Class #3

Chapter 11, Ted Nelson and HYPERTEXT

Nelson's hypertext: "A body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper."

Evolutionary List File (ELF) a structure built of zippered lists. The intent was to help writers and researchers handle personal file systems and manuscripts in progress. The idea is to create a dream file.

A memex is "A device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility" proposed by Vannevar Bush. Nelson says "Two decades later this machine is still unavailable." I think it is available! It's called a computer! Obviously Nelson wrote this in the 60s, but form other readings of Nelson it looks like he still doesn't believe that this has been accomplished.

Nelson highlights the difficulties that every writer faces, then proposes certain specifications of his ELF system that would help the writer organize and think better, and constantly change and develop an outline. It has several elements: entries, lists, links, and sequences. The ELF is designed to be changed by its users. There is no correct way to use it.

PRIDE is the file and information handling language that facilitates the use of ELF.

Nelson argues that ELF is necessary because it can create media that adapts to the interests and need of the reader. ELF can help untangle material that would not be possible without aid. I agree with the philosophy behind all of this, but don't quite understand why today's advances are not satisfactory.

Hypertext is text which contains links to other texts. The term was coined by Ted Nelson around 1963 (but an article using the term was published term in 1965).

The prefix hyper- (comes from the Greek prefix "υπερ-" and means "over" or "beyond") signifies the overcoming of the old linear constraints of written text.

The term "hypertext" is often used where the term "hypermedia" might seem appropriate. In 1992, author Ted Nelson – who coined both terms in 1963 – wrote:

“By now the word "hypertext" has become generally accepted for branching and responding text, but the corresponding word "hypermedia", meaning complexes of branching and responding graphics, movies and sound – as well as text – is much less used. Instead they use the strange term "interactive multimedia": this is four syllables longer, and does not express the idea of extending hypertext. — Nelson, Literary Machines, 1992”

Posts on Nelson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson

Ted Nelson said, "HTML is precisely what we were trying to PREVENT— ever-breaking links, links going outward only, quotes you can't follow to their origins, no version management, no rights management." I have to admit I believe Nelson's doomsday assessment of the World Wide Web seems exaggerated. I understand and appreciate the basic tenets of his hypertext vision, but if he could never realize them, then the World Wild Web will have to do. If you ask me, the greatest threat to Nelson's populitism is not HTML but rather those who oppose net neutrality.

http://ted.hyperland.com/

Here seems to be Nelson's argument in a nutshell, as described by the New York Times article he sites on his website: "Lost in the process [of inventing the web] was Mr. Nelson’s two-way link concept that simultaneously pointed to the content in any two connected documents, protecting, he has argued in vain, the original intellectual lineage of any object." Ted's vision seems like an idealized and noble one with academic motivations, but the Internet as we know it today is an entirely different beast. And that's OK. Most of today's users of the World Wide Web don't know what "intellectual linage" means and probably wouldn't care if they did. If the Internet were only filled with literature and essays, then I could see the point of a two-way link. But with its multiple uses including shopping, gaming, and communicating, I see little use for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_Machines

Literary Machines is Ted Nelson's first book, published in 1980. It includes concepts such as:

• hypertext- computer text that references other text, available at the click of a mouse.
• Project Xanadu- the first project involving hypertext, found by Ted Nelson in 1960.
• tumbler- a numerical address for content, similar to an IP address.
• transclusion- the inclusion of a document or part of a document into another document.
• micropayment- a financial transaction involving small amounts of money.

Posts on Ken Perlin

http://blog.kenperlin.com/?p=4844

I thought the most interesting part of the story was the bit in the beginning about how the developers of The Sims imagine the end result of their work before they have the capacity to do it. It just goes to show that imagination must indeed drive innovation. I see parallels between this technique and the work of science fiction writers. Like the people at Maxis, science fiction writers "design the box", so to speak, of future innovation. Then the world eventually catches up.

http://blog.kenperlin.com/?p=4846

• In this post, Ken gives some examples of eccescopy.
• In "What Matters To Me" a young designer interacts with computer graphics to enforce a narrative.
• In the computer game Heavy Rain a man works using holographic computer images.
• In Bruce Brait's video, a man builds a world using the virtual tools that become available at his fingertips.
• In Magic Projection 1.0, a single piece of cardboard serves as a link between the real world and the computer.

http://blog.kenperlin.com/?p=4862

Here Ken says that George Lucas was a visionary in terms of using computer imagery to convey information in real time. At the end of the article he criticizes Lucas' use of both screen-based and non-screen-based visuals. I disagree with Ken. I think that there is a time and a place for 3-D holographic imagery. Text, for instance, works best on a screen. If you look at all the images that Ken chose, they all were of objects and they clearly fit best in a 3-D landscape.

http://blog.kenperlin.com/?p=4881

Ken decided to have a bit of fun and create a practical version of the technology we see in Star Trek and Forbidden Planet. The project, Holodust, uses dust and lasers to project a static image. Ken explains to us that his experiment was not technically eccescopic, since the image doesn't change with the viewer looking at it. This is a distinction I believe Ken didn't mention before, but it's important. It serves to differentiate eccescopy from a simple projection.

http://blog.kenperlin.com/?p=4996

I feel that the bulkiness and impracticality of the glasses in this post point to the fact that eccescopy is not totally necessary. Why do we need to literally "look" in order to see the computer-enhanced world? When we look at a smart phone, our "vision" of the world is altered. The transfer of information is not seemless but it works just as well. You couldn't get me into a pair of those glasses if you paid me.

http://blog.kenperlin.com/?p=5077

• Lots of people are invested in making eccescopy a reality!
• MIT associate professor Pattie Maes works with her students on projects including position-tracked portable projectors.
• Another MIT associate professor, Ramesh Raskar, works with face-to-face cyber-enhanced communication. No specifics here, but we'll assume he's working hard.
• In the sci-fi realm, authors continue to imagine an eccescopic world.
• Vernor Vinge writes about a world in which everyone wears a portable display.

http://blog.kenperlin.com/?p=5147

Ken certainly makes a point here: eccescopy and the prevalence of personal recording devices makes our society more democratic by making law enforcers accountable for their actions. However, I think Ken goes too far when he says, "...The incident I described suggests that this might be more of a good thing than a bad thing." Of course, the example he provided was a good one. But there are just as many bad consequences of a world with less privacy. The technology will progress regardless, but I think in our own minds we should remember to remain skeptical.

Bring on the Borges

1. Link to THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS short story:
http://www.american-buddha.com/garden.fork.htm

In a second reading of this story, I find myself interesting in a sensation Borges describes: "From that moment on, I felt about me and within my dark body an invisible, intangible swarming. Not the swarming of the divergent, parallel and finally coalescent armies, but a more inaccessible, more intimate agitation that they in some manner prefigured." He describes it again later on: "Once again I felt the swarming sensation of which I have spoken. It seemed to me that the humid garden that surrounded the house was infinitely saturated with invisible persons. Those persons were Albert and I, secret, busy and multiform in other dimensions of time." What, I now ask, is the swarming? Is Borges describing a sort of existential dread that Tsun feels at discovering new notions of time?

2. Wikipedia article on THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Forking_Paths

I was looking up hypertext fiction on Wikipedia after I read about The Garden of Forking Paths, and I found it funny that the Choose Your Own Adventure series is considered an example. Would this simple pop-culture concept be possible without Borges? Seems like a no-brainer but perhaps it took genius to trickle down to young adult fiction...

3. Link to Wikipedia Bio on Borges:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Luis_Borges

Finally some criticism of Borges! "The Contorno writers acknowledged Borges and Eduardo Mallea for being "doctors of technique" but argued that their work lacked substance due to their lack of interaction with the reality that they inhabited, an existentialist critique of their refusal to embrace existence and reality in their artwork." I agree with this criticism to an extent. Of course, magic realism does not intend to deal with existence and reality. On the other hand, while Borges' work does not document reality, it certainly deals with issues of existence and reality. See the difference?

4. Link to Bio #2 on Borges: http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/index3.htm

I once read that many writers rely on their childhood as inspiration for their writing, because they experience more in their childhood than they are able to experience as adults. I think this very much applies to Borges, whose early life seems to have impacted his later writing life. From his father explaining philosophy through chess, to his obsession with knives...and then of course this quote pretty much says it all: "If I were asked to name the chief event in my life, I should say my father's library."

5. Borges website: http://www.themodernword.com/borges/

On this website, one section lists a collection of authors that have been influenced by Borges, including masters like Umberto Eco, Thomas Pynchon, and Garcia Marquez. Might I add one more: Daniel Handler, or as he is most commonly known, Lemony Snicket-- author of the beloved children's series The Series of Unfortunate Events. One easy similarity is the tendency of both authors to latch onto certain themes and images. Borges liked to include dreams, labyrinths, libraries, animals, fictional writers, religion and God. Snicket likes secrets, libraries, and mistaken identities. Just a thought.

6. NY Times Borges Obit.: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0824.html

This quote stands out to me from Borges. "I can't think of myself in a bookless world. I need books. They mean everything to me.'' I wonder how Borges would feel about the reputation he has gotten after his death as the founder, so to speak, of new media, when in fact a very old medium was so dear to him?

The last line of the obit was somehow haunting to me though I have no idea what it means: "Through the years a man peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, tools, stars, horses, and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his own face." Can we discuss in class?

7. NY Times Articles on BORGES AND THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/06cohenintro.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/arts/13alsmail-BORGESANDTHE_LETTERS.html?ref=arts

If Borges were alive today, would he be into steampunk? That's what I wondered when I read this quote in the first NYTimes article: "Ms. Sassón-Henry, an associate professor in the language studies department of the United States Naval Academy, describes Borges as 'from the Old World with a futuristic vision.'" Sounds a lot like steampunk, no?

8. NY Times Article on Borges’ Buenos Aires: http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/travel/14foot.html

The last line of this article stuck out to me: "Borges, still peering out quizzically at a world that seemed so alien to him that he had to invent his own." In many ways it seems that Borges, indeed, lived alienated from the world, which reflects in his writing. He spent most of his time in libraries, reading, so he was removed from the activity of outside. Later in life, he was blind, separated from the world of sight. In his work, Borges does not seek to describe the world as it is. Borges' otherworldly writin is clearly the product of his lifelong bookishness and intellectualism.

9. -- Borges ON EXACTITUDE IN SCIENCE:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Exactitude_in_Science

https://notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/0/f2d03252295e0d0585256e120009adab?OpenDocument

Have we, in a sense, already achieved "the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province"? I'm thinking of the map of the US roads in Blaise Aguera y Arca's Photosynth demo. The map "describes" and "duplicates" nature completely, on a grand scale, but we can still see it in all its microscopic detail using the zooming power of Photosynth.

Class Demos

Class link #1-Steampunk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOAsjYgTK-8

Synopsis- Steampunk is a subculture that romanticizes the steam-powered machines of the industrial revolution and combines it with a fictionalized, high-tech future. It includes specialized music, design, and fashion. Jake Von Slatt is a leading artist in the Steampunk community, using brass to modify everyday objects and achieve a steampunk aesthetic.

My take- Steampunk is certainly one of the least offensive subcultures I've come across. Unlike goth and emo cultures, it seems to be positive and encourage creativity and community. It's a shame that today's mainstream industrial design doesn't inspire as much interest among young people. Steampunk seems to come at an appropriate time in American history, when most products are disposable and factory-produced. This appreciation for one-of-a-kind, hand-made objects as a reaction to today's production methods is also reflected in the DYI movement, and to some extent the local agriculture movement, which is a reaction to the de-humanized food industry.

Class link #2- Playing for Change: http://www.playingforchange.com/

Synopsis- Playing for Change synthesizes music performances from all over the world in a unified package. A separate foundation raises money for music education globally.

My take- A terrific idea, well executed. Similar projects like "We Are The World" for Haiti and compilation CDs raise money for good causes but rely on famous names to sell records. I'm glad that Playing for Change's help aid not only goes to the people who benefit from the fundraising, but the undiscovered artists who appear in the video. For them, it's great exposure.

First Class and The Garden of Forking Paths

Jorge Luis Borges, 1941

The Garden of Forking Paths

Borges' labyrith "in which all men would become lost" seems to me an imperfect but close vision of the Internet. The Internet, like The Garden of Forking Paths, is a source of information with no beginning and no end, and no clearcut path. Like The Garden of Forking Paths it has "the possibility of continuing indefinitely." For a bit I was struggling to find a parallel between the notion of a "growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent, and parallel times" in the book and the Internet. Then I remembered that the Internet, too, does not exist in one time zone. People interact with it from all over the world, in different times. Borges' notion of simultaneous realities was truly ahead of its time, and needed only, as the author points out, the electromechanical digital computer to make the concept plausible. Simultaneous reality finds its home in the reality we experience online.

Is it intentional that Dr. Yu Tsun's "statement" in the story begins in the middle, just like a hypertext novel might?

Borges' idea that all realities exist simultaneously made me think of Blaise Aguera y Arca's demonstration of Photosynth, in which a model of Notre Dame cathedral is constructed from user-submitted photos. While each photo of the cathedral shows it in a different way , the compilation of all the photos creates a model that is perhaps truer than any one photo could be. My question, then, is this: is the best way to establish "reality" to take the sum total of everyone's collective memory?

On the subject of Arca's demonstration, a thought occurred to me in class about augmented reality. It is probably not the best thought to have in a class devoted to the appreciation of digital art and media, but perhaps worth asking anyway. Augmented reality maps, on one hand, improve our experience of the world-- they give us more information and permit us to navigate our environment more thoroughly. However, if all the world is re-created in augmented reality, do we not lose a sense of mystery and wonder about the world? How can we explore if all the work has been done for us, and is available from the comfort of home? In digital media and technology, the moto must surely always be "onward and upward," but perhaps here, as users, we should show some caution?