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Hypertext in Spain Interview with Susana Pajares Tosca Susana Pajares Tosca is the
editor of the first spanish hyperfiction journal and is
writing her doctoral thesis on "Hypertext and
Literature"
at the Universidad
Complutense de Madrid. She has been a visiting scholar at
Brown University and at Oxford University, where she did
research on hypertext. She is Co-Chair of the HT 00
Conference Reading Section and a member of the Program
Committee. Roberto Simanowski talked with her about the
state of the art and research of hypertext in Spain, about
the pedagogical potential of hypertext, about the
"hype-excitement" regarding the freeing of readers by
multilinear linkage, and about parameters to classify a
digital work of art. dd:
Susana, you are the founder and editor of the Spanish online
journal ST: Hipertulia is a
forum where Spanish speaking people interested in hypertext
and digital literature can read articles and
hypertexts´s reviews, and also find links to related
publications in other languages. We encourage participation
in all languages, provided that any contribution has a
Spanish translation. It is so far the only
publication of its kind in Spanish, and the public has been
very responsive, sending encouraging emails and visiting the
site. This is largely due to the fact that "Hipertulia" is
part of a literary journal called " dd:
How is this journal financed? Do you get money for ads,
do you take money from your audience or do you get a little
help from "Especulo" or other
sponsers? ST: We don´t
have financiation of any kind. Joaquín María
Aguirre, the founder and editor of Especulo, conceived of
the whole project with an educational purpose in mind within
the University framework. So we use the University server,
accept no banners or advertising of any kind, and give our
free time up to the cause... The authors of the articles and
reviews don´t get paid either, and all collaborate
willingly in the free sharing of information. This of course
reflects on the "amateur" quality of Hipertulia, if I had
more time I would update it much more frequently and would
put more work into it. dd:
What is the state of art of Hypertext in Spain? ST: Nearly
nonexistant. I have had many difficulties to find hypertexts
in Spanish (to review or talk about), as you can see on the
site, where most part of the material refers to works in
English. In fact, I haven´t been able to inaugurate one
of the sections, "Creación" (Creative work), as no
reader has yet submitted a hypertext in
Spanish... dd:
What is the reason for the lack of artistic approach to
the net? Is the access to the net too expensive? Is there
too much sun in Spain as one would like to spend one's time
in front of a computer? ST: Well, Spain is
one of the EU countries where the access to the Internet is
slower and more expensive, there are also less computers per
capita than in the rest of Europe, and I don´t even
want to compare things here with the USA. Computers are also
less integrated at all levels of education than in other
countries. But it is to be hoped that things will change in
the near future. dd:
Considered this lack of aesthetic experiments with digital
media, how do the Universities of Spain reflect the
development on the net? Is there governmental support for
research and development of curricula in the field of
hypertext, as ST: Things are slowly
taking off, but it´s still mostly a matter of personal
initiative, of some enthusiastic professor putting her
course material up on the web... The Spanish University
system is mostly public (although there are several private
Universities), and the necessity for specific digital
training has yet to be seen by the authorities. It
doesn´t help either that we don´t have enough
computers for all our students to have free regular access
to electronic materials. The curricula are fairly
conservative, although there are some exceptions in small
private Universities. The Complutense University, where I
work, is the largest in the country, and Humanities
Computing hasn´t yet found a niche of its own in its
structure. We don´t have a specific department, but
there are some subjects that include hypertext and digital
publishing in their programs, like "Literary communication
technologies", a subject taught by my department that
considers the development of literature from orality to the
digital age. dd:
What about international and interdisciplinary cooperation
of Spanish research on digital literature? ST: Well, it´s
again a matter of individual initiative. I have made many
friends and have started multiple fruitful collaborations
with a number of foreign researchers working in different
disciplines, but it is not particularly encouraged by the
academic authorities. Travel funds and cooperation projects
are scarce. dd:
The title of your doctoral thesis is "Hypertext and
Literature: James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man." What exactly is this work about? What were the
initial results of your research? ST: The thesis
examines current hypertextual theory and practise, to find
out if (and how) it can be used to develop educational
material beyond hypertext´s mere storage capacity.
Joyce´s work is the chosen example or workfield for my
ideas. It has yet to be concluded, but I can already say
that the examined material shows that hypertext is not being
exploited to its full potential in Humanities
Computing. dd:
The pedagogical potential of hypertext is considered
more and more in discussions about digital media. For
example, there are attemps to use it within a constructive
pedagogy. Could you talk a little more, please, about how
you employ the classical printed Joyce text in an
educational setting? ST: When planning
out this thesis I always tried to think of the added value
that hypertext could bring to the study of the classical
printed texts. There are so many good editions with
brilliant annotation, and so many contextual guides to find
your way around Joyce´s work (biographical,
mytological, Dublin-plans...) that I didn´t want to
repeat the same sort of thing. I thought that using the text
in another way, for example, building a hypertext with
certain themes or important "paths" through the printed
text, would show the students something new. This is mainly
based on my belief that it is the experience of traversing
the hypertext what makes it different from print texts, the
perception of processes is something print literature
can´t give. dd:
Linkage in hypertext was, at least in the early days,
supposed to free up readers' association. Now, more and more
people are adopting pre-cooked links in hypertext in order
to limite readers' associations, because they stress certain
points of association or intertextuality. Doesn't this
privilege the author's associations, imposing them
upon the reader? ST: There has
been a lot of theoretical disorientation and too much
hype-excitement in our field. When hypertext appeared, some
literary critics treated it as the embodiment of certain
theories that had "destroyed" the classical humanities in
the seventies and eighties, like deconstruction. But this
has shown itself to be a one way street with no real
practical applications. If you take the actual hypertexts,
the author hasn´t disappeared at all, it is in fact
more present than ever, because she has to predict all the
ways the reader can follow, controlling many reading paths
at once. The reader can choose from a (forcefully limited)
number of options prepared by the author, but this is not
the same as freedom, and certainly not the same as
reader´s association as classical reception theory
defines it. dd: You
are a Co-Chair of the HT00 Reading Section, where
Hyperfiction-Writers perform their works in front of the
conference audience. What kind of works do you expect? What
kind would you like to have? ST: We (Diane Greco
and I) have received many submissions from authors
interested in presenting their work at the conference. There
are all kinds of works: fiction, poetry, and even
non-fiction. We are looking for something new, something
that is representative of current artistic trends that
hasn´t been already published or is terribly well
known. We want to bring new and original voices to the
attention of our public, who will surely be very
demanding. dd:
What does it mean to be new and representative of current
artistic trends? More interactive, more hypertextual, more
collaborative, more intermedial? ST: Oh, it´s
probably just a rhetoric way of saying we´ll do what we
like! No, seriously, we don´t want to show the same
thing that everyone knows about already, not another
"Afternoon" or "Victory Garden" (much as I love this two
works). We want to show what new things can be done with
this tool we talk so much about in the conferences. Any of
the options you suggest would be welcome... dd:
If one looks at the broad field of digital literature, one
has to distinguish between several ways of employing the
medium to create something more than just digitalised text.
I myself see at least four different types: MUDs, hypertext,
collaborative writings, hypermedia. These, of course, are
ideal types, hybrids can also be found. How do you
distinguish what happens in terms of literature on the net?
Where do you see the strenghts and the weakness of digital
literature? Which type, if indeed there is one, do you
expect to be the future of digital
literature? ST: I suppose I also
think in categories when working with digital literature.
First of all I don´t consider literature that has been
written to be printed but also has an electronic version
(like a digital edition of a classic). Then there are
different parameters to classify a digital work of art (and
degrees within them): one/some/many author(s), open/closed
reader´s interaction, one/some languages (text,
image...), etc. I rather like Espen Aarseth´s
classification as he explains it in Cybertext. I think the
future will go towards the blurring of boundaries, and we
will see new types and genres (all hybrids) that we cannot
imagine today. I would personally like to see an increase of
the audience´s participation in the artistic process,
with much more people having the opportunity to author
something than in the traditional media. dd:
Thank you very much for the interview and good luck with
your work, with the HT00 Reading Section and most of all
with your online journal. |
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