Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry As Ontological Probe
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Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe William David (Jhave) Johnston A Thesis in the Humanities Doctoral Program Presented in Partial Fulfilment Of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy At Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada November 2011 © David (Jhave) Johnston. 2011. SIGNATURES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: David (Jhave) Johnston Entitled: Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe and submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Humanities) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: _______________________________________ Chair Dr.V Venkatesh _______________________________________ External Examiner Prof. John Cayley _______________________________________ External to Program Dr. J. Camlot _______________________________________ Examiner Prof. J. Lewis _______________________________________ Examiner Dr. C. Salter _______________________________________ Examiner Dr. Sha Xin Wei _______________________________________ Supervisor Dr. O. Dyens Approved by ___________________________________________________________ Dr. E. Manning, Graduate Program Director November 11, 2011 _______________________________________ Dr. B. Lewis, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science ABSTRACT Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe David (Jhave) Johnston Concordia University, 2011 This thesis is about the poetic edge of language and technology. It inter-relates both computational creation and poetic reception by analysing typographic animation softwares and meditating (speculatively) on a future malleable language that possesses the quality of being (and is implicitly perceived as) alive. As such it is a composite document: a philosophical and practice-based exploration of how computers are transforming literature, an ontological meditation on life and language, and a contribution to software studies. Digital poetry introduces animation, dimensionality and metadata into literary discourse. This necessitates new terminology; an acronym for Textual Audio-Visual Interactivity is proposed: Tavit. Tavits (malleable digital text) are tactile and responsive in ways that emulate living entities. They can possess dimensionality, memory, flocking, kinematics, surface reflectivity, collision detection, and responsiveness to touch, etc…. Life-like tactile tavits involve information that is not only semantic or syntactic, but also audible, imagistic and interactive. Reading mediated language-art requires an expanded set of critical, practical and discourse tools, and an awareness of the historical continuum that anticipates this expansion. The ontological and temporal design implications of tavits are supported with case-studies of two commercial typographic-animation softwares and one custom software (Mr Softie created at OBX Labs, Concordia) used during a research-creation process. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to my thesis advisers for their assistance during this process. I am grateful for their guidance, astute experience and extreme candidness. Errors or excesses remain mine. Inundated in information, in the age of the internet it is certain that many ideas in this thesis were first expressed elsewhere. I have tried wherever possible to cite all sources, but it is probable that the pioneering work done by many thinkers (among them Jay David Bolter, Richard Lanham, Johanna Drucker, Katherine Hayles, Loss Pequeño Glazier, Bill Seaman, Stephanie Strickland, Eduardo Kac, Eric Vos, Christopher Funkhouser, John Cayley, Francisco Ricardo, Charles Hartman and many many others) has seeped into my mind. In addition, the following people each at some time proved themselves invaluable in offering encouragement: Rita Raley, Jake Moore, Anke Burger, Chris Funkhouser, Amy Hufnagel, Laura Emelianoff, Vasilios Demetrious, Skawennati, Jessica Pressman, Davin Heckman, Jim Andrews, J.R. Carpenter, Daniel Canty, TBone, Stephanie Beliveau, Bruno Nadeau, Patrice Fortier, Erin Manning and Frances Foster. Big thanks to Lazarus for listening to my doubts and offering good sensible counsel. Bina Freiwald for indefatigable grace and encouragement. And a huge thanks to Stephanie Strickland for her fastidious editorial eye which helped me immeasurably. During my research work I was given the opportunity to exhibit by Oboro, BNL de Montreal 2011, ELO @ Brown 2010, e-Poetry 2011, Fais Ta Valise, Beluga Studios and NT2. Such opportunities to place online work into physical contexts provide valuable perspective. I need to thank my family, especially Mom, for continual support. And lastly Sophie Jodoin who saw me through this intellectual rite of passage. iv DEDICATED To my neighbour Laurie Walker and my gentle stepfather Murray Thorner v Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe TABLE OF CONTENTS How can this document be read? ............................................................................................... 1 What is Digital Poetry?................................................................................................................ 1 Preface ........................................................................................................................................ 2 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 4 1.1 What is this thesis about .................................................................................................. 5 1.1.1 Precedents ................................................................................................................ 6 1.1.2 Strategies .................................................................................................................. 7 1.2 What is Software-Studies? ............................................................................................... 9 1.2.1 Practice-Led Software-Studies .................................................................................. 9 1.3 The Turn toward Living Language .................................................................................. 10 1.3.1 What I Propose ....................................................................................................... 16 1.3.2 Machinic Language is Living Language ................................................................... 18 1.3.3 Between Boole and Disney ..................................................................................... 20 1.3.4 Methodological Notes............................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER 2: MALLEABLE TYPE: A HISTORY ....................................................................... 25 2.1 Visual Language .............................................................................................................. 25 2.1.1 Pubs, Psychedelia and Illuminated Manuscripts .................................................... 26 2.1.2 Visual Language in Poetry ....................................................................................... 28 2.2 Early History: Malleable/Sculptural Text ....................................................................... 29 2.2.1 Pre-Historic Malleable Type:Clay ............................................................................ 29 2.2.2 Cabbalists & Alchemists .......................................................................................... 30 vi Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe 2.2.3 Duchamp’s Anemic Cinema .................................................................................... 31 2.3 Opacity: an inversion of typographic transparency ....................................................... 32 2.3.1 Mary Ellen Solt : sensual concrete .......................................................................... 32 2.3.2 J. A. Miller’s Dimensional Typography .................................................................... 35 2.4 Digital Malleable Precursors .......................................................................................... 37 2.4.1.1 Eduardo Kac: Holo and Bio Poetry ................................................................................. 39 2.4.2 Poet-Painter Hybrids ............................................................................................... 41 2.4.2.1 Peter Ciccariello : A painter-poet .................................................................................. 41 2.4.3 Programmer Poets .................................................................................................. 42 2.4.3.1 Knuth Said ............................................................................................................................... 43 2.4.3.2 Peter Cho : from TypoTypo to Takeluma ................................................................... 43 2.4.3.3 Ben Fry’s Tendril .................................................................................................................. 45 2.4.3.4 Karsten Schmidt: programmer of dimensional typography .............................. 47 2.4.4 Contemporary Practitioners: Motion Graphics & Mammalian Malleability .......... 50 2.4.4.1 Graffiti and Hacktivist Typography: Eyewriter ....................................................... 51 2.4.4.2 Ads as Tech Ops : attack of the Filler poems............................................................. 52 2.4.4.3 A Hypothetical Letter-Object: