2009

The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038

The Continuum International Publishing Group LtdThe Tower Building, 1l York Road, London SEl 7NX

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Copyright @ 2009 by Francisco J. Ricardo

All rights reserved. No part of this book maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers.

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ISBN: 978-0- 8264-3600 -9 (HB)ISBN: 978-0-8264-3680-1 (PB)

Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, IndiaPrinted in the United States of America

Cont

Introduction Iuncture and Form in Nerv ldFrancisco J. Ricardo

Chapter One What is and Toward What EnRoberto Simanowskia. Post-Chapter Dialogue, Simanowski and

Chapter Two List(en) ing PostRita Raleya. Post-Chapter Dialogue, Raley and Rnznd

ChapterThree Strickland and Lawson faraCognition atlin WorkN. Katherine Haylesa. Post-Chapter Dialogue, Hayles and Rical

Chapter Four Reading the Discursive Spacc

Francisco J. Ricardo

Chapter Five Kissing the Steak The PoetryChrist o ph er T. F unkh ou s era. Post-Chapter Dialogue, Funkhouser and l

Chapter Six Geopoetics: Aesthetic Experi:trStefan Schemat and Teri RuebKatja Kwasteka. Post-Chapter Dialogue, Kwastek and Ricr

Chapter Seven Self, Setting, and Situation ilMaria Biickea. Post-Chapter Dialogue, Biicke and Ricend

Chapter Eight Looking behind the Fafada.llnteractive Drama

liirgen Schiifera. Post-Chapter Dialogue, Schafer and Ricar

CHAPTER ONE

What is and Toward What End DoWe Read Digital Literature?

Roberto Simanowski

The Exterminated Reader

Imagine a reader reading a story about an adulterous couple planning to kill the wom-an's husband. This reader is completely engrossed, reading about the planned mur-der from his comfortable chair by his fireplace gives him an almost perverse pleasure.Reading the description of the house the murderer enters, he thinks of his own house.Then he reads that the man enters the room in which the husband's character is sittingby the fire; it's too late for him to avoid the knife his wife's lover rams into his chest.

This reader exists. In a short story by lulio Cortdzar: La continuidad de los parques(The Continuity of Parks) of 1964. Cortdzar is not the only writer who tried to turnthe reader into a character. Italo Calvino, in his novel If On a Winter's Night a Traveler,gives the reader the main role in the book, and narrates in the second person. In GabrielGarcia Mdrqtez'One Hundred Years of Solitude the protagonist finds a book entitledOne Hundred Years of Solitude and reads it until he comes to the page in which he isreading the very same book. There have been many such experiments in late modern orpost-modern times. After the all-knowing author of the nineteenth century had longbeen dismissed, authors fantasized about regaining omnipotence by exercising directimpact on the reading situation.

Now, in the cases of Cortizar and M6rquez the reader is himself part of the textwhich another, real reader is reading. And in Calvino's case, the illusion relies onthereadert willingness to be addressed. Unfortunately, or rather, fortunately, it is notpossible to literally draw the reader into the story. The author has no way of directlykilling the reader. Sure, one could poison the paper, as in Umberto Eco's The Nameof the Rose. But the poison is not applied by the author and is not part of the text.Literature cannot bridge the gap between the world of the narrative and the world ofthe recipient. Conventional literature cannot. Digital literature can.

RealClocks and Virtual Hand Grenades

In the first half of the nineteenth century, it was popular to integrate a tiny mechanicalclock in paintings at the spot where there would be a painted clock. The clock in the

painted interior hence presented the real tspectator. The world of the painting and dthe bridge was broken when, for example,museum closed at noon. Rather than beinginto a mode of meta-reflection reaffirmingreal world.

Digital media are more successful in cotime. In the German collaborative online rtrite a text recalling a particular momeut i

presented on the website each day. The britpretty well because the writer knows ntai I

mine whether the description of a romarceJohn McDaid's 1992 hyperfi ction Undc B

hel that the reader does not have permissiolink, a message appears declaring that the reait's the program that is then terminate4 ttuthere is no reader without text.

The killing is easier the other way arorrntion Zeit filr die Bombe, the reader encoutropens a stolen suitcase that turns out to cqThe text reads:

Don't we all always want to push, turn open without any effort? This is the best- I

button.

h is up to the reader to push the bomb's buttIwan, who starts insulting the reader for sittipretending compassion but really deriving <freezing Moscow carrying a time bomb- hwarns, "what I have here in myhand. Dophave compassion for yourself." While the bt'he hand-grenade is never used, not er'€o I

He benefits from the early days of digital litthey could go when entering the readers'urcad. And how many readers would try agan

anthor leaves it at the allusion to Aristotlet r

anv fatal links or send any dangerous virusc

Iilling the Text

However, the killing is not over. Berkenhegrriing; this time the opponents are not author ar

After the reader arms the time bomb, rhombticked" with the word "bomb" blintin

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12 ROBERTO SIMANOWSKI

digital literature possesses in contrast to print literature: Time. The text becomes whatKate Hayles "eventilized."l The text is based on code and this code not only makes theword "bomb" appear on the screen but also interrupts this appearance.

This sentence also points to some core questions for digital literature. Why is"bomb" blinking? Shouldn't the verb blink since it's the one that signifies the action?But a blinking verb would only translate its message into another language. The versionthe author chose is correct from a logical point of viewi processingthe action signifiedrequires the agentto blink. From an aesthetic point of view, however, its redundancy isproblematic. The word "bomb" is blinking, so why do we also need the verb "ticked"?There are two languages here: the linguistic language that denominates an action andthe language of performance that presents it. It is as if the stage directions of a play wereacted out and also spoken.

The author could easily have had the two languages cooperate: "And the bomb."Since the signifier for "bomb" already presents the action of the signified, the verb isactually dispensable. Of course this is not the end of the alteration and adjustment oflanguage in digital media. The next step could be to use the icon of a bomb, the stepafter that to make the signifier honest and have, rather than a blinking icon, a tickingsound.

To generalize, what we have here is the elimination of the text, its substitution byimage, sound, and action. Such operation is a common feature in digital media. Inmany cases the operation looks like a mere supplementation of the text. But supple-menting text with an image does actually mean eliminating the text, for what is shownas an image does not need to be described with words. The paradigm of expressionchanges from creating a world in the reader's imagination based on a specific combi-nation of letters to presenting a world directly to the audience through extralingualmeans.

Actually, this substitution oftext is the justification ofdigital literature. Ifan objectonly consists of static letters it does not really need digital media and hence should notbe called digital literature even though it may be presented on the internet. By defi-nition, digital literature must go beyond what could be done without digital media.By definition, digital literature must be more than just literature otherwise it is onlyliterature in digital media. This would, no doubt, also be very interesting from a socio-logical perspective. Think ofall the text presented on websites and blogs, bypassing anypolice of the discourse and anypublisher's evaluation. However, that is another matterand another book. My concern here is not about who writes literature but about howthe materiality of literature changes when the digital technology is used for aestheticreasons and not just for distribution.

TWo aspects of the change from literature to digital literature should be clear bynow: In digital literature the reader of the story can kill the character in the story, andthe bomb can blink, tick and-in the form of a virus or a shutdown-also "explode."There is a third aspect that should be stressed: Digital literature is only digital if it is notonly digital. What do I mean by this?

Almost ten years ago, ]ohn Cayley's essay The Code Is Not the Text (Unless It Is theText) described alphabetic language as a digital structure since it consists of a small setof symbols that can be endlessly combined and recombined. Instead of analog elements

es found in painting, we have distinct linguisrith no option in between. In her essav fhe lot Cayley's notion and concludes that the com:,rized language but rather "carries further a itranscription of speech into alphabetic letterr'

I agree that literature was digital even bedigital media, literature is digital in a doublcndlessly combinable symbols, and those sr-mibe first sense of digitality refers to the seminnct units), the second sense of digitalitr. rdmedium (the binary code as basis for all dat;r-iterion that digital technology is used for aeheing digital in this double sense is not enou!Or actually, I should say: that's one ..digital- tof sr-mbols in a new medium only creates liteliifierature.

Obviously one doesn't need digital medir-mbinable linguistic units, but if the text blinufoan an object,thenit reallyneeds the screen rarl,rilli.ed" it also stops being purely digital in tlalutabetic language, the language of performrunsist of discrete units. Non-linguistic signs a

wr Rhetoric of the Image, "not founded on agimemes are." This notion insists on a morefrprtpoded concept of text 30 years ago. As Har.lcm digital literature the inscription ofverbal sr-u

5reral." Hayles puts the word "writing. in qr,m rriting produces a kind of text that also needGf,[ or not onlytext. What, however, is the texr j

fgital Hermeneutics

Srr I mentioned, fohn Cayley gave one of his essr.l&rr rhe Text Unless It Is the Text. For him, code it,m stampls is Perl Poetry, a genre in which natrdFErt code in a kind of insider poetry for proEut Edlerate text, the code itself is not text. This is,rq't of text to which Barthes refers. If rte use tmde is the text even if it is not the text; the efiecliiirL tbr instance-is part of the "text'and nee<ntrhing rvord itself.

lt-hether we use the broad, figuratir.e cootu[s if necessary-or whether we insist on th&r that when it comes to digital literature n-e rm irust the text but also what happens to the te

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14 ROBERTO SIMANOWSKI

nothing happens to the text its not digital literature. As a result, when we read digitalliterature, we have to shift from a hermeneutics of linguistic signs to a hermeneutics ofintermedial, interactive, and processing signs. It is not just the meaning of the wordsthat is at stake, but also the meaning of the performance of the words which, let's notforget, includes the interaction of the user with the words. We should always explorethese different elements and their possible 6enns6fi6ns-though there may not be a

significant relationship between them.One could argue that a hermeneutics of digital signs requires a completely new

methodological approach. However, it is probable that the discussion of digital litera-ture ought best to be a combination of new and old criteria. As Fotis |annidis argues,genre theory is still a valid analytical tool for the discussion of computer games. Theanalysis can benefit from concepts developed in the past such as "story," "plot," and"character" or theoretical frameworks such as reader-response theory, formalism, andinter-discourse theory. And as fdrgen Schafer's analysis of the interactive drama Fagade

shows, knowing genre history helps realize that this cutting-edge piece refers to theoldest and most traditional theoretical drama model.

Fagade is also a good illustration of the fact that authors often make decisionsabout characters and plot based on technological constraints, as opposed to just artis-tic intention. For instance: though itt amazing how, as the guest in the two charac-ters'home, you are able to "say" anything to them via your keyboard and influencethe progression of their argument, sometimes the program can't handle your input,in which case the husband and wife seem to ignore you. This technical limitation isacceptable because the two are presented as self-absorbed, "difficult" people. Theirpersonalities are not necessarily a choice ofthe authors; they are a requirement to keepthe interaction plausible despite the technological challenge. A hermeneutic of digitalsigns has to take into account the possibility of such technological determinism.

So far I have evoked murder, adultery, time bombs, and hand-grenades. Let me talknow about . . . cannibalism. To begin, I'll borrow from Chris Funkhouser: his presen-tation at the Electronic Poetry Festival in Paris inMay 2007 drew a connection betweencreative cannibalism and digital poetry, sayingthat digital poetry "devours other texts"by appropriating, transforming, and reconfiguring them. Funkhouser evoked rit-ual anthropophagy, the practice ofkilling and eating the other in order to inherit hisqualities. A form of digital cannibalism can be seen in Camille Utterbackb and RomyAchituv's interactive installation Text Rain, whose large screen shows letters rain downonto your projected shadow. As you collect them on your silhouette, the letters formwords and sentences taken from a contemporary poem.3 However, as I experienced it,and as I saw others experiencing it, one mostly does not engage in the reading process,but rather plays with the rain of letters. The text has been transformed into visualobjects. As Francisco Ricardo argues, the transmodal work exists as a series of severalphenomenological moments of which the last brings back some of its lexical, linguisticcharacter and, to say so, undo the cannibalism.

A very subtle example of text cannibalism is the installation Listening Posr, whichRita Raley explores in her essay. Since it features a curtain of screens quoting from liveinternet chats, one would think it is all about text. But, stepping back from the screens

to take in the installation as a whole, one is not really reading anymore; instead one

:Erceives this plethora oftext as part ofa tranc'3ating the text," that lies, in the end, at the tee

DQital Humanities

-r - one point, Stephanie Strickland's video-poeill,trorring words:

I find myself kind of alonthey're into turning out pwho can get jobsin the animation industn

trn the context ofthe conference "Reading D-=rersity in October 2007, an underlving therar evoh'ing canon. Francisco Ricardo summari

\org that the initial waves of enthusiasm. hr,ustained creative production and critical in.1xneralized accounts into detailed and sp.asoecific ways, for the practices, effects, and io

5:". do close readings help develop digiai Jt:r.c.q:al humanities?

Thev help insofar as digital literacl. cannor !

ouc::al technology but also entails an undersrar*k cinematic literacy develops by understar,&b :f,-lse ups, cuts, cross-fading, and extradieEa

=;ioring the semiotics of the technical etteasrrg- ;ompetence in the realm of digital media cq;-:nlg5 ofdigital art. Since art is bv detauh arm: materiality, it seems to be the best candidaim -ake us aware of the politics of meaning in d*s,rcr:hat such close reading might not be limitenr"s;: :nclude pop culture, such as ego shooter er-nar::ampt first ready-made it has become rnorr'unr: isn't art.

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16 ROBERTO SIMANOWSKI

interaction but also-and perhaps more importantly-know how to read and under-stand such interaction.

Notes

1. N. Katherine Hayles, "The Time of Digital Poetry: From Object to Event," in NewMedia Poetics. Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories, ed. Adelaide Morris and ThomasSwiss (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,2006), 181-209.

Post-Chapter Dialogue, Sir

flk A crucial feature of digital work is the dislure and performance. A digital poem is strulquence of algorithms, yet performs as a urortdits variety across invocations. This incongrraehle method for analysis of such *o.k . d rfie anatomic logic and mechanism of a digitrtfrrr all, this demonstrates most clearly hoi d!ri1c, this approach seems insufficieni to cagbl nork. No dissection of a literary o.

"isrrai*t makes it distinct from any nonaesthetic ol?rfuter program. Since the creative functim*t_crceeds the components of its apparatus Idysig it is necessary to interrogate *h"t, o.,atcend its own medium and mechanism- Tt

-1.*" to a theory of analysis, whether semir

halist Your approach specifically favors the etlrms for this?

Ibid., 189.

The poem, Talk, You, can be found in Evan Zimroth, Dead, Dinner, or Naked(Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1993).

BibliographyHayles, N. Katherine. "The Time of Digital Poetry: From Object to Event," in New Media Poetics.

Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories, ed. Adelaide Morris and Thomas Swiss. Cambridge,MA: MIT Press,2006.

Zimroth, Evan. Dead, Dinner, or Naked. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1993.

: Tbere are several reasons. The first purpodcreative expression, not as an objecrof LEr, stays close to the expressive action, rathbccause a digital work ii fundamenta\ dif

or printed work, it for me deserves a broso it makes sense to effect a close readin

ebo so as to extend it beyond the text ofrual" here includes even what the autho

this *11sugh "systems of inexact Jontrol- yus that his Very Nervous System, in urhi

Lct me give an example. In an interviety, Dr dcontrol that the computer brings with it r

Etory control, has to be read within a pedal

$ lack ofsatisfactory control felt by the uJ;but of an intentional reaction against thi< f;It ":.-

therefore required, in situating that etytf, to move beyond formalism ,rploto ".tr',| itr this analytical responsibility, i*iU a.o

ru deduce it myself; the end point is a critic:r rork, we in effect have data in the age after

to works that present it as is, a mode -hrt

CHAPTER FOUR

Reading the Discursive Spaces of Text Rain,

Transmodally

Francisco I. Ricardo

I begin with a basic claim-all literature has some relationship to imagery, and that

the inverse is not true. Even the most extreme experiments of abstract poetry, or

concrete poetry, even the most phonologically focused constructions cannot evade

the perceptual intimation of sounds as aural imagery, or hypnotic trance, with which

such sounds are instinctively associated. For despite the roil of new media and lit-erary machines, of novel forms of expression and authoriality, the Program of liter-ature still remains to elicit resonances that emerge out of, but soon transcend, the

literalized tokens of a text. And if this transcendence can be felt as a membrane

that isolates two worlds-the literal world of phrasal reading from the interpretive

world of the imaginal-the world between them, that is, the world of lexical tokens

of phrasing from the much more extensive of fictive associations produced in the

reader, then it is helpful, in the space ofthat intersection, to think ofliterature as a

genre of text wrapped in mantle of imagery.Without denying the importance of this aesthetic partnership, literary critics

have harbored implicit views about the manner in which this relationship, this rap-

port between written and imagined, ought to stand. The text is to exist in physical

form-written, inscribed, imprinted-while the image is left to occupy the confines ofreaderly imagination. What is preserved in this specific arrangement is the necessary

stability and identity of the work with the equally indispensable need for individual,

personal, purely idiosyncratic reconstruction offacets ofthe narrative. The critical bias

for this specific partition of written from visual is evident in consistently held judg-

ments of what is understood as "pure literature," a term uttered in l9l2 by Thomas

Hardy on receipt of the gold medal of the Royal Society of Literature. He had littlepatience for anything outside the untainted use of well-formed textual expression over

any other variant. In the Hardyian province ofpure literature, even poetry kneels to

the hegemonic strictures of decorous prose:

For my own part I think-though all writers may not agree with me-that the short-

est way to good prose is by the route of good verse. The apparent paradox-I cannot

remember who first expressed it-that the best poetry is the best prose ceases on

examination to be a paradox and becomes a truism. Anybody may test it for himself

by taking any fine lines in verse and, castings€em to bind the poet, trying to express thprose. He will find that it cannot be done;thought them-are the only words that willbe conveyed.l2

Oue can scarcely suppose what he would hrv:grther, being classified as anything like'litcrmt over what is considered "pure literature- t

m the graphic novel or the spoken text of rrcm&bns of literature and not literature itself Itmnding the literary reading is as mentalh'ess

I don't want to underestimate the word'esstin to such imagery, texts that include the.ixr

6rrph, might be appreciated as being erudite, ir

derstood as literature. One explanation for I&tion genres whereas literature dwells in the ir

E return to the link between literature and d

f,mension of vitally visual signs of the fictinl''rrcs5, reveries, epiphanies, contemplatimiqrressions, panoramas, and so on.

Consider the constellation of intersectingEhstone diagram; these were conceived at Irprisingly at the height of Higgins's Fluxus yffitginst observation that "much of the best r[aween media,"r underscores the futility of trnihrary, and visual arts are entirely separate for

Indeed, the graphic novel, the comic strip arrtfic banishment of the visual from textual literi&ction technology and, conversely, to technic

Ihe verdict of literature as "pure," as primarifu are doctrinal, not technological. Argumard specific media for print and image prodrrtdfferent historical tracks. This division rrill bo

kature whose media afford the processing r

rfoual with equal dynamic range and geometripcrhaps exclusively-because of those ertrirtel

[r€sents complex extensions over and against

-railed in "pure literature." For distinctions olrhere media are simultaneously physicall,Y ad5r instance, projected on a screen before rrtklqposed to "pure cinema" as defined bv nont

ffiaposition and montage of the Kuleshov effo produced by the physical mechanism of thmtebooks, napkin-inscribed poetry, grafEti t

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:ero01 slaeu>l d-r1aod uala 'eJnleralr1 a-rnd _1o a:uurarr,o uorssardxa Ienlxa] paruJoJlla,rjo ern pJIeFtII per{ eH 'arn}?ratr1 ;o dtaoo5 p.iog agrsetrroqJ tq UA ur pareltn rural p ..arruErul-8pn( plaq dyluatsrsuor ur luaprla sr IEnsLt rusBrq IBfrlrJf ar{J'e^rlelJBu ar.llJo slalEJ_Io uoqf'pnpr^rpur roJ paau alqesuadsrpur ilenba agtdressarau aq] sr luatua8uerre rgoads s1tp ul IJo saurJuor aql ddnro ot Uel sr a8etur aqt aLn1r

pcrs,(qd uI lslxa ol sr lxat eql 'puEls ot rq*o-der srql 'drqsuorlelar srq] qrrq^r ur rauusu,isfrlrJ) dJeJalrl 'drqs.raul:ed rrlaqtsae s_rp -to

'-La*? s3 eJnleJalrl Jo >lurql ol (uorlfasJalur l8rp _x

aql ur palnpord suorlenosse a^urg Jo a-rrsu

sua{ol IerrxelJo Plro^r aq} <sr leql 'Eaql u}e,aarla:dralur eq] tuog Surpear lese.rqd -Io ppoeueJqrueru e s? lIeJ eq u8f a)uaPua)suErl sr

aql 'pualsuerl uoos ]nq 30 lno atratua legl r

-ralrlJo ursrSord aql'dlrlBuoqlne Pue uoEsa-tll puB Brpaul lvreu Jo IIor aql atrdsap loJ Tqlrq,u qlrlv\'af uBJl :rlouddq ro i{ra8Purl lDrntap?Aa louuer suorlrnrlsuor pasnfoJ {1er6o1ro 'r(rlaod lfeJlsq€ go sluaut:adxa atuartra I

lpr{l pue ',(.ra8eurr o1 drqsuorlelar aluos spq ar

opro4d'[ o,

dluporus

'ulay walJo sareds a^g

unoJ ullL

54 FRANCISCOJ. RICARDO

Figure 1. Dick Higgins,Intermedia Chart,t966,Originally published in Something Else Newsletter l, No. I (Something Else Press, 1966).

@ 2009 Estate of Dick Higgins.Permission courtesy of Hannah Higgins.

view is as narrow as limiting "literature" to what is hand-written. From these ambi-guities ofcausality we know that literaturet central preoccupation with text does not,in contrast with electronic literature, satisfactorily extend to questions exploringhowsuch literary text was created.

Reflecting the greater theoretical distance underlying my discussion are the distinc-tions involving essence, form and instance-three events of the ontology of literature.However one feels about ontological contentions, it is nonetheless true that essence,

form, and instance are three indispensable attributes of all.literary and aesthetic

objects. This doesnt imply that acknowledgment of. an essence is equivalent to some

particular type of essence, be it one claimed by Hardy, or anybody else. Existing with-out empirical proof, implicit, almost quasi-Platonic notions of the "essence" of litera-ture have long been mentioned in aesthetic discussions deriving from strong Romanticand modernist roots. Its logic has been quietly imported from the literary traditiononto the visual arts; we might recall the art critics with professional beginnings in theliterary world, including Clement Greenberg as literary critic for The Nation, and Peter

Schjeldahl as poet and reporter.

Hardy, articulating literaturet historical oTbe atemporal aura of literary essence, sustairE(tcompanies and even nourishes, but does uc rmod as literary forms or genres-those are hjmtemplate a work of electronic literature, wtbe logic that informs some kind of essence, fodmissibly under the term literature,for why elscaaloged within it is so new in medium, contcolure's history, which is to say, something of its

I have already discussed one problem inrohrirn sf \^/ha1 implies "pure literature," whkh is tiryco-occurrence of graphic accompanimeut I

ftomour questioningwhether such criterion ddliterary essence, or more narrowly, from thc&om literary form. Characterizing form offer:,cete with consistency and clarity-the historirfo literature-but for essence, the logic becmryeaks for the essence of literature? Not form-ryualogous to what we imagine uttering th. phtdwhich derives (necessarily) both from thc t'h. mantle of conceptual imagery that env@msrltant reading. To estrange one constitudrbn, a de-synthesis of the literary phenomencuisal forms and media-sculpture or more gI more generally, music, for example. In the rinagination. Indistinguishable from what is pdrnce, this last word, imagination, implicates il

I hope that this preamble has recalled tle orithin the literary experience, and how recosthetic cathexis challenging literature in a utfe photograph, the illustration, the image, wliucorporate textuality. So it is that this s1-ntbctbe interactive projective installation Test Roiafrmaginal whole of a particular literary instanckrain of a literary essence of the ne\M, as the nE

Eit is worth remembering that a work bl'"qr visual, or performative, we might also bear i

rrrher than crucial, to the enjoyment and esst

tbat by its all-ranging name, "expressive form,rrting, or message. Reaching for an apprehel@nnect Susan Sontagt familiar claim that'thclww it is what it is, even that it is what it 4 rai'how it is what it is" marks the implicit line ber

cived by any degree of familiarity with a wortfuse reading, possible only through the scrutim

ef,ueprole el{t lng 'slsdleue snoro8uJo dullnJf,s aql qSnorqf dluo alqrssod 8uryaat asry

pue ((suorllsod paruro;urun 8urpn1:ur) {rom B qlIA durelllure;;o aar8ap due dq paala-uor aq ugr r{rlqlra 'uoqolatdnlu, uaa/vuaq euII lIrIIduI eql s{reur ..sl u lBqa sI 1I l\otLsrr{J z(('sueatu }l }PIrv\

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PuDI auos sIuJoJuI leql llEol aqf

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lJetu ar{l Jo aprlv\ dlaJrlua ]<usr (ilnurluof

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95 AIVOOWSNVUI N/vU-txll 9Nlcvlu

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^roq SluJrcldxa suorlsanb ol pualxa,$.rof:ryo

'lou saop txal qlLv\ uorlednrloard p4uar 1am-Ique aseql ruoJc 'uallrrr\-pueq $ lB{.rt o1 -3

'(9961 'ssa:4 aslg Surqrauo5l I -o!i.I .rt

56 FRANCISCO J. RICARDO

ofinterpretation also points us to non-interpretive, which is to say, principled, essen-

tial, a priori aspects of any work. This is the paradox then, whereby, uncovering under-

lying patterns, a close reading is synonymous with phenomenological investigation

and is thus implicitly ontological, whereas an interpretation is not.

Having set out thoughts here from the basic assertion that literature embraces

imagery, up through challenges against the idea of pure literature as an anachronistic

formalism, I could now be blamed for having taken a sudden and seemingly incon-

gruous turn, in the literal sense, against interpretation. What then of the multimodal-ity of imagery and text that new expressive forms and media have attained, all the re/

mediation to use another phrase,3 all the convergence? Why all of this if not to take

the receiving audience to new landscapes ofimagination, and therefore interpretation?

Ought we reasonably disallow the greater contemporary need for new interpretive

positions in light of media, products, and works that bring novel sensory impetus and

user participation? These questions which cannot be answered separately, derive from

Figure2. TextRain,Camille Utterback and Romy AchituvText Rain,I 999.

Interactive installation,custom software, video camera, Projector, computer

Image courtesy ofthe artist.

r common source, a reference to epochal cLrith technology at all stages and moments of r

cnd presentation of art but the actual creatkq'nsider revolves around how the voice of arminlsr, poet, filmmaker, orator, or sculptor id expressive mechanisms that produce proisdective immersion of their own as instrume@s compete with, received notions of artistird imagery as extension to or evolution aftei&guments for pure literature, can not be (Sctraction, as ontological characteristic hontm be defined as either image-free or imagerriients like the Dada collage, the reading ofrcrd apparent in digital art and literature rer6e literary and the aesthetic newly immaterifuerpretation refute anything in literature otlmception of a work, rather than something tom allegorical subtext, or perhaps even as soocadings because of its inherent intertextuditffiat prove problematic not because thev appchr because their logic repositions the tert torbtle reductionism that any interpretation imiself, of seeing less something of the rthole tlrhose sense is uncovered by means of quasi-grerchange (read, simplification) so that, if, in I

uxm is virtually one of translation," the &ngwue for digital works whose components cirn I

scted, and destructured from their integratiurthing like Clive Bell's formalism via his si

rcrk of art we need bring with us nothing frdfairs, no familiarity with its emotions,n a cLtfre shared horizon of understanding, the 'nffiat can be seen from a particular vantage ptducing. In closing this line ofreasoning, I hopof a structural ontology, resembling neither Gmr Husserl's transcendental ruminations- In <

important for the work of the new media critkfuagining what is common to all or much elcw framing, not to value. Such work has no pList systems of qualitative valuation: given tlemedia art and literature, judgments are likorm each mutuality of artist, user, and instance-

What one is to make of this literar,v-aesth€ttbns of electronic criticism. From the outset, tertual object constrains and dictates the dirrti

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dluo alqrssod d1aleur11n 'lua8urluol esI..v\a{II are sluaur8pnf'arn1era1t1 pue ue EIPaw

.Mau ur saruetradxaSo ernleu crureudp aq] ua,u8 :uollenlel artrlelrlenb;o stualsr(s tq-^rsnlrxa/tsrlllraiqo l.yqerunsard ro; ereld ou sBq {Jo^t qlns 'anlB^ 01 1ou'Sutwotl Qsa8ualleqr Surssarppe tuu J'{ro1vr fluor}fale qf,nur ro IIe o} uotuluor sr leqm Surur8ett'!

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15 ATTVOOWSNVUI'A//vUlxl-l 9NIOV]U

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a{el ol }ou Jr srq} Jo IIe ,(qla ;acuaEra-ruor aq

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'lou sr uorlela:d:alm ue szuorlB8rlsa^ur lucrSolouauouaqd qlr.r,r sn(xrli!-Japun Surrarr.ocun'dqaraqru'uaql xopered aqt-uassa 'paldrfurrd 'des ol sr qrrqa'arllard:au

58 FRANCISCOJ.RICARDO

Presenting itself independently of one's reading, whether motivated by interpretation,

critique, or formal comparison, one's engagement with the text emerges from nothing-ness through the anatomy of the word. In the matrix of the textual page, it asserts all

hegemony for meaning and the basic method for that experience, beginning as a lexical

reading, almost invariably conforms to motion from an identifiable starting point to at

least one destination any number oflines, verses, or Pages away. By contrast, that "read-

ing" an image is entirely distinct from this textual approach has been widely established;

what bears repeating is the visual command of the image, as it eclipses the word when

both cohabitate the same perceptual plane. There is no word worth a thousand pictures,

except perhaps love, but how can it be experienced prior to the image of its affection?

Instinctual primacy moreover prioritizes our sensations, in the startling flash ofany surprise; we hear before reading, and look before unraveling what is heard. That

seeing presignifies reading or hearing has been evident to art history, which records

and embraces more of the literary than has been commonly accepted. Any work or

event of visual composition, regardless the extent of its literariness, is of interest to

the art historian, critic, or philosopher. And the auditory, sensorily subsequent to the

visual, also participates in the chronicles of art. Thus Rosalind Krauss, opening a dis-

cussion of the readymade with a theatrical performance of a literary work, recounts

openly what the histories of literature and of theater have scarcely documented:

One evening in 1911, four members of the Parisian avant-garde attended a bizarre the-

atrical presentation: Marcel Duchamp, Guillaume Apollinaire, Francis Picabia and

Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia went to see Impressions of Africa, a performance based on a

novel by Raymond Roussel. "It was tremendous," Duchamp was later to say of that

night. "On the stage there was a model and a snake-it was absolutely the madness of

the unexpected. I don't remember much of the text. One didnt really listen."6

Experiencing this similar sensory selectivity, Duchamp's relative inattention to the text

is symptomatic to the sensory montage of multiple modalities, and to the dominance

of action in the visual field, despite the fact that it is orchestrated from textual origins.

It is for this phenomenological reason that we must now consider the electronic, Pro-jective, interactive, poetic reality of Text Rain as a both a completely visual work and a

completely sovereign text; it contains a textual work in itself that orchestrates its visual

possibilities, and because of its insistently combined textuality and visuality, the work as

a whole (not merely as a text) is amenable to the kind of close reading that a literary text

can sustain, but not in an exclusively textual manner-something that offers challenge

and potential for critical reception. The work, in fact, presents several discursive spaces

or moments of being, revealing themselves in gradual fashion. Patterns emerge from

these discursive spaces, by which I mean aspects of the work that interact with the usert

evolving response through a dialogic circle between user and work. And we can interro-

gate the patterns to expose aesthetic functions of the work as more than a phenomenal

reality. Text Rainis motivated by a reach for connection, not merely by what emanates

in the optic flow of its ryovements, but also by the text it fragmentarily presents. And

that connection need not be reduced to a mapped or literal interpretation in order to

be ascribed meaning. In all of this, we may take as our point of departure the worki

daracter as neither entirely visual not textualkical tokens nor in a visual stream. Of parrknin which the poem is presented. Gone is the iugnide for setting the horizontal axis ofreadiqpcnsable. It may be angled or skewed, as ery}it be performing their own media-archaic rrr

Manifestly evident in such works where trtte readerly function is challenged. When thrt lexically. As something beyond an expcirrnts to refute the rational assumptions rhrrl means for keeping attention vigilant: docsrben it appears upside down? But in its dr,,fii" type of work conveys a multimodatiqv d

liure 3. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti,b thc Evening, Lying on Her Beil, She Reread rhe lzttr [tn,ltr9,! l!lX)9 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIA-E, IdDtMuseum of ModernArt, NewYork.hto credit: The Museum of Modern Art/Licenscd br SC

a)rnosau uY / Y'IYJS Iq Pasusrl'I/lrY uroPowJo runasnnl eqJ :lIpalr oloqc'{roI ?vraN 'uY uraPowJo runasnK :q:

, aruoU'AVIS / Iro ^raN'(56y) dlar:og slq8rg slstl:y 696; 3

'6:6'

'woil aqt w uotu,Oalytty n17 uto{ u11a7 aql poarad aqs 'pag ng uo 3url7'8urua^g aqi q'ltleuuery oseurulol oddrlrg 'g a.rn.*;

uorlfnPal sasnJal PuB Eulplasun sI leql dlrlepourrtlntu ? s,(aluof {rom Jo adft srqr

'u8rs lensr,t pup Ienlxal sB erualslxe Ienp sll uI lng iu1(op aplsdn sreadde ]l ueq^vt

suearu dlerurou ll lBt{1v\ ueeru PJolt e saop :}uelISI^ uollua}le Surdaal roJ suualu ?

aluld rreql ur 3ur/1ddns 'Sutpear atueIJ lel{l suol}dtunsse Ieuollel eq} alnJar o} slue-r

lxel paroqlue-ap {Salerls u8rsap luarpedxe ue puodaq Surqlauros sY (llBllxal lou

'dlpnsra sJeadd? lxal (seuem aulleseq aql ueq6 'pe8uelleql sI uol]lunJ dpapear aqr

,(prerrp .&{oq sI Ienlxel ueql eJolu sI }xal eraqa s{ro.tt qlns uI luaPl^a,(1trsa;ruey1urBr lxelJo suorlrPual f,Ieqfle-Blpau ul|o JIaI{1 SUrturo;red aq or

ueas ]eql slxat epeC puE lsrrnlnC m pelroldxa sB (paae{s ro pa18ue aq detu t1 'alqesuad

-srpur sr ]r sp alqrsrlut se sI aulleseq aq] 'SuIPeelJo slxe Ieluozlloq aq] Surllas.ro; aprni

aql sy'aurlaseq aqt (lxalJo ror{lue lrlrldtur aq} sr auog 'pa}uasard sI uaod aql qllqm ul

reuue(u Snonuel eql SI 'Jelelloq 'elou JBIn)IUedSg 'tuea.r1s IBnsIA e uI rou sua{ol Ie)Ixal

Jo ]uaura8ueJJe ue ur laqlrau padolarrua'lenlxal lou IBnsIAdlalllua JeI{}Iau se JalfBJBql

65 A]IVOOWSNVU] N/vUlxl-L 9NlOVlU

s {Jo,^{ aql aJnuedep Jo lurod rno se alpl -1"uol Japro ur uorlelardralur IeJalrl ro paddeu: epuy 'sluasard ,(1r-relueur8er; tr txa] aql rq rrr:E

sJleuerue leqznr dq,,{laratu }ou 'uorllauuot "iol I

leuaurouaqd e ueql erotu sB lro^r aqt -lo suou-i-oIIelUI uef eA PUY'{IO,rv\ pue Jasn uai-ru}J +s,rasn aq] qlr..vr l)erelur lpq] {Jo.rl aql-Jo si--ds"uor; a8raura suJaued 'uorqse] lenpe:8 ur strlsa:eds a,trsrnlsrp IeJaAes sluasard'lre-l ul ')lrr1r!

aSualeqr sreJJo ]eqt Surqlaruos-rauupru l?rutxa] dreralrl e leqt Surpear asol)Jo puq aqr lJl;sP {ro t aq} 'd1r1ensr,r pue.,hrlen}xal peurquror r

IsnSrA slr saleJlseql.ro leqlJlaslr ur Iro.rr IpruEe pu? {JoM pnsra.(lolayduor e qloq e sp uirrg-ord 'lruo:1:ala ar{} Japrsuof

^\ou lsnu a-r{ tsq

'sur8rro Ienlxal tuorJ pat€-rlsaql-ro sr lr lpr{t L.Ee)ueulluop aq] o] pue 'serlrleporu aldrtlnur -totxal aql 01 uorluell?ur a^rleleJ s,dueqrnq '.urr

e..'ualsrl ,(ll?ar l(uprp auo ']xat aql_io rFr

Jo ssaupBru aql 4alnlosqB se.M tr-aleus p pu? Ileql Jo des o1 ra1e1 serur dureqcnq ..'snopulureJe uo peseq afueuJoJJad e 'ot1{y lo -suor:-:-?-r]ill

pue elqBrrd snueJ{ 'arreurllody atunelyng '.1

-aq] arrezlq e pepualle apreS-]ue,re uersged arp

:paluaunrop dlatrers a^eq rateaql -Io pl(

slunofal '4.rorrr ,(reralrl e Jo aruEu-ro;:ad pr-srp B Suruado 'ssner) purlesou snr.lf 'llp

-Io saql o] ]uanbasqns Ilrrosues ',{rolrpne aqr puyol lsaJalur Jo sr (ssaurJeJatrl slr Jo lualra aqlro {ron l.uy 'peldare dluouruor uaaq spq rsProlal qrrqrvr 'drolsrr{ u? ot }uapr^a uaarq :-Er

leql 'preeq sr lerlm Surlarr.erun aroJaq loc\ pE

JO r{sPU 8ur1}re}s aq} ur 'suorlesuas Jno saz[L

:uorpeJJe slrJo a8eur aql ol rorrd parueud'sarnlrrd puesnoq] e qgon plo,{L ou sr araql -e(

uaqM Prolr eql sasdrlla 1r se 'aSetur aql -Io p{rE1

:paqsrlqelsa dlaprm ueaq seq qteordde Jentrat sr

-peaJ,, lBql 'lseJluof lg',lene sa8ed ro 'sasla-r 's

le ol ]urod 3ur1re1s alqerJnuapr ue tuoll uortotr

Ielrxel e se Suruur8aq'afuerradxa leqt Jo_l porp

lp sgessu 11 'a8ed Ienlxel ar{l Jo xrrtpu aql u'l-Surqlou ruo{ sa8Jarua }xa1 aql qlr.rr luau:id'uorle1ard.ra1ur dq palerrrlour Jaqtaq-rr'3urpe::

60 FRANCISCO J. RICARDO

i$:!:!i:iiii:r:;::i;r.'r. :l

:%::& !-:#hq#L,

i; I;I]: Tiff,"'

:t.ltt:*1fr:r::6

$

.,i*trutl,tl'tl

i{

ru

Figure 4. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti,Vive la France, (late 1914 - February 1915),

].9t4,Ink, crayon, and cut-and-pasted printed paper on paper, 12 118 x12314".The Museum of Modern Art, New YorkO 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork / SIAE, Rome

Photo Credit: Digital Image O The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource.

to singular classifications. And if with such multiplicity of modal encodings comes a

set of moments of encounter, one after another, then Text Rain as a work with addi-tional motion and interactivity, is experienced as a more pluralistic multimodal, orrather, transmodal, identity. The elemental strategy of Text Rain, rather than dependon an archival inventory ofobjects to be displayed, is based on the kind ofrecombi-nant encoding that I have elsewhere associated with the language of cyberculture.:For the work's visual dimension is not comprised of anything manufactured andstored within it; its visuality is purely the projective derivation of images literall,v"captured" in the area facing the work's mural flatness. Neither is the text so promi-nent; the poem underlying the work is revealed in vertical motion, almost letter b,r'

letter. As I will explore next, the effect is transmodal, a recursive amalgam of filmic,literary, performative, and near-sculptural conditions within which the image of thebody rests on the wall, the baseline oftext rests upon and is defined by the contoursof the body image, and the text is a poem alluding to bodily motion and humanconnection.

;s-.::e 5. Francis Picabia,:n;; lloveffient,.:.

-:r \luseum of Modern Art, New yorki :,,-ts Artists Rights Society (ARS), New \brk , _\D.r,L_:i i:\:q.r Credit: Digital Image @ The Museum of \lc\:.-, .1-.-

That Text Rain is thoroughly transmoda- :sr :ntologically, as it exists, or perceptuallv r:r,::ct phenomenological stages, lives, or moni.:lr* rvith Text Rain the work presents itself as :-a:erpretation is challenged: the work carve: :::

=ce that perceives the work as a text \.ersus tl::l consensus on the letterfall at the outser. F,:l:rl.tly and no more than that-a torrential -e.lan'phase, impedes experience of it as litera:u:rE-rt as part of any narrative. But this first mrr:::,::e rrork, redefined on the subsequent disc..r.::

-gaging way, yields another phenomenon. Cr:ei:: at first as much absorbed by the peculiari:r- .-i:: attentive to a peculiar descent of letters. -1:r:o first learns by doing, the synchronr-o: t::

apalard deld saleur {.ro1v\ rplnrlued srql;o duorqcul.s aqt '3urop ,(q sureal IsJIJ o{.v.

ralppol ,(1a,1,r1 e qtr.n sI 1I se anrl se 'puv 'srellal Jo lualsap rerln:ad e ol allluelle arE

,bqt se 'lle.M e uo uor]ragar ururo rraql;o dlrrerlnred aql,(q paqrosqe I{rnIu sP lsrlJ le arE

sluedr:rlred teqt elnpap dltq8r: plnol auo 'uouauouaqd raqloue splard',(eru. SurBeBu:

.(lleuosrad e ur alrlfeJolul sI ll ]eq1 ,(ra,rorstp luanbasqns aql uo PauIJaPar ({Jo,tl eq:

uar{1v\ esolf s}r ol seruol Suraq s}r;o }uatuotu }SJIJ slt{l }ng 'a^llerreu due;o lred se luaP

-rle sr uorloru a,rrlra(ord aql Jo auou : eJnlB.IelII sp lI Jo acuarrodxa sepadurr 'aseqd dlec-rurlard srq] ur pedser8 'leql xnu rallal lelluarrol e-teql ueql erotu ou pue ,(1llex;

st utod $al'uorleturxordde lsrrg e ol 'JoC 'laslno eql le IIPJJaual aql uo snsuasuol Ien:-darrad ou sr araql :]ou saop qrll{rur }eq} snsJel lxal e se IJo t aql sarrtecrad }eq} alu:-rpne aql ueeMleq uolsr^Ip dreut.td e dn sarr.rer {roa aql :paBualleqr sr uor}e}ardralu:

'uorlour srrl] uI 'apersel peseq-Jeual e se JIeslI sluasard {Jo.tt aql uxoy $aJ I{IIM la:-uno)ua Ieuorlelrasqo IBrlruI eq] uI 'sluetuoru Jo 'saAII'sa8els leorSolouaurouaqd lcur:-srp ssel ro arotuJo selres e q8no.rqr 'sessed.{llentdatrad ro 'slslxa 1r se 'd11e:rEololuo 1:

Surraprsuor dq peruapr.ta dgeuorlrppe sI Iepousuerl ,{yqBnoroqt il uxad $aJ $qL

'arrnoseg uv / y1y35,(q pasua:I'Iltrv uraPor{Jo unasnry aI{J O a8eurl 1e}r8rq : IIpalJ oloqi'srred AOVCy / ryotr mag '(5gy) ,(1aoog slq8rg slsluv 600; 5

Iroi,&eN ruy uroPoIAIJo runasnw aL'-

'.,blM x gll67'raded uo 1ur pue u:;'6lr

'uaua^olN op6:'erqerrd snu?JC 'E a:ni-":

19 AIVCOWSNVUI-'N/vUlxl-l DNIOVIU

ueunq pup uortoru lllpoq 01 Burpnllp ;).srnoluof aqr,{q pauryap sr pue uodn st.s:: :r,aglSo a8eur aql qrrq.lr urqlr,rr suortrpu.r: -:j'.)rtulrJJo ureSleuu alrsJnter e ,lppoius:E:: i.(q -ra11a1 lsourle ,uorJolu

Ielrtre.\ ur pll:r...;:-ruord os ]xal eql sr reqlraN .ssautplj lp::,=l.11era1r1 sa8etur Jo uorle^rrap a.ut,aerord r-.{:pue parnlleJnueu 3urql.{ue ;o pasr-ldut-: ;.'arnllncraqdt ;o a8en8uel aql qlr^rr pal?r-\:'s-IquorarJo pur{ aqt uo paseq sr ,pa-ie1ds::

>puadap uer{l raqler .urud $aJSo.i8are::s ,z:rro 'lepoturllnur rrlsrlernld eJoru E sp parulij,-IpPP qlIM {ro1t B se urud $aJ ueql.M{tLr-jEE seruor s8urpocua IepotuJo,(tl:lldlrlnu q:n

'a)rnosag uV / V1y35,{q pasu:::-I :"j!. -j;rra'(:i:: Ir

',.t/Eat ri -:' :::?;

62 FRANCISCO J. RICARDO

Figure 6. The transmodal evanescence of Text Rain.Camille Utterback and RomyAchituvText Rain,1999.

Interactive installation,custom software, video camera, projector, computer.O 1999 Camille Utterback and Romy Achituv.Image courtesy ofthe artists.

reading. In the next moment of its being, as it were, the work will reveal the poem thatalludes directly to this very interplay. But at first, during play, the collusion and col-lision between elements in the work and reflected human image on the wall instigatequestions of entailment, specifically, whether the work's cascading elements are pro-jected onto a real, physical world, or, symmetrically, whether the real, physical personbelongs in the work of art.

From this kinetic adjunctness of worlds emerges a new life or phase in the possibil-ity of reading a poem out of Text Rafu. Since participants' motions are unrestrained,this discovery remains as potential experience, not inevitable outcome of the work. Forto locate a poem in the visual kineticism Text Rain requires one to behave, move, travel,in a wholly different way, directed toward piecing together a selection of the lines andyearnings in the Evan Zimrothpoem, Talk, You.8 In the fifth, concluding stage or onto-logical mode, then, Text Rain unfolds at the moment the viewer reflects on how his orher motions have in fact been a relational dance more or less predicted by its poetic

;.--enzas. These are three-each comprisin: iiri-rmmetry of two bodies in desirous conD€ciitrl

I like talkine r.'::isimplv that: ;;r:ra turning-rsi:i: .r:as in 1'our tu;ii:;lto face me sucie

At your turnine-of my bodr- tu:nrWe are the opr.:r':

of tongue-tiea. iiwere such dD iiri,We are svnonl-r::for limbs' loo'e::of syntax,and yet turn 1!. :lIt's just talk.

-- this physical sense, it is worth noting thal :i iupport to dance performance. Conceptuaii':.-.ulaborative workshops produced in \e'rt Y"r

;r--einal idea was not to inject a poem into ri=:1v art historical treatise on visual perspe.tr.r rrotion. So from the earliest, the sense r.i ;

csue was with the notion of space, not rrith rhi::ie most transmodal of the arts, and borror"rr*:sulting work reflects a variegated, multim.t!-.icted deployments of literature. Perhaps r'.uc:e, and it is in a poetic frame that rre t uei

h,'rIk's genesis.

It is in the second-person's direct tbrm ..i

'-^ hou connection aligned with the thought ..t

-:.' the "I and Thou" call for a post-dialec'ri;:::nscends the prevailing objectification of on,

.e=atic relation he termed "I-It." I-Thou is cieep

i':'Der, as a theologian, Thou addresses not o::l'.,'::: the unconditioned you that lives r* itho::: I

,e;ond person, the transhistorical even -'r'r:. :1:

:e. and the ultimate You, entailed in diaioeLe:inslated from the German familiar seconc r

i:d, simultaneously, the familiar i4-r'irii iha:

i -m's explicit yearning for engagement. the -l

-l line, underscores how Text Rain operates ii::rg with dialogue or "simply that: cont t'r-.r':-.-."

,,'*u$n,+uot:leqt d1drurs,, 'ro an8olerp qtlm 8ur;

-urflaq :rauupur 1ca(qns-o1-1ta(qns srql ut salerado uto[ $aI llroq salofsrapun 'aur1 tu '

-.rrdo'ril sr ]eql ..no/ qlra SurIIel e{rl I,, aql .luaua8e3ua ro; Sururea,( l1cr1dxa s,ulaN

aqJ 'uorlualul a^I]f,auuof aI{} saful^e wq| ql,w-,Qtto111wol aql {lsnoauellnurls 'Pur

sseurar{lo slql q}oq sllrdap 'np uostad Puolas reIIIueJ ueture3 aql ulou Pa}elsuE:,nol,ll .poJ r{fl^{ JIes tsaq8rq aql qlrM anSolerp uI Pallelua 'no eleurrlll1 aql Pue '}:dyleiluaiod 1i^ p.r, uaaq sderrrle seq ]eql no,{,Oan IellrolslqsuBrl aq1 'uosrad Puor"-r

,ir1rr11o, ataq-nol-!o-11a aql'l:epunoq lnoqll.{\ se^II }eql nod pauotltpuorun aql :ui"'

1o r*io, reqlo lnq ,nod alerpaurug agl dluo 1ou sessarppe noql'uet3oloeql e se 'raqn!

roJ :leuosrad ueql arolu 1ad '1euos:ad,(1daap snolll-I <'1I-I,, pature] eq uorlelar f,Iletur

-qord u-s8ulql qll^\ alels paleuarle s(auoJo uorlecrJrlcafqo Surle,tard et{l sPua)suP;

leq] ssaullarlpJo uollelar e "tcerutlur

Ierr]lelElp-]sod e ro3 IIer ..noqJ puE I,, aq] 6'rcpun qq srq dpeln:r1red 'raqng uIuPI lJo rq8noqr aql qlu"r pauBrle uol]lauuor noq-L--

ue saqsrlqelsa uaod aql let{l ssarPpe Jo uroJ })aJIp s(uosrad-puocas aql uI sI U'srsauaS s.1.ro-".

srq] Jo luauotu IPuIJ aq1 raplsuo) o1 lq8no a,!\ leql aurer; crleod e uI sI ll Pue 'ara:

*iri rard, aql aq tq3*u drlaod lerntdlncs sdeqra. 'arnleralllJo sluaur'{o1dap palleu;

due;o teqt tuoU llurlsrp alrnb e8eaurl Iepotulunul 'pale8atrurr e slfauar ryor"r 3ur11ns::

eqt 'drlaod sB qfnul se relBaql ruo4 Sutr'rouoq puu (sue al{l Jo lePotusueJ} lsolu ef:

Suraq atuep qlllA .sa^lasruaql sratuep aq] qlIA ]ou 'ereds;o uollou aql qlIA se.tr an3.-n-

-elp sll lnq 'eraql sB1( lxal aarlle(ord e Jo asuas aql 'lsallree aq1 ruo{ oS 'uolloru tr

sraruro;rad aSets ar{t punoJe pug uo arrr}cadsrad lensrl uo eslleal} IBTIJOISIq 1re ,(1:m

,r, ,rod*,rrdns o1 pealsul lnq {ron aql o}ul uaod e l:afur o1 lou se^{ eapr 1eur8r:c

s({ro1r aql ,L66I ur Suruur8aq ,Q13 ryotr lrvraN uI parnpord sdoqs4rom e^IlBroqPIIor

afuep pue arlBar{} Jo sarras e ur uroq l.1pn1dacuo3 'a:ueruro;red eluBp o} lroddns r

se sB^^ utoy lxal;o uorte]Ildde lsrrJ aql lsq] 3urlou I{Uo1v\ sI 1I 'asuas prrsdqd srql q

.11e1 lsnf s.t1

:Surqlou 01 urn] 1ad Pue'xeluds;o

Euruasool ,sqruII roJ

sru,{uouds are a A

luduoluB ue qlns alelur

ararli JI 'Pa4-an8uol 1oalrsoddo aql ere aM

'qre^ ol surnl dPoq,(ru;olred qcea '8uturn1 rnod 1Y

' ' 'dluappns etu afBJ olpunoJe Suturnl .rnol. ur se

'punore- ro qltrrt-Euturnl e

'Sustaauot :teql,(ldrurs

'nod qtr,n 8ur4pt a4u I

:Jar{lo qlea ol uollf auuof snoJlsaP uI salPoq o,tt1;o drlauu'spalE^rlolu aql Sururllno-saurl uoqs e1\rJ Sursrrduot qtea-aarl{} are asaql 'sezu?ls

€9 AIIVOOhISNVUr'N/vU-lxll 9Nlovlu

rrlaod s1r dq pelcrpard ssal ro alour a_1u?p rFro srq,r\oq uo sllaual Je.{rar^ er{] luauroul :;:-oluo Jo a8e1s Surpnpuol ,r{UrJ ar{l ul .r1.,; -1-

pue saurl aqlJo uor]la1as e raqla8ot Eurrar; 3.'lelerl'elotu .aleqaq o1 auo sarrnbeJ LrrU:-1? iroc '{Jollt eq}Jo etuotlno algetlaaur lou .aru}r:

'peureJJsaJun aJe suorlou,sluedrtrlred a:i;r<-pqrssod aql ur aseqd ro aJrl ,r\au e saBr:u:r spl

uosred 1e:rs,(qd (lper eql raqleq^r ..i11err:ra-r::

-ord are sluetuela Surpetser s.{Jo.\\ aqt rruir"rale8rlsur Ile,.vr ar{} uo a8eurr ueunq pat>Ll}j :-lol pue uorsnllol eq1 (eld Surrnp .lsrll t? i..teql uraod ar{} Ieelar IIrM {Jo1( aql .are-rr tr !? -:

64 FRANCISCO J. RICARDO

I opened this talk alluding to the problematic relation between work and image intext, an unresolved cadence in the corpus of literature. From the numerous ways toescape being rendered entirely in one or another modality, works of literature call ontext to evoke imagery, a translation that is evident in Text Raia; observe how the lit-erally dialogic of conversing immediately recodes into the visual act of turning-withor-around, ironically unfeasible in the two-dimensional context of this projection.

Without retreading already covered ground, one new point worth making relates toloss of baseline. Starting with the Dada and surrealist examples cited earlier, the visualbreak with typographic conventions pursued two forms, angularization and skewing oftextual baselines, irregularizing distortions in letter shape. Terf R ain effects the first ofthese transfory11atie15-variations in textual anchor-but not the 5ssend-y4liationsin textual shape. This selective change ostensibly renders it a more legible work than itsavant-garde antecedents. But no, printed matter can exploit visual deformations withoutloss ofreadabilitybecause, of course, the content is fixed, static. Once the content moves,as it does continually in Text Rain, the poem is fundamentally illegible as a whole. Therearrangement that subverts the attempt at a complete reading is twofold. Vertically, theletters are in motion, but horizontally, they never provide a clear simultaneously visi-ble line; as soon as letters come to rest on the captured silhouette ofan external personor object, they evaporate, and since this dissolve is timed to every lettert individualmoment of collision rather than to the appearance of a whole stanza or a complete line,the constituents of multiple lines appear and vanish together, so that at any moment,

Figure 7. Text Rain, "Turning around"Camille Utterback and Romy AchituvText Rain,1999.

Interactive installation,custom software, video camera, projector, computer@ 1999 Camille Utterback and RomyAchituv.Image courtesy ofthe artists.

oet reading encounters only a selective senrddthis is of multiple orators reciting a single poE-h uttering and self-silencing at random pcik*e lacques, of which we can see four distinct

Frdre facgrsFrdre facqucqDormez-vourDormez-r'ourSonnez les mSonnez les rnr

Din, dan, dolDin, dan, dm

The Frire lacqucsp.

The staggered exposure of a nursery rhlmegroduces an aural experience that is simultu rr

Frd - re Jac-ques, Frd - re J*q.cs

Figure 8. Frirekf

*P(,cf,FA" .Ep.r3hi

9':: d'E;r !le-ri d'.{i &{'3;3

""*r iltfr AtqEa"o*,,,

-LOt \.q.r;r,\oqsff:

Figure 9. Frdre lae4tainl

Son-nez les ma-ti-nes! Son-nez les rna-litu

aarqtJo Punou ut'saflb)ol or?q '6 arn8lJ

1,11etrsn1,1's a nbto I a tq t g' g a nBr I'uop'uep'uro

'sonb-cBl a.tl 'sonb-cer

lr sB ,EurBBBua pue Bulgeruof,slp dlsnoauelpuls sI lBql efuelladxo Ierne ue selnPoltr,sra8urs aarqlJo punor e ur peuroJrad'aurdqr drasrnu eJo arnsodxa paraSSels aqJ.

d1e:rBolouotu 'waod sanbcal oty7 aq7'uoP (uep (uIC

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66 FRANCISCO J. RICARDO

Figure 10. FrCre Jacques, aperformative point in the round

uould be to discern a poem under conditions r

mret complicated rapport with the image is no@uch concrete poetry, including historicalh- rcEnlay.ro

The famous musical round becomes fam:rhrough, realizing that there in fact is a pen@ a circle, but not to the plane as $,e assurl{aes€s, it is no longer correct to speak of imagmdationship with which I opened my disc ,<s

uradition where the text ls the image and virrlronomously, separately, individualh'. Here

','.tegorically pure, materializing neither spec;art, but rather as something performative, erpk vantages and distinct moments of beingmensmodal work of art.

hesX- Dick Higgins and Hannah Higgins, 'Inte

Leonardo34,no. I (2001 U965)),49.a Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation andOtGiroux, 1966).

5- |ay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, Ra(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999).

{. Clive Bell, Arr (London: Chatto and \\'in&r5- Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Methd tl

1996t1960).6- Pierre Cabanne, Dialogues with Marcel Du.

l97l),71. Quoted in Rosalind E. Krauss, pas

IIA: MIT Press, 1977),69. The event, andGoldberg, Performance Art: From FuturisaHudson, 2006 [1979D, 76.

7. Francisco f. Ricardo, "Until Something ICyberculture and New Media, ed. Franciro IRodopi, 2009).

t- For Text Rain, Utterback and Achituv editcthe poem. For reasons semantic and lexical, I

be distended to the dimensions of a proiectCamille Utterback, email, February ll, 2fi)!

9- Martin Buber, I and Thou (New York CharlL lan Hamilton Finlay's AcroDars (or similar u

question as Rosalind Krauss examined of thsuch works? Cf. Rosalind Krauss, 'Gri&- C

Figure 11. Ian Hamilton Finlay,Acrobats,

1966,

Screenprint on paper. 388 x 279 mm.Tate Gallery London, Great BritainPhoto credit: Tate, London / Art Resource, NYo Copyright 2009 Estate oflan Hamilton

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68 FRANCISCO J. RICARDO

BibliographyBell, Clive. Arr. London: Chatto and Windus, 1913.

Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge,MA: MIT Press, 1999.

Buber, Martin . I and Thou. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970 [1923].Cabanne, Pierre. Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp. London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.

Gadamer, Hans Georg. Truth and Method. New York: Continuum Publishing Co., 199611960.

Goldberg, Roselee. Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. London: Thames andHudson, 2006 11979).

Higgins, Dick, and Hannah Higgins. "Intermedia: Synesthesia and Intersenses." Leonardo 34,no. I (2001 lt965l):a9-5a.

Krauss, Rosalind. "Grids." October, no.9 (1979).

Krauss, Rosalind E. Passages in Modern Sculpture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977.

Ricardo, Francisco J. "Until Something Else: A Theoretical Introduction." ln Cyberculture anilNew Media, edited by Francisco |. Ricardo, 1-22. Amsterdam/NewYork, NY: Rodopi, 2009.

Sontag, Stsan. Against Interpretation and Other EssaTs. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux,1966.

"Thomas Hardy: His Plea for Pure English and His TheoryAbout Poetry." NewYorkTimes,Jtne 16,

1912.

Utterback, Camille. Personal Communication, February ll, 2009.

CHAPTEI

Kissing thThe Poetry of Te

ChristophcrTl

Syatext is a "Generator of texts" (Geradot dc ard 1995 by Abilio Cavalheiro and pedro Bal0mputer-produced Texts and Cyberlitertrutlr at University Fernando Pessoa. Barbosa auL5 programs which generated texts with botthitially, this conglomeration of programs cin

-l Alird; it was later circulated with the adfme of the materials have been re-versioned Ilc title Syntext-W.a This essay explores the cqQpes of work that appear in the collectiou-

krmutationflrictpermutation with added elements is foutLwhich every activation of the program produtms of a text built from four subjects:'GRAN?EDRA' (stone), and "SAUDADE" (longing/lrtpositions (e.g., "NA/NO," "A," 'DA/DO,-'mtent to the nouns, enabling grammatical rhilt on steep granite cliffs on the coast of Xfrlge presented and rearranged by the authc r

lHock oftext ofcapitalized letters, and as spogram, while certainly cyclical, performs en

;miously created by artists such as Brion Gysildves can only be ordered 24 different wara; I

lEmutations. Since a limited amount of text iderwise begin to occur quickly. The additfo

-rny configurations and prevents the poem 6t+.[ine passage from "Porto" taken from Barbclnados por computador, the order in which lincl

Post-Chapter Dialogue, Kwastek and Ricardo

FfR: Contemporary criticism and history of art and literature have evolved inresponse to the emergence ofnew expressive practices. Braque could not be analyzedfrom within a pre-Impressionist sentiment, nor could Ernst, Picabia, or Duchamp-When Minimalism emerged, Rosalind Krauss introduced Merleau-Pontyt phenom-enology as critical optic. Your essay likewise makes an implicit case for the inter-section between diverse disciplines analyzing the same digital phenomenon. ThatSchemat's work, for example, can be understood both through a game paradigmand within literary studies, where it can be addressed as a dramatic production, isnot typical of new media scholarship, and you construct a rubric of shared under-standing. Teri Ruebt work is more expansive, transcending even these approachesYou correspondingly add that "each ofthese disciplines can offer pertinent perspec-tives on the work, although each reaches disciplinary limits in interpreting it." I'mwondering whether multidisciplinary meta-analysis, while enlightening, isn't toounwieldy for new media art, and wonder whether you see, from each of these meth-odologies, the possibility of one unique or unifying voice of analysis that reflectrthe structural, experiential, the phenomenological, and the immersive uniquenesrof artistic directions in new media. I might add that this is not limited to locative arror geopoetics, since highly transmodal work of artists like Kelly Dobson is equallropaque to established critical epistemologies.

KK: I am skeptical of attempts to establish universal methodologies for the analysirof specific art movements. This is all the more true for art genres-and I considernew media art a genre and not a movement. Certainly each art genre has characterirtic formal features, that guide their analysis. One common feature of new media art(beyond its use of electronic media) is its foundation both on process and Gestalt. It irastonishing that in a society defined through more and more complex and interrelatedprocesses, the aesthetic implications of this situation are largely neglected. What I findnecessary is a new focus of the humanities on process aesthetics. While, for examplgwith sociology, an autonomous discipline has been established to describe societal pro'cesses and while informatics and information theory place great emphasis on developing and describing processes algorithmically, there is no sufficient vocabulary, let alonemethodology, to describe the aesthetic ofprocesses.

Nevertheless I would not advocate singular interpretive perspectives that couldcharacterize any genre as heterogeneous as new media art. Of course specific move-ments within new media art, such as locative art or geopoetics, share common features,as I argued, but in the end, the works are unique pieces with very different artistic strat-egies. Ifonet focus is on singular artworks, they can never be embraced by one theo-retical approach, and any analysis risks becoming fragmentary if done by one authoralone. They need complementing and even contradicting perspectives to enfold theirreflective potential and openness to subjective interpretation. Methods are important

for identifying tendencies and relating rnorreadings, I prefer keeping the framerr.orli ogenological" or "semiotic works,'and rrithin r

ate "literary" or "visual artworks.' Of coursspecial features of works, which is often higfiJone universal methodology for their anahsisFfR: You make clear in this essay that som(that is digital or electronic in nature lies ilinversions, transformations, or variatlon-. oiinversion of literature's traditional morpholPropp's Morphology of the Folktale is still rdthe forms and pathways of contemporan- hrtal media, Propp seems less relevant. In the I

rhere action happens; the extradiegetic, beiinvisibly. Your observation, however, that ilbecomes the physical, conceptual and ercfrctional center, the missing woman, remaiinversion of traditional form entirelr. absear

inversion a categorical shift: the reader beconreking, within a fiction, a character r,r-ho hEever appears, never leaves trails of her ou-n r

age for effecting the shift that conscripts thcpermits the reader to be plausibly addresscrrsigned direct orders. The reader, once addrter in it, crosses the conventional status bercter (already) in the story.

And this is not the only kind of shift th'the medium itself becomes distributed to a d-r

moored to a specific mechanism-a screen, artory is instead dispersed across the op€nnesrphysical movement then influences its naratibaded sign system-simultaneously a narratiritself undergoes an inversive shift of signifiaarchitectures. It matters little that the stors iits narratival genotype is encoded with the glentering, trigger, allowing its fictive skein to u

Finally, as ifto subvert conventional structstudy, Teri Rueb's Drift,inwhich the mapprngchanging. This is akin to the radical geogra$the dimensionless void of a dream state; hearirplace where they were first uttered, are norr- d

It seems to me that all of these inversions arfixities to which we have been conventionallr Inence and fixity of place that is the monumentifrom what we experience within the inner suti

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locative media art is bringing out subjective being into the physical world, annihilatingthe inner/outer, subject/object divide that the West adulates, but which other cultures,among them the Australian aboriginal worldview, have never quite endorsed.

And so, I don't have a confining question, but feel rather that you have opened thedoor to an understanding of artistic expression wholly outside of Cartesian thought:merging both objectivist methodology and subjectivist awareness, there is now anextended consciousness ofthe works, since the approach considers the projective, thealeatory, the physical, and the participatory; and I wonder if this experience of deepmeaning, after such close reading, also insinuated itself to your intuition and sensibil-ities, as it did to mine. Do you feel the rustle?

KK: I definitely do, also in a very practical sense, as challenging common notions anddisciplines always prompts not only enthusiasm, but also skepticism and criticism.That is, the "rustle" is present in exhibitions and conferences within the artistic andscientific community of new media art. Also artists themselves still confront these

challenges: whereas I consider Schemat's and Ruebt pieces as successful, mature worksof interactive new media art, it is obvious that they are dealing with very complex artis-tic, aesthetic, and technological issues with high standards ofartistic production.

To proceed to the core ofyour statement: I absolutely agree that this artistic approachindicates a key shift within cultural production, due to the location of aesthetics withinprocess and action. It marks a further step in the development from representationto presentation that can be observed within the arts of the last 100 years-though itdoes not replace the former with the latter but rather combine them in a highly com-plex interchange of the processual, the material, the subjective, and the symbolical-locative art practices in particular re-implement art not only within public space, butwithin our social networks and build a bridge from the reflection and distance-basedaesthetics of the art world to the everyday processes of aisthesis. As you emphasize, an

important artistic strategy at stake is the implementation of inversions. Their complex-ity is due to the fact that, though they are consciously provoked by the artist, they are

not fixed within a representative scheme but grow from within the visitor's experience-The visitor of Schemat's work does not necessarily become a character in the story:she is invited to do so, but may at the same time remain distanced. Therefore I preferto describe these experiential processes with the notions of oscillation and ambiva-lence. You might even compare these artistic strategies to deconstructivist tendencies,though I consider the works too much grounded in materiality (and deconstructivismtoo negligent of actual reception processes) to use this term in my writing.

I absolutely agree that the destroying offixities is a tendency that is fostered by dig-ital media and reflected within new media art. But of course this reflection is not con-fined to new media art-as interactive art is not confined to new media art, either. Thespecific achievement of interactive art is that it allows for an actual and active experi-ence of this situation, whereas non-interactive art is usually confined to representingthese tendencies. The two examples I dealt with combine new media technologies withinteractive strategies and with a breakout into public space and can therefore not onl-renhance the interactive processes embedded within the work, but also integrate thecomplex layers both of everyday life and of digital data/networks within their artisticinterpretations of contemporary culture and society.

Liaden Lab, the company behind the online,irvwith slogans like "your World. lbur Imaggne evidence of adjustment to group narratirrthe world. They seem to favor alreadv establisjoeating an online identity; hence ihe, alsoergue that residents in SL recreate social orddready existing outside SL, even though therrc. In that sense social and cultural p"n".*emplified. My aim here is to trace ,oii"l d"-o.digital space and my hypothesis is that rhe rule foundation and guideline for identin formaa certain way of acting or behaving. Trr.o of t-hbased on books and movies, whereas role-plarthe third group. All of them are thus,.-oijprrely fictive or, conversely, historical cons;tr,Jues to how the residents think in an enrinh*sed, and in which anything, even a utopia,us and profile descriptions found in the SL r

hlogs functioning either as group informatiorcach community, I examine the motivations.mline identity construction in role-pla1.ing cctbn between the overarching "state,, porr-er, tt{npir respective role-models, and the rules thrfifoat are a part of them.

SL is an MMO (a Massively Multiplar-er (i@ernet by tens of thousands of users simultar,rs there is no global game narrative inrr.orldlfrm and its main feature is the possibilin-to ,

nh SL, everything that can be seen, heard, or roaure itself is a construction. SL thus offerssruction of reality, a process exactly the sameczl- construction ofthe entire digital enriron

CHAPTET

Sel{, Setting, and Situ

Marial