourses to modern
classics like Artaud, Bataille, Freud and Lacan. These
recourses enable Memmott to reflect processes of observation
and reading in conditions of telecommunication,
digitalization and networks in surprising facets. Meanwhile
the recipient of "Lexia to Perplexia" reconstructs roughly
sketched social psychological aspects (s)he makes
experiences with these aspects in the process of
deciphering. The work is a model case (pragmatics) and a
rudimentary explanation of the case
(conceptualization). ***This
article has been published firts at IASLonline
NetArt: Tipps. Annotations 1 Amerika,
Mark: active/on Blur: an interview with Talan Memmott. In:
trAce Online Writing Centre. trAce/Alt-X New Media
Competition, January 2001. URL: http://trace
of.ntu.ac.uk/newmedia/interview.cfm
(7/5/2004). 2 Amerika,
Mark: active/on Blur, see ann.1. back 3 Larsen,
Deena/Higgason, Richard E.: An Anatomy of Anchors. Primary
References, Commentary [43]. International ACM
Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia 2004. In: URL:
http://www.sigweb.org/conferences/ht-conferences-archive/ht04/hypertexts/larsen/flash/memmott/index.htm
(7/31/2004). 4 Greg Ulmer
explains how he uses neologisms to analyze the
internet´s characteristics, in: Memmott, Talan: Toward
Electracy: a conversation with Greg Ulmer. In: BeeHive.
Vol.3/Issue 4, December 2000. URL: http://beehive.temporalimage.com/content_maps/34a.html
(7/8/2004). back 5 Hayles, N.
Katherine: Writing Machines. Cambridge/Mass. 2002, p.54. 6 Artaud,
Antonin: Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu. Recording
studio of Radiodiffusion Française, Paris,
11/22-29/1947 (CD sub rosa, Bruxelles 1995); Artaud,
Antonin: Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu. Paris
1948/2003, p.21-61, quotation p.61 (New in english: URL:
http://freespace.virgin.net/drama.land/projects/schizoanalysis/artaudjudgment.html
(24.10.2004)); Deleuze, Gilles/Guattari, Félix:
Mille
plateaux. Paris
1980, p.205-227 (New in english: http://www.generation-online.org/p/fpdeleuze2.htm
(24.10.2004). Compare on Artaud´s conception of the
"body without organs": Deleuze, Gilles/Guattari,
Félix: Anti-Ödipus. Kapitalismus und
Schizophrenie I. Frankfurt am Main 1977 (french original:
L´Anti-OEdipe. Paris, nouvelle édition
augmentée 1972), p.421s; Deleuze, Gilles: Anti-Oedipe
et Mille Plateaux. Cours Vincennes - 15/02/1972. In: Les
Cours de Gilles Deleuze. URL: http://www.webdeleuze.com/php/texte.php?cle=156&groupe=
Anti%20Oedipe%20et%20Mille%20Plateaux&langue=1.
back 7 Amerika,
Mark: active/on Blur, see ann.1. back 8 "eye/I":
chapter Metastrophe:
Temporary miniFestos,
Minifesto 5, window to "Solipstatic Original". Compare
"I.eye" in chapter Cyb|Organization
and its Dys|Contents –
Sign.mud.Fraud.
About its prehistory: Roughley, A. R.: Textual Surveillance:
The Double Eyes (and I´s) of George Bataille´s
"Story of the Eye". In: Rhizomes. Issue 6, May 2003. URL:
http://www.rhizomes.net/issue6/roughley.htm
(7/8/2004). back 9 Talan
Memmot, in: Amerika, Mark: active/on Blur, see ann.1:
"Osiris of Egyptian mythology is more accurately named
Ausere. In a simple, frivolous manipulation of the name you
come up with <A user>." back 10 Shelley,
Jackson: Judge´s Remarks. In: trAce Online Writing
Centre. trAce/Alt-X New Media Competition, January 2001.
URL: http://trace.ntu.ac.uk./newmedia/remark.cfm
(7/5/2004). 11
«Lexie»: "large unit of reading" (Barthes, Roland:
Éléments de sémiologie. In:
Communications 4/1964, chap. II.2.3. New in english:
Elements of Semiology. New York 1968, chap. II.2.3. URL:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/barthes.htm
(10/18/2004). Compare Barthes, Roland: S/Z. Paris 1970,
chap. VII, p.20s. New in english: S/Z. New York 1974, chap.
VII. Quoted in: Lexia from works by Roland Barthes: URL:
http://www.uno.edu/lowres/classes/cyberlit/barthes01.htm
(10/18/2004)). 12 Habermas,
Jürgen: Moralbewußtsein und kommunikatives
Handeln. Frankfurt am Main 1983, p.9ff.; Habermas,
Jürgen: Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne.
Zwölf Vorlesungen. Frankfurt am Main 1985,
p.29s.,350,353,356s. back 13 Leonardo
da Vinci: The
Vitruvian Man, ca.
1490, Venice, Accademia. In: Richter, Irma and Jean-Paul:
The Literary Works of Leonardo. London, 2nd ed. 1939. Vol.I,
no.343, p.255s., pl. XVIII. 14 Hayles,
N. Katherine: Writing Machines, see ann.5, p.52.
back 15 Talan
Memmot, in: Amerika, Mark: active/on Blur, see ann.1:
"...the {FACE},FACE is the result of some thick premediation
of an appropriated fragment from Freud´s
<Civilization and its Discontents>." 16 Bataille,
Georges: Le labyrinthe (1935-36). Neu in: Bataille, Georges:
Oeuvres complètes. Vol. I. Paris 1970, p.433-441;
compare Vol. V. Paris 1973, p.97ss. The labyrinth in Georges
Bataille´s texts and André Masson´s works:
Hollier, Denis: Against Architecture. The Writings of
Georges Bataille. Cambridge/Massachusetts 1989, p.xii,
57-73; Wilk, Michael: Within the Labyrinth (1/9/2003). In:
McGill School of Architecture, Montreal. History and Theory
Graduate Studio 1996. URL: http://upload.mcgill.ca/Architecture-theory/9597wilk.pdf
(7/12/2004). 17 About the
back projection: Lacan, Jacques: Le séminaire, Livre
XI: Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse.
Paris 1973, p.79: «Ce regard que je rencontre...est,
non point un regard vu, mais un regard par moi
imaginé au champ de l´Autre.» The
modifyable screen projection of "Lexia to Perplexia" can
appear as «Le champ de l´Autre» to
observers/readers: Compare "the re:turned object" as textual
part before the screen´s line of a tube´s
cross-section in chapter Ka
Space: encryption >book< of the
dead. 18 Lacan,
Jacques: Le séminaire, see ann.17, p.85,97. 19 "Exit":
for example "ex it", out of the "It", as a passage from "It"
("Es") to the "I" ("Ich"), from the subconscious to the
conscious. Compare Victor Burgin´s "xit!" in "Park
Edge", 1987, in: Dreher, Thomas: The Shadow of the Watchman
– or: Memory Operations. Chap. Park Edge (1993). URL:
http://dreher.netzliteratur.net/3_Konzeptkunst_Burgin_Mem.html.
back 20 On the
(impossibility of the) reduction of the esthetic part of
conceptual forms of presentation: Dreher, Thomas:
Konzeptuelle Kunst in Amerika und England zwischen 1963 und
1976. Dissertation Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.
München 1988/Frankfurt am Main 1992, p.154ss.;
Tragatschnig, Ulrich: Konzeptuelle Kunst.
Interpretationsparadigmen; ein Propädeutikum. Berlin
1998, p.21-25. 21 Vgl.
imnotatfault: Internet Writing & Society – Position
Paper 6. (3/5/2004). In: URL: http://caxton.stockton.edu/imnotatfault/2004/03/05#a100
(7/28/2004) on the manner how the performativity of the
screen projections is based on the source code of "Lexia to
Perplexia": "Lexia to Perplexia is definitely a hypertext.
One could never realistically transfer its reading
experience into print. Narrative plays a big part in the
work, even though a good portion of the text can sometimes
be rendered obscure or even unreadable, but computation does
not. Hypertext theorist Gary Hink [see ann.22]
asserts that there is no computational level to Lexia. All
ten sections exist from the beginning and the variable
computation that Aarseth discusses [Aarseth, Espen J.:
Cybertext. Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore
1997, p.75] does not come into play." back 22 Hayles,
N. Katherine: Writing Machines, see ann.5, p.17-45. 23 Hayles
contextualizes printed literary projects in a mediascape
dominated and influenced by electronic media: "In the
tangled web of medial ecology, change anywhere in the system
stimulates change everywhere in the system." (Hayles, N.
Katherine: Writing Machines, see ann.5, p.33)
back 24 Dreher,
Thomas: Kontextreflexive Kunst: Selbst- und Fremdbezüge
in intermedialen Präsentationsformen. In: Weibel, Peter
(ed.): Kontext Kunst. Kunst der 90er Jahre. Cologne 1994,
p.102-107 (Jeffrey Shaw, Peter Weibel). back 25 Ziegler,
Henning: When Hypertext became uncool. Notes on Power,
Politics, and the Interface. In: Dichtung-Digital –
Journal für digitale Ästhetik, Jg.5, Nr.27,
1/2003. URL: http://www.dichtung-digital.org/2003/issue/1/ziegler/
(8/2/2004). back |
