textual media – textual media

Tachistoscope: The Conscious and the Subconscious

Hayles writes that “literature…activates a recursive feedback loop between knowledge realized in the body through gesture, ritual, performance, posture, and enactment, and knowledge realized in the neocortex as conscious and explicit articulations. As the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has shown, robust and durable knowledge can be transmitted through social practices and enactments without being consciously articulated” (132). This concept comes into play, particularly when considering William Poundstone’s Tachistoscope. Because of the element of subliminal messaging and the way the text is constructed in terms of color, multimedia, and symbolism, the reader is, in effect, approaching a text that is almost dream-like, greatly engaging the subconscious realm of the brain.

While Hayles offers her own assessment of Tachistoscope, her explanations for various symbols are subjective and her analysis of the work itself seems cursory, functioning more appropriately as a summary of what the reader is to encounter while interacting with the text. After going through Tachistoscope several times, the text became much more cohesive as a story. While I did, as Hayles predicted, attempt to “screen out…‘extraneous’ information” (142), I also attempted to force my consciousness to integrate it into the work and understand the underlying meanings of the symbols and subliminal pictures and messages. The white words, superimposed by larger black words, generally appeared on the screen at a pace that was too fast for me to process. However, I did notice images of faces in these sequences, as well, which may have subliminally provided context in the form of characterization. Were they the faces of people who had fallen into the bottomless pit? Were they the faces of people from the town where the pit had been formed? I could not be sure, although these questions came to mind. I also took into account the use of color and how the colors made me feel. For example, dark blues appeared to signal tragic events, such as people falling into the bottomless pit. I also noticed that the orange spheres increased my anxiety as I read the text.

As for the symbols behind most of the words (e.g. the knife and fork, the cross, the martini glass), I was unsure of what to make of their meanings. Hayles’s inferences as to what their meanings were did not come to mind while I, personally, was interacting with the text. The symbols seemed to denote the man-made objects and, perhaps, their implications, both negative and positive. In the work, there are symbols depicting construction work—perhaps referencing the main plot event at hand, which has caused irreparable damage, not just to the area of land itself, but to the town in which it exists and the people who live in that town. There are also symbols like keys and planes—perhaps alluding to the idea of escape. The population of the town does eventually dwindle, as the text reveals. Additionally, I felt as though the symbols alluded to a sense of historical context. I understand that this is a far reach, but the Afro pick, for example, reminded me of Civil Rights events in the 20^th century, while the bomb reminded me of war. I associated the crown with medieval times, and also associated the key with the distant past, because of its shape and form.

For me, the symbols placed the words flashing across the screen within the context of culture that was ever-evolving and ever-changing. This may have also been partially due to the nature of the music, which contained a series of chord progressions that, at its climax, seemed uplifting by providing the reader a sense of movement within the text—a feeling of being propelled forward during the crescendo and the addition of music that was more melodic than the repetitive notes played at the beginning of the music’s cycle.

The music, I found, was the most compelling aspect of the text, rather than the imagery. I did not feel as though the images had much of an effect on me other than the fact that I found them distracting. Perhaps because, as humans, we have an innate desire to make sense of our experiences and observations, the subliminal messaging along with the use of symbols in this piece became frustrating components of the work for me. Nonetheless, it was an interesting exploration; trying to find meaning within the symbols used, as well as the subliminal messaging. I felt somewhat detached to the literal text of the piece because of the symbols and subliminal messaging, which I thought was interesting. Rather than responding emotionally to the text, I felt myself responding to it from a more analytical standpoint. For this reason, the symbols and subliminal messaging most likely contributed to the tone of the piece in my experience of interacting with it.

Blog 2: Boyfriend

I felt that “agailes” brought up a point that was at the forefront of my mind while navigating through MBCBFTW, in terms of whether or not Lialina’s piece could be considered “literary.” While I agree that MBCBFTW is certainly more literary than Hegirascope (though I realize that the nature of subjectivity as it relates to discerning what is literary from what is not is certainly up for debate), I saw MBCBFTW mostly as a piece of “cyber art,” so to speak. I did feel that there was some sense of a story being told, even if it was often disjointed and fragmented. To Lialina’s credit, if one is to assume that Lialina presents a literary piece, one might take into account that our sequences of thoughts function, in general, in a nonlinear fashion. The speaker may be intending to show the way our trains of thoughts are typically disjointed, fragmented, and may not appear to have any real pattern, which could potentially be considered as some sort of literary device.

I cannot truthfully say that the piece evoked any emotional response from me. In fact, I found it to be somewhat irritating and boring. Flat, even. Despite the variety of multimedia-related aspects present in the piece (animation, drawings, hyperlinks, and so on), I felt that, because the text itself was pretty one-dimensional, that there was very little to stimulate me in an intellectual sense. It seemed to me that what Lialina was attempting to create art for art’s sake and, while it might be moving and seem innovative to some, it won’t necessarily be received the same way by others, such as myself.

In terms of trying to relate MBCBFTW to the text written by Marie-Laure Ryan, it did occur to me while coursing through Lialina’s piece that there was a particular quality to it that reminded me of walking through a museum. Perhaps this was because of the various forms of multimedia presented. However, it was clear that the person interacting with the piece had to eventually go through each “exhibit” to come to the end. In comparison to Hegirascope, there was clearly less opportunity for the person interacting with the text to make choices about producing different outcomes. However, MBCBFTW had the benefit (as I see it) of ostensibly containing some sort of plot or story. While there appeared to be certain threads which were related to one another in Hegirascope, it was clearly much more randomized than MBCBFTW. I think story and plot were key components to Lialina’s, whereas this was not a concern for the maker of Hegirascope.

While I have lingering questions about Hegirascope, I also have to wonder why Lialina made some of the decisions she did in MBCBFTW. For example, I wonder about Lialina’s intentions in presenting various sequences of “plot” elements, as well as some of the aesthetic choices she presented: the clocks, the Fox television network logo, etc. Why use only black and white? The sparse nature of the story continues to leave something to be desired, at least for me. Perhaps its simplicity allows the story to have more flexibility in terms of the various pieces of the story fitting together in some understandable way. Either way, both texts leave me feeling somewhat lost and curious as to how to interpret the significance of each one.

Jabberwocky as art

On the surface Jabberwocky seems quite meaningless; it is literally a machine that generates jibberish. As someone who does not have the technical saavy to make the software needed to produce such a machine, I can appreciate the technical know-how involved. To create this generator involves quite a lot of rules and possibilitiesin the encryption, but the outcome is meaningless. The words in the output are nonsensical and useless, and although a few real words are mixed in, a reasonable person would find this generator random and stupid. Looking deeper at the representational meaning, I see how this could be seen as art. In this new, “textual media” forum, I see the Jabberwocky as a piece that could be seen in an art exhibit at a museum. Having read the biography of the creator, I realize that he sees himself as an artist in this new realm and his productions as pieces of art. Just as many pieces of “traditional” art can leave many confused, in the abstract the meanings of the piece can be endless.
This brings me to the evocative meaning; I don’t see any larger politcal statement being made, but simply a playfulness formatted in a sophisticated way. I imagine young children, who are far more computer literate than I was at their age, use the output from Jabberwocky as a code for a secret language. Perhaps Jabberwocky is a statement on the state of society as a whole, and its future direction. If kids resort to a computer generated machine to come up with a secret language, what does that say about their level of imagination? Sure they are well versed enough in computers to find and use the Jabberwocky, but it certainly takes the fun out of sitting around with your siblings and friends, and acting silly and goofy while making up words.

Jabberwocky: Words and Meaning

Although it has been reiterated several times already, I will attempt to define the representational meaning of Neil Hennessy’s JABBER. The Jabberwocky Engine generates a collection of letters from the English alphabet which float seemingly aimlessly across a white screen. Over time, these black letters collide in order to create blue word fragments (some of which are real words, some are not) or red “garbage” words. Then, two word fragments combine to create green “nonsense” words. Despite the fact that the green words do not exist in the English dictionary, Hennessy is, in essence, using the medium of language as a figurative playground by randomly combining letters and word fragments that sound, at varying degrees, as though they could plausibly function as actual words. He deposes the meanings of words and breaks free from the establishment of language as it is manifested in our cultural consciousness.

The user, “scarterb,” brought up the interesting idea that Hennessy could be “commenting on the arbitrariness of the English language.” Immediately, it occurred to me that the words currently in the repertoire of my vocabulary all sound, in some way, like what it is to which they refer. I realize that this is an abstract idea and may be difficult for me to articulate well. I will try my best…

I am not sure if others share similar experiences, but I feel that words have a tendency to correspond with their intended meanings—perhaps due to masculine or feminine undertones in a word or, say, because of certain emphases on the vowels and consonants in a word. For example, the word “blossom” (as it relates to a flower opening) sounds (at least, to me) exactly like its meaning, whereas the verb “execute” sounds very severe and harsh—the opposite of the implications of a flower blossoming. “Shatter” also seems to harmonize with its intended meaning in that the pronunciation of the two ‘t’s sound almost like an object breaking. Hennessy may be toying with the notion of words and their common associations through JABBER.

It is my contention that Hennessy may be challenging the way we associate words with their meanings, although I do not think his purpose in creating JABBER is exclusively for this reason. He may also be indicating the ever-changing nature of language (i.e. how words become antiquated, and also how new words are added to a language as time passes.) Nonetheless, it is possible Hennessy is attempting to show how words can be separated from meaning and connotation. Perhaps he is attempting to break the traditional notions of the significance of words and how they are tied to their meanings. He may be proposing one or several questions, What is really in a word? What is the significance of a word? How do we mentally process the concept of words?

I realize that this is a rather grandiose and perhaps far-reaching opinion. I am also aware that there is an obvious problem with my argument in that, from a young age, we, as human beings, are indoctrinated with the meanings and connotations of words. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to tell whether or not words are, in some way, deliberately connected to that to which they refer. Most likely, a (rather infeasible) controlled experiment would need to be performed in order to even begin determining the validity of my opinion—or inquiry, one might call it. One may look to etymology, but it is not sufficient in this case for explaining how and why sounds are combined to create words. Nonetheless, it certainly piqued my curiosity when considering JABBER, its purposes, and the questions it raises.

Jabber: The Jabberwocky Engine, Neil Hennessey – Lynn Golden

Thinking through the representational aspects of Jabber:

When I first visited JABBER: The Jabberwocky Engine in class, frankly – I wasn’t impressed. However, my love of vocabulary, crossword puzzles, and Scrabble urged me to give Neil Hennessey another chance to captivate me. Initiating the Jabberwocky Engine for a second time, surprisingly, changed my perception of Hennessey’s creation. Jabberwocky is a fun textual media experience that gives the user the opportunity to watch randomly bumping letters bond into accepted English language syllables that create new “nonsense words.” An amusing aspect of the Jabberwocky experience is that some “nonsense words” are further combined to create “compound nonsense words.” Hennessey’s presentation can be (if given the chance) a stimulating experience for anyone interested in the construction of words. Through my second encounter with Jabberwocky, I found it to be both informative – related to standard phonetic combinations – and humorous related to the accidental combinations that result in “words.” The randomness of Jabberwocky provides an element of surprise that retains interest. Another dimension is added by the user’s ability to access the list of “words” being formed. This list is a window into the innumerable possible combinations of new words that could be created using this concept and catalyzes thought regarding the similarity of many of the created words to real morphemes. Neil Hennessey’s analogy that letters are to words as atoms are to molecules, clearly explains his intent to present a visual demonstration of what he calls “word chemistry” in the context of the creation or building of words.

Considering my initial impressions of Jabberwocky and contemplating why I wasn’t initially impressed, it struck me that unlike Firefly and Orson Whales, Jabberwocky is not as graphically rich. The introductory frame is a simple black rectangle centered on a doctor’s office blue background. The introduction is crisp, clean, and to the point – a basic explanation with a small simple window that invites the user to “launch!” Certainly, Hennessey was capable of creating a more visually stimulating experience, but he chose to keep the periphery basic. The choice to minimize graphics and sound purposefully focuses the user on the basics of the Jabber experience and analogously – the very basic building blocks of all words – letters. Would aesthetic additions to the graphic or sound experience of Jabber heighten or diminish the experience? My conclusion is that any further graphic or sound enhancements would detract from the intended purpose and experience.

On an evocative level:

Jabberwocky evokes the randomness of language. Although we can trace many morphemes to Latin, through time and the influences of the evolution of culture, language is constantly changing. An example of a recent word creation is infobahn. This word derived from the merger of two concepts – the high speed German Autobahn and the idea of the information superhighway. Thus, the bumping together of letters/words through cultural influence created a new word. When viewing my Jabber word list, I couldn’t help but notice many similarities or inversions of familiar words. These words made me think of other real word inversions, for example – the simple word mop. Why is a mop called a mop and not a pom. Why is a pom-pom called a pom-pom and not a mop-mop. A mop head and a pom-pom are constructed in the same way. Strands of fiber are bound in the center. Of course there is a history behind these words that can be studied and analyzed, but for a common person – it seems like nonsense in much the same way the Jabberwocky Engine first struck me. Another simple word example: tot. A tot can be a toddler or a processed potato food. This does not make any more sense to me than a random Jabber creation. In viewing my Jabber list, I see the word: leggering. This word makes perfect sense to me. This word could be used to describe a person who is sitting with her legs crossed, swinging her top leg up and down – why not just say she is leggering?

It is also plausible for the Jabberwocky Engine to evoke the idea of the colliding/bumping of the letters/words of the languages of the world. As our world continues to become smaller and smaller through advancements in the technologies of travel and communication – cultures and ideologies are gradually blending/assimilating and thus affecting language. Six years ago, I was not familiar with Cinco de Mayo. Five years ago, one of my Latino neighbors started the tradition of a Cinco de Mayo block party. Now, families of Korean, European, Latino, and Chinese descent have formed a new tradition – the Thames Street Cinco De Mayo Block Party. In Jabberville, it might be called the Thamco DeMock Party!

Welcome to ENGL 343: Textual Media

ENGL 343 is devoted to the critical study of texts produced and consumed in a digital environment, what generically we might call electronic literature. And what you are reading now is the first entry on the class blog for ENGL 343. If you are a student in ENGL 343, you can register for the blog, something you’ll need to do before the first week of classes is over.

Even if you don’t want to register yet, you can still browse this site, which will play an essential role in our course this semester. Of particular interest to students in ENGL 343 will be the course guidelines and the day-to-day class calendar.