Title From Visual Poetry to Digital Art: Image-Sound-Text, Convergent Media, and the development of New Media Languages. Type Thesis URL http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/2280/ Date 2003 Citation Mencia, Maria (2003) From Visual Poetry to Digital Art: Image-Sound- Text, Convergent Media, and the development of New Media Languages. PhD thesis, University of the Arts London. Creators Mencia, Maria
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Unless otherwise stated, copyright owned by the author From Visual Poetry to Digital Art: Image-Sound-Text Convergent Media
and the development
of New Media Languages
Maria Mencia Ph.D. November 2003
ChelseaCollege of Art and Design University of the Arts London During the period of registeredstudy in which the researchwas carried out, the researcherhad not been registeredfor any other academicaward or qualification. None of the material containedherein has been submittedfor a comparable award or qualification other than that for which it is now submitted.
I have publishedsome papers vaguely related to the thesis.
Signed
Date: 28/10/03
0 Abstract
This researcharises from my practice as a professionalartist and my concern with issuesof languageand communication,particularly, the investigation of ways that arouseemotion and rational thought at once through language. Visual Poetry is a form of expression,which provokes both, and I saw the potential to expandits underlining principles further with the emergenceof new technologies. With the digital medium, the main elementsof visual and sound poetry: image, sound and text, can now be incorporated into the samepiece of work.
The aim of this study is to explore new digital communicativesystems that interweavevisual, oral and semanticelements of language,to produce new media languageswhere the pre-linguistic and linguistic maintain their symbiotic identities. This study examinestheoretical and artistic concernsemerging from the areain-between, which is createdby interlacing image, sound and text in the sameartwork.
It addressesthe following seriesof questions:
How to transfer the main conceptsfrom Visual Poetry to Digital Art?
How does computer technology transform image, sound and text to create new media languages?
What is the role of the author, reader,writer, producer in these new interactive textualities of image, sound and text? How has this affected the new conventionsof reading, looking, producing, using and thinking?
What does the digital add to the interactivelexts of Visual Poetry? What new meaningsand processesof thinking, understandingand interpretation are appearing?
0 In which way do new technologiesenhance the collaborative nature of practice?
This investigationbrings knowledge from other disciplinesinto the art field and it exploresdifferent sernioticmodels such as the linguistic the visual and the aural. It blurs the barriers betweenthe visual and the linguistic: between different art forms such as fine art, visual poetry and sound art/poetry in a new digital and technological arena. It questionsthe conventionsapplied to these critical areaswith the aid of the new tools and critical conceptsavailable through digital technology.
This study challengesthe viewer/listener/userwith an interface of signsfrom different languagesand serniotic systems:the visual (still and moving images), the audible and the linguistic, to participate and explore the multiple possibilities within a work.
This investigation seeksto contribute to a new body of knowledge in the developmentof the areasof Visual Poetry, Digital Art and the new genre of Electronic Poetry, by creating new, innovative, digital artworks for which, as a new form of expression,critical and analyticalconventions are still in the process of development. Acknowledgments
This researchwas possiblethanks to the support offered from the ABRB (Arts and HumanitiesResearch Board).
Specialthanks go to my supervisoryteam ProfessorToshio Watanabe,Michael Newman and Professor Simon Biggs, for their critical support, insight and encouragementduring my study.
I would like to presenta very specialword of gratitude to Martin Ford for his invaluabletechnical support and wonderful shareof knowledge. Thanks to John Tchalenckofor asking me to collaboratewith him on his Drawing and Cognition researchwhich lead to Vocaleyesand Kyle Fraserfrom The London Institute for helping with the programmingfor this project. Also thanks to every body who participated in my projects to createthe soundsof the different languagesand birds. Speciallyall the Chineseartists, poets and their singer friends.
I am extremelygrateful to the Chelsea-CamberwellProject-The Integration of Computerswithin Fine Art Practice- speciallyto ProfessorPaul Coldwell and fellow studentBarbara Rauch for having included me in the project. Thanks to staff at ChelseaCollege or Art & Design particularly at the researchoffice, Becky Parker, previous Head of College Collin Cina and the librarians. From the London Institute I would also like to thank SMART]ab and Lizbeth Goodmanfor inviting me to take part in their researchdiscussion groups. Also thanks to my colleaguesMichael Asbury, Milton Machado, Elena Cologni, Clemencia Echeverri, Georgina Starr and ProfessorTheo Van Leeuwen.
I am also very grateful to my very good friend Anne Crokery for her complete dedication to proof read this study and the excellent set of proof readersthat sharedthis task: Joe Flintharn and very good friends Ian Busby, Sally Bild, and Mark Crick for revising someof my writing and Chris Bloor and Peter Morse for his added commentsand suggestionsand to my good friend Cynthia Wild for her encouragementand belief.
2 Abstract
Acknowledgments 2
Table of contents 3
Contents
Chapter 15
1.0 Introduction: Methodology 5
1.0.1 The conveyanceof Theory and Practice 8 1.0.2 Technologicalmethod 10
Chapter 2 13
2.0 Historical, Artistic, Theoretical Context 13
2.1 Visuality and language 15 2.2 Orality and language 24 2.3 The in-between Image-Sound-Text 30 2.4 New Technologies: Moving from the Page, the Analogue, 33
the Performative Voice into the Digital
Chapter 3 36 3.0 In-between the Visual, the Semantic and the Phonetic: 36 Another Kind ofLanguage 3.1 Non-linear, multi-linear, multi-layered structures 39 and the role of the reader 3.2 Intertextual Relations and Meaning 43 3.3 Interactivity and the Role of the User 48 3.4 Presentationof Work in relation to Interactivity and 50 Context
Chapter 4 53
4.0 Writing and the Production of New Textualities 53 4.1 Different writing technologies:handwriting, electronic 53 writing, generativewriting/art
3 4.2 Speeehef Wf:ifing? Writing of Speeeh? 58 or Writing and Speechin Electronic Writing? 4.3 GenerativeArt 64 4.3.1 Processor Final Product? 70
Chapter 5 73 5.0 From t he Page to Screen to Projections 73 5.1 Visuality of language:from the material letter to 75 the virtual letter and kinetic typography 5.2 Context and versatile feature of digital works 78 5.3 Social poetics/publictextualities in virtual 80 and physical spaces. 5.3.1 Billboards 80 5.3.2 Installations 83 5.3.3 Performance 85
5.3.4 Machine Made Poemsor Programming 86 Code Poetry
5.3.5 Net basedwork 97
Chapter 6 101 6.0 Conclusion 101
Bibliography 106
List of figures 120 Figures 122
Appendices Appendix I Conferences 138 Appendix 2 Exhibitions 141 Appendix 3 CD-ROM 143 Exhibition requirements
4 Chapter I
1.0 Introduction: Methodology
New experiencesemerge in the digital world. New genresappear as different media and disciplinesmix in the electronic arena. We are faced with new ways of looking, reading and writing and therefore, of interpretation and understanding. But where are thesenew forms coming from? How are they evolving? This is where my researchbegan. Recognisingelements in the digital medium,which were used in Visual/SoundPoetics, as well as in the Visual Arts, Sound Art and Performance,awoke my curiosity to find out more about the history and conceptualideas behind theseforms; particularly the arts engagedin the exploration of visuality, orality and the semantic/"nonsemantic"' meaningof language.
When I startedthis investigation the key elementthat interestedme, was to examinethe area of the in-hetweenthe visual, the phonetic and the semanticarea of languageand to stretch its possibilitiesusing the digital medium. Kristeva in Revohition in Poetic Language (1984) discusseshow avant-gardepoetry was able to incorporate both the visual and the linguistic systemsof representations. She maintainsthat there is an areawhere the sendotic and the syniholic (Kristeva's terms for the pre-linguistic and the linguistic) mix in a form of symbiosisin which they still keep their own identity. The fascinationwith this three-dimensionalstate of consciousness,where the elementsof the linguistic in an aural and visual form escapedtheir linguistic associationand yet remained linguistic, prompted me to examinethis areafurther by putting forward the following researchquestion: How can communicativesystems be developedwith the convergenceof 'Image-Text, Semantic-Text,and Phonetic-Text, using new technologies?
1 With "non semantic" meaning I refer to other meanings found in language such as its visual meanings.
5 The title of this researchFi-om Visual Poetty to Digital At-1:Iniage-Sound-Text, convergentniedia and the developmentof new media languages,indicates a lineage,a movement,a shifting from somethinginto somethingelse. Transferringthe main conceptsof Visual Poetry into the Digital Medium is therefore the action that moves and definesthis investigation.
To addressthe questionsthat are inherent in Visual Poetry, and transfer them into digital work, I have used a transdisciplinaryapproach -I use the term transdisciplinaryinstead of interdisciplinarybecause, as Helga Nowotny 2 describesin her essayThe Potential of Dwisdisciplinal-ity, transdisciplinaryis about 'transgressingboundaries'- a concept which is highly influential in the developmentof this study. She also points out how the semanticimplication of the prefix "trans" is related to another word, transgressiveness.She writes: 'Knowledge is transgressiveand transdisciplinarydoes not respectinstitutional boundaries'. (Nowotny, 2003 p. 1). In the processof following my practice- basedresearch it has been imperative to recognisethe interconnectednessof a seriesof interdisciplinary discourseswhich comprisethe areasof art, visual poetics and digital technologieswithin linguistic, psychoanalytical,philosophical and technologicalframeworks. ,
I have brought these areasof knowledge together by revising the valuable historical, artistic and theoretical contexts, which form the basisof this study. I presenta chronological historical study of those artists and movements preoccupiedwith notions of languagein art and poetry. This analysisserves to delineatethe idea of the preposition "from" used in my title - From Visual Poetly to Digital Art -and the discoursesengendered through history. Paralleltothese questionsaround technologiesand the role of Digital media, emergentaesthetics of experienceand interpretation are addressed.I identified practitioners that characteriseda range of issuesaround visuality, orality and text from late nineteenth-centuryartists and poets to current digital practitioners. I generateda transforming evolving historical discourseby establishinga dialogue betweenthe intellectual aspectsof theseartists' work, my work and the exploration,
Nowotny,
6 experimentationand evolution of these ideaswith the use of technology. With this interlacedanalysis, the critical and contextual framework developsfrom the ideas and conceptsencountered in producing the practice-basedwork, and vice- versa. Work and literature have reverberatedagainst each other in this emerging area of practice leading to a written thesiswhich hasbeen theoretically driven by the issuesthat have emergedfrom my practice. This practice-basedwork applies theory thi-oughpractice, as opposedto -as is more conventionalin the arts - theoryfi-om practice.
In this study I am using visual, linguistic, oral and technological codesto discuss and develop theoretical ideas. I am using practice-basedwork as theory. The interdisciplinary approachtaken in this kind of study of theory through practice could give the impressionof having many theoretical gaps simply becauseof the diversity of disciplinesit involves but in fact, this wide-reachingexploration is what formulates the research:the in-betweenin thesemany areasof knowledge. The study of theory and practice as a doctoral investigation in the areasof art and designhas only been developedin recent years.
In my particular investigationI considerit important to have this combination of approachesas is alreadythe casewith Visual Poetry, the discoursethat has emergedis a theoretical one, as opposedto poetry or art that dealswith issues outside the formal characteristicsof the poem. Visual Poetry is interestedin the materiality of its componentelements, the relationshipbetween them and the multiple readingsthat this generates. With my practice basedwork I equally discussissues of art, languageand technology - which are the forming elements interpretations. of the work - and their interrelationshipto create multiple I then go on to introduce my next point, which explainsthe way that I use theory and practice together in the developmentof this investigation.
Theory as subsequentto practice.
7 1.0.1 The conveyanceof Theory and Practice
With the main objective being to investigatecommunicative systems by exploring the visual, semanticand aural characteristicsof text and incorporating Kristeva's ideas of the 'semiotic' and the 'symbolic', I produce interactive multimedia pieces;web and video installations. SimultaneouslyI write about my practice-basedresearch placing it in a historical/artistic/theoreticaland technological context informed by frameworks of deconstruction,psychoanalysis and linguistics.
I review the historical movementsinterested in the interconnectionof the verbal and the visual and this interchangeof signs. In art and poetry the meaningof the visuality of languageand linguistic soundshas been carefully explored; starting with the French symbolist poet StephaneMallarm6 (1842-98); Apollinaire's calfig7,ams (1912); Italian Futurist and Dadaist Movements; continuing with ConcretePoetry from the 1950's and 1960's; the work of some Conceptual artists and on to the current digital medium. Revisiting these contexts provokes the formulation of questionsto be explored through the production of the practice-basedwork. As well as the historical and artistic contexts, there are also critical theories, which have explored the analysisof the verbal and visual systemsof representationand their hierarchicalrelationship; these theories, including Derrida's idea of writing, Ong's study of orality, not to forget the earlier theories of Plato and Aristotle, serve as the basisfor my theoretical analysis. I use Derrida's notion of grammatologyto questionthe concept of the graphic elementwith a statusof its own, its liberation from the spoken word, to form what he denominatesas 'writing'. I use this theory as a comparative analysisof the era of 'logocentrism' (writing as the representationof spoken language)and the new era of textualities, producedby the interweaving of image, sound and text; one where writing ceasesto be the representationof spoken languageand is no longer phonetic (representativeof the spoken sounds) nor consequentlylinear. Non-linearity is not a new conceptthat has appeared with new technologies;Visual Poetry already explored thesekinds of structures but the computer allows further experimentation. Thus, in the articulation of my
8 practice-basedresearch, I try to generatestructures incorporating the notions of multi- layering and multi-linearity as well as interrelationships(interface, interweaving, inter-serniotic,interdisciplinary, inter-textuality and interaction), which generatequestions about the role of the reader/viewer,otherwise seenas the-writer-producer-userof images/sounds/texts.
Parallel theoretical concernsto these concepts,which are also the theoretical basisof this analysisare: Barthes' notions of the readerly (lisible) and the writerly (scriptable)texts; Derrida's de-centrednarratives; Landow's hypertext structures;Jay David Bolter's e-narratives;and as in the practice of Masaki 4 Fujihata, ideas interactivity on and experiencesof art .
Having investigatedthe visuality of languageand the structures createdby it, I explore Speech-Soundsvia Roman Jakobson'sideas on phoneticsand the emotive, expressivefunction of the phonemeand how this notion was manifested in practice-basedresearch, (See: Jakobson,1978 p. 69) always keeping in mind image, sound and tekt composition and the areaof communicationfound in the in-between. I discussin Chapter 4 the role of sound in relationshipto the new textualities of image, sound and text, vis i vis Walter J. Ong's assertionabout the resurfacingof a "secondorality" with the appearancesof new media languagesin the Internet and in conjunction with my projects: Vocaleyes,Audible Wrifing Experiments and Generating Electronic Chirography.
Arguments on this subjectare also presentedby theoreticiansof the electronic medium such as Mark Poster (1990), who questionsDerrida's interpretation of 'writing' and deconstructionas a critical theory for electronic writing, Jay David Bolter (1991) on writing technologies:visual, aural, textual, the written space, the new sign, the new reader-writer relationshipetc and Richard Lanham's (1994) new rhetoric where literature and art interweaveproducing an oscillation between looking "through" and looking "at". They all argue for a new culture of writing or 'textuality' which encompassessound, image and text and to which I add another property of language,its generativecharacter. I argue that this new
9 textuality encompassesboth the serniotic and the symbolic; it is the languageof the in-between,where the pre-linguistic, almost as an instinctual force5, functions together with the linguistic.
1.0.2 Technological method
Leaming technological skills, encounteringdifficulties and finding solutions to thesedifficulties to produce the practical work is part of the processand evolution of the work and thus of the investigation. I explore programming languagessuch as lingo andjava script and other new technologiesto construct communicativeprocesses, which are formed by different serniotic systemsand which involved the user in the production of meaning. This implies employing different multimedia programmes,scanning of images,videoing, photographing, sound recording and experimentingwith typography and text. All these different formats were later on savedin the appropriateformat for the application used.
Attending Digital Art Conferencesand Festivalsand presentingwork and papers in England and abroad is essentialto keep in touch with the latest technological 6 achievementsand groups working in similar areasof study.
In concert with the methodologiesused in the theoretical, artistic practice and technological arenas,the feedbackreceived through exhibiting the work and the informal discussionswith viewers is also of great value in the developmentof the research. This participation and dialogue createdthrough exhibitions and presentationsof the work, at galleries,conferences and seminarsgenerated, critical enquiry and put on trial certain formative elementsof the work. This I consideredan important factor, as I expectedthe viewers/users-through the in experienceof the work - to engage the thinking processesbehind it as'well as in the understandingof theseinterfaces of various semiotic systemsand if possibleto sharetheir experiencesto create a full communicativecircle. I never
4 These ideas have formulated my practice-basedwork and I will return to them in more dctail in due course. Instinctual force in Kristeva's terms would be the biological drives, impulses and energiesof the serniotic. 6 SeeAppendix I- Conferences.
10 consideredquestionnaires useful for the findings of thesepresentations because I didn't want to influenceor lead the participantsin a particular way much preferring them to explore the work and arrive at their own interpretationsand conclusions. I evaluatehow successfullythese pieces worked by observing people's reactionsusing my artistic judgement and an intuitive approach anchoredin artistic knowledge. Nonetheless,with this work there is no attempt to obtain any specific result. Its value lies not only in the reaction it elicits in exhibitions but also in the open interpretationsand readingsof the work. I documentedmany of the eventsthrough video, photographs,computer screen shots, digital prints and web pages. This servedas a method to aid observation of people'sinteraction and reaction to the work. My intention more than producing a final piece of work, is to explore the investigativeprocess of developingone piece into another by recycling its visual, aural and textual elements.
Another factor I take into considerationin this investigation is the motile characterintroduced into the work through exhibiting the samepiece in different ways to explore the creation of multiple meaningsand the notion of an open work, in the mannerof ECO,7 where he frees the sign in relation to the "real". The structuralist notion of signifier and signified changesto the notion he terms "encyclopedia",understanding this to be an aggregationof units of meaning, which can create a variety of connectionsamidst themselves. Eco insisted on the elementof multiplicity, plurality, and the emphasison the role of the reader, interpretation and the responsebetween reader and text. This notion of the open work and multiple readingsand interpretations,of discontinuity, absenceof linearity, the plurality of discourseand generationof new arguments,is
' SeeEco U. The Open Work (1989) He describestwo kinds of openness: Firstly lie writes: 'the opennessof a work of art is the very condition of aesthetic pleasure'even though its author may have aimed at an univocal, unambiguouscommunication'. (Eco, 1989 p. 39). The work is always going to be modified by the viewers, who will still bring their own existential inclinations and prejudices. In opposition to a road traffic sign which can only be viewed in one sense,when it is viewed in a more imaginative way it becomesa completely different sign. Secondly, lie writes: 'There is the open work with intentional purposes,meaning not only based on the nature of the aestheticobject and on its composition but on the combination of the elements that we find in the artwork. The variety of meaningsthat can be drawn from every element.' (Eco, 1989 p. 39).
II fundamentalto the methodologiesand intellectual strategiesthat drive my researchand artistic practice.
To conclude,in my practice-basedresearch I use a transdisciplinaryapproach to bring together a seriesof interdisciplinary discourses. Theory and practice go hand in hand to generatean evolving historical, artistic, theoretical and technologicaldialogue and a seriesof interactive digital works. Exhibiting and presentingboth the theoretical ideas and the artwork have been crucial for the developmentof this study and most importantly it has openeddoors for other future artistic and researchprojects.
12 Chapter 2
2.0 Introduction to Investigation: Historical, Artistic, Theoretical Context
The investigativeaspects of my work deal with three areasof textual exploration: 1mage,Sound Text. and I explore - with the use of new technologies- the meaningsgenerated from the intertextual relationshipof the latter three and the area of the in-betweenthese three elementsof linguistic and pre-linguistic characteristics. Thesenotions have been previously investigatedin Visual/Sound Poetry, Fine/SoundArt and additionally currently in hypertext, e-narratives,e- poetries, net interactive projects, web art and digital art. So, what do we understandby thesedifferent terms and how do thesenotions of (inter) textuality fit into them? My intention in this chapteris to offer some answersto these queriesthrough the meansof history, by presentingthe literary and artistic genresengaged in the interweaving of the visual, oral and textual. I will also briefly outline how the emergenceof new digital technologiesand the merging of thesearts have createda new genre, which can be examinedequally from an artistic, literary and technological perspective. By this meansI hope to clarify the differentiating aspectsof theseterms, for it is not my intention to restrict them to a specific definition. I think this is a method, which is more compatible with my approachas what I wish to achieveis the creation of new avenuesof intellectual exploration through the fusion of thesegenres with the use of the new technological medium. Therefore, as Peter Lunenfeld writes in YheDigital Dialectic (1999), 1 am not so much interestedin fixing their meaningsas in broadeningtheir boundaries.
Historically there have been many movementsinterested in the interconnection of the verbal and the visual in art and poetry. Artists would try to paint words, making them into shapesand poets would try to apply painting codesto poems. There are many writers, artists and theoreticianswho have highlighted the fact that this connectionhas always existed. JohannaDrucker (1998, p. I 10) believes the tradition of Visual Poetry commencedas long ago as the beginning of writing
13 itself According to Richard Lanham in The Electronic Woi-d(1994), the interaction of word and image goes back at least to the Greek poet, Simiasfrom the 4'11century BC. Willard Bohn in TheA estheticsof Visual Poetty defines Visual Poetry as 'poetry meantto be seen' (Bohn, 1986 p.2). We are faced with a very open definition, which can cover many categoriesof experimentationwithin the visual and literary genres. A contemporaryartist, writer, theoretician: Eduardo Kac in his essayon Holopoeny, Hyperlext, Hypeipoelly 8 statesthat LanguageArt and Visual Poetry are two genreswhich explore the fusion of word and image,this definition again appliesto the concernsof various artists' movementsas well as literary ones. Thus, writing has always beenvisual either as an artistic or literary form, but where doesthe sound of languagefit into it? In this chapter I review examplesfrom the tradition of art and languagemovements. As this is a vast area,I focus on those concernedmainly with image, sound and text and the areain-between these elements. I start with two revelational. examples,which openedmy eyesto thesekinds of textualities and thought. The French symbolist poet StephaneMallarm6 (1842-98) and his poem Un Coup de D9s (1897)9 (A Throw of the Dice, Fig. 1), where the concreteversus the semantic-understanding by concretethe materiality of the word, its visual presenceand meaning-and Guillaume Apollinaire's calligramslo(1912). 1 relate this to similar developmentsin the 2CO1Century, which were occurring internationally and madeVisual Poetry into a worldwide movement. I also touch upon somemovements and particular artists in the visual arts, whose concern was to break this barrier betweenthe visual and the linguistic, presentingthe viewer with a new vision and understandingof the world. Finally, I establishthe theoretical ground, which underlinesmy main aim in defining the in-between image-sound-textcommunicative area and the reasonsto explore this area further using digital technology.
8 He considers that his work in holography can be understoodin the context of language, art and visual poetry. 9Anthony Harley writes that the poem appearedin the Parisian review Cosmopolis in May 1897. (Harley A. ed. 1965 p.21 1) Print of the poem in pp 214-233. Also in Florence P. (1986 pp 89- 109) 10Calligramme is a visual image createdby letters as concreteelements, which engagesnot only the eyebut also the mind by simultaneously performing the act of looking and reading, thus creating the impression of double consciousness.(See: Apollinairc G. 1980)
14 2.1 Visuality and Language
Mallarm6'spoem Un Coip de D9s (1897) is a challengeto the notion of coherenceand rationality. The syntax appearsto be correct, but the words appearas though they had been chosenrandomly and placed next to eachother on the page. Whole passagesdo not make sensebecause of the fragmentation of the poem. Mallarm6 challengesthe valueswe bring to understandingtexts, our habits of thought. He demandsfrom the reader different an entirely different techniqueof reading; scanningthe poem in searchof meaning,in both horizontal and vertical readings. The text moves acrossthe page making a single page of a double page and thus changingthe dynamicsof both the reading and the conception of the page as a space. It is as if the reader is fitting together different piecesof a jigsaw puzzle. The readerbecomes an observer,attempting to find in the spatial representationof the poem, different typographical charactersspread over the pages,invited to read inventively at many levels simultaneously. The visual signification of languageis put into question. The poem forces the reader to take a position, to be actively involved in the reading. It createsa kind of anxiety by demandingparticipation in making meaningand coherenceclear. Nevertheless,these conventional constraints experienced in reading are reduced. So, the reader loseshis/her inhibitions and is allowed to be driven by feeling rather than by a rational impulse to find meaning. The poem createsin the reader a senseof restraint and freedom. We start readingwith control, trying to find a direction, to track the movementof the poem until resistanceis overcome and we lose control. This is the point at which we find the beauty and pleasureof the poem". The meaningis createdby these different systemsoverlapping and transversingeach other. The languagewill suffer a fragmentation of its linearity but its visual impact is enhanced.Mallarm6 was thus destroying the linearity of thought conventionallycreated by syntax. He does not use punctuation, which allows more fluidity, creating a senseboth of insecurity and freedom. I seethis absenceof semanticmeaning more as a field: a 'constellation' that Mallarm6 presentsto us, containedwithin the visual structure of the poem, offering a
11The NvayI began my investigations about Mallarind and Un Coup de D& was by giving the poem to a French speakerto read, although she was aware of Mallarrad's style her reactions when
15 multitude of possibilitiesof meaning,and an opportunity to question,to choose. The negation of the rational producesan affirmation of the irrational. It creates in me a senseof freedom and creation. One of the pleasuresof the poem is that we are presentedwith a text, which permits the multiple perspectiveswe can also find in a painting. Its richnessis partly due to the tension betweenthe word and language,the word as signifier and languageas syntax. There is a struggle, we understandthe words in isolation, but in context the text appearsat first glance incomprehensible.Although Mallarm6 and the futurists preparedthe way for a kind of poetry wherein is to be found a form of texture createdby linguistic elementsusing phrases,words and individual letters, it was Apollinaire who was the first to apply this techniqueconsistently. The languagein some of his poems such as the conversationpoems, though fragmented,is like this because,in fact, he is adheringfaithfully to spokenlanguage, so presentingthe readerwith the broken or disconnectedconversations sustained in public spaces,as for instance in Monday on Christine Sir. The reader must construct the image of a cafe scene by assemblingthe different fragmentsof conversation. Thesepoems become like piecesof a jigsaw, like objects to be assembledcohesively. Apollinaire thus takes a structure similar to that of Cubism and presentsthe different anglesjust as we might find in a conversation.In this way, he incorporatesinto the idea of poetic language,the use of popular language. He believedthat poetry, which expressesideas about the contemporaryworld, must use languagefrom every day contemporarylife. He said:
You read handbills cataloguesadvertisements that sing out loud and clear There is where poetry is this morning and for prose There are the newspapers(Apollinaire, 1980 p. 5)
Progressingfrom the fragmentedconversation poems, he developedthe calligrams,which he termed 'visual lyricism'. Visual imagesare createdby letters as concrete elements. They exploit the visual properties of written languageand the semanticpossibilities of visual form, Apollinaire being determinedto engagethe eye as well as the mind. His calligramsreproduced a reading the poemvvcrevery close to the above observationsand this is what openedmy eyesto what Mallarrn6 was attempting to do.
16 multiplicity of patternsrepresenting the multi-layered ambiguity of the world and of communication. In them we seehis interest in the destruction of the hierarchy of language. As Foucault describesin his book Ais is not apipe:
The calligrammeaspires playfully to effacethe oldest oppositions of our alphabeticalcivilization: to show and to name;to shapeand to say; to reproduceand to articulate; to imitate and to signify; to look and to read. (Foucault, 1983 p. 21)
Writing is not a representationof the spokenlanguage, it has its own statusas an image; without losing its semanticorigins, there is a simultaneousact of looking and reading. Apollinaire was interestedin this kind of legibility and visibility in the calligram, provoking the viewer/readerto synthesizeand reassemblethe fragmentshe presentsin his poems. He saw visual or spatial poetry as an important new development.
G. Arbouin describedthis typographical revolution as inevitable 'becauseit is necessarythat our intelligencebecome accustomed to understandingsynthetico- 12 ideographicallyinstead of analytico-discursively.' (Apollinaire, 1980 p. 10) He thought that for the viewer/readerto haveto understandthrough a visual as well as a verbal experiencereinforced the more modem sensoryawareness. The reader had to grasp the interrelationshipsthat are going on in the page as a whole. Therefore, what kind of sign do we find in the calligram? Calligrams cannot be labelled as part of one and only one system. They are written poems and yet they are highly influencedby a visual tradition. Becausehe was influencedby painting, Apollinaire wanted to publish these poemsunder the title I, too, am apaintei-. He cameclose to painting through his attempt to arrive directly at the image. This gave to poetry the ability to exist autonomouslyin spaceand the linguistic sign acquireda new signified by being part of a visual signifier. It createda new visual/ linguistic sign; a 'calligrammatological,sign used to describea poetry, which intendedto use words much as a painter would use representationalforms. This simultaneouslyvisual and textual semiotic
12Some people think G. Arbouinwas a pseudonymof Apollinaire.(G. might stand for Guillaume.I haveonly seen it as'G'in all references).He wrote this sentencein anarticle on Lettre-Oceanpublished in LesSoires de Paris in July-August1914.
17 behaviour leadsme to interrogate the calligram as a signifier. How do we interpret a calligram?If we treat it as an image,Bohn says:
As Roland Barthes and Umberto Eco have demonstratedin detail to cite only two examples;an image, indeed any image, contains a variety of messages.Except in the realm of photography there is no such thing as a pure signifier, that is, a signifier that signifies only itself From this fact one deducesthe necessityof studying Apollinaire's visual imagery from every conceivableangle. Symbol, metaphor,metonymy, objective imagery- these and other visual modesstructure the reader's interpretation of the text. (Bohn, 1986 p. 58)
This linguistic/visual plurality of the calligramsand the oscillation of looking and reading are key elementsin their interpretative and significative process. Apollinaire although associatedwith Cubism, allowed the innovative typographical quality of the calligramsto penetrateinto avant-gardecircles. Futurists welcomed it and fed it into Futurists' forms. The Italian Futurist Marinetti (1876-1944) developeda techniquein poetry calledPai-old in Libet-la (Words in Freedom)where he liberated the word from the restrictions of language.He tried to amalgamateall the arts in one by creatingIl Tean-odi Vaileta, where cinema,then the new technologicalmedium, would be the centre point. He was also very interestedin manipulatingsound with technologiesand in the 1930's, made somerecordings for radio that later on would be recognised as'musique concrete'. In Russiathe Futurist Khlebnikov (1910) analysedwords with the intention of creating a universal language,as he thought rational languageshad separatedpeople. He called it 'Beyondsenselanguage'. He believedwords signified more than their everydaymeaning and possesseda kind of 'third entity'. He attributed meaningsto individual letters according to the words they formed, this analysisassigned a stablemeaning to some of the letters, whilst others presentedmerely a differentiating value betweenwords. He creatednew words by word root associationsand metaphors. He thought the sound of letters concealedimages and createda languagecalled Zaum, by reducing words to pure sound. He began collaboratingwith Kruchennyk] adding extra words onto the side of the page of Kruchennykl's writings. Thus, what is the interest, which underliesall this activity? Why do these artists engagein the deconstructionof language,the breaking of syntaxesand the seekingof ways to
18 make the viewer/readera fuller participant? Rational thought is questionedby freeing languagefrom its syntactic and grammaticalconstrictions thereby transferring it to a more abstract area of thought. But, does this abstractionof the visuality and sound of languageinvoke an emotional expression? The quest to find the answersto thesequestions continues. SuzanneDelehanty in the book Sound by.Arlists (1990) emphasisesthe interest shown by painters and poets after the First World War in the visuality and the orality of letters and their value as visual imagesand aural signs, such that poetry was filled with imagesand the visual arts with words. She states:
The word alone as a pure abstraction,like a musical note, gave birth not only to Kandinsky'spoetry and to the mystical incarnationsof Hugo Ball but also to families of secretlanguages, in which the word lost its original meaningand assumedmutable interpretationsin the fictive realm of artistic creation. (Delehanty, 1§90 p. 28)
Hence, artists were using a wide range of techniquesto createthis variety of languages.Whether in their abstraction,in secretiveor playful representationsor interpretations,most of them originated in languageitself. the syntax, structure, grammar, as well as idiosyncrasies,verisimilitudes and puns found in language. Among thesegroups we find Dada and Surrealistartists such as Dadaist Hugo Ball (1886-1926), who maintainedto have invented poetry without words or sound poems;13 de Stijl founded by Theo Van Doesburg in 1917 in Holland, who brought the linguistic to the realm of music; and Surrealistpainters such as Mir6 in the 1920's and 30's and Magritte from 1928-36,who were also experimenting with languageand images,questioning the relationshipbetween reality and representationin a symbolic and visual mannerand producing paintingswhere languagehad the samevisual statusas imagesand vice-versa. Dada artists rejected any conventionalmeans of representationthat would resemblethe world and interconnectedall the arts provoking the viewer to look for new processesof interpretation. They also explored non-referentiallinguistic oral methods. The Surrealistsfollowed theseideas quite closely by denyingwords and pictures of their conventionalmeanings; they were interestedin taking languagefurther to
13He arranged a literary cabaret in Zurich called CabaretVoltaire where among other readings they did performancesusing cacophonic physical and linguistic sounds.
19 the level of the unconscious. Judi Freemanwhen discussingthe word-image phenomenonin Dada and Surrealistmovements in The Dada and Sin-i-ealist Word-Iniage, states:
And suddenlythere was the word. Its appearancein the Visual Arts in the early twentieth century as an integral part of painting or a sculpture, yet an independentelement in its own right, was somethingnew. Certainly viewers had been 'reading' art, and artists had been creating works of art to be read, since antiquity. (Freeman,1989 p. 13)
With these artistic and literary approaches,the double act of reading and viewing becamea single act in the visual arts as well as in Visual Poetry. Meaning in its conventionalsense was obliterated, opening up avenuesfor the creation of other meanings. The separatecategories of viewer and readerwere ruptured as the viewer was invited to read words and the readerto look at words. Therefore, it is evident that the visual and the literary arts have been influencing each other throughout history, writers would becomeartists and artists would question languagethrough their visual work. Similar styleswere happening internationally and the creatorswere completely unawareof it. In Visual Poetry, for instance,in the Switzerlandof the 50's, EugeneGomringer had been producing experimentalpoetry, which he denominatedas 'concrete'. At the sametime the Brazilian group Noigandres constituted by Haroldo de Campos, Augusto de Camposand its originator Decio Pignatari, was also exploring the ideogram as a three-dimensional;ierbi-ioco-visual object. In the literary magazineIiwencao, they beganto call this poetry 'Poesia Concreta'. They met with Gomringer in Ulm in 1955 to find that they were both developing poetry, which emphasisedthe visual aspectsof words. Regardlessof this international dimension,Concrete and in more generalterms Visual Poetry also developed different styles according to the different centreswhere it was originated; movementsemerged among German-speakingpoets, Brazilians, Anglo- Americans and French, but later on also in Italy and Spain,followed by Canada in the 1960's. Thus, how is the concept of the concreterelated to the visual? Drucker in 17iguringthe Word, describesit as:
In its most generic application, the term "Concrete Poetry" is used to designateall mannerof shaped,typographically complex, visually self-
20 consciouspoetic works. The term visual poetry is more generaland thus more aptly usedto describea history which is as old as writing itself' (Drucker, 1998 p. I 10)
This placesConcrete Poetry under the umbrella of Visual Poetry. Concrete Poetry is mainly formed by text while Visual Poetry can have imagesas well as writing. The letters of the alphabetin ConcretePoetry becomedetached from their roles as mere signsin the systemof communication,and take on a visual importance on their own. They assumeindependent status as letters. This is an indication that their significancegoes beyondthe semanticcontent. Words are transformedinto images,sentences are no longer readableand the content becomesseparate from the form, this is when the letter becomesconcrete, visual. With ConcretePoetry, we are aware of a return to the early stagesof writing itself, where it was associatedwith the visual arts in general. The sign is not a sign of anything. It is just there for what it is, a sign disconnectedfrom its conventionalconnotations. Consequently,what happensto meaningwhen the linguistic sign14 is emptied of its semanticmeaning by becomingvisual? With the disappearanceof the signified, the sign ceasesto exist in any other way but in that which we see,the signifier. We try to find a signification in the poemsbut 15 like they belong to the the they are more visual metaphors , realm of sight. However, as I have previously mentioned,the combining of the letters to make words involves a semanticelement that cannot be avoided. It presentsus with multiple systemsof looking and reading; it gives us the choice either to get involved in the interpretative processor not to get involved. Nevertheless, although the first reaction of a reader is to read the words and to seethe connections,the clues, and to try to understand,to uncover some kind of semanticmeaning, his/her role then changesto that of participant, viewer or even interpreter. This responseis elicited by calligramsbecause of their powerful visual impact, similar to certain isomorphic concretepoems where, as in the calligram, the text and the image are fused together in the creation of the poem. This can be clearly appreciatedin the poem no yonfooling gh-1?(Fig. 2) from
14As understoodby Saussure:conceptual and found in spoken language, not visual or material. In other words: the relationship between concept and the "sound pattern: SeeCourse In General Linguistics (1995). 15 By 'visual metaphor' I mean that the visuality of the poems representssomething other. The meaning is in this visuality rather than in the semanticvalue of the poems.
21 Runesby Judith Copithorne. The calligraphic style of the writing is so powerful that viewing/looking is activatedbefore reading. The viewer becomesa participant by decodingthe writing and the image. It is also evident in some deconstructive poems- with techniquesof squashingand compressingletters - categorizedby Bayard as 'effaced' poems,where the visual elementbecomes strongerthan the semanticmeaning of the words that composethe poem, so bringing it closer to the conventionalunderstanding of a visual image. Alongside Visual Poetics, during the period from the 1960'sto the 1990's,there were ConceptualArt groups and individual artists who were interestedin the integration of art and languagein their work and who showed different approachesto language,as for instance,using the word as image;using language and imageto question representation;making conversationalpieces into artwork and PerformanceArt. In Belgium in the 1960'sand 1970'sand following the tradition of Mallarm6 and Magritte, Marcel Broodthaers challengedthe notion of looking, by making languagevisible and object-like and by creating poemsout of visual materials,in contrast to ConcretePoetry, which challengedthe notion of reading. Having been a writer and a filmmaker before becoming an artist, he had acquiredthe ability to use the elementsof his piecesinterchangeably in the sameway that words are used in different contexts, creating in this way a vocabulary of objects,words and images. He was interestedin establishinga relationshipbetween literature and art and he beganby making a piece of work basedon Uh Coup de Dýs (1897). His interpretation of it was as a visual image divorced from its content. Like Mallarm6 he was questioningvisual signification in language. He transformedwords into images,the sentenceswere no longer readableand the content becameseparate from the form. He did this by using someof the techniquesfound in ConcretePoetry, such as erasureand fragmentation. He subtitled Uti Coup de Dýs as image (1969), and madethree different versions. One of thesewas presentedin the form of aluminium plates with the lines of the poemsblanked out and was accompaniedby multiple readingsof the poem performed by the artist on audibletapes. (Fig.3) Another representationwas in translucid paper and the last one was a catalogueon opaque paper. In the sameway as Mallarm6 objectified words, by making them visible, Broodthaers also paid attention to the objecthood of the poem by transferring it onto materialssuch as aluminium.
22 In the sameway as ConcretePoetry, Broodthaers repudiatedthe notion of autonomy. 'I don't believe in film, nor do I believe in any other art. I don't believe in the unique artist or the unique work of art. I believe in the phenomena,and in men who put ideastogether'. (Broodthaers, 1994 p. 33) He made a whole seriesof different projections of his initials so he becomesboth the subject and the verification of the artwork. He underminesthe commercialvalue of the signatureby repeatingit and sometimesit is projected the other way around and upside down. By projecting the images onto canvases it seems as if they had been signed from a distance. Sometimes the image was also projected onto a canvas with an image; creating in this way an image in within an image, a multiplicity of layers and hence, of readings. An example is On est la sig7lallffe? (1971) (Fig. 4). On a cardboard filled with his initials MR, he projected 13 slides of blank film, written and drawn on by hand in felt pen and India ink. This repetition of the signature is a way to undervalue the autonomy granted to it. The English group Art & Language engaged language both as material and subject of their work. American artists, just to name some: Joseph Kosuth explored ideas around the association of the word to things by painting dictionary word definitions and questioning the word-image-object relationship; Bruce Nauman used verbal puns, anagrams, juxtapositions and association of words. His work The at-list helps the woi-ld by i-evealing mystic It-uths (1967), (Fig. 5) has very similar characteristics to a calligram. The words are creating the image of a spiral. The spiral could be understood as a kind of mysterious symbol, perhaps in this case a symbol of truth, but it is made of neon lights; a very mass-media material, consequently, it could be seen to be quite far from truth. Both the visual impact of the piece and the text work together as equal elements in the interpretation of the piece. As with the calligrams the eyes move from text to image and back. Other artists use language as socio-political commentary as for instance Jenny Holzer's Statentents since 1977. She uses different mediums, including billboards, posters, plaques, signboards, benches, etc, taking language out of the page or the art object into the world.
Interweaving the visual and the linguistic has been the focus of many movements throughout history, the previous examples portrayed the thematic interest in the visuality of the letter and what this could add or subtract to the meaningful
23 content; the relationship of image,language and the world in terms of representation;language as content and formal elementetc. The syntactical, grammaticaland semanticlimits of languageare stretchedin ways in which meaningwould be taken further. As I mentioned,some writers/poets invented languagesby breaking the traditional rules and creating new ones and some artists would include words, sentencesand texts in their work to create in the viewer a different awareness.
2.2 Orality and Language
ConcretePoetry has the ability to treat the written and spokenforms equally; the two systemscomplement each other, have a statusof their own, it is a non- hierarchicalrelationship. With this principle a driving force in the creation of poems,Concrete Poetry challengesthe notion of the written word and the spoken word in the hierarchicalladder of language. The assaulton writing as opposedto the spokenword comesfrom the Platonic idea of writing being a resemblanceof reality; the appearanceof wisdom; the belief being that by relying on the written word we would becomemore forgetful. Plato saw the spokenword as fundamental 16 Aristotle 17 that the to to thinking . argued spokenword was closer experiencethan the written word. Here, the written word is consideredto be a simple phonetic representationof what hasbeen spoken,to refer to what 'is'. It is removed from constitutive meaning,speech or logos being closer to the signified and more presentin the experienceof signification: truth is ascribedto logos.
According to Derrida (1987),18 Socrates was also of the opinion that writing was never as complete as spokenlanguage. He thought that genuinediscourse was found in the one who was able to talk or to keep quiet, to defendthemselves in responseto the person being addressed.He criticised writing for being always
16Plato, Phaedrus (c.411404 BC) 17Derrida writes in OfGranunatology: Let us recall the Aristotelian definition; 'Spokenwords are the symbols of mental experienceand written words are the symbols of spoken words'p. 30 (De interpretatione, 1,16a 3)) 18 Deffida in Postcards questions the relationship of Plato and Socrates. Socrates never wrote, we know of his ideas through Plato. More references on the Platonic Dialogue also found in (Bolter, 1991 pp. 110-111)
24 19 the same, for not consideringthe addresseeand also for being dependentof its creator; as for instance,if the reader had a disagreementwith the text, this could only be clarified by the writer. He also comparedwriting to painting, which at the time, was seenas a shadow of reality. This critique of writing in the history 20 of our culture continuedwith Rousseau, who consideredthat writing was the instigator of thought, tyranny and inequality and that thus it provoked the separationof the speakingcommunity. Bergson also concurredwith this critique and proposedthat this was the reasonwhy Socrates,Jesus and other authentic mystics had left no writings. In this way, their ideas could avoid becoming contaminated. A century later, Saussurestill thought of writing as a trap of distorted language He believedthat tyrannical actions; a parasitethat spoken .21 the spokenword alone was the object of linguistic study. For him writing was merely a tool to representthe genuineform of language,a derivative form. In presenttimes Walter J. Ong in Orality andLiferacy (2002) arguesthat 'writing' replacedoralitY22 but that now, with the new textualities of the Internet, a 'second orality' is resurfacing.
Contrary to this view, ConcretePoetry refusesto regard its graphic signs of a Western phonetic languageas 'secondary'. By giving importanceto the image of the words, they becomemore ideographic,encompassing image and concept. Therefore, although the phonetic values are very important in ConcretePoetry, it breakswith the idea of conventionalphonetic writing being representativeof spoken language. In concrete poemsphonetization does not meanlinearization. It has a formative quality: to create images. The individual letter has an intrinsic plastic quality, which allows it to operatepurely as form. The combinationsof letters evoke a range of images. As Paula Claire saysin SoundPoetty (1978) the poet examinesin every detail the sound and visual values of words. An example of a poet using thesephonetics techniques is the CanadianVisual/Sound poet bill bissett; one of his trademarksis phonetic spelling. He has an economical approachto writing, by spelling words as we hear them. Most vowels,
19Hypertcxt and interactive narratives break with this notion. 20'Writing is nothing but the representationof speech:it is bizarre that one gives more care to the determining of the image than to the object'. (Fragment inddit d'un cssai sur Ics languages. Quoted in Derrida, 1976 p. 27) 21 But the tyranny of the written form extendsfurther yet'. (Saussure,1986 p. 3 1)
25 consonants,and diphthongsare spelt in a way, which is similar to how they sound, so they acquire a different graphic representationand therefore an image. He breakstraditional orthography and spelling rules and createshis own rules. To understandhis idiosyncraticiesyou haveto becomea bissett reader. In his poem aint no wot-dsfoi- th taste ofyu (1974) (Fig.6), bill bissett useshis own spelling techniquesto give words a different image. He breakswith the linearization of languageby reversingthe sentencesand placing them on top of each other, creating a visual pattern much stronger than the semanticmeaning of the sentence. It is a text that illustrates Derrida's notion of an interweaving language,where the trace weaveswhat is there and not there.
Derrida's concept of differance13 is closely related to the idea of phonetic writing used in concretepoetry. If we take as an example;its a sailing ipoenid(1971) (Fig.7) from whatfickan themy (1971) bill bissett sometimesomits letters from words, such as V from the 'th', expect 'xpect', or because'bcause'. Other words he commonly usesin many of his poemsare: 'yu' insteadof you and 'cud' insteadof could. As with differance, the difference can only be seenin the writing, the pronunciation is the samewith or without the vowels. His writing is a representationof the spoken language,but by omitting letters and changingthe spelling of the words, they acquire a visual and concrete quality, as the reader becomesaware of their spelling and therefore their meaning. The three elements;semantic, visual and aural unfold themselvesbefore us to engageus simultaneouslyin looking, reading and hearing.
The revival of the graphic elementwith a status of its own, its freedom from the spokenword, is what Derrida describesin Of Gmmmalolqy (1976) as 'writing'.
221 will return to this in Chapter 4 when discussing U'riting or Speechin electronic writing. 23 Now, in point of fact, it happensthat this graphic difference (the 'a' instead of the 'c this marked difference betweentwo apparently vocalic notations, betweenvowels, remains purely graphic: it is itritten or read, but it is not heard. It cannot be heard, and we shall seein what respectsit is also beyond the order of understanding. It is put forward by a silent mark, by a tacit monument, or, one might even say, by a pyramid- keeping in mind not only the capital form of the printed letter but also that passagefrom Hegel's Encyclopedia where he comparesthe body of the sign to an Egyptian pyramid. The 'a' of differance, therefore, is not heard; it remains silent, secret,and discreet, like a tomb'. (Derrida, 1973 p. 132). This concept seemsto put writing over speaking, as the 'a' from differance is seenin writing but it is not perceived in speaking.
26 In his view, with the onset of non-phoneticwriting the era of 'logocentrism' comesto an end. He states:'Non-phonetic writing breaksthe noun apart. It describesrelations and not appellations. The noun and the word, those unities of breath and concept, are effacedwithin pure writing'. (Derrida, 1976 p. 26) The concept of writing in grammatologyhas a double value: ideographicand phonetic, as discussedin ConcretePoetry. The signs seemto shift from the idea of languageinto the idea of doubled-valuedwriting; that is, ideographic and phonetic. Therefore, writing ceasesto be the representationof spokenlanguage, ceasesbeing phonetic (representativeof the spoken sounds)and consequently linear. The broken linear structure of the concretepoem, its variable reading patterns, and the combinationsand relations encounteredwhen engagedin a text of open possibilities, also show similarities to Derrida's idea of pure writing. This kind of textuality becomesa precedentto the hypertextual narrativesand interactive art works.
24 The area of Visual Poetics associatedwith sound is that of Sound Poetry and it 25 moves along the samehistorical trajectory. At the sametime, Sound Art is closely related to Sound Poetry and vice-versa. Again, it is quite difficult to isolate a definition for theseterms as they cover such a huge broad spectrumof possibilities due to their experimentalqualities. Their boundariesare hard to define and they tend perhapsto be categorisedaccording to the place where the performancesor exhibitions are taking place.
In this following section, I presenta description of the work and mention some artists who have used different oral techniquesto expressor create a language outside the linguistic systemof communication. Their concernsand the methods they used to achievethe languageof the in-hetweenthe oral, the textual and the visual, demonstratesfrom where the new media languagesoriginate and show how influential their ideas have been in the technological area of languageand information technology. By bringing the oral forward in their work, they
24For a more general view of Sound Poetry: McCaffery F. & bpNichol cds. (1978) Sound Poetry.,A cataloguefor the eleventhInternational Sound Poetty Festival. They present a brief introduction to the interrelations and connections in the history of sound poetry and the new decadesof visual, concreteand sound/performing poets.
27 question ways of transmitting thesesounds and what their function is in language and communication. To presentthis in chronological order I will firstly refer to the Russianfuturist poet Victor Khlebnikov (1910), mentionedbefore, for the creation of his languageZaum, where he reducedwords to pure sound. Within the Dada movement,Hugo Ball (1886-1926) from the Zurich Dada group, searcheddeeply for a new languageof poetry. He composedsound-poems, or "verseswithout words," using phonetic or nonsensicalwords in his reading performanceswhich the public at that time took to be jokes. AccordingtoDawn Ades in his essayDada and Sm-t-ealismin ConceptsofModei-n Ai-I (Stangos, 1985) Ball wrote in Flucht aus dei-Zut 26:
We have developedthe plasticity of the word to a point which can hardly be surpassed.This result was achievedat the expenseof the logically constructed,rational sentence...People may smile if they want to; languagewill thank us for our zeal, even if there should not be any directly visible results. We have chargedthe word with forces and energieswhich made it possiblefor us to rediscoverthe evangelical concept of the word (logos) as a magical complex of images.(Stangos N. ed. 1985 p. 116)
Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948), another artist from the Dada and Surrealist(Berlin Dada) movement,was well known for the sound collage techniquehe used in the production of soundscapes.Suzanne Delehanty describes how he edited and collaged sound to create his nonsensepoems in the 1920sand early 1930s, experimentingwith phoneticsto develop a non-sensicallanguage, which he called Merz, in order to produce sound poems,where intonation and cadence were used as meansof expression. With theseexperiments he was one of the first artists to handle sound recording as a plastic medium. In the 1940s,the artist-musicianPierre Schaeffer,head of the Radiodiflusion broadcaststudios in Paris, collaged soundsfrom life to createmusic, Kevin Concannon,in his essay Collage and the Art of Sound in Sound by Artists (1990), statesthat the term cmusiqueconcrete' is in fact attributed to Schaeffer. Later on in the 1950s,in the United StatesJohn Cage createdmusique concrete which has beengreatly
25 For those interested in an overview of Sound Art pleaserefer Lander D. & Lexicr M. ccls. Q 990) Sound by Artists. 26 Ball H. Flucht aus der Zut, Munich, 1927, (trasn. In Transition, no.25, Paris, 1936)
28 influencedyounger experimentalmusicians and those artist's movements working with a combinationof media.
A very influential British visual/sound/performancepoet is Bob Cobbing, who, from the 1950sonwards, explored Sound and Visual Poetry and performed a kind of visual- soundscapeconstructed of utterances. He is quoted in A1.1 Without Boundafies 1950-70 where he expressesthe three-dimensionalquality of ConcretePoetry by invoking different sensorymodels, he says:
ConcretePoetry, for me, is a return to an emphasison the physical for substanceof language- the sign madeby the voice, and the symbol that sign madeon paper or in other material and visual form. Leonardo da Vinci askedthe poet to give him somethinghe might seeand touch and not just somethinghe could hear. Sound poetry seemsto meto be achievingthis aim. (Cobbing, 1972 p. 88)
He continuesreferring to the pre-linguistic aspectof this genre and the fact that it goes beyond languageby provoking an area of understandingwhich is more abstractwhich appealsto different sensesand is therefore more synaesthetic:
Partly it is a recapturing of a more primitive form of language,before communicationby expressivesounds became stereotyped into words, and the voice was richer in vibrations, more mightily physical. The tape recorder, by its ability to amplify and superimpose,and to slow down the vibrations, has enabledus to rediscoverthe possibilitiesof the human voice, until it becomesagain somethingwe can almost seeand touch. Poetry has gone beyond the word, beyond the letter, both aurally and visually. Visual poetry can be heard, smelt, has colours, vibrations. Sound poetry dances,tastes, has shape.(Cobbing, 1972 p. 88)
Other artists such as Maurizio Nannucci explored those invisible areasof languagefound in speech. He recorded the hesitant and puzzled sounds produced by people in the street, when askedwhat was the first word that came to their mind. He called this piece 'Pai-ole' (Word), 1976. The British Group Audio Arts (I 980s) recorded 'ums' and 'ahs',used as we speak,to representthe idea of thought outside language. These examplesof reducing words to pure sound, making it abstractand mysterious,individual and full, the incapacityto express,the 'puzzledness'the hesitation to speak,is captivating and could perceivedas a kind of 'pure' communication. There is a comparisonwith
29 Derrida's idea of 'pure writing'; becausein both caseswe are faced with the origin of what speech-soundor image willing afe in their more basic forms. The idea of thought outside languageis intriguing and somethingwhich has been pursuedin many other areas,such as psychoanalysis.Julia Kristeva too, discussesthe area of the in-hetweenwhere the sernioticand the symboli627meet, in Revohition in Poetic Language (1984).
2.3 The in-between Image-Sound-Text
This areain-between can be associatedwith the experienceof what is 'outside' languagebut 'within' language28 In Reilohition in Poetic Language (1984) of . Kristeva illustrates the function and place of the pre-verbal serniotic and how it is revealedin languageand speech. The sernioticis that period prior to the symbolic before the child separateshim/herself from the mother. The subject movesfrom the realm of the semiotic, the chot-a,through the thetic into the realm of the symbolic. Thus the thetic is what allows the subjectto liberate the energiesfrom the chora into the symbolic and here they get trapped into language. However, there is also the area she calls the secondthelic, where these feelings, desires aspectsof the semiotic - impulses,energies, moods, movement, the in-between. According to - are presentwithin the symbolic and vice-versa: Kristeva the memory of the contact with the body, which is establishedin the it. sernioticnever vanishes;the speakingsubject still uses She states:
Becausethe subjectis always both serniotic and symbolic, no signifying systemhe producescan be either "exclusively" semiotic or "exclusively" symbolic, and is insteadnecessarily marked by indebtednessto both. (Kristeva, 1984 p. 24).
For her, this,dialectical condition of the subject in languageis representedin avant-gardeliterature and desirein languageis found in the struggle betweenthe serniotic and the symbolic. I seethis desire in language,this in-between space, as that moment when the semiotic and the symbolic becomeone, whilst
27The pre-linguistic and the linguistic. 28'Within language': still using elementsfrom language. Therefore 'outside within language' is like the area betweenthe semiotic (outside language) and the symbolic (language), that is; the in- hehveen.
30 paradoxicallyretaining their own identities: where the semanticmeaning of the word escapesand yet remains. Visual Poetry incorporatesthis in-betweenarea within its visual and linguistic structuresand it is my aim to explore and question this areain a technologicalframework. I shall come back to this later on.
McCaffery also discussesthis in-betweenarea in relationshipto languagepoetry, in Noi-th ofIntention (1986). He claims that 'languagepoetry', interestedin breaking with languagerules, only considersthe human subjectin its realm of the the biological 29 to be consideredis the in- symbolic and , whereaswhat needs betweenof thesetwo realms,which for him is the'libidinal economy'. This is an areaformed of libidinal intensities,which liberate the energytrapped by linguistic structures.30
McCaffery finds this aspectof excessand libidinal flow in bill bissett's work. It occurs by breaking all the mechanismsthat restrict the flow of non-verbal impulsessuch as; grammaticalrules, reading order and orthography. He describeshow theseenergies force passagethrough language:there is a desire which operatesthroughout and asidefrom language. bill bissett very clearly not only rejects all rules but urges the readerto do the same. In fact in whaffilckan theoty he presentsthe following theoretical rejections: so yu dont need th sentence yu dont need correct spelling yu dont need correct grammar yu dont need th margins yu dont need regulation use of capital nd lower case yu dont need senseor skill yu dont need this 31 what chvyu need
The violation of theserules acts as a semanticattack, which allows languageto flow freely. He usestypography in someof his poemsin such a way as to destroy any kind of representationof languageas a semanticdevice: 'writing is
29The biological is the pre-linguistic or in Kristcva's terms 'The semiotic'. 30The libidinal economy could be compared to the seconddegree thetic in Kristeva; where the subject goesback from the symbolic into the serniotic in a consciousmanner so that aspectsof the serniotic are used within the signifying devicesof language. 31bissct b. (197 1) whatfuckan theory.
31 outside writing'. This could be comparedto the gap betweenthe semiotic and the symbolic but with the addedawareness of the linguistic structures acquired in the seconddeg7-ee thetic; where the recognition of linguistic structures allows one to destroy them. Here is where the desire createdin the symbolic is found, withoUt repressingthe biological drives, impulsesand energiesof the semiotic. Kristeva explainsthat the semiotic is a precondition of the symbolic and can also destroy the symbolic,which gives us an idea of the functioning of the semiotic in artistic practice. If we take as an example'yu cum'(1970) (Fig.8), bissett plays with the typography to such a degreethat he destroysthe semanticaspect of language. As McCaffery points out:
Overprinting (the laying of text over the text to the point of obliterating all legibility) is bissett's method of deterritorializing linguistic codes and placing languagein a state of vertical excess. Overprint destroysthe temporal condition of logic and causality, obliterating articulation and destroying messageby its own super-abundance.(McCaffery, 1986 p. 103)
In someareas the letters are so overtyped that the visual rhythm of the poem becomesalmost tangible: 'writing is outside writing'. This opensa space betweenlegibility and illegibility. This writing supportsthe undecidability of language,and it is in this areathat the creative appears. In McCaffery's view the production of desire is found in the spacebetween the opposition of the legible and the illegible. This opposition presentsan invitation and consequentlya choice. There is a desireto engageand at the sametime a refusal. There is playfulness. The basic impulsesand energiesof the sernioticbecome desires through languageforms, and theseare, at the sametime, destroyedby the same drives of the semiotic. Languageis materialized;the ink, the erasuresare so powerfully visible that they bring out the instinctual linguistic aspectfrom the unconscious. McCaffery's notion of the libidinal is an area of unknown codes, grammar and syntax; open and free and yet still within a structure. It is both within the linguistic and outside of it.
In amloi- (1968) (Fig. 9) form 'Aivake in th Red Desenby bill bissett Bayard questionsin which direction bissett is moving the strong visual pattern of the poem. She seemsto think that he is using an isomorphic method of connecting
32 the shapeof the poem to the conceptualmeaning of the words. She describes how there is an 'am' which could be interpreted as lonelinessand an 'or' which representsa choice, an alternative,reaching the climax with the sexualnumber 69. However, she doesnot commenton the whole word: amor meaning'love'. Shebrings our attention to the shape,which for her representsthe female and the male sexualorgans dependingon whether the page is viewed at vertically or horizontally. This readingmight be a bit reductionist as it narrows the whole idea and experimentationof the poem to a mere rational interpretation and hindersthe real eroticism of the poem. I prefer McCaffery's view in his comment about someof bill bissett's poems: 'a writing in libido rather than a writing about it. ' (McCaffery, 1998 p. 100) We find an obsessiverepetition, a desireto escapethrough the linguistic signsand at the sametime an enclosurein them. Letters are so closely put together that not only is their semanticmeaning obliterated but also their original shapes. The Y becomesa vertical line with small slasheson the right, the V createsa kind of chain. In fact, all the lines have a kind of chain quality as their elementsare mutually entangled. Language is trapped to create somethingoutside language,a kind of non-verbal energy.
This kind of textuality/visuality/orality makesthe viewer not only question and searchfor new meanings,but it has the impact of a visual artwork in terms of provoking other sensesand emotional states. Therefore, how do the linguistic and the visual interweavewith the instinctual and the intuitive? Or, how are the pre-linguistic aspects(impulses, energies, moods, feelings, movement, desires) presentwithin the symbolic and vice-versa,in a technological areawhere the linguistic, the visual and the aural coalesce?
2.4 New Technologies: Moving from the Page, the Analogue, the Performative Voice into the Digital.
Before the computer, integrating image, sound and text was a much more complicatedtask and every systemhad not only to be produced, but also archived in many different formats. With New Technologiesin place, it is only natural that creators explore this area of Image-Sound-Text further by producing
33 Digital Art and radical Digital Poetics including e-poetriesand net art, GenerativeArt and interactive textural digital surfacesand immersive installations.
Technology allows for the exploration of the limits of language,image and sound in a visual context, interconnectingverbal and visual and aural sensibilities. In the sameway that the tape machineallowed for the sound piecesto be cut, rearrangedand edited, the computer has becomenot only a tool but a medium to mix the elementsof sound,text and still or moving imagesso they can interact together. It is representativeof contemporarysociety. There is spacefor the sound,the visual and the aw-o-visual, the text, the image and the image-text. Aural-visual-text interweavesin the area of electronic media. This new textuality encompassesboth the semiotic and the symbolic; it is the languageof the in-between,where drives, as instinctual forces, function inextricably with the linguistic. It is this meeting point, this in-betweenthat I am investigatingthrough my digital work. Thus, convergentmedia is able to accommodatemultimedia applicationsand programming,handling sound and image in the samemedium and allowing artists to develop new media art/ language/information /culture.
In connectionto my work I contextually review in the following chapters- as a comparativeanalysis of what is happeningin this area of research- the work of digital artists/poets/programmerssuch as Peter Frucht (generativewriting), David Small, Tom White, Camille Utterback, Romy Achituv and Bill Seaman (interactive installations), Giselle Beiguelman(telecommunications projects), Eric Sadin (intertextualities) and Jbrg Piringer (sound performances). In the area of codework I will examineJodi's simulationsof computer crashesand virus infections, Loss Pequefio Galzier'ssynchronization of code, interface, text and sound pieces,John Cayley's literary works of morphing text, imagery and sound, Jean-PierreBalpe's notions of no longer fixed, definitive, linear text and Simon Biggs' nonsensicalself-generated text. In the area of web art 1 introduce some works which are related to the previous ideasbut either deal with Internet languagesor are piecescreated specially for the Internet, such as the multi-user domain WMI by ml]EKAL aND, Mez' texts of email exchanges,computer code, SMS communication,sound and imagesand Talan Memmott's literary
34 hypermedia. This study will be conductedunder the light of new media theories by reviewing notions of writing, reading, the viewer, the producer, interactivity and thus the whole concept of experiencing,understanding and interpreting.
35 Chapter 3
3.0 In-between the Visual, the Semantic and the Phonetic: Another Kind of Language
In this chapterI investigatethe area of the in-behveenthat is createdby interweaving the visual the phonetic and the linguistic areasof meaning: 'Image- Text, Phonetic-Text and Semantic-Text'. I explore the new media languages (communicativesystems) originating in the in-between,where, by mixing different sensorymodels, (visual and auditory), and motion, together with the illusion of "semantic"meaning and the interaction of the user, the emotional and the linguistic meet in a form of symbiosis. To developthese conceptualideas I start by questioningnotions germaneto Visual Poetry: the blank spaceof the page, reading and viewing conventions;the page/interfaceand the inability to hold the whole Image-Text. As well as thesenotions, there are a seriesof questionswhich investigatethe production of the interactive digital work entitled Another Kind q)f Language: How can theseprinciples be applied to Digital Work? Why apply them?How are multi-linear, de-centeringnarratives and multi-layered structuresformed in digital media?What meaningsare created from theseinter-textualities of Image-Sound-Text in convergentmedia? What does interactivity bring to the work and what is the role of the reader/viewer/user/author?
Anothei-Kind q)f Language is an interactive piece madein Flash32 (Fig. 10). It consistsof three different layers: the user can travel from one surfaceto another by clicking on the buttons: A (for Arabic), C (for Chinese)and E (for English), found on the white screenthat appearswhen the project is open. Each surfaceis blank until the user rolls the mouse over it, revealing still and moving images, which appearand fade away, and triggering phonetic soundsfrom each respectivelanguage. The imagesare related to the visual representationand cultural background of eachlanguage: the English layer displaysthe written form of the phonemes,against the blank background- the white page. The writing is
36 visible but not legible and I haveused black and white colours as a referenceto the white page and black printed ink. In the Arabic layer there are letters embeddedin what looks like a tile design. I wanted to bring their visual quality into the surfaceas this alphabethas such a strong visual quality, and is often incorporated into architecture". The Mandarin layer is composedof animated imageswhich are triggered by the movementof the mouse. As Chineseis an ideographiclanguage, I wanted to explore this quality by using moving images like short narrativesunderneath the white page.
The sound layers are formed by the 'meaningless'phonetic soundsof three different languages:English, Mandarin and Arabic. They were createdby speakersof theselanguages, who sangand pronouncedcombinations of phonetic soundscommonly used in eachlinguistic system. The notion of meaningless phonetic soundsinterested me, since, according to Saussure,these soundsare not supposedto have any meaning. Their function is to differentiate two words, they have differentiating/distinguishing 4 Jakobson him in a value' . agreeswith when Six Lechavs on Sound andMeaning (1978), he writes:
We have the by arrived ... at view that phonemes,phonic elements means of which words are differentiated, differ from all the other phonic devices of language,and from all linguistic values in general,in that they have no positive and fixed meaningof their own. Of all sign systemsit is only languageproperly so-called,and within this it is words, which consist of elementswhich at one and the sametime signify and yet are devoid of meaning.(Jakobson, 1978 p. 69)
I find this paradoxical, signifying aspectof phonemesfascinating. They are the key signifying units and yet they don't have any intrinsic value. With them I am questioningthe serniotic and symbolic aspectsfound in this processof signification where they refer to languageand yet are outside languagein their isolated units. I try to shift them into a different semanticcontext to transform them into entities with the potential for full linguistic and emotive signification.
32Interactive Macromedia programme. (See the interactive Nvork enclosed on the CD ROM) 33The fondness to employscript, as a decorativeelement in Islamicculture, is in partattributable to theproscription of graphicrepresentation, in particular of thehuman form. instead of religious icons,sentences from the Koran are used in therepresentation of God. This encourages the use anddevelopment of the beautiful calligraphic nature of theArabic language. 34See Saussure: Course in GeneralLinguistics (1995).
37 It is as if I want them to be recognisedfor their important function in the signifying process;to raise them to the level of appreciationthey deserve; transforming 'meaningless'phonetic soundsinto full entities in the non-linear structure of the communicativeprocess.
When choosingthe languages,as well as their sounds,I was interestedin the differencesbetween their respectivevisual and aural elements,reading patterns (right to left, left to right, top to bottom) and linear and non-linear qualities as explainedabove. The experimentationwith the direction of reading patternsis a strong componentof Visual/Sound Poetry, and I wanted to transfer this experimentationinto a digital artistic/linguistic/poetic form. The reading patterns of Visual/SoundPoetry are partly enforcedby the empty spacesbetween words which are as significant as the words." When the poem is read aloud theseinterludes are completely semantic,visual, silent componentsof the performance. When reading a visual poem for the first time the reader struggles, for searching meaning- which line, which word next - until he/sherealises the conventionsare different here and lets go of the old onesto experiencethe new. With Another Kind ofLanguage I try to involve the user via the mouseto reveal the linguistic imagesand soundsand provoke in him/her similar queries. When the work has been exhibited the usershave brought to my attention their interest in understandingthe individual sounds,and their attempt to make a coherent sentence,message or somethingsyntactically linear; to find a languagethat communicates;the urgency to freeze the image and seeit as a whole; to relate the to the image; to find 36 These demonstrate sound and a coherent sense . enquiries the linguistic and visual conventionsusers bring with them and the piece gives them the opportunity to challengethese conventionsin favour of more open, multiple readings.
In the creation of this in-betweenlanguage experience in Anothei-Kind of Language I take into considerationthe non-linear/multi-layeredstructure used in Visual Poetry to interweave image, sound and text which is now used in the new
35As with Mallanud's Un Coupde D6s (A Throu,of theDice) 1897. 36 This information has been gathered through speakingwith the participants. I did not consider recording these comments at the time, due to the spontaneousnature of the interaction.
38 narrativesof the Internet. I developthis study by investigatingthe following issues:
* Non-linear, multi-linear, multi-layered structures and the role of the reader 9 Intertextual relations and meaning 9 The interactive and the role of the user
3.1 Non-linear, multi-linear, multi-layered structures and the role of the reader
Somequestions to considerin relationshipto notions of non-linearity, multi- linearity and multi- layering are: How can notions of multi-linearity and layers be adapted,transformed and expandedwith the work? How are these structures formed?How do they affect the reader's/viewer'sparticipation and involvement? How doestechnology help to incorporate the simultaneousprocesses of looking, readingand listening used in Visual/Sound Poetry, into a digital interactive work? Therefore, how hasthe area of the in-betweenImage-Sound-Text from Visual Poetry beentransferred into the work? Thesematters were carefully consideredwhen producing the piece and are discussednext in this chapter.
When I begandeveloping Another Kind ofLanguage I started exploring these questionsby creating a surfacethat would refer to languagein its visual, oral and semanticrepresentation. The multiple layers are not only formed by the fusion of these different systems,but also by the three linguistic layers and the projection in the physical space- as an installation - from various laptops. A whole variety of in-betweencombinations is allowed, dependingon the number of participants.
Visual Poetry seeksto revolutionise the concept of writing, reading and looking. We are able to recognisereferences, as for instancecertain typographical charactersor different systemsbut the processof putting piecestogether occurs as in a puzzle but the puzzle never becomesresolved. We recogniseindependent meaningsand try to put them together. Although theseprocesses exist in
39 conventionalpoetry, they becomemore evident with Visual/Concrete poetry becausethe associationbetween the parts of the poem is an essentialcomponent in the formation of meaningsand interpretations. Thus, the reader/vieweris invited to decodethe visual and verbal messageby participating in the structure of signification that controls the piece, although this does not meanthat by putting thesepieces together a stabletransparent meaning is found.
The practice of reading/looking/listeningreproduces the act of creation; it requires a participatory commitment from the 'viewe0eader'. Carline Bayard in TheNew Poetics in Canada and Quebec,From Concrelism to Post-Modernism (1989) states:
Concretismdemands that the attention of poet and reader-listenerbe focused on the material componentsof the poem. It is the interrelationshipof these elementsand their perfect coincidencewith their semanticmessage which produce a concretepoem both in time (performance)and space(on the page). (Bayard, 1989 p. 84)
Concretist texts deconstructthe systemsof typography, layout, spelling, syntax and metrics by avoiding old rules and inventing new ones. Emerging digital work equally createsnew parameters,perhaps because it is still in a processof discovery or perhapsbecause the versatility of the medium accommodatesall kinds of visual, aural and linguistic codes.Among someof the concretist texts we find syntacticalambiguity, discontinuity and omissionsto the point of depriving the reader from reading. In Mallarm6's Un Coup de Dis (1897), there is a tension betweenlegibility and illegibility, meaningand loss of meaning. On the other hand, in somepoems we find different reading patterns, which provide various multiple texts instead of one, as for instance,with many of bill bissett's visual/concretepoems where the reader becomesthe creator by choosingthe different combinations. White spacesmight give the impressionof discontinuity when there is none. In some of the poem-collages,the structure of sentencesis destroyed. In other texts the grammatical structuresoffer so many combinations that they becomecomparable to geometricalvariables. The absenceof punctuation allows for a variety of structures,depending on the reading order adopted by the reader. A simple visual law in thesetexts is that the eye tends to
40 read first what it can immediatelydecipher, then slowly interprets the other letter puzzles.Bob Cobbing in Changing Fornis in English Visual Poelly, quotes from Ionesco: 'Integration alone is not enough; disintegration is essentialtoo; that is what life is, and philosophy; that is science,progress, civilization'. (Cobbing, 1998). This is what concretepoetry does in my view: there is a constant integration, fusion and disruption of the elementsnamed above, and the reader moves from the position of the viewer to that of the writer, to the reader again and so on, in a random order but following a simultaneousreaction.
All theseaspects of textuality, narrative and the notions of the reader and writer which are found in Visual Poetry I considerto be antecedentto hypertextual narrativesand new forms of communicationon the Internet. The non-linear, layered characteristicsof Visual Poetry: the spacebetween words -which creates the spatial,material and now, virtual, word - the coalescenceof the visual and linguistic within the samesystem; its interactive quality and the independenceof the readerin choosing in a text free from the bondageof the line and the classic readerlytext. Theseare now all basesfor hypertext. EspenJ. Aarseth's definition of non- linear structure in Cybei-lext,pei-spectives on Ergodic Lilei'ature is as follows:
A non-linear text is an object of verbal communicationthat is not simply one fixed sequenceof letters, words, and sentencesbut one in which the words or sequenceof words may differ from readingto reading because of the shape,conventions, or mechanismsof the text (Aarseth, 1997 p. 41).
With hypertext narrativesthe boundariesof image and text have becomeblurred encouragingthe readerto participate and becomethe viewer-reader-writer- producer-user.Network communicationis establishedthrough links and via shifting navigational paths.Non-linearity has becomean important factor in recent critical thought. Conceptualsystems founded upon ideas of centre, margin, hierarchy, and linearity have been replacedwith those of multilinearity, nodes,links, and networks as discussedby Landow, Derrida and Barthes. Barthes in SIZ differentiatesbetween two kinds of texts: the readerly (lisible) and
41 the writerly (scriptable). The readerly is the classictext, basedin communication and an ideology of exchange.
This reader is thereby plunged into a kind of idleness-he is intransitive; he is, in short, serious:instead of gaining accessto the magic of the signifier, to the pleasureof writing, he is left with no more than the poor freedom either to accept or reject the text: reading is nothing more than a referendum.(Barthes, 1974 p. 4)
The writerly text resistsestablished reading and is 'the novelist without the the ' (Barthes, 1974 novel, poetry without poem ... production without product. p. 5) He explainshow in this casethe readerbecomes a producer of the text rather than a consumer. I associatethis textuality describedby Barthes to the printed text (readerly) and electronic hypertext (writerly). The blocks of text that composedthe hypertext would be what Barthes describesas lexias, and which are connectedby links, multiple reading paths which as Landow in Hypenext 2.0 states,'shift the balancebetween reader and writer' (Landow, 1997 p. 25). Landow points out that hypertext changesthe experienceof reading, writing and text signification, reconfiguring the role of the author and authorial property. Derrida's non-linearity would be the notion of textual openness,intertextuality and de-centrednarratives as he describesin Of Gi-aninialology (1976); without a focused point, a beginningor an end. Gregory Ulmer considersthe displacement the user experienceswhen using the text, as one of the main features of hypertext. Ulmer contendsin Applied Gi-ammatology(1985) how Derrida's texts alreadyreflect the workings of electronic media.His book Glass, according to GeorgeP. Landow, has all the characteristicsfound in hypertext narratives:it is a printed hypertext which in fact appearat the sametime as the personalcomputer.
Di PhiladelphoMenezes in his paper: Inlet-activePoems: Infusign Pet-spective foi- Expefiniental Poehy, discussingdigital communication,states:
By increasingthe potentiality of non-linear and de-centredcontemporary literature, hypertext changesthe conceptionof text and writing, thus transforming the role of the author and the possibilitiesof literary education.This new ethic of technologicaltexts must be consideredeven when we go out of textuality and enter hypermediaprogrammes, a further developmentof hypertext, where non-verbal (visual and sound) signs are
42 joined. Hypermedia facilitates working with experimental poetry as 37 hypertext does literary workS. (Menezes)
In the experimentaldigital art/poemAnothei-Kind ofLanguage, as explained earlier, the viewer can travel along the surfaceclicking on specific buttons which take them somewhereelse: experimentingwith a displacementof mutable points and direction. This createsa shifting: from the contemplationof the viewer to the participation of the user, through reading, looking, listening and interacting. The user is the creator of compositionalimages and sounds. There is the trace of the author but the work exists thanks to the user. The roles have shifted.
3.2 Intertextual Relations and Meaning
When the user moves the mouse,in Another Kind ofLanguage, to reveal the imagesand soundsand create new compositions,they are always different in the sensethat no two users can ever play the samecomposition, unlessthey copy eachother. The user has the choice to move anywhereon the screenwithout the reading/looking/listeningpatterns being pre-determinedby the author but by the viewer/reader/player. The aim is to engagethe usersin an active mechanismof questioningand self-examination,so that they have to reconsiderthe conventions,actions and beliefs through which we interpret the world. The method is similar to that of reading Visual Poetry, where writing involves the reader in a processof responseand interpretation, developingan awarenessof producer as well as consumerof meaning. In addition, the filsion of image, sound and text builds another systemof communication,creates other meanings and challengesthe idea of transparentcommunicative language. It is definitely not a conventionalcommunicative linguistic meaningor coherent sensethat originatesfrom the work. In fact my intention is to destroy this kind of meaning: everything is meaningful and not meaningful. The blank spaceshave a meaning38,the connectionsbetween the elementsalso have a meaning,but this is canillusion of meaning'. I use 'meaningless'phonetic sounds,the abstraction of text and the breaking of narrative structuresto give place to intertextual relations
37 Menezes
43 in a more Derridean understandingof 'pure writing' and it is in this kind of intertextual or inter-mediastructure where the meaninggenerates. By interweavingthese visual, textual and auditory elements,the work becomesan open work amplifying the processesof thought and awareness.Menezes in his essay:Intersign Poetly: Visual and SoundPoetics in the Technologizingof Culture explains:
'Linguistic and serniotictheories, agreewith the idea that our thought is conditioned by the form and the organisationof the signsin a discourse. And thesetheories argue that languageis fascist, as Roland Barthes said, becauseit imposesa procedure of thinking and guides us to a certain concept of reality which reinforces the systemof language. We can escapefrom this vicious circle only if we are able to perceivethe fragility of the links between signs and thought, languageand reality.
Poetry is the chief guide for this practice becauseit exposesthe sign as a touchableevent that makessigns as real as the material world, in spite of the fact that signs are a creation of thought. An expressivelanguage basedon new ways of combining different kinds of signsgives rise to another form of rationality and another conception of reality, but this is possibleonly if this languageconstitutes itself at a complex semantic level of interpretation varied degreesof signification'. (MenezeS)39
In Anothei-Kind ofLanguage, image, sound and text representa non-linear space of intertextual relations, not only 'intersigned':between the signs,but also betweenthe pre-linguistic and linguistic, betweenlanguages as well as between art, languageand technology. The intuitive, the non-rational and the nonsensical coexist with the symbolic in this in-betweenspace of relations and interpretations.
A poem that I feel has some similarities to Anothei-Kind ofLanguage, in the way of making connectionsand creating tensionsbetween its component parts becauseof its strong visual and the semanticimpact, is A Cappella by Bruce Andrews. McCaffery points out how, in his poem, Andrews replaceslinear
39 Following Menczes' tragic death in a car accident Jim Andrews send an e-mail to
44 direction by creating vertical and horizontal tensions. To hold the visual attention he interlocks the multiple parts and presentsthe syntax in a kind of grid.
ca ja a th an ne sh th wa pe qu ci fo in ba wh vi re se th eu co st cu wo al su cr ce re in ma vi si ba am ch qu an is th th cu ni se fa wo ap se th pr st th st th th ac wh wh pa wi ha wa ti bo pr wo fe th tr fa sp if so th th pl fo to tw40
McCaffery explainshow theseunits of no semanticvalue arejuxtaposed to familiar words ('in' 'so' 'to'). Other units link with eachother acrossthe 'board', either in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal mannerto produce semantic ('th found in values -an', the first line and 'th - in' in the first and secondlines). He says:'Meaning occurs through a productive inducementwithin a predominantlynon-signifying field.' (McCaffery, 1998 p. 23) Thesekinds of poemscreate a reality of their own, giving privilege to the signifier over the signified and the referent, as they do not reproducethe real. He arguesthat if communicationis understood as a transmissionfrom producer to receiver, that is from production through to consumption,then in writerly texts we don't find this concernwith communication. As authors don't possessa power, consequently the signsare not messagesand the textual surfaceis formed by interconnected signifiers. He refers to thesetexts as unreadabletexts. Their interior elements interact with eachother as elementsof a network system. They are visible to the reader. (This could be comparedto post-modem architecturewhere the main elementsof construction and functional elementsare exposedto the viewer for examination). The inter-relatednessof these elementscreates an 'incomplete/open' meaningas opposedto the transparentone found in print. Therefore, the semanticproduction becomesinfinite, in the sameway that languageis infinite. To understandthe semanticproduction of a languagethat breakswith syntactical,semantic and structural conventions,McCaffery presents us with three kinds of structural, epistemologicalshifts: firstly, the shift from
45 word to sign, as foreseenby Saussure. Secondly,the shift from writing as meta- sign, as representationof speech;taking secondaryposition to writing as writing basedon Derrida's idea of diffei-ance: a signifier is always standingfor a non- presentsignified, it never standsfor itself McCaffery statesthis diffei-ance (difference and deferral) can not be fixed in spaceand time. 'Differance is neither a word nor a concept'. (Derrida, 1973 pp. 129-30). And thirdly, there is the shift from the poem as a fixed object of analysis,to the text as an open, methodologicalsurface for semanticproduction. The text becomesa meeting point, as a field of signifierswith undeterminedsignifieds, resistant to a message coming from the writer, as he/sheis detachedfrom his/her role as author.41
For me the electronic surfaceof Another Kind ofLanguage functions as this last shift, where the text becomesa meeting point. Although it is providing a new frame formed by an interface of signsfrom different languagesand semiotic systems,it is comprehensibleenough for a new viewer to function within it. Sound and image are not representingeach other, the imagesare not the representationof the sounds/speech;it is not a logocentric structure. The appearanceand disappearanceof signifiers, the new ways of organisingthese images/text/soundsinto spatial and temporal structuresvary from those of the printed page. This meansthat new signifying processesneed to be created,as we needto define new conventionsof reading, looking, producing and thinking. As an unreadabletext, it functions as a meeting point of the areasin-between the image, sound and text, the point where all the structuresmeet; the linear, the non- linear and the multi-linear, the areawhere the participants/usersmeet to sharean experience;to createthat spaceof communicativeexchange. Thus, the meanings originating from this inter-semiotic technological systemof Image-Sound-Text and the participation of the users.
The binary form functional sign - this of two elements,signifier and signified - becomesa signifier of multiple signifieds,of multiple relationships. This shift
'0 Bruce Andrews, A Cappella. Taken from McCaffery, North oflntention, Critical TI'Mings (1998 p. 23) 1 have sought to replicate as closely as possible the typographic fonnat of the original poem. 41 In the following chaptersand spccially in Chapter 5 there arc examples of work which demonstratethis kind of semantic production describedby McCaffery.
46 from a fixed meaningto the inter-relation of multiple meanings,might also be a reflection of contemporarysociety. The lack of an original or of a transcendental meaninghas not only createdmultiple discourses,but these discoursesall cross eachother, multiplying the field of signification and interpretation; the structure losesits centre and has to rely on many points of origin.
Visual Poetry's dual sign: linguistic and visual, with its set of signifiers and signifiedshas now becomea three-fold sign: linguistic-visual-auralin the new surfaceof Image-S ound-Text. Bohn in 7-heAesthetics of VisualPoeny (1986), emphasises:'Visual Poetry's popularity stemsfrom its role as a dual sign.
Reflecting the primary modesof human perception- sight and sound - it appeals to us becausethese are the norms of existenceitself. ' (Bohn, 1986 p. 8). With new technologiesthe 'norms of existence' are obviously changing. The linguistic, the visual and the aural coalesce,technology being the perfect medium to createthis tension betweenvisual languageand soundsand linguistic images. image, sound and text convergein a'multimedial'way, erasingtheir differences through the digital. This generatesnew implications in thinking and perception, taking the user beyond the conventionalways of understandingand interpretation. Menezesdescribes the new sign that derivesfrom the connection of these different signsin experimentalpoetics as follows:
Intersign poemsare not "experimentsof poetic written texts", but intersignedprocesses of word, image, sound,movement, varied ways of reading, where the image, the sound and the movementare not simply featuresof the word. Inter-poetry sets out consciouslyto occupy the structures provided by the new medias,modifying the relationships betweenimage, sound and word within the specific environmentswhich only hypermediamakes possible. 42
With this three-fold sign the viewe@eadei-ý-Iislenei-needs to exercise looking/reading following the approachLanham puts forward in his book The Electronic Word when discussinghypertext narratives:
42Menezes, bileractivepoems: intersignperspectivefor experimental poetry.'
47 The textual surfaceis now a malleableand self-consciousone. All kinds of production decisionshave now becomeauthorial ones. The textual surfacehas becomepermanently bi-stable. We are always looking AT it and then THROUGH it, and this oscillation createsa different implied idea of decorum, both stylistic and behavioural. (Lanham, 1994 p. 5)
He describeslooking "THROUGH it" as viewing it from a Newtonian world of facts where reality is 'reality, and "AT it" from a Pirandelo's view; that is; a world of theatre where reality and fiction blur and where according to Lanham we try to 'act naturally'. Or as Di PhiladelphoMenezes comments; 'AT it' is more like a gamewhere our attention is in the communicativefeatures of the text, the sinface pallel-n. Lanham comparesthe electronic to the printed by arguing that while printing is author controlled and its aim 'is a stable transparency',the electronic, with its unfixed text, allows spacefor this oscillation: THROUGH it and AT it, which will inevitably produce unpredictable norms. He says:'the norms of electronic art will be so volatile that the volatility of a non-exclusivematrix will be the only norm'. (Lanham, 1994 p. 16) Thus, with a malleabletext we have to unavoidablythink about new readability and cvisualability' formulas.
3.3 Interactivity and the Role of the User
The last areaI would like to touch upon in this chapter is the notion of interactivity and what it brings to the artwork. I am interestedin interaction from the perspectiveof experience,learning, discovery, communicationand the generationof multiple and ongoing Image-Sound-Text compositions. To engage the user in an emotional and intellectual response,I take into consideration interactivity: different practical aspectsof the notion of stimulus - response;the interface designand navigation; the digital space/perceptualenvironment; the multi-user in the navigationalinterface (either in the net or in an installation space)and the interaction between the various users/participants. There are numerousquestions regarding interactive digital work but here I will just discussthe notions presentedabove and issuesencountered in producing the piece. Some of them have alreadybeen discussedin the course of this chapter, such as the shifting role of the author, artist, reader,viewer, user and producer of
48 imagessound and text. Menezes,discussing infeipoefiy in relation to the reader and the text, summarisesmy ideasabout the user and the artwork:
The intervention of the reader/useramplifies the forms of participation that the avant-gardeshad introduced into art, breaking with the classic contemplativerole of the reader/observer.The option of multiple paths for the reading of the interpoem gives rise to two circuits of association:a network of connectionsbased on the technologicallinks made available by hypermedia;a network of associationsset up betweenthe data of the poem, which refer to eachother, subterraneanto the virtual links, and which could be called post-virtual. The suggestedlinks (interpretative associations)thus supplantand subvert the links that are offered (virtual paths). The interpoem thus establishesthe primacy of 'suggestion' over 4explanation',one that characterizestechnological art in general.And it underlinesthe rhetorical question put by Lanham; this oscillation in a new economy of reading and writing betweenthe AT and THROUGH which would also include the 43 (Menezes: primacy of exploration . Interactive poems: intersign perspectivefor experimentalpoeuy. )
In the caseof Anothei-Kind ofLanguage the users'participation is crucial, without interaction the work would only exist as a blank white surface. At the it is sametime the only way to experiencethe work - the environmentand the other participants and viewers - through interaction. Interactivity in technology is an art system,representative of a model of life which is becoming more and more prominent. It is the way humanbeings communicateon a daily basis. But, does an interactive artwork help the viewer becomeinvolved, thus experimenting with and further questioningthe piece?Does it open up a frame of thought more inclined to discussion? Does interactivity provoke a dialogue amongstviewers, which other art forms find more difficult to produce? From my observationsof usersinteracting with work as opposedto simply viewing it, I have come to the conclusionthat interactivity helps the viewers to lose their inhibitions and thus to shareexperiences, which furthers the work outside the'work'. This is notjust the casein interactive digital works but with any interactive artwork, which requires involvement to fully experienceit. I considerthis to be very important in any artwork, as this is what the viewer/user is going to take away and hopefully develop into further discussionsoutside the gallery space. I share
43 Menezes,Interactive poems. intersign perspectivefor experimental poetry.
49 Masaki Fujihata'sbelief that interactivity can changethe way one experiences art. If an art systemis a model of life, and interactivity is the most common activity betweenhumans, why then should not it be part of the artwork? When producing the piece it was also important to addressthe design of interface and navigation to involve the viewer/user. Thus, the blank surfacewas thought of as a provocation; a stimulusto engagethe viewer to find out what is behind the white surfaceand explore its possibilities. Fujihata thinks that the best design interactive pieces'generate a good atmospherethat stimulatesand activatestheir users'. (Ars Electronica -Takeover: 2001, p. 317)'When an interactive art systemis successful'he says:'children are very reactive to it'. (Ars Electronica- Takeover,2001p. 319)
3.4 Presentation of Work in Relation to Interactivity and Context
Originally, I createdAnothet- Kind ofLanguage with the idea of showing it on the web and providing it with a recording function. The participants could record the sound compositionsand sendthem to me so I could create an archive of multiple variants of sound piecesand therefore give the piece the function of a musical instrument. At this point the experienceof the work was very individual. Technologically it required a knowledge I didn't have and after consideringit for a while I decidednot to pursueit at this point of my investigation.
To make it more collaborative I realisedit could be installed in a public space and this would allow people to interact with eachother in real time. I was invited to take part in the exhibition DIFFERENTIA where I set up 4nolher Kind of Language as an installation spacewith two computersand two projectors. The projectors would project the imagesonto the samescreen in order to get a multi- layered image at the sametime as a multi-layered soundscapeof phonetic compositions. (DIFFERENTIA, PM Manor and Gallery, London, May -June 2002). (Fig. 11) The presentationof the work in this context, as I expected, brought with it a number of elements,which addednew characteristics/qualities
50 to the work. Originally, I was very curious about the new aestheticthe work would acquireby presentingit in an enclosedinstallation room. I wanted to test if the multi-layered imagesand soundswould work as a whole or whether they would be disjointed elementsand therefore confusing. The soundwas also an important elementto be tested as it could have simply createda cacophony, which in this casewas not my intention. I anticipatedthat someof the usersby encounteringnew technology would also face their fears or inadequacies.Their mood might change,from one of interest and intrigue to one of fear. Not understandingthe work, or getting it wrong; not being an expert; fear of change; fear of being in charge;fear of getting involved; fear of starting and not finishing. When facing somethingnew, there are always peoplewho are going to find it difficult to engage,while others will find it easyto interact with the work and engagewith it straight away. As I have emphasisedthroughout my writing, it is not until the user lets go of this fear, their repression,inhibitions, conventionsand expertisethat they are able to experienceenjoyment, pleasure and satisfaction. It is at this point when they can play and fully experiencethe work. The spacethen becomesapproachable and developsinto a conversational spacewhere the viewer is given a stimulus and is allowed to perform. Different participantscould interact at once in this new context. This two person interactive systemcombined a simultaneousprocess of viewing, listening, thinking and acting which addedmore multi-dimensionalityto the work and enrichedthe experience. Aesthetic pleasureis gainedwhen creating the images as the invisible becomesvisible. There is an emotional and intellectual engagementon behalf of the user trying to make senseof the soundsand images. There is also the ludic elementthrough which the user could potentially get the most out of the piece. From this presentationthe work then developedinto a multi-user domain interactive piece for the web, where different people globally could be using it at the sametime in a simultaneousway. This shows the versatile quality of the work: it has no fixed context, it has a plurality of it for further development44 approaches, allows examinationand .
44 The next step is to program it to produce an immersive environment where the various elements, image-sound-lext, are triggered as the user moves in the space.
51 What beganas an experimentin transferring the underlying principles from visual poetics to digital art and recreatingthe area of the in-betweenimage, sound and text using new technologies,developed into a world of 'in-belweens: the in-betweenart and language,the in-betweenlanguages, the in-between culture, the in-betweenmedia, the in-betweenreader / writer / viewer/ producer, the in-betweenlooking 'At' and looking 'Through', and with this the in-between the pre-linguistic and linguistic. The convergenceof media generateda shifting of meaningsand infinitesimal inter-textual/mediarelations which could be what determinesthe new way of thinking that convergentmedia has brought.
52 Chapter 4
4.0 Writing and the Production of New Textualities
In this chapterI am focusing on the new textualities of Image-Sound-Text. I describethe working processand ideasdeveloped when producing a seriesof artworks. The issuesaddressed spring thus from the production of thesepieces. They questionthe nature of electronic writing and the implications that this kind of work generatesin terms of meaning,collaboration, authorship,the oral and written aspectsof languageand with this new medium, the generative.
Richard Lanham in his book The Electi-oific Woi-d(1994 p. 128) says:'Word, image and sound will be inextricably intertwined in a dynamic and continuously shifting mixture' This shifting mixture, as I explainedin the previous chapter, will createan oscillation betweenlooking 'Through' and 'At'; being transparent and opaque,conveying a linguistic meaningas well as a more abstractvisual signification. With new technologiesthe differencesbetween speech,writing and graphicsdiminish, as they are found integrated as part of the samesystem of communication. As Lanham points out, with this digital communication,the alphabeticand graphic componentsof ordinary textual communicationare being completely re-arranged. He writes: Digitization has madethe arts interchangeable.You can changea visual sign into a musical one,.45 (Lanham, 1994 p. 130).
4.1 Different Writing Technologies: handwriting, electronic writing, generative writing/art.
In my previous chapter I presentedthe concept of the in-belween languagefound in the textualities generatedby mixing image, sound and text. Anothet-Kind of Language portrays the possibilitiesof creating new communicativesystems and
45 1 will return to this in due coursebut what lie meansby this last quote, is that the digital provides a hybrid system, lie writes: 'You can zoom in on a letter until it changesfrom an alphabetic sign to an abstract pixel-painting'. (1994 p. 130).
53 poetic dialoguesto develop different experiences.Parting from this project, using the sameaudio background createdby the phoneticsof multiple 46 languageS, and consideringthe idea of drawing and writing, I focused my researchon a new interactive piece entitled Vocaleyesý7,which enablesthe user to create handwriting/drawing and sound compositionsvia a digital interface, thus, emphaticallybringing attention to the visuality and orality of language. It was produced with the idea of linking it to the Eyeniouseused by John 4' Tchalenko ResearchFellow at CamberwellCollege of Arts. In his researchhe is looking at cognitive ways of learning to draw and bearing in mind his idea of learning to draw with the eyes,I decidedto use 'meaningless'phonetic sounds such as the basic elementsengaged in speech. In so doing, I employedboth the linguistic and the visual parts of the brain in this learning experience.
49 Technologically,it has been the languageLingo produced using programming , and various natural languagecodes in terms of visual, linguistic and technologicalrepresentations. The interface is representativeof other painting programs on the market and it would be familiar to those who use computer graphics/multimediasoftware even if only at a very basic level. When I first exhibited this piece I wasn't sure whether it would engagethe viewers/usersor whether they would passby it, feeling intimidated by the technology. It could have gone either way, however, fortunately it proved engagingand popular 50 amongstusers, who would encourageeach other to explore it. It was then that the work started to achievedinterpersonal existence via usageand with it a series of questionsappeared: Was it a drawing /musical/ linguistic tool? Was it an artwork? Who was the author? Thesequestions pop up constantly with digitally
46To gather these phonetic soundsI researchedthe three languages:Arabic, Mandarin and English. This involved visiting community centres,universities and performance ccntrcs. It becamea highly sociableactivity as I met with the three groups. I reminded in touch with the Chinese group for at least three months, cating and singing in different people's houses. This is a part of the project, which I consideredworth mentioning, as with it the work achieved its objective in terms of communication and interaction, ic: in-between image (food), sound (singing) and text (talking). 47Tocaleyes (2002) (Seethe interactive work on the CD ROM enclosed) 48John Tclialenko
54 produced interactive work. The interestingthing about this work is that it engagespeople both individually and in groups. The outcome of its interactive characteris quite free and experimental,allowing the user to explore in an independentand spontaneousmanner without being precious about the result of the finished product. Visual and sound compositionsdevelop in many ways; somepeople focus their attention on the sound, others on the image and yet others on both. They draw, led by sound rather than sight and listen through the pen, the mouseor the eyemouse. Seeingand listening completely coalesce 51 almost as to becomeone sense. Through exhibitions and presentationsthe potential and future developmentof the work were discussed,ideas flowed and with theseideas possibilities emerged. Does it really matter whether it is an art 52 piece? 1 don't think so. The user is the author of the work and yet, what I observedwhen people interacted with the work was that they were still quite happy to shareit with other people and learn from other ways of using and experimentingwith it. This might be due to its ephemeralquality. It is a piece about experimentingand a processfor developingideas, not fixed meanings. The processof signification evolves as the user interacts with the work. With thesenew ways of writing and experimentation,where Image-Sound-Textare interwoven in the digital medium and through the domain of the Internet, questionsemerged in the processof understandingthese new textualities and the concept of authorshipis interrogated. As well as in exhibitions, Vocaleyesis also on my web page and people can download it onto their desktops. Instead of the original work I could have used documentationand written information but this would have defeatedits objective. The authorship of the art-work is sacrificed in the exchangeof ideas. Nonetheless,I find by making it available,peoples' interest is attracted and the production of meaninggenerated from this exchange developsthe work and the dialogue further, which ultimately is beneficial for the developmentof my research. A work of art should also be a communicative systemto provoke questionsand not necessarilyanswers.
511 have gathered snapshots from the video documentation of the drawings created by theusers andthese drawings give the impression of havingbeen produced by draggingthe pen (mouse) overthe screen to find outabout the sounds, rather than by using the drawing package to produce something-6sually "coherent". (See Fig. 13) 52In relationshipto notionsof thevalue of thework of art,the artifact, authorship, conceptual valuesetc which I dealNvith later on in thechapter.
55 To expandthe potential of VocaleyesI used it as a tool to develop another piece comprising four videos entitled A udible Wi-ifingExpei-imenS53 (Fig. 14). To write these sounds,I usedthe four different colours from Vocaleyeson a white backgroundwith a mapping of the English pronunciationunderneath. This is an environmentfor the spectatorto experiencelanguage as a virtual world of sounds and symbolsin its visual and audible representation. It is a sound and video installation of the processof writing, basedon how to fill a space,or a surface such as a page. Referencescan be madeto the page in Visual Poetry, the canvas in painting, administrativepaper forms and the screenin Media Art. The image of writing createdbecomes quite textural, producing what looks like a knitted surface. As with much of my work, I was questioninghow to interconnectthe serniotic and the symbolic. The 'meaningless'and basic elementsof speech;the phonemes,would representthe inner self, the internal more guttural expression of the emotive, whilst the attachedadditional external sounds,such as conversations,TV, film and radio would representthe symbolic, the cultural, learnedlanguage and the link with the external world. War films, war news, everydayconversations and films merge to create,together with the phonetic sounds,soundscapes of variable pitch and strength.
In terms of the visuality of this textural surface,I engagedwith the materiality of languageexamined in ConcretePoetry, as in contrast to its semanticmeaning and in this case,particularly, handwriting as a physicalform of expression:an art comparableto that of Calligraphy; the mark on a page,the individual gesture and what it meansin terms of authorshipin contrast with typographical marks and their author-lesscharacter. 54
This work lead to a new project Electi-onic Genei-ativeChh-ogmphy. After looking at this areain-between the emotional/rational,pre-linguistic-Ainguistic from the level of the subject,it moved to the level of the collective and thus to
53See Quick time editedmovie ofAudible WritingExperiments on CD ROM. 54As I wasmaking the texturalknitted lettersthat createthe imageI wasthinking aboutSadie Plant's reclaimof the femalerole in machinesand the technologicalin Zerosand Ones. This areacould also lead to Kristeva'sfemale language but the genderissue is outsidethe remit of this research.I would like to clarify that hereauthorIcss typing refersto the authorlessvisual characteristicsof typing asopposed to an authorlesstyping relatedto content. The authored handwritingrefers to the notion of identity throughthe gestureof handwriting.
56 language the of new media. When Friedrich W. Block - curator of the BrCickner- KOhnerFoundation in Kassel- saw the work, he was immediatelyinterested in the idea of producing handwriting by the use of digital technology becauseit encompassestwo opposite kinds of writing: the more personaland individual handwriting and the collectivenessof the digital symbolicwriting/language. I-Es curiosity mademe think about further developingthis handwriting into a generativeand collective handwriting programmewith the oral, visual and textual elements.This would be a system,which would produce combinationsof letters with the hand-written words of different usersto produce other words with the illusion of meaning. There would also be a phonetic sound generatedwhen exercisingthe act of writing. The resulting surfacewould representa textuality, which would include the more personalaspect of handwriting but would evolve into a collective experiencethrough the participation of the user along with the constant metamorphosingof the words into other new words or like words. It would have the characteristicsof electronic writing in terms of its "constellation-like structure" as opposedto a structure with a fixed centre and in light of its mutable and evanescentqualities consequentof its generativeand participatory character. Following this, I introduce someletters from the 335 letter alphabet,which I have been developing,and into which those ordinary letters from the western alphabetwill metamorphose.Example of some of the letters from the alphabet:(Fig. 15) a@ t ED CP
Theseletters will now be produced into hand-written charactersto be placed on 55 to a database. Originally I thought of having somerandom letters attachedto the metamorphosisbut afterwards concludedthat the provision of an alphabet would provoke the user into seekingout connectionsfor semanticmeaning. I
55CAT lab, a researchcentre in New York University has shown an interest in working collaboratively towards the developmentof this project as they have already done some research on handwriting recognition.
57 find the work of Peter Frucht entitled iOVIý6.... to have a lots of similarities with what I would like to achieve technologically. The difference is that he uses typography instead of handwriting. This already made things much easier in terms of programming something generative. The difficulty in my project is the hand-written aspect and its metamorphosis into other writing. The aspects of language he questions are also notions that interest me, for instance he bridges the gap between word and image by playing with the visuality of the typographical elements and also by de-voiding the text of meaning. The sound of words is broken apart to form a kind of poetic chant. It is an installation, which captures extracts from conversations in chat-rooms on the Internet. At the beginning, when the texts arrive in the 3D environment, they are readable, but when the users select one text and mix it with another, the first selected text turns red and metamorphosizes into another, becoming unreadable. Consequently the 57 texts lose their original content as they regroup to create other texts. When he produces this work, Frucht's interest lies in the misunderstandings generated from communicationvia the Internet. He usesthe impersonal,author-less 58 typographical charactersand the collective aspectof chat-room conversations. The textualities that appearin this work strongly representthe new languages that are appearingin the Internet; the new textualities of Image-Sound-Text. The coalescenceof the oral and the written languageis also apparentwhich brings me to my next question.
4.2 Speeeh or Writing? Writing of Speeeh? or Writing and Speech in Electronic Writing?
Historically there havebeen many movementsinterested in the interconnection of the verbal and the visual as well as critical and philosophicaltheories, which have explored the analysisof the verbal and the visual systemsof representation and their hierarchicalrelationship, extendingfrom the theories of Plato and
56Fruclit P.
58 Aristotle through to modern theories such as Derrida's idea of writing and Ong's 59 study of orality. It was questioned whether the written or the oral was the "real thing/wisdom" or whether it was a representation of these forms. Concrete
Poetry intertwines both image and concept by making the word visual. It makes the user aware of both systems of representation and therefore of the thinking processes of viewing and reading simultaneously. The questions that arise from here are: how is Concrete Poetry's way of thinking incremented with these new textualities of Image- Sound-Text? Has the battle between writing and speech come to an end with the emergence of the new electronic medium, which incorporates both the visual and the oral aspects of language? Are the reading conventions consequently changing? What theories are there to study this new textualities/electronic form of writing?
Additional studiesto the onesreferred to in Chapter 2 (Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Rousseau,Bergson, Saussure,Derrida) have been carried out by Walter Ong (1982) and theoreticiansof the electronic medium, such as Mark Poster, Jay Bolter and Richard Lanham. Poster in TheMode ofIqfoi-maIiot7 (1990) questionsDerrida's interpretation of 'writing' and deconstructionas a critical theory for electronic writing, whilst Bolter, in his book Wrifing Space(199 1), discussesa new writing spaceformed of different writing technologies:visual, oral and textual, as well as the new sign and the new reader-writer relationship, which it generates. He arguesthat in electronic writing many systemsof representationcan progress. He writes: 'electronic writing is not limited to verbal text: the writeable elementsmay be words, images,sounds, or even actionsthat the computer is directed to perform'. (Bolter, 1991 p.25) He compareselectronic writing to the oral and printing traditions when he states:
Electronic writing is mechanicaland preciselike printing, organic and evolutionary like handwriting, visually eclectic like hieroglyphics and picture writing. On the other hand e-writing is fluid and dynamic to a greater degreethan any previous technique.(Bolter, 1991 p.4)
59Refer back to Chapter 2 for more detail information, also Derrida and Ong are discussed further on in the Chapter.
59 And continues:
The new dialogue will be, as Plato demanded,interactive: it will provide different answersto eachreader and may also in Plato's words know 'before whom to be silent. (Bolter, 1991 p. 119)
He thinks that although deconstructionhas informed us about what electronic writing is not and moved us away from the print way of thinking, to reach an understandingof electronic writing we still need a new literary theory. In light of this Richard Lanham in his book YheDigital Woi-d(1994) discussesa new rhetoric where literature and art interweave. He claims that electronic technology is helping to bring down the barriers betweenliterature and the other 60 artS. All of them discussa new technology of writing or 'textuality' where different serniotic systemsintegrate to create a new genre of Image-Sound-Text.
Already Derrida in Of Gi-amniafologv(1976) had been discussinga'writing' where there was a revival of the graphic elementwith a status of its own and which had freedom from the spokenword. He arguesthat with 'writing' the metaphysicalera or what he has renamedthe era of 'logocentrism' comesto an end. The signs seemto shift from the idea of languageinto the idea of double- valued writing: that is, ideographic and phonetic. Therefore, writing ceasesto be the representationof spoken language,is no longer phonetic (representativeof the spoken sounds)nor consequentlylinear. Derrida also discusseshow as a result of this new writing, which is not linear, the readerwill have to read differently. He states:
Beginning to write without the line, one begins also to reread past writing according to a different organisationof space. If today the problem of reading occupiesthe forefront of science,it is becauseof this suspense
601 would like to clarify that although many movements-someof which I have mentioned in Chapter 2- have integrated art and literature through different media and technologies, I completely agree with Lanham's views on electronic technologieshaving helped with this integration, firstly becauseof the facility of the media to incorporate sound, images and text and secondly becauseof its accessibility to the common person. Bolter ivritcs: 'The computer can textualise all the arts: that is, it can incorporate sound and images into a hypertext as easily as words. Lanham's new "digital" rhetoric will be inclusive rather than exclusive.' (Bolter, 1991 p. 166) And continues: 'More important it will compel us to reconsider the relationship between the text and the world to which the text refers. In the world of print, the ideal was to make a text transparent, so the readcr looked through the text to the world beyond. This was the goal of realistic painting as NvclI as the traditional novel'. (Bolter, 1991 pp. 166-167)
60 betweentwo agesof writing. Becausewe are beginningto write, to write differently we must read differently. (Derrida, 1976 pp.86-87) Bolter claims that Derrida, at this point, was not aware that he was alluding to electronic writing and agreeswith him about having to relearn reading and writing in the new electronic medium. He describesthis new writing and reading as challenging:
Writing in the electronic medium is challengingprecisely because writers are compelledto define their own systemas they proceed. Reading in the electronic medium is challengingas well for readersmust decipherthe systemsas they read'. (Bolter, 1991 p.61)
In relationshipto these systemsLandow states:'All hypertext systemspermit the individual reader to choosehis or her own centre of investigation and experience. What this principle meansin practice is that the reader is not locked into any kind of particular organisationor hierarchy'. (Landow, 1997 p.38)6 1 This again also makesthe reading more difficult as it challengesthe reader to participate and revalue his/her understandingof texts and habits of thought, when he/she participatesin this new reading experience.
Derrida describestext, as formed of a 'differential network, a fabric of traces endlesslyto somethingother than itself, to other differential traces. Thus the text overruns all the limits assignedto it so far'. (Derrida, 1979 p.84) This is the text Bolter definesas intertextual and with a lack of closure where it is easierto make cross references. On this matter he writes:
We have seenthat, like all texts in the electronic writing space,the texts of artificial intelligenceform a network of elementsand pointers. All electronic texts are self-sufficient, in the sensethat each elementrefers only to other elementsin the network. This apparentself-sufficiency raisesquestions about the meaningand referenceof the electronic writing space.What happensin this new technology to the written word as a symbol: what is the sernioticsof electronic writing? (Bolter, 1991 p. 195)
The notions of meaning,the conveyanceof different serniotic systemsand the interrelationshipsbetween these elementsin the textualities of Image-Sound-
61Although it could also be argued that the belong to a new hypertext hierarchy.
61 Text are important factors which form a complete new reading convention and thus a thinking process.
Walter J. Ong (1982) supportsthe oral aspectof languageand presentsus with an interestingview on electronic writing. Unlike Bolter, he does not compare electronic writing to the writing and the oral traditions but seesthese textualities asa "secondorality". He repeatedlyrefers to orality as 'natural' and to writing as 'artificial', as for him writing is a technologyjust as the act of printing or the computer also are. However, he does not condemnit, as he feels it increases consciousnessand he also paradoxically, acceptsthat artificiality is natural to humanbeings (1982 pp.80-82). Nevertheless,he maintainsthat 'writing', in this caseunderstood as printed, has obliterated orality, but that orality is resurfacing in the new electronic age. In comparisonto the static, self-contained,authorial printed text, orality is 'evanescent,not permanent'. (Ong, 1982, p.3 1) Robert M. Fowler in his essayRi-om 01-ality to Litei-acy to Hypei-text:Back to the Fuliu-062 relies strongly on Ong's ideas on orality and literacy and argueshow the spoken word exists only in the moment of its being spoken,while writing on the other hand, is a permanentrecord. He commentshow manuscriptwriting was in fact more open-endedand thus closer to orality, as the scripts were used as prompts to be read aloud and consequentlyno two manuscriptswere identical. He emphasiseshow with hypertext we encounteragain this fluidity, the ephemeral characterof communicationfound in orality and how we can once more experiencethe participatory and author-lesstext. This is what Ong denominates as a 'secondaryorality ' although, accordingto Fowler, Ong still assertsthat it is dominatedby the closure of the printed text. In this sensehis position becomes closer to Bolter's idea of electronic writing being precisebut organic.
From these studiesI would say that, in the new electronic medium, the hierarchy betweenthe oral and the written text has disappeared.Both writing as understoodby Derrida and orality as understoodby Ong, are inherent elements
62FowIcr K M. How the Secondary Orality ofthe Electronic Age Can Awaken Us to the Primary Orality ofAntiquity or What Hypertext Can Teach UsAbout the Bible with Reflections on the Ethical and Political Issues of the Electronic Frontier
62 of its textuality; complex visual, oral, semantic/nonsemantic and in addition it has the fluidity of the electronic sign, the links and the intertextual relations of Onarratives. hypertext de-centered What then, are the characteristicsof this textual.surface, otherwise called electronic writing and how has it been influenced by the other writing technologies? It encompasses aspects of the oral tradition; it shares its fluidity, it is dynamic, unstable, open-ended and participatory but at the same time it is also as visual as handwriting or printing. In contrast to these writing technologies, it is self-referential; it is not a representation of speech but allows for different serniotic systems (the oral, the visual and the textual) to coexist as part of the same communicative system.
This new textuality in my view encompasses both the serniotic and the symbolic; it is the language of the in-between, the meeting point where the pre-linguistic, as instinctual force64 functions linguistic. an , together with the
With the project TheElech-onic Genei-aliveChirogiaphjP I am questioningthis transition in history from authored handwriting to authorlesstyping16 and the coalescenceof both of thesein the presenttextualities and languagesof the new media and the Internet. In addition, writing will not be a representationof spoken languagebut both writing and speechsounds together with the visuality of the writing will be interlacedas equal elementsin a surface,or 'writing space' as Bolter would call it, of multiple serniotic systems. Hence, to think in terms of the visual, the oral, the textual, the generativeand the interactivity contrived by thesenew textualities, though it may seemcomplex, bearsa closer resemblanceto the way the brain works and to the way humanbeings operate.
The added elementof the generative,facilitated by the electronic medium, is an interesting notion to explore and to question in connectionwith the nature of the Future? < litip: Hliomepages.bw. cdu/-rfowler/pubs/secondoral/l*ndex. html > (Accessed 21/10/2003) 63See Landow (1997), Aarseth (1997) 64 Instinctual force in Kristeva's terms would be the biological drives, impulses and energiesof the serniotic. 65CAT Lab, a researchcentre in New York University, has been developing a study of handwriting recognition and has shown an interest in developing the technological side of the work. (This will becomea postdoctoral project).
63 generativeart and generativetextual structures;its ephemeralquality, notions of the processor the finished artwork, the author and the value of the artwork - what is generativeart?
4.3 Generative Art
Bogdan Sobangives us what he considersto be the most accepteddefinition of generativeart as offered by Philip Galanter:
Generativeart refers to any art practice where the artist createsa process, such as a set of natural languagerules, a computer program, a machine,or other mechanism,which is then set to motion with some degreeof 67 autonomy contributing to in or resulting a complete work of art . "A completework of art" seemshere to be understood as the processand what it will allow to be createdbut not as the final product. Scott Fletcher writes in his essayon generativeart: 'Generative processeshave been used by artists for decades.Now as the computer becomesthe medium of choice for many artists, composersand designers,the processacquires new form and meaningin the computationalrealm. )68 What are then thesenew processesof artistic creation and meaningand where are they originated? Fletcher points out that Edition 4 of 1998's Wit-edmagazine located the term generativeart, as drawn from the linguistic theory of "Generative Grammar", proposedby Noarn Chomsky in his book Syntactic Structia-es(1957) 69 StevenHoltzman in Digital Mann-as (1994, . pp.97-112) remarkswhat a revelation Chomsky's new approachwas to grammar and how significant generativegrammar has been for. linguistics, he describesthis: cnewtypes of grammars,whose rules could be used not only to describea languagebut also to generatesentences in a language.'(1994, p.97) Until this time
66 Again, I would like to clarify that here authorlesstyping refers to the authorlcss visual characteristics of typing as opposedto an authorlesstyping related to content. The authored handwriting refers to the notion of identity through the gestureof handwriting. 67 SobanB.
64 languagehad been studied etymologically and synchronicallyand with Saussurein the first half of the 20thCentury, the interest lay in analysingthe structure of language. The issuethat interestsme in the generativeapproach to language proposedby Chomsky is that it hasbeen extendedalso to other forms of expression. As Holtzman states:'Given that we acceptthat music, art or even architecturecan communicateideas, they can be representedas formalized systemswith grammars,given that one can make explicit the rules of a given language. Chomsky's notion of rule-governedcreativity can be projected to other vehiclesof communication- to languagesother than natural languages'(1994, p. 108). Holtzman follows the use of generativegrammars in other disciplines back to the information age of the 1960's and the musicianswho pioneered computer compositions,such as; Gottfried Michael Koenig and lannis Xenakis. Gottfried Michael Koenig collaboratedwith Stockhausen(1959-60) to produce what Holtzman describesas two landmarksworks. Koenig also independently (1957-1963), produced numerouselectronic pieces,amongst these; Essay, Compositionfoi- Electronic Sounds,this work, insteadof having noted music, provided a seriesof instructions to be followed by anyoneto create a performance of the piece. An unusualcharacteristic of this kind of work was that compositions could be createdwith only a computer and a set of instructions but without a impute 70 For Holtzman 'represent first subjective . these composition programs the efforts to formalise and then automateserial and other compositional techpiques.'(Holtzman, 1994 p. 165) lannis Xenakis also of the 1960's and with a background in for mathematics, used mathematicalmodels musical compositions. One of them was a method called "Stochastic", which was basedon a probability theory, where he used random processesin a controlled manner. According to JamesHarley, 'Along with his acousticworks, he has produced a number of important electroacousticpieces, and a seriesof multimedia creations involving sound, light, movementand architecture(polytopes). In the domain of computer music, Xenakis was a pioneer in the area of algorithmic composition and has also developedan approachof digital synthesisbased on random generation and variation of the waveform itself. In addition he has designeda computer system
70 Whether the product (sound originated) was as rational as the process, that will be another question in relation to the in-beliveen the rational and emotional, linguistic and non-linguistic
65 utilizing a graphic interface (the UPIC), which has proven to be a liberating, provocative pedagogical tool as well as a powerful environment for computer composition'. 71
Parallel to the use of generativegrammars to produce electronic basedmusic compositions,there were other art forms that were also using thesemodels to produce drawings or poetry. The 1968 exhibition at the ICA in London, UK, entitled: Sei-endipity:The computei-and the at-is dealt with the relationship betweenart and technology and compriseda variety of art forms using computers. JasiaReichardt in her introduction to the catalogueof the exhibition writes that Set-endipity 'dealswith possibilitiesrather than achievements'. (Reichardt, 1968 p.5) Creatorswere exploring the medium of the computer to develop images,sounds and text compositions. Reichardt commentson how art is being affected and changedby new media and new systemssuch as the characteristicsof visual music notation and the content of concretepoetry and with this, new possibilities are appearingfor creative people. But for her the most relevant factor to come from this exhibition is the fact that people from other professionssuch as engineers,who used the computer for very different purposesthan to produce art, are getting involved in exploring the possibilities brought by the computer perhapsjust out of utter satisfactionof seeinga drawing materialising. The exhibition included computer paintings, computer music and computer poemsand texts. Among the participants from the area of computer poemsand texts was Marc Adrian who createda programmeof instructions which enabledthe selectionof combinationsof words and syllablesof different sizesand typographical elements. The words included were from German, English and French. Margaret Mastermanand Robin McKinnon Wood produced computerisedJapanese haiku poemswhere the users could either type or select the words for the poem. JeanA. Baudot had an automatic sentencegenerator, his description of it is as follows: 'the programmeis basically a mathematicalmodel of simplified French grammar,having at its disposala dictionary of a few thousandwords classifiedin conventionalgrammatical categories (nouns, verbs, examined in this investigation. This is an issue I like to raise but do not feel I can comment on not having heard the composition and I knowing of this work only through secondaryresources. 71Harley J.
66 adjectives,etc. ) (Baudot J.A.: Serendipity p. 58) 1 think these are outstanding pioneeringexamples of what my investigation is moving towards following my thesiswith the Electronic Generative Chirography project and also those of other artists/poetsworking with similar methodsand conceptsand which I will be discussingin my next chapter,where I will further interrogate and discussthe ideasbehind languageand computer basedworks.
The Visual Arts have also experimentedwith the use of grammars,although as Holtzman (1994, p. 190) points out, it might be difficult for someto seethe visual grammarsas languages(as they basetheir analysisin the letter which has rules to enableinterpretation). However, the visual grammarscan also be applied to 72 createa set of rules. Simultaneously,there has been a whole seriesof experimentson artificial life as well as virtual worlds that have beengenerated basedon genetic algorithms. I will comment on the work of some contemporary 73 artists/programmers and although some of them do not necessarilydeal with issuesof language/artand technology, in someway they still engagewith issues of communication,peoples' involvement and the creation of works that are generatedthrough algorithms in a more or less random mannerand with the impute of the participants.
Alan Dorin Richard Brown together have the term 'Software and '74 coined Sketching' as a personalwish in code production. They use code as a meansof sketching and experimentingwith ideas and processes.In a talk given by Alan Dorin at the RMIT (Royal Melbourne Information Technology) University in
72For instance we can look at the whole tradition of machinesand experiments with drawings, such as the Dadaist traditions and Tinguely's machines, which I am not examining in this study as it comprise a whole new area of researchbut I do consider it important to mention that these explorations developedinto the production of AARON; a computer artist that producesoriginal work, designedby the British abstractpainter Harold Cohen and which has gone through different stagesof developmentfrom the 1970's to the 1990's. Cohen saysthat AARON 'has human development, gone through the equivalent ... of several stagesof cognitive acquiring a number of skills and a body of knowledge along the way.' (Holtzman, 1994 p. 183, from Cohen, H. (1991) From here to Autonomy p. 3. Presentationto the British Association the Advance of Science,August 1991). 731 am commenting mainly on works that I had the opportunity to see/experienceor whose creators I had the chanceto talk to. Most of them I saw on my researchtrip to Melbourne (Australia) in 2002. 74Brown R. Creator of 'Mimetic Starfish' (interactive work shown at Proto-type 2002, curatcd by Experimenta in Mclboume-Australia) Experimenta 67 September2002, one of the generativeartworks he showed,was a piece inspired by mobile telephonesin Japan:'iki, iki phone', whereby the user could selecttwo different creaturesin two mobile phonesto generateanother one. In effect, you 75 could senda picture to mate with another. Also in Melbourne and basedat Monash University76is the artist, programmer,researcher Jon McCormack. His piece Eden is an interactive, self-generating,artificial ecosystem. Creatures move around in the environment,learning to adapt and to be part of it. They have to feed themselves,confront predators and if possiblemate. Those that successfullymate during a five Eden years period passtheir genesto their offspring. According to McCormack, additional more complex behaviours appearduring the 7 or 75 Eden years, although many of the creaturesdie before that. The creaturesalso learn to listen to soundsand to make sounds,which in the installation space,produce a soundscapefor people to experience. He explains: Eden could be consideredan artificial life world that usessound, or a generativecomposition systemfor experimentalaudio and image. One of the aims of the work is to exploit the emergentproperties and relations betweenthe people who experiencethe work and the open-endednature of artificial evolution. The work deliberatelyuses simple, non- representationalimagery to visualize the world, creating a kind of 'codespace'between land-scapeand process-scape.Further, the boundariesbetween the real and virtual spacesare playfully made ambiguous,confusing spatial and sonic boundaries.77 Although I haven't seenthis work in situ, when I read about it and saw McCormack's website, I found it fascinatingand thought it worth mentioning for various reasons,one of thesebeing its multidisciplinary character:Al, sound, art, programming,genetics etc. It is overwhelming. All theseworks show a trans- disciplinary approachwhere scienceand art come together to explore new territories. The idea of constantdevelopment, of having an ongoing life is very pertinent. The artwork is representingitself as an ever-changingand everlasting organism,never as a dead object, a representationof reality. 75Dorin A. 68 In the UK, the researchgroup, i-dat -STAR7 produced a piece of work entitled 'artefact' or 'artifact 779for an installation of virtual 'dream'artefacts at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, in April 2002. Certain objects selectedfrom a collection in the gallery were used to createan online database with different categoriesincluding oldest, newest, smallest,silver, metal, textiles etc. Online users could inbreed objects, which would then passthrough 3D modelling and be included in the database.80 Here the object is constantly regeneratingitself into a different object. Another interesting project produced by i-dat -STAR & Sulawesiin the area of languageis The Vhlafia Project In the i-dat website it is explainedhow the Zoo is used as: A metaphorto examineartificial life forms, creativity and the relationship betweenhumans, animals and machines.The project refers to the mathematicalformula (or maxim) that if an infinite number of monkeys are given typewriters for an infinite amount of time, they will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare." Another very different approachto produce the completeworks of Shakespeare exploring generativee-writing is Peter Morse's generativeelectronic book entitled: Infinite Book, which in his words 'was attempting to create a "Book of Sand" A la BorgeS82' He is interestedin idea infinite has . the of the and adapted the mathematicalconcept of Pi to the infinitesimal combinationsin language. He says: This is just an early sketch in Director, where I was attempting to create a "Book of Sand" A la Borges. The left hand page contains an infinite generativestring of words that are basedon a (pseudo)randomseed and will endlesslygenerate strange words. Sometimesa word appearsthat's day it recognisable:one might write the works of Shakespeare- but that'll be a long time. I expect the Universe will end before that happens. The right hand pagejust repeats"fish" at the moment (a Monty Python glitch) Anyway, when I have time the pageswill turn & it will format the text properly into paragraphsand include pictures and music: initially on a 78i-DAT and STAR: 69 simple random basis,but eventually(when it has "smarts") via something like a recursive transition network or even a genetic system,whereby usersover the internet act as the fitness parameterof "sense"- i. e. legibility. I wonder thereby it might actually start writing things that have somemeaning, rather than it's presentmeaningless wander through phase space.Another idea is to link it to the version of Roget's Thesaurus availablevia the GutenbergProject, and use that as a kind of database that it will conjure associationsfrom and apply a fitness function to. Perhapswith that too, sense(of a kind) will emerge,albeit adumbratedby the hermeneuticestablished with the user.13 back All the works -discussedunder the umbrella of GenerativeArt and coming to Galanter'sdefinition of generativeart- concentrateon thepi-ocessas being the artwork, the final product, which as I have already mentionedis ever-changing and with a life of its own. Also the participation of the user is essentialto make this happen. Is the artwork becoming a tool or a medium through which people can make the art? What is the position of the artwork with generativedigital works? Is it the processor is it the product? 4.3.1 Processor Final Product? Geoff Cox is a curator theoreticianwhose main interestslays in generativeart. He curated an exhibition of generativeart, entitled Genei*a1oi*,set at SPACEX as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2002. Cox's description of it is as follows: 'it presentsa seriesof 'self generating' projects, incorporating digital media, instruction and participation machines,drawing machines,experimental literature technologies))84 It to Sei-endipily and music . soundssomehow similar in 1968 but after thirty five years,the relationshipbetween art and technology and the nature of collaborative work betweenartists and experts from other disciplines,are now fully established.Therefore, there are other issuesbeing interrogated, which are inevitably originated in theseprevious manifestationsof art and technology, as well as notions of ConceptualArt. The hardware machineshave now becomesoftware and can be usedby people in their own private computers. Geoff Cox statesthat the intention for the purposesof the exhibition was that of 'framing this emergingart practice of computer software 83Morse P. 70 within the parametersof conceptualart'. 5 It is only logical that computer based art or digital/generativeartwork as it is understoodnowadays, is seento be related to ConceptualArt as crucial issuesaddressed in this area are also questionedin the digital arena. Adrian Ward and Geoff Cox argue, in their essayson generativeart, 86 that generatingcreativity is more concernedwith setting up the rules and the processthan with the final product. Also discussed are notions of creativity, originality and the concept of value, authorship, publication and distribution in generativeart, concerns,which had previously beenaddressed in ConceptualArt. Ward, in his paperHow I Di-ew otie of my Pichn'es arguesthat in a digital medium the value of authenticity is replacedby the process,which brings me back to Derrida's ideasof signification as a process. Ward writes: Therefore to programmea computer to produce endlessamounts of "creativity" presentstwo interestingnotions of creativity: I- the value of the creativity is not the output, but with the coding. 2- the "artwork" can be distributed infinitely in the digital medium. It is ironic that in this situation, not only is the final output "valueless" (because it can be infinitely reproduced), but the generative system (the program) is valueless too, because computer programs can be copied infinitely. (Ward, P. 1)87 Therefore, the value of the work is in the coding, which makescoding the artwork; neverthelessas it can be an open sourceand be copied infinitesimally it losesits value and with it, its authorship. Lanham, on the issueof authorship, arguesthat electronic information resistsownership. With printing camethe struggle betweenthe freedom to publish, state efforts to control publication and the issueof profit and from this struggle emergedthe conceptsof copyright and the authors' intellectual property. He writes: To make sure that it does flow freely in the world of literacy study, we will have to create a new marketplacebased on a new conception of 84Cox G. Generator exhibition, SPACEX at the Liverpool Biennial, 14-19 September2002. 71 intellectual property and copyright protection, and make sure that the constitutional guaranteesof free speechmade good in the print world prevail here too. (Lanham, 1994 pp. 19-20) All the creatorsmentioned above deal with theseissues in a variety of ways. Theseissues are constantly questionedin the digital mediumwhile exploring the areasof web art, programming and the generative. Although these are not the main concernin my investigation,there are ramificationsthat appearwith this kind of work and therefore worth consideringin terms of their implications in the making of the "artwork". In the next chapter,I will expandon the notion of the generativeby reviewing emergingworks, which question issuesaround language,art and programmingin their different manifestations;as artistic, poetic and performative forms. The new textualities of image, sound and text will come together in the eclectic and remarkabledisplay of digital works. The in-belween area of the linguistic and the pre-linguistic, with its referenceto the visual, audible and semanticforms of language,will reveal itself and shift into Lanham'snotion of looking 'At' and 'Through', provoking questionsabout meaningas well as about looking, reading and producing. Together with these questionsis the issueof the visuality of languageand how the materiality of the text, found in ConcretePoetry, manifests itself in the new textual virtual materiality of digital works and also what new levels of expressionthe digital medium can bring. In addition, this virtual quality allows for multiple ways of exhibiting or presentingthe samepiece, which in turn raisesquestions about the context and how it can influence the reading of the work. 72 Chapter 5 5.0 From the Page to Screen to Projection As I establishedin Chapter 2, it is not easyto define the boundariesbetween Visual/SoundPoetry/Sound Art/Digital Art/Poetics. Nevertheless,in this chapter I discussone of my piecesas well as the work of someother artists and poets, also working in digital media,whose work can be clearly related to the literary genresof Visual/SoundPoetics and E-Poetry." This is with regard to their concernswhen producing the work and becauseof the similarities and connectionsof this work with the page-basedwork of Visual Poetics. Among theseissues, the following are explored: the visual materiality of the letter in connectionto the virtual letter; the sign originated in the new textualities of image, sound and text; what the context brings to the artwork - from the page to the digital space-and the creation of meaningsthat theseintertextual relationshipsgenerate. I am particularly interestedin the new forming elements of electronic poetries such as: the different writing spaces,the time-baseand generativecharacter, the interaction and the collaborative nature of the works. An interestingfeature of this analysisis also the discovery of the artist's driving force to produce the work moving from the socio-economic,communicative, poetic, and literary to the technological and the amalgamationof all of them. I will start by discussingmy practice-basedresearch project entitled Birds 89 Singing other Birds'Songs. One of the interestingthings about this work is that it hasbeen treated as an artwork by virtue of having been exhibited in Galleries as an installation and print form. It has also been shown at the Electronic Art Festival (ISEA 2002) and its most recent presentationtook place at the E-Poetry festival 2003 (celebratedin Morgantown, USA) where, as well as my reading of the piece, a fellow presenter-Lori Emerson- discussedthe work from the angle of e-poetry. This is one of the characteristicsI most enjoy about this area of research;the blurring of boundaries;genres mix as well as people and interests. Electronic Poetry: poetry produced Airiththe digital medium. Use of different soffivare packagesand programming to explore notions of languageand art. 73 Everything is possible: art, language,text, code, but I will come back to this introduce point later - firstly I would like to the work. This work originated when I was invited to exhibit at the Medway Galleries.The most interesting featuresof the gallery were its high ceiling and three large windows, which I was inspired to use in the artwork. In 1998-99,1 had madean animatedvideo Things come and go... It was an animatedcalligram constantlyreshaping itself and therebybreaking the structure of the sentence.The sound starts with the reading of the poem as the calligrarn moves acrossthe sky (animatedpieces, of paper with words and letters on them). As the words changeposition breaking the sentencethe sound also breaks creating a kind of rhythm. The sound is produced by a computerisedvoice, which the viewer might either love or hate or even experienceboth in turn. The original poem reads: 'things come and go they are in a constant state of flux one moment they are here and the next they are not we try to hold them.' (Mencia, 1998-99Fig. 16) I thought I would like to take this experimentfurther by using a programme, which would allow me to explore kinetic typography, the animation of images and sound. I cameacross a transcription of birds' songs(Fig. 17) in the chapter "en WordsSing from the book entitled Ae Thinking Ear (Shafer, 1986 pp. 232-33). Suddenly,I was drawn to this transcription becauseof the similarities with the phonemesI was using in my practice-basedinvestigation. The repetitive aspectof letters and what looked like syllablesreminded me of sound poems. So, I decidedto ask some singersto sing their own interpretation of the transcriptions of the songs,in order to play with the interpretative processof thesetranslations. Having beentranslated first from birds' song into linguistic interpretations,now the birdsongswould be re-interpretedby the humanvoice. The soundsthat emergedfrom this study were later attachedto the animated birds in the shapeof calligrams. The outlines and letters of the text birds correspondedto the transcribedsound madeby eachbird; so making the birds sing their own visual-textual compositions. Nevertheless,the sound does not " See Interactive piece version on CD ROM. 74 correspondto the real bird; there was no attempt representthe bird with its real song and so here is where the title originated, as well as questionson learning, repetition and communicationin language. The visual characterof the typographical characterwas another important characteristicto take into considerationin the making of eachindividual bird, which thus leads me to the matter-of the materiality, virtuality and movementof the letter. 5.1 Visuality of Language: From the Material Letter to the Virtual Letter and Kinetic Typography. The original inspiration for exploring the potential of languageas a material form camefrom the experienceof 'holding languagein my hands'- lines if letterpresstype shapedin a composingstick whose weight and presencewere as much physical as linguistic- and from looking at languagein the world. (Drucker, 1998 p. 13) With the arrival of new technologiesthis physicalmateriality of the letter and consequentlyof language,as Drucker describes,is entirely changedin its becominga virtual letter; it cannot be held or felt. It can only be viewed; so what other methodsare being developedto hold and feel the letter? I will come back to this later in the chapter,presenting examples of digital work that explore amongstother things thesequalities of the virtual letter such as the work of Camille Utterback and Romy Achituv; Text Rain (1999). At this point, I would like to concentrateon how the 'virtual (in)materiality' of the letter has affected the meaningof its visuality. Or, in more generalterms, how does the digital alter the material? Even though the letters we are dealingwith in the digital medium are not physical objects - like the letterpressDrucker arrangeson a page to make her visual poems- they are still used and arrangedin a virtual page/space.In addition, the digital format hasbrought up new possibilitiesto experimentwith the visuality of the letter, and facilitated making it move and sound at once, if desired. With animationand interactive programmes,what before was suggested is now manifested,visual languageexists not only in the spatial, but also, like film it is time-based. 75 When developingBh-ds Singing othei-Birds'Songs I had to considerhow to make the letters move in spaceand time. To experimentwith kinetic typography I investigatedwhich programmewould best allow me to work with typography and animation. I found that the interactive programmeFlash was popularly used for animationsand that it permitted the importation of script files from Illustrator9o. I then experimentedwith type-forms, using different software programmes,to produce the shapesand imagesof the birds, which were then integratedinto the interactive programmeFlash. I explored the visuality of the letters and what they could provide to thesebirds to bestow them with a individual character-a subjectiveand quality - which later on I would connect to the sound and movementof the bird, to create its whole entity. At the same time, eachbird was part of a chorus, which was then able to produce different musical compositions. This leadsme to question the sign that we, as viewers/readers/listeners,are facing here. How are we going to formulate meanings?What intertextual relationshipsare being formed with thesevisual, aural, textual and moving calligrams? The animatedbirds engagewith the dual sign (verbal and the visual) of Visual Poetry. The graphic elementof the letter is exploited in the different typo- characters. The shapeof the birds, as with the calligrarnsis made of text. This text is the sound (language)of the birds, which is representedvisually (in the way that writing representsthe oral). Thus, as Bohn states'Situated in the intersection of legibility and visibility, the calligram.exploits the visual properties of languageand the semanticpossibilities of visual forms' (Bohn, 1986 p.49). Consequentlythe acts of looking and reading are activated simultaneously. Drucker states: Writing's visual forms possessan irresolvable dual identity in their material existenceas imagesand their function as elementsof language. Becauseof this fundamentaldualism, writing is chargedwith binary qualities. It manifestsitself with the phenomenalpresence of the imago and yet performs the signifying operationsof the logos. (Drucker, 1998 p.57) 90Illustrator is the programme used by Graphic Designers to work with typography because 76 Or, as in Barthes' second-orderserniological system, language and image intertwine in a dual sign of two setsof signifiers and signifieds-one verbal and 91 the other visual. On the other hand the sound, coupled with and important as the visual characterof the work, creates,as the Brazilian group Noigandl-es propose: a three-dimensional;vei-bi-voco-visital object. This object is formed by a linguistic sign with a visual quality. As sound is then also addedto the visual and semanticqualities of this sign, could we forage for a further new sign, a thi-eefoldsign? where we have to oscillate betweenthe linguistic, the visual and the aural. Also with the elementof movement,does the sign becomesmore fluid, somethingever changingand closer to the idea of diffet-ance,as it constantlydefers and relatesto different serniotic systems. If this is so, the materiality of the letter, so important in ConcretePoetry, has now been replaced by the electronic letter, with the resultant qualities alreadyalluded in my previous chapter: evanescent,generative and active. John Cayley in his essayThe Code Is Not The Text, (UnlessIt Is the Text) (2000), 92 languagein queriesthe materiality of programmablemedia - from the point of view of N. Katherine Hayles"flickering signifier'- in the work of certain codework artists, where code is seenas text. I was immediatelydrawn to the term 'flickering', there is no doubt that the flickering signifier strengthensthe visuality and consequentlythe materiality of the virtual letter. It also emphasises the ever-changingquality of digital writing and can work as a magnetfor viewers/readersto engagethem with the visuality and thus, the materiality of the virtual letter. As Cayley points out, the materiality of languageis one of the defining characteristicsof poetic writing and has as such becomean important critical concept in literary studies. In his essayTime CodeLanguage, New 93 Media Poetics and Nog7wmniedSignification, he writes: being vector basedallows for enlargementsor letters without losing quality or definition. 91 For a more detailed explanation seeBohn's diagram (1986 p.5 or Bartlies, 1957 p. 222) 92Cayley J. Article in Wcb-basedjournal. Electronic Book Review. 1 December 2002. 77 We speakof "the materiality of text" or "the materiality of language"in general,as if this might be an abstract characteristicwhen, in fact, it is the critical marker of linguistic and literary embodiment,recognisable only in terms of that embodiment. As N. Katherine Hayles puts it, "The materiality of an embodiedtext is the interaction of its physical characteristicswith its signifying strategies"(Hayles, 2003)94 (Cayley, 2004 forthcoming). Theseartistic and conceptualconcerns were explored in the production of Birds Singing other Birds'Songs but, once the work was finished, issuesof context and how it might influence the readingsof the work were considered;whether it was shown on a screen,as a projection, in an installation spaceor was web based. Which brings me to my next point. 5.2 Context and Versatile Feature of Digital Works With the pieceBirds Singing o1herBirds' S011gS,95the notion of context emerged becauseI was invited to show it in so many different places. A very important discoveryto come out of this work hasbeen its versatility in reshapingitself into different forms of media and possibilitiesof presentationand thus of exploration. It hasbeen presented as an installation or mixed reality environmentin the Medway Galleriesin the United Kingdom, as an interactive work on the web, as prints and on TV screenin La Huella Multiple in Cuba, as an interactive projection at the Radical conference-exhibitionin London, as a video projection at an International Symposiumof Electronic Arts in Japanand finally as an e- poem at the E-Poetry festival in Morgantown in the United States. I -Seffings,Medway Galleriesin the UK (Nov. 200 1). (Fig. 18) 2-Interactive work on the web: the poetries of network culture. 3-Prints and TV screenin La Huella Multiple, Filmoteca, Havana, Cuba (April 2002) (Fig. 19) 4- Interactive work- projection at Radical Conference-Exhibition (July 2002 94Hayles, N. Katherine. Translating Media: 11"hyTVe Should Rethink Textuality. The Yale Journal of Criticism 16, no. 2 (2003): 263-90 78 5-Video projection in ISEA, Japan(November 2002) 6- International E-Poetry festival, West Virginia University in Morgantown, USA (April 2003) The proposal for the video projection in Japanwas that it be projected onto a large glasswindow so that it could be seenfrom both the inside and the outside of a building. Unfortunately, in the event, the only availablesetting was in a warehouse,together with many other media works. This presenteda challenging environmentin which to enjoy the work as it was projected in the midst of so many other pieces,nonetheless, the work held its own ground, perhapsdue to its simple and meditative characterin sharp contrast with its busy environment. In the video version only one or two of the birds coincide and passeach other acrossthe middle of the sky. They emergerandomly, so that some appearmore often than others, as no control is imposedupon this. Thus, as the video was never projected in an open environment,(neither in an urban spacenor, as would also befit it, in the countryside, somewhatin the quality of Magritte) the possibility of a large glasswindow projection still remainsto be explored. This versatile feature of digital work is somethingto take into account when discussingits potential, as the context of the exhibition spacewill unavoidably affect the interpretation of the work. Therefore, as I wanted to allow this piece to be exhibited in different places,I wondered how thesedifferent contexts would influencethe evolution of the meaningof the work? It is not easyto asSeSS96how the meaningchanges depending on spaceand context but I will try to presentmy understandingof how I think some of its various contexts shapedBirds Singing other Birds'Songs. If I start with the installation at the Medway Galleries, where the work was projected onto a window of the room, as though looking out onto the world, this brings a wealth of associationsto Magritte's interrogation of reality, languageand the world. Then, in the spaceat the Filmoteca in Havana, as it was not possibleto project the video, I addedfive digital prints with the imagesof someof the birds to the work. Thesewere framed and presented 95 Mencia M. (See 79 alongsidethe video of the piece (a moving image and audio), which was on a TV screenof the samedimensions as the prints and was, likewise, framed. Although the work did still bring up notions of reality and language,the issueof representationbecame more evident becauseof the different media used. Lastly, when presentedit in an environmentoverpopulated with digital work - dealing with image, sound, movementand technology, in a warehouse,at the ISEA festival in Japan-new implications becameapparent such as; the new technologicalworld versusthe idyllic world of nature and birds. The next location where I have been invited to show the work will be an exhibition and conferenceon the subject of the 'Digital Word 597in Italy, it will be interestingto seewhat this new context brings to the work. Thus, with the idea of context in mind and the multiple ways to interrogate art and languagethrough the use of technology, I would like to explore and discussthe work of other artists/poets dealing with similar concerns. 5.3 Social Poetics/Public Textualities in Virtual and Physical Spaces Artists, poets, programmersand designersare exploiting the perspectivesthat new technologiesopen up for us. Mixing the virtual with the physical space provokes numeroustextualities of image, sound and text in the form of billboards, installations,web piecesand live performances. In opposition to ordinary discourse-structured and with linear syntax - there is the limitless and multi-dimensionallanguage that many artists are exploring as an alternativeway to perceiveand experiencelanguage. 5.3.1 Billboards The realm of media and advertisinghas absorbedthe languageof Visual Poetry and calligramshave becomeanother official way to engagepeople in the selling of their products. It makessense as advertisinghas always striven to reach as many people as possibleand in doing so has used explicit imagesand words 97The Word, Italy, < littp: //Nvww.associazioneorsa. org> 80 together to convey meaning. There are plenty of billboards in the city using this imagery. For instancein Fig.20, we seea billboard on the London underground advertisingholidays in the Caribbeanand presentingan image of a person,when we get closer we seethat his dreadlocksare formed by letters with the namesof the islands. Like the calligram it activatesthe simultaneousact of looking and reading. Reciprocally poetry has also beeninfluenced by this exchangeand has moved to other domainsaway from the page and into the public display. As Walter Benjamin states:Now the letter and the word which have rested for centuriesin the flat bed of the book's horizontal pageshave been wrenchedfrom their position and have been erectedon vertical scaffoldsin the streetsas advertisement'. (Benjamin, 1977 p. 568)98 Marjory Perloff argueshow poetry, like the visual arts, is contaminatedby media, actively engagingin the communicationmodels of every day discourseand representedin billboards as poetic spaces. JennyHolzer is an artist I would like to acknowledgein this area, as she has now and for many yearsbrought personal,introspective, expressivepoetic texts as well as socio-political commentariesinto the public arena,using a variety of mass-media,including boards, posters, plaques,billboards, benchesetc. However, in this chapterI do not wish to discussartists already acclaimedand known for their influence in the art world but would rather focus on creatorswho are trying to find innovative ways of working, using precisely as Perloff highlights the communicationmodels of every day discourse,of which the most used nowadays,are mobile phonesand the Internet. Working with thesetools is GiselleBeiguelman whom I met at the E-Poetry 2003 festival celebratedin Morgantown. Sheworks with (WOP=wirelessoperation protocol) to produce telecommunications-artsprojects. She discussedher projects, one in particular, where electronic billboards of Sdo Paulo had been programmedin real time via mobile phonesso that the interface of multiple surfacesinfluenced each other. For her, it was important to bring together codes,numbers, and new languages, 98 Quoted in (Pcrloff, 1991 p. 93) Pcrloff writes in her footnote to the quote: Walter Benjamin, "Zcntralpark, " Gcsammcltc Schrifen (Frankfurt: Sulirkap, 1977, vol. 1, p. 568. I cite the translation by Benjamin H. D. Buchloch in'opcn letters', Industrial Poems, 'Brodthaers. ff'ritings, Interviews, Photographs, ed. Benjamin H. D. Buchloch, special issue of October 42 (Fall 1987): 74. Buchloch's essay is subsequently cited in the text as BHDB and the issue itsself as OCT. 81 which were open to be transformed. Currently she is working on Gi-aflfis: where is invited Gi-aflfis the user to selectfrom - on her Web site99- symbols,language and graffiti to intervenewith messageson commercialelectronic billboards which are then re-broadcastvia web cam without her having any control over the content. Theseprojects are driven by strong socio-economicand telecommunications'interests and are undoubtedly creating new collaboratively 4poetic' 'textual' spaces,while questioningissues of communicationand exchangein virtual and physical spaces. In connectionwith these ideas is the work of Eric Sadin,a contemporary theoretician,media artist and editor of 6/arts'00. In his presentationat the 01-ai conference,ISEA 2002 in Nagoya, he questionedthe subject of contemporary cities in relation to text. He maintainsthat Information Society is part of poetry and literacy and interrogatesthe consequencesof this situation in languageand literature. He statesthat historical categoriesof text have changedwith the extensionof network devises:Internet, e-books, giant and multiple screens,neon signs,TV, electronic information, mobile phonesetc. The acts of reading, watching, and listening have amalgamatedinto a single act, bringing new ways In interview by of perception and thinking. an conducted Hiroshi Yoshioka - philosopher,theoretician of new media and teacherat IAMAS101-Sadin says: 'I am sure this will changethe meaningof literature, the meaningof writing and reading. It will changewhat culture means'. 'The experienceof reading through texts in the cities, tells us that the very notion of the "author" and the "reader" has 102 changeda great deal.' Although Sadin'swork, like Beiguelman's,deals with telecommunications,his interest is more focussedon literary concernsof intertextualities. following The work of the artists - as opposedto the area of billboards, cities and communication- has a more poetical approach. Instead of using existing 99Beiguelman, B. 82 devices,they recreatevirtual and physical spacesby use of projections in installationsand through the use of programming. 5.3.2 Installations In the area of installation work, although driven by very different motives, there are a couple of projects I would like to refer to for their playfulnessand engaging qualities as well as for the meditative and poetic spacethey recreate. Both pieces use languageas their medium and work as projections inviting the viewer to control the projected letters, making them move. Roberto Simanowski,when discussingconcrete and visual poetry in digital media and the levels of expressionthe latter can bring, says: While concretepoetry in print combineslinguistic and graphic qualities of words, in digital media time and interaction are two additional ways of expression.Words can appear,move, disappear,and they can do this all in reaction to the perceiver's input. (Simanowski: Concl-eteandPoetly in Analogue and digital Media p.7) 103 Although this characteristicof movementand changeis presentin most of the piecesthat I will be discussing,it is particularly poignant in thesetwo installations,perhaps because they involve the presenceof the user within the installation space. Camille Utterback and Romy Achituv produced Text Rain (1999) (Fig.21). This is an interactive installation where, when the viewers step into the installation, their imagesare integratedinto the projection screenof letters falling like rain and the letters begin to settle on their bodies, outlining them. According to the information found on the website of ars electronica104 the letters do not fall randomly, they are rather lines of a poem about bodies and languageand the viewer, (if he/sheremained long enough!) can collect enough letters to form a word or even an entire line of the poem. Aesthetically it could be comparedto Apollinaire's CalligramIt is i-aining (1914) (Fig.22). Theverbal and visual componentswork together, complementingeach other. Apollinaire focusesthe reader's awarenessof the spaceby altering the convention of reading 103Simanowski, R. 83 to top to bottom and creating an impressionof rain falling by having one letter underneaththe other. As in the caseof Utterback and Achituv, the poem, by use of digital technologies,is brought to the virtual and physical spaceco-inhabited by the visitors' bodies. David Small and Tom White createdAn Interactive Poetic Gat-denin 2000 (Fig.23). It was one of the exhibits at the AEC Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria. It consistsof a small gardenwith rocks and plants and different streams of running water culminating in a pool. There are words projected on the surface,floating like leaves.Visitors can sit at the edge of the pool and - without getting their handswet but insteadthrough a specialhand interface - can control the flow of words, push and pull them away and changethe content of the words themselves.The artists describe,as follows: The garden is the symbol of man's control over nature. An Interactive Poetic Gardenattempts to bring the computer into the garden in harmony with stone,water, and plant materials.The computer is used to drive a video projector, creating the illusion of text floating on the surfaceof the water.... An important designconcern was to have the words maintain an orientation and interletter spacingsuch that the words are legible most of the time. We decidedon a mass/springsystem in which eachletter of the word is a point massconnected to its neighbourletters with springs. Additionally, the first and last letter of the word is connectedwith a separatespring that pulls the letters of the word into a line. A force is applied to the first letter of eachword that propels it through the stream'. (David Small and Tom White) '05 Both groups of artists are concernedwith issuesof legibility and visuality of language. The letters are projected as though they are physical letters. In Text Rain, they mix with peoples'bodies and the projection thereof The participant can hold them in their virtual existenceas with Drucker's letterpress. They have the quality of the 'virtual' materiality: ephemeral,generative and dynamic. In the Intei-activePoetic Gat-denthe letters are moved around as if they were leavesor pebbles. Their materiality manifestsitself in the new textual virtual materiality of the garden. The languageprojections are mixed with the physicality of the 104ars electronica 84 body and that of the garden and in both caseshave the addedquality of movementand time which new technologiespermit. Another artist relevant to this discussionis Bill Seaman.106 1 would like to acknowledgehim for his interactive poetic texts. He exploreslanguage, image and sound relations and has been producing technological artworks for about twenty years. I have read someof the descriptionsof his works, where viewers/usersare invited to construct and generatepoetic worlds and poetic texts through selection,associations or combinationsof words, imagesor soundsand to navigatethrough interfacesof connectedimages and text. Sometimesthis can be achievedin a linear way but he also exploresthe many possibilitiesof multi- linear narrativesof image, sound and text. Music is also a strong elementin many of his interactive pieces. Unfortunately, I have not had the chanceto seeor experienceany of his works and therefore cannot comment on individual pieces. In 1999 he concludedhis doctoral thesis entitled: RecombinantPoetics: Emei-gentMeaning as Examined and Exploi-ed Within a Specific Genel-ative Vii-Iiial Envii-onment. He writes in his abstractto the thesis: 'it focuseson the inter-conveyanceof text (both spoken and written), image (both still and time- based)and music. In so doing, he createda virtual interactive artwork intended to generateemergent meaning and thus made a remarkablecontribution towards the exploration of image, sound and text in convergentand generativemedia. 5.3.3 Performance Subsequentto the tradition of performing SoundPoetry there is a great deal of experimentationin digital/sound poetics by use of different software packagesin exploring notions of languageand art in live performances. In the E-Poetry Festival 2003,1 met Jbrg Piringer. He is a performancesound poet basedin Austria, where he designsinteractive poetry, sound and visual explorations and performs live with multimedia typographicalbackgrounds. In the E-Poetry Festival ; 003, he performed in the dark, non-semanticvocal soundswith a 106Seaman B. 85 background of industrial soundsand projections of kinetic letters and text made interactive Flash. The with the programme whole performance- the various aspectsof image, sound, text and the performative - held well together, it was bold and dynamic. He has also produced for the web what he calls digital sound visital intei-activepoeny etc. In [soundpoemone]107 there is an interface of small circles with one or two letters in each. The users can make their own musical compositionsby selectingthe soundsand dragging them to four bigger squares. The soundsof the letters are a machinesimulation of how they sound when mixed with other soundsof an industrial nature. Dependingon the number of circles draggedinto the squares,the sound increasesor decreases.Also, the rhythm of the compositionsis determinedby the amount of circles the user placesin each square. Thesenew forms of poetry and technology performancesare not going to substituteor overshadowthose of artists such as Bob Cobbing or bill bissett - where the voice plays a much stronger part, there being no other soundsin the performance- but they serveto acknowledgethe presenceof new times and with this new codes. They addressunderground influencesin music and the culture of dark warehousesand with this a whole new youth subcultureand its concerns. 5.3.4 Machine Made Poems or Programming Code Poetry in this section, I have consideredartists/poets/theoreticians, who question the progamminglanguage (code) that generatesthe digital language/artwork,as being a part of it, or at least, as relevant as the work itself in the production of meaning. in the signification of the code basedwork there are different opinions as to what makesthe work; is the code part of the work or is the result of the code that which makesthe work? Thesemutually confronting views will decide therefore, Hayles' flickering is in whether signifier the code or outside the code. Cayley - 107Piringer J. 86 whom I have already mentionedbecause of his researchin the materiality of languagein programmablemedia - arguesthat the code is not the text: It is not a set of (non-sequential)links in a chain of signifiers; the code is what makesthem flicker, what transforms them from writing as record of static or floating simultaneitiesinto writing as the presentationof atoms of signification which are themselvestime-based (they are not what they are without their flickering transformationsover time, however fleeting thesemay be). (Cayley J. (2002) The Code Is Not the Text (Unless It Is the Text). Article in Web-basedjournal: Electi-onic Book Review 2002)108 Thus, for the viewer/reader/user,unless he/she understands which code is being used, the result is what will count, the movementand constant changeof the letters into other letters; the code being the mechanismto make the letters flicker. 109 In addition to codeworks Cayley has also written on Pro-gramatology. He produceswhat he calls'literary workswith morphing text, imagery and sound piecesusing a hyper-card. In his view, as given in 'Code is not the text' he also clarifies that this is so 'unlessit is the text'. In fact, he has made some codeworks, where he has extracted from HyperTalk, segmentssimilar to natural languageto make what he calls 'human-readabletexts which are also segmentsof interpretable,working code'. (Cayley, The Code Is Not the Text (Unless It Is the Text). on write repeat twice do "global "& characteristics end repeat repeat with programmers= one to always if touching then put essentialinto invariance else put the round of simplicity * engineering/ synchronicity + one into invafiance 10" Cayley, 87 endif if invariance> the randomof engineeringand not categorical then put ideals+ one into media if subversivethen put false into subversive end if if media > instantiationthen put one into media end if else put the inscription of conjunctions+ one into media end if if categoricalthen put false into categorical put media into ideals put word media of field "text" of card understanding& "text" into potential if the mouseis down then put conjunctionsinto potential put potential into card field agents put true into encoded exit repeat end if inflect wait manipulation put potential into conjunctions put ideals into world if performed then put false into performed if programmersare greater than control and media & comma is in field computer of card understanding& "text" then exit repeat end repeat if not encodedand not touching then if ideals are developedthen wait five seconds lock screen put empty into card field agents put empty into card field system do "unlock screenwith dissolve" & fantasies end if end write25110 On the other hand, his work Overboard (2003) is very different to the previous one. The code is hidden, it is not part of the text, it is what moves the text. The text (white letters) moves as if floating on a black background. It is beautiful to 110Cayley J. The Code Is Not the Text (Unless It Is the Tex). Article in web journal Electronic Book Revieiv 2002. 88 watch as it has a kind of contemplativequality, it is in someways similar to watching the sea. The letters move slowly along the lines of the poem, it is a poem and it has the image of a traditional poem, neverthelessthe text generates and shifts by having slight changesof letters in every word. The reader is made to play, searchingfor meaningsas the flickering signifiers changeover time and can only be read as such. Cayley provokes this searchby programming the changesof letters in a way that they changeto other letters with similar formal qualities. As for instancethe round characterssuch as "a" will changeto "o" or "e", whilst the "? would became"t" and so on. He presentedthe beginning of this work at the E-Poetry festival 2003, accompaniedby videos of the seaand a samplefrom the song Thi-oivout the fine by Low, from their alburn'Long Division'- played on different laptops throughout the presentationspace. This was an excellentway to immersepeople into the work to becomepart of the poem and with it the sea. Nevertheless,I think the poem, without the sound or the imagesof the sea,works well as an independentpiece and I wonder whether theseadded elements take the viewer/reader away from the core of the work, whatever that is, as here, obviously-the intentions of the author and the different interpretationsof the readers/viewers,apply. Theorist Florian Cramer is also interestedin the relationshipbetween poetry and program code. He explores how computer programmesrelate to literature and seescode as artistic material, which addresseshuman imagination. In the E- Poetry festival 2003, he presenteda paper entitled "en Willing ExecutesItself, in his presentationhe showed code that would disrupt computer processes making the computer crash,writing that would wipe itself out in both sensesof the word 'execute'. He comparedsome code-made poems with the concrete poem of Eugen Gomringer, where the latter permutesthe text in the sentence"no error in the system" (Fig. 24), he points to the languagepermutations made by Gomfinger on the page and with the programmecode, in the computer. He writes: 89 The error signified by the initial T of the correspondingGerman word 'Fehler',moves right in eachline until the initial order has beenrestored. However, sincethe error is induced in strictly systematicway, there's no error in the poem. (Cramer,Install. exeljodi cataloguep. 18) Cramer is in favour of sharingthe code and recycling it as an'open source aesthetics'and is interestedin artists/programmesthat work in this way producing what could be called Computer Poetry. Among net artists he "a mentionedJodi, partnershipof two artists, central figures of net art, who disturb data and create simulationsof computer crashesand virus infections. They fake software using animatedgraphics and text (Fig.25). In the catalogue of Jodi's recent exhibition at the EyebeamGallery in New York - Insfall. exeljodi (2003)- Cramer refers to the Dadaist languageof Tristan Tzara's instructions to his readers:' "To make a Dadaist poem" by cutting out the single words of an arbitrary newspaperarticle, mixing them and taking out " the scrapsone after another in the order in which they left the bag"'."' What he intends to demonstrateis that although the results are random the instructions are not, as with artists working with code language. He writes: In comparisonto Gomringer'spoem, Jodi's sourcecodeis typographically, linguistically and semanticallyricher, and it differs from Tzara's poem code as well in that it does not separatea poetic collage from a non- collage algorithm. Treating both sourcecodeand its output as artworks in their own right, it employsthe methodsof pasticheand ready-madeon the sourcecodeitself (Cramer,Install. exeljodi cataloguep. 18) I had the opportunity to seeJodi's codework at the Eyebeamgallery in April 2002. The building is to be reconstructedinto a post-modem, futurist building but is currently in the form of a warehouse;an open spaceof red brick and cement. As you enteredthe gallery you were faced with a long table of old computers showing work alluding to computer games,but what caught my attention were the four big projections placed next to each other on the wall of the largest open space(Fig. 25). The projections revealedcode and text simultaneouslyin the sameinterface. The imageswere those found in the computer working space,that is; folders, files, windows, menus,symbols, 111Install. exe/jodi catalogueof their exhibition at EyebeamGallery in New York (p. 18) or (Tristan Tzara Pour fair une podmedadiste. In Oevres compldtcs. Gallimard, Paris, 1975). 90 balloons, arrows, trash basketsetc. These are imageswhich we take for granted and which are no longer questioned,as they are part of our everydaycomputer language. There were also soundsassociated with computers- beepsand other gamerelated sounds. This all formed a world of computerisedimages, numbers, codes,symbols, letters, all moving at once and constantlychanging, generating multiple layers of 'disinformation' making referenceto the information technology age. The remarkablething is that afler seeingthis imagery, the look of your computer screen/interfacewill becomethe visual/poetic/codeablespace of Jodi's work. A very different approachto electronic writing, code and languageis found in the work of Loss Pequefio Glazier, founder and director of the Electronic Poetry Centre in Buffalo. 112His interest lies in how computer technology has influencedand altered the writing and distribution of poetry. His book Digital Poetics (2002) is an enlightenedsource of information where he establishesthe historical and technological grounds from which electronic poetry has emerged and displaysthe potential of the new medium. He mainly concentrateson the study of hypertext, code basedwork and kinetic/visual textualities. in his paperEpilogue. Betweenthe Academy and a HardDi-ive: All E-cology of Innovative PI-actice (2000), Glazier questionswhat makesan electronic literary work innovative. He arguesthat if, in order to understandwhat makesa printed work of literature innovative, we have to find out, how meaningfunctions within the work, so the samerules must apply to a new electronic work. For him an innovative work is not one where languagedisplays a transparencyof meaning but rather, where it regardsthe production of meaningas problematic. He clarifies 'problematic'as not related to vaguenessbut to the way the work deals with the material elementsof writing. Thus, in the caseof electronic poetry, as already addressed,what are the material elements?He concentratesmainly in works dealingwith code, interface and text as theseare the main constitutive elementsof his work. He says: 112Glazier L. P. 91 How does one investigatethese three scenesof activity? How does one describetheir dynamics?How does one learn the contours of the digital text, its quirks, its marvellousinterweaving of strandsof code, surface language,the conditions in which it exists? How does one educateabout temporality, discontinuity, error messages,material that is there one minute and is not the next, the "not found". (Glazier, 2000 P. )113 He thinks that in order to examinewhat constitutes electronic literature, we must focus on work that is creating new conceptsbased on textuality and the electronic medium and that are taking them further. He agreeswith N. Katherine Hayles' statementon 'Print is Flat, Code is Deep' pointing out that writing can no longer be generatedfrom the ideasthat are anticipatedfrom print. For him it is the making of the work that 'makeswriting tick', as opposedto the work as representation. I associatethis writing with writing about writing; that is when the material and the tools that produce the work, are the work. With the electronic medium, new tools such as interfacesand code appear,in the same way as previously functioned the marks of the pencil or the typewriter and with thesenew tools, we need appropriate discoursesto examinethe consequentnew paradigmsand textualities. Glazier writes: 'We need to discover adequateterms and an appropriatediscourse to describethe unfathomedrichness of the materials of the digital medium. We needto really get into digital textuality'. 114(Glazier, 2000 p.6) Glazier's work is driven by text, which emergesfrom code. He does not believe in creating personalisedworks of art basedon the T, what he refers to as an 4omniscient narrator', but he is interestedin writing that is openedto the social- spatial environmentof the network. He seesthe power of the processesof languagesand computer languagesas being related. He saysthat a poet can make art with a computer languageand in one such piece,Io SonoAt Swoons".5 he strives to explore how to make languagewith that art. He writes: 113Glazier L. P. Epilogue. Between the A cademy and a Hard Drive: An E-cology ofInnovative Practice. (2000from OU open letter on lines online, 92 The processof this work is not dissimilar to the developmentof natural languages. How sound crossesover, how words migrate, form new conjunctions. How phraseslinger, last forever'... And he continues The bilingual nature of this piece extends to its code. It grew from a dialogue between the visual structure of its code and how the resultant text looked and sounded when rendered. It was back and forth process: seeing how the text sounded and adding to it, seeing how the code looked and adding to it. Incrementally, the code was adjusted to mould the sound and image. Then more code was added. Then the sound and visual was shaped further, and so on. This continued until a balance was reached, the code and the sound/ on screen visuality achieving a balance ' 16 or harmonic. Example of 'unrepeatable' piece of text from the poem: cho:less Pequoepressing their palms together ssh stenv DISPAY spero rivederla presto molto Diwali eek of Wadgloss -ette hay reglassTecatearch Andale eco Of lip pressingtheir palms togethercalledthe dura onset Balasanael( baby oil and iodine 17 shardHo comprato il libro e Fho letto tutto. 1 At the E-Poetry Festival 2003, Glazier was readingthis poem as it was being executedin front of the readers(himself and the audience). This performance and his interpretation of the poem at that particular moment was as unique as the revealedtext. The readingsare never again the same,as the work is programmed to generatedifferent texts. It is an ever- changingpoem, as both the speechand communicationchange and flow continuously. The multi-linguistic aspectof the work has similaritieswith the processof learning a language,borrowing from what you hear, putting it all together and shifting from one languageto another to form a kind of pidgin language. 116Passage taken from handout given by Glazier at E-Poetry Festival 2003. 93 Questioningthis notion of multiple possibilities and exploring the undefined 118 laws which producedthese digitalized texts, is Jean-PierreBalpe. He also took part in the E-Poetry 2003 Festival. He argued in his presentationthat as text is no longer fixed, definitive, linear or always the same,to establishits value we need a new criteria, where all aspectsof the previous criteria relating to fixed printed text, needto be revisited and reinvented. He questionedwhat digital text and e-poetry are and the relationshipbetween text and the reader/writer, bringing to the fore someinteresting notions. The following, are someisolated sentences taken from his presentation: The relationshipwith the reader is very different becauseof multiple E-poetry's is to but to readings... variation not support memory change, having the capacity to never expressthe samething the sameway. It text in time It's discovery: shows generator operating real ... a processof be The betweentime we can't predict what exactly will written ... relation and text is important in that it is temporary. Each text is an announcement of other possibletext... Moving of the text inside the languagein which it is in languagein they The written, readersare a model of which read... meaningis only one of the possiblemeanings it has: it has a meaningin itself, and further meanings... Readeris put in the strangerelation of language time is the the texts and ... e-poetry opposite of publicity; of e- poetry are infinite not eternal. (Balpe, JIP)119 The interest in textualities that are constantlychanging with no fixed text or meaning,the reader-writer relationship, intertextual relationshipsand meaning production are also issuesaddressed by Simon Biggs in his work. For this 120 purpose,I have selectedone of his pieces: The Gi-eat Wall of China. It is basedon the story of the sametitle by Kafka with a databaseshaped by the words from the story, and usesthe Gi-eat Wall of China as a metaphor to bring impossibly from far - almost - messages one end of the wall to the other end of the endlessKafkian wall. Biggs has madeuse of the ChomskianFormal Grammarsdiscussed in the previous chapter as an engineto programme sentenceswith syntacticalcoherence but nonsensicalmeaning. These 117Glazier LY 94 generatefrom the text when the user interacts with it, making the actions of writing and reading simultaneous. As part of the work there are also images, which are not there to illustrate the text but as another self-generatedcode - just as the text - to form part of the reading and writing process. Roberto Simanowski,discussing Biggs's work in his essayAlealofic as Enfighlenineid,121 writes: We have enteredthe realm of nonsensepoetry which takes chanceas one of its main principals. However chanceis used - throwing the dice, taking drugs, or cutting words out of a news paper - it is an aestheticmeans of going beyond traditional, familiar and predictableways of seeingand describingthings. It sets out to overcomethe old, shallow tracks of creativity. (Simanowski, 2003) Simanowskipoints out that although the relationshipbetween literature and chanceexisted before the computer, with it, numeroustexts can be produced randomly. Wherever there is not a straightforward, transparentand coherent text, there always seemsto emergethe question of meaning,what does it mean? Where is the meaningin the work and of the work? For instance,Biggs - in an interview which can be found on his website on the subjectof Technology,Aura, and Ihe Seýfin New Media Arl: Aura in DigilalArf and the Authors Sig7iafilre ill 122 Greal Wall of China - when askedregarding the meaningof the work, explainsthat having taken the data for the vocabulary of the text, from Kafka's story, it is irrelevant to the meaningof the work - it could have easily been taken from another story - it only works by making the readerwho perhapsknows about Kafka, to create associations.He claims that the meaningis in the intertextuality; the relationshipbetween the parts and how one aspectmodifies another,finding out how the interactivity functions and appreciatingthe infinite boundlesstext. His aim lies therefore not in constructing meaningful sentences but in producing meaning. Simanowskion the subject of meaningwhen discussingBiggs'work in his Aleatoric as Enlightenment essaystates: 121Glazier, L. P. & Cayley J., eds. Ergodic Poetry: A Special Section of the Cybertext Yearbook 2002. Edited by Markku Eskelinen and Raine Koskimaa, Publications of the ResearchCentre for Contemporary Culture: Cybertext Yearbook. Jyv5skyld: University of JyvaskyM,2003 (forthcoming). 122Biggs intcn, ie%N,cd by Simanowski: 95 Longing for the message is the ever-present longing for meaning, for the holy word, be it that of God, the emperor, Marx or anyone, who promises to make sense of our lives. For this we wait looking at the open window in those moments when we have time to ask questions of Why and To What End. (Simanowski, 2003)123 On the notion of clarity, transparentmeaning and sense,Simanowski very effectively relatesthe idea of making senseto the tower of Babel and the unity of languages,which will provide a commonunderstanding under the samewalls. To have unity he says,everybody needsto live in the samehouse of language and this requiresa wall. The punishmentgiven by God for wanting to reach heavenwas the misunderstandingcaused by the multiple languages. On the other hand he relatesthe wall to the Berlin wall which was built to separate differencesand suppressmulti-lingualism. He says:'It is about filling up people with certain knowledge and providing them with a certain point of view. ' (Simanowski, in Aleatoric as Enlightenment,Cyberlext Yearbook2002-2003 forthcoming) Simanowskipoints out how with critical theory nowadays meaninghas shifled from spaceto time and he gives as exampleDerrida's idea of differance, alreadydiscussed in the thesis as an ongoing processof deferring and differentiating, which never endsand thus never reachesthe truth. As with Biggs' Great Wall of China, the messagenever reachesto the other side of the wall, we never find the truth. He refusesmeaning and with it a common law of understanding,it brings misunderstandingthrough nonsense,there is opennessto multiple interpretations. The messagethat never reachesits destination representsthat incommunicativespace, where in my view, ideasgenerate and move forward. The truth is perhapsnot to do with clear messagesbut with unansweredquestions, as with the languageof art. Simanowskiplaces Biggs' Great Wall of China alongsideDerrida's view and claims that this can be an exampleof artwork, which although working with literature, produces art. He writes: This is the moment that literature turns into conceptualart. By drawing our attention to the act of signification from the first beginning "Great < littp: //Nv%Nw.diclitung-digital. conV2002/04-20-Biggs.litm > (Accessed26/10/03) 123Glazier L. P. & Cayley J eds. (2003 forthcoming) Ergodic Poelry. A Special Section of the Cyberlext Yearbook2002. Eskelinen M. and Koskimaa P, eds. Jyvaskyla: Publications of the ResearchCentre for Contemporary Culture: University of Jyvaskylfi. 96 Wall of China" talks about story telling without telling a new story. (Simanowski, 2003 Aleatoric as Enlightenment essayin Cybei-lext Yeai-book2002-2003 forthcoming) 5.3.5 Net based work The digital domain of web poetics/art is diverse and although many of the works previously discussedare representedon the web, here I would like to focus on piecesof work, which are germaneto this cultural/social spaceand either make referencesto it or use it to their advantage. I have selectedworks of a very different nature so that their contrasting aspectsshow the possibilitiesthat the web provides in terms of writing spaces,processes, collaboration and interactivity. I will start with a multi-user project MIEICAL aTqD124(with the help of Zon Wakest) presentedat the E-Poetry Festival 3003. It was a real-time multi- authoring and editing environmentknown as a WIKI which representsthe Internet as a collaborative, participatory medium and sharedenvironment. In the WIKI the user can simultaneouslyread the text and make changesto it at the sametime as other users, thus working collaboratively in the samewebpage. I found this to be great fun, and a fabulousway to communicateand develop dialoguesacross the Internet. There is no programming involved so the average user can easilyunderstand and follow the way it works. The system(which employsXML) holds the possibility to co-author (co-edit, 60-destruct) writing/images/linksonline. Mez (Mary-Anne Breeze) also usescode in her e-poetry net-works together with imagesand language. Shehas developedwhat she calls a mezangelletext. 125 Thesetexts are formed by email exchanges,computer code, SMS communication,sound and images. Alphabetic charactersare replacedwith numerals,while punctuation marks and new associationsare createdwhen a new 124mlEKAL aND < ]ittp: //cla.umn. gddLi/ipglirs/> L-_ (Accessed 29/06/03) 173Mez, 97 syllableis introduced into a word. This forces the reader make a closer examinationof the text and so doing to experiencenew readings. Annet Dekker - curator of The Pleasure ofLangitage exhibition at the NetherlandsMedia Art Institute, Montevideo/Time Based Arts (August24-September28)-writes on Mez: By introducing punctuation marks reading becomesan active procedure that is more in the tradition of oral then literary culture. In addition to providing a new languageinspired by new communicationsmedia, mez also wants to overturn other traditions. And continues: Like no other, mez employsthe hyperstructuresof the Internet and brings to the surfacethe underlying meaningsin language. The readersare left to wonder; should they trust the inscription or the encryption? 126 (Dekker, ISEA 2002 p.79) As Dekker states,she appropriatesthe narratives,structures and new languages of the Internet, though whether the readerwill perseverewith it is another matter, as Mez languageis quite sophisticatedand demandssome time and effort on the part of the user to understandthe use of her language. On first impressionit can appearto be too denseto penetrateand thus not so engaging. An artist/theoreticianworking with electronic writing or as he calls it literary hypermedia,who in my opinion fully engagesthe viewer/readerwith his web- 127 productions is Talan Memmott. He, like the previous artists, employs codes, symbols,sound, imagesand language. He has found a fascinatingway to theorise without using traditional discourse,rather by implying it through net- works. In his work The Poi-li-ail of the, 01ist, he is revealing art history through continuous generativeimages of segmentsfrom artists' portraits mixed together in a collage in random combinations,running simultaneouslywith an accompanyingtext about the artists, also generatedrandomly. Thesemixtures create a mishmashof information, which can be absolutelyoutrageous and 126Dekker A. The Pleasure ofLanguage, Orai. ISEA 2002 Catalogue. And also found at The Netherlands Media Art Institute, Montcvidco/Time Based Arts. < http: //Nyw%v.montevidco. nl> (Accessed25/02/03) 127Mennnott T. 98 128 extremelyfunny. His work Lexia to Peiplexia is an extraordinarily sexy piece,which in my opinion awakensthe reader'scuriosity for more. It is a piece, which engageswith new media digital discourses,expressed through a rich hypermedialanguage. Memmott was trained as a visual artist, worked with painting, video, installation, performanceand also trifled with directing iheatre. Theseinterests are clearly revealedin his electronic works. He states: Electronic writing sort of pulls together all of theseinterests - from painting, to performance,theater and text. It's all part of what I think of as electronic writing, " he said. Once the Web took off and the technologiesinvolved started getting better, that is when I madethe seriousleap into electronic writing. Writing code is part of the writing. It's an expandedview of text. 129(George Street Journal 11.2002) ShelleyJackson - one of the Judgesat trAce / Alt-X New Media Writing Award 2000- reflecting on this, writes: 'Memmott borrows as much from the conventionsof htmI code as from the not much less difficult codesof Deleuzian theory, metamorphosingthem into a jammed, fractured diction full of slashes, dots and brackets'.130 She summarisesbeautifully, what I also believe to be, the core of his argument,she writes: Some of Memmott's most elegantarguments are madevisually, through the logic of layout and the grammar of the link. While in much new media writing it is possibleto considerthe design and the "content" separately(sadly, it is usually the content that comesup short), this piece calls such distinctions into question. It is impossibleto decidewhere designends and the text proper begins. This improper text is as much madeup of buried coding and spatial logic as it is of ordinary English words. In fact such words as it contains are neither ordinary nor exactly English anymore. A new mediawriter hasto be good at writing code as well as sentences.(Jackson S. trAce / Alt-X New Media Writing Award 2000) 128Lexia to Perplexia wan the trAce / Alt-X New Media Writing Award 2000 (the most prestigious prize yet offered in the field, the Electronic Literature Organization's prize in fiction writing). 129Memmott T. 99 In questioningthe role of the reader in his text, I find the readerto be an active 131 performer, he/shebecomes absorbed in the viewing and the analysing. As Jacksonwrites: 'The visuals though beautiful are not only decorativebut ' 132'What do IS the text' 133 The the syntactical. you-the-reader . presenceof author, nevertheless,is still there, as Memmott's signatureis quite clear and unique. In its own distinctive way, eachof the projects usesthe prominent characteristics of the Internet--an open systemand participatory medium that allows for seeminglyendless reconfigurations of data--andmakes its unique statementon "network culture." The issuesdealt with in this chapter,through the study of the different perspective,possibilities and the approachesused by the artists/poets/theoreticians,could be summarizedin the following quote by Lanham: The conceptual,even the metaphysical,world that digital text creates- dynamic rather than static, bi-stable rather than mono-stable,open-ended rather than self-contained,participatory rather than authorial, basedas much on image and sound as on word - is the world of post-modem thought, the world which beganwith Italian Futurism and Dada is now the focus of theoretical discussionsin disciplinesall acrossthe human sciences.(Lanham, 1994 p. 132). To this could also be addedthe multiple spacesthat these digital texts of image, sound and text can inhabit and the ability of this new genre to transgress boundaries,which leadson to my final conclusion. 131Due to the fact that thesekinds of texts use unconventional ways of writing and the writing is not transparentbut acquires qualities of the visual codes,a more 'active' involvement in the reading/writing production of the text is required in my view - this, as opposedto conventional text, where the reader knows the establishedprecepts under which the text has been constructed. 132Jackson S. trAce / Alt-X New Media Writing Award 2000 (Accessed23/06/03) 133Jackson S. trAcc I Alt-X New Media Writing Award 2000 (Accessed23/06/03) 100 6.0 Chapter 6 Conclusion The focus of this investigation has remainedconstant although there have been slight changesin the title. I will therefore begin by explainingthe purpose of thesechanges, which are more to do with the linguistic, in terms of expressing the core of this explorative work, than content. The original title was: Communicativepi-ocess: Fi-om Visual Poeny to Digital &I. An investigation hito the use of Text-Image-Soundto expl-esssemanticlilon- semalitic meaning withiii litei-my and visual-digital i-epi-esentatiomI changedit to: Fi-om Visual Poehy to Digital Ay-t:Aii im,estigatim hito the use ofImage- Sound-TextM conveigem media and the developmentof new media laitguages. The study dealswith the notion of meaning,to developnew media languages through the interweaving of image, sound and text by aid of technological media. I am thus concernedwith producing theselanguages, which consequentlywill generatenew meanings. Instead of new media languagesI have also used the term 'communicativesystems'. The word 'system'can perhapsbe associatedwith somethingregimented and with clear specificationof its componentparts. Therefore, I beganto use the term'new media language',as languageis a more open term and seemedto describebetter what I was developingin my practice- basedwork and the theoretical framework that was being developedthroughout the investigation. I also discarded the word "literary" as it would have further confused matters. Visual Poetry involves both literary and artistic genres and this is what I meant by 'within literary and visual- (digital) representation'. I do not deal with literary work, as understood conventionally, however, the research is based on the literary concerns of Visual Poetry and I have transferred some of the main conceptsfrom the literary genre of Visual Poetry to Digital Art. 101 Also, I used the term 'visual-digital' representationbecause at the time I put forward my proposal for this investigation in 1999, there were not yet terms, which could define properly the genre, in which could be accommodatedthe work which has come out of this study. At the moment it could perhapsbe placedunder the umbrella of 'convergentmedia' because,as the nameconveys, it is an amalgamationof different media to produce one, in this case,that of Image- Sound-Text. Also, by presentingmy work at conferences,it has gathered recognition within the new genre of e-poetry (electronic poetry) due to the linguistic principles that support and advancethe work and the use of electronic media to achievethese textualities of Image-Sound-Text. Therefore, in this study I have sought to investigate'communicative systernsTnewmedia languages'by exploring the visuality as well as the semantic and aural characteristicsof language,and by taking as point of departure Kristeva's ideasof 'the serniotic' or pre-linguistic and 'the symbolic' or linguistic. I have developedfour piecesof practice-basedwork using digital technologiesto produce interactive multimedia piecesand video installations. To find ways to deconstructthe conventionalmechanisms in the formation of meaninghas been the focus of much of my work but always with the aim to create other meaningswhere the linguistic and the pre-linguistic come together. Being Visual Poetry, a genre where thesetwo categoriescan exist together, I have experimentedin transferring the underlining principles used in Visual Poetry into Digital Art. I set out to addressquestions of visuality, aurality and meaningin language;the position of the letters in the page/interface;the non- linear structuresof multiple layers (image, sound, text); the role of the reader/writer/author now known as the 'user'; interactivity and the multiple readingsof the work and the collaborative nature of new technologies. The use of computer technology to manipulateimage, sound and text has transferredthe textualities of Visual Poetry into a more three-dimensionalspace, where the work can embracethe spaceand the user, as well as expandingits collaborative nature and distribution through the web. It hastransformed the into 'flickering it is static signifier the signifier'; not only about space- the space 102 letter of the page - but also about time and movement. The materiality of the becomes virtual but remains material in its visual representation and in the meaning of this visuality. The sign as signifier and signified, disintegrates as such. Whilst sound was previously implied in the poems through various for instance, techniques - with phonetic and spelling connotations - with the digital medium sound can now become part of the same work as the visual element, the sound is there, in its 'virtual' flesh. The dual sign becomes a three- fold sign of textuality, visuality and aurality in a'multimedial' form. As Lanham puts it we are looking 'at it' and 'through it' in these new textualities of interlaced image, sound and text. New syntaxes of layers, links and navigational systems open up new possibilities of expression in order to generate these interactive textualities. We are presented with a trans-semiotic technological system, which we are then invited to decipher. Because of this, we are developing new ways of reading, learning and gathering information and therefore new conventions of reading, looking, producing and thinking are consequently being defined. To 134 quote Wilton Azevedo: The practice of poetry in the format of a program on digital support suggeststhat his 'co-author-articulator' is permitted to use a languageof polysemanticdevices. Even though simulating machinesthat write, and edit sound it createsweaves interlaced with very fine threadswhich make us unableto identify them using the culture of our perceptions.(Azevedo, The Inlei: poefic Interniediat-ity 2002 p.2) Through these characteristicsof the synthesizedimage, in which this whole universe of signs coexists in hybrid form, human perception began to create new interdisciplinary criteria for perception and cognition. (Azevedo, Hype design: A Culfin-e ofAccess 1994 p.3) The interactive text of Visual Poetry makesthe reader/vieweraware of the visual and linguistic systemsof representationby requiring the two to be put together to produce meanings. In the digital format interactivity is enhancedin various ways; for instance,the different readingsare not only experiencedby the user, but the actual work can evolve every time the user interacts with it. By programming the work to do so, it acquiresthe quality of "ever-changingness", like humanbeings. 134Azevedo W. < littp: //ivww. wiltonazevcdo.com. br > (Accessed15/09/03) 103 Another quality often found in interactive digital works is an elementof play and a senseof participation for users. This can help to engageand involve the user in the experienceof the work and can also take place in a multi-user domain which can involve a number of users at the sametime, even from different parts of the world. Consequentlythis spaceof play and participation opensup the world of 'in betweens' that an interactive work such asAnothei- Kind ofLangilage highlighted. This is defined not only by the 'in between'image, sound and text but also those 'in betweens'generated by the shift from effortless participation to 135 an ergodic interactivity of choosing and taking decisions. The user becomes aware of looking and reading, of the languagesinvolved, of what his/her participation is bringing to the work and how the work can evolve. In addition, there is also the'in between'which definesthe user and the machine,the mouse, the interface and the user's activities which reveal the work. The interaction of the public has allowed me to assessif the 'in between' area of the pre-linguistic and linguistic, of spontaneousplay and rational thinking, were coming together in my practice-basedresearch. In addition, the presentationof the artwork in different contexts generatedpossibilities for creating new meaningsthat demonstrateand emphasiseboth the versatility and adaptability of the digital format and new media languages. Another interesting realisation emergingfrom this practice-basedresearch has beenthat eventhough it is substantiallytheoretically grounded, and has been recognisedin academicand artistic circles, it has also beenwell receivedby the ordinary public at open exhibitions. For me, as an artist, the ability to reach the public is essential. It is all about creating that dialogue betweenthe public, the artist, the artwork and context. What new territories are there to be explored? What issuesare there to discussor new notions to discover?Art, in my view, while not necessarilytransparent, has to be compelling. 135 Understood as Aarseth's definition of ergodic as "non-trivial cffort" in liypertcxt navigational structures: SeeCybertext, Perspectiveson Ergodic Literature (1997). Term appropriated from the area of dynamical systemsand ergodic theory in Mathematics. 104 Finally, and most satisfyingly, is the opportunity to have been able to contribute to the formation of a genre that transgressesboundaries and questionsnotions inherentin literature, art and new technologies. Most of this work has been developedwithout the resourcesof a professional studio, principally due to the lack of resources,however there are many possibilitiesto develop the work further and exploit the collaborative nature of such new technologies. I have alreadymade contacts for future researchin the areaof electronic writing and recognition of handwriting charactersto produce generativehandwriting and to further develop the Elecli-onic Genei-alive Chh-og7-aphyProject explainedin Chapter 4. There are also possibilities of experimentingwith handwriting as a physical form of expression,as a calligraphic art, to resemblethe mark on a page through individual physical gesturesperceived by electronic and technological devises. There have been projects developedfrom the point of view of free drawing but not from the angle of a writing technique and the limitations of this particular task. Another possibility that emergedfrom my study field in Japanis the exploration of intertextual relations through the intersign systemof cytyscapes. I am currently working on these ideas as a new calligram, that of social poetics of the neon lights, flickering letters, moving messagesand big screens. With the recurrent question of how the emotional and the rational coalescein these kinds of environments. What experienceswill emergefrom thesenew Visual Poetics? 105 Bibliography Aarseth E. (1997) Cybei-lext,Pei-spectives on Ergodic Litei-atill-e. 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(2002) Japan:Kyoto Art Centre Install.exe/ j odi (2002) Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag Kardon J. (1983) Laurie Anderson, Worksfi-om 1969 to 1983. Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia:The institute. 112 Marcel Blvodlhaei-s. (1992) Madrid: Museo de Arte Reina Sofia & Ministerio de Cultura. Marcel&oodlhaei-s. (1980) London: Tate Gallery Publications. Woi-das Image, Aniefican AH 1960-1990. (1990) Milwaukee, Wis.: Milwaukee Art Museum. Sculpturesin the Pat* Catalogue: Thelan Hamillon Finlay Sculpfin-eGai-den. (199 1) Stockwood Park, Luton / [essayby] Lucius Burckhardt. Luton Borough of Luton. Sonic boom: TheAH of Sound. (2000) exhibition selectedby Toop D. catalogue designedby Ewart I and SweeneyN. London: Hayward Gallery. Pi-ocesoS6nico. (2002) Museum of ContemporaryArt. Barcelona: MACBA. Festival catalogues Druckery T. & Ai-s Electronica eds. (1999), Facing the Futia-e. The Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. OraL ISEA 2002 (International Symposiumof Electronic Arts). Nagoya, Japan: ISEA Shaw R. & McKay J. eds. CADE,2001 Proceedings.Glagow: The Glasgow School of Art Press. 113 Stocker G. & Schopf C. eds. (200 1) Takeovet-Ai-s Elech-onica 2001, Linz: SpringerWienNewYork. ThomasP. ed. CDROM ConsciousnessRefi-amed. Non local, non-lineat-,non-oi-dinag. BEAP 2002, Perth, Australia. Papers Cayley J. (2002) The Code Is Not the Text (Unless It Is the Text). Article in Web-based journal. Electronic Book Review 2002. Cayley J. (2004) Time Code Language:New Media Poetics and Programmed Signification. In New Media Poe1q: Aesthetics,Institutions, Audiences. Dee Morris and Thomas Swiss eds. Cambridge:MIT Press (forthcoming) Cayley J. (2003) Inner Workings: Code and Representationsof Interiority. In New Media Poetics. dictung-digital 29: Dekker A. The Pleasureof Language,ISEA 2002 Catalogue. And also found at The NetherlandsMedia Art Institute, Montevideo/Time Based Arts. Mencia M. (2002) GeneratingChirography. Digital Sin ace within Fine Art Practice. National College of Art and Design Dublin in associationwith The London Institute and University of Art and Design, Helsinki. With support of 114 the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union and Tate Britian. CDROM producedby Leah Hilliard. Mencia M. (2002) ON-OFF LINE: Another Kind of Language. Punt M. ed. ConsciousnessReftanie& Non local, non-linew-,non-ot-dinaly. Conference Proceedings.Perth, Australia: CAiiA-STAR & BEAP 2002. CD ROM Mencia M. (200 1) Can you repeat, please?A chronology of Mis-understandings Imis-readingslmis-hearings In Intet-t-ogatingthe Sinfiace CD ROM ... exhibition Nowotny H. (2003) The Potential of Transdisciplinarity. Web paper We(b)liography Andrews J. Cramer F. (200 1) Digital Code and Literary Text. Article in Web-basedj ournal. Beeffive Hypei-textlHyperniediaLifei-my Join-nal. (Accessed2/8/2002. ) Fletcher S. < http://x-idat. orgISF/gener.htmi > (Accessed01/10/02) Fowler R. Ni How the SecondaryOrality of the Electronic Age Can Awaken Us to the Primary Orality of Antiquity or What Hypertext Can Teach Us About the Bible with Reflections on the Ethical and Political Issuesof the Electronic Frontier. 115 Glazier L. P. Epilogue. Between the Academy and a Hard Drive: An E-cology of Innovative Practice From. OL3: open letter on lines online, Artists' Websites Azevedo W. < www. wiltonazevedo.corn. br > (Accessed15/09/03) Baldwin S. < Block F. 116 Borkowski Ch. < http://wings. buffalo. edu/-cjb2. > Burgaud P. Cobbing B. FunkhouserCh. 117 McCormack I Organisations' Websites Experimenta Digital Festivals Ars Electronica / Festival für Kunst, Technologie und Gesellschaft, Linz/Osterreich Veranstalter: Brucknerhaus,Linz; ÖsterreichischeRundfunk (ORF), LandesstudioOberösterreich Linz 118 BEAP (Biennale of Electronic Arts) Perth John Curtin University Organiser:V2 Organisation/Institute of the Unstable Media/annual 119 List of Figures Fig. 1 Mallarm6 S. Un Coip de Dis. (1897) Parisian review Cosmopolis in May 1897. Image of two of the pagesfrom the poem. (From PennyFlorence MallartW. 1986 pp 89-109) Fig. 2 Judith Copithome Owyoufoolinggirl? From Runes (Toronto: Coach House 1970), n. pag. Fig. 3 Marcel Broodthaers Un Coip de dýsjamais nabolh-a le basal-d.Image (1969) Amberes,Wide White SpaceGallery/ Colonia, Gallery Michael Wemer, 1969 12 aluminium plaques.(Mai-celBi-oodthaet-s. Museo Nacional Reina Sofia p. 142) Fig. 4 Marcel Broodthaers Ou estlasignalm-e? (1971) Projection of Broodthaers'ssignature. From Ptojections catalogue. Fig. 5 Bruce Nawman The True Artist Helps the World by revelling Mystic Truths (Window or Sing) 1967 Neon Light. From Art monthly. Fig. 6 bill bisset;aint no wordsfoi- th taste ofyit (1974) from Medicine, My Mouth's on Fire (Ottawa:Oberon Press 1974), n. pag. Fig. 7 bill bisset; it's a saving ipoemd(1971) from What Fuckan Theory (Toronto: Gronk Press 1971), n. pag. Fig. 8 bill bisset;yu citni'(1970) from Liberating Skies (Vancouver: blew Ointment Press 1970), n. pag. Fig. 9 billbisset amlor (1968) form 'Awake in th Red Desert (Vancouver: Talonbooks 1968), 23. Fig. 10 Maria Mencia Anothei-Kind ofLanguage- (2002) (Photoshopimage of the Image-layersfrom the work in Flash) Fig. II Maria Mencia Anothei-Kind ofLanguage (Installation) (2002) DIFFERENTIA exhibition, PM Gallery, London. (May 2002) Fig. 12 Maria Mencia Vocaleyes(2002) Image of interactive work'Showease V exhibition, Millbank, London. Fig. 13 Maria Mencia Vocaleyes(2002) Drawings done by participants/usersat ShowcaseI exhibition, Millbank, London. Fig. 14 Maria Mencia Audible Willing Experiments (2002) Simulation of Installation. Fig. 15 Maria Mencia Genei-alingChhwgraphy (2003) Some of the letters from the alphabet. 120 Fig. 16 Maria Mencia Things come widgo... (1998-99) Stills from video animation. Fig. 17 From Shafer,R. M The AinkingEdi- (1986) Chapter Wien Woi-dsSing., Bii-d Songs pp. 232-33 Fig. 18 Maria Mencia Bh-ds Singing Othei-Bh-ds'Songs. (200 1) Installation at SettingsExhibition, Medway Galleries, Gillingham (Nov. 2001) Fig. 19 Maria Mencia Bh-ds Singing Othei-Bh-ds"Songs: Installation of prints and TV screenin La Huella Multiple, Filmoteca, Havana, Cuba (April 2002) Fig. 20 Billboard on the London underground advertising holidays in the Caribbean ------(Closed up) Fig. 21 Camille Utterback and Romy Achituv Text Rain (1999) [on line image] Available from Ars Electronica Fig. 22 Apollinaire G. It is i-aining (1914) (From Apollinaire G. (1980) Callip-ainnies. Los Angeles & London: University of California Press) Fig. 23 David Small and Tom White An Infet-activePoetic Gat*den (2000) (From Paul Ch. (2003) Digital Ai-t. London: Thames& Hudson) Fig. 24 Gomringer E. no ei-lwi-in the system(From Install. exe/jodi catalogue (2002) Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag) from Install. (2003 by Maria Fig. 25 Jodi -video stills exe/jodi Mencia) Eyebeam Gallery, New York. Fake software using animatedgraphics and text. 121 FIGURES LE MAITRE hon d'"ens colcule oü la mancruvmavec l'Age eublide surgi infirent ja" il cmpoignait In bme de cette conflagration i seepieds de I'h"izon umWme quc ac pr*- " agiteýet mile au poing qui l'itreindrait comaw on mcnace un destin ct les vents l'unique Nornix qui ne peut pas We un autm Esprit p- k jew dam I& temp6te en reployer Is division et pmer fier hmte cada%Tcpar le bru 6cartddu secretqu'il ditient plut6c que de jeemr en maniaquechenu Iß Partie au nom des un envidlit le dbef cmle en barbe soumise Asuffagccela direct de Ilhomme UFA nef A importe ob vaine Fig. I Mallarm6 S. Un Coip de Dýs. Parisian review CoVMqj)o1is in May 1897. Image of two of the pages from the poem. (From Penny Florence Alcdlcirmý. 1986 pp 89-109) 122 4ý0. F Fig.2 Judith Copithorne no youfooling gh-l? From Runes (Toronto: Coach House 1970), n.pag. 123 Fig. 3 Marcel Broodthaers Un Coip de dýsjctmttis li'ciholim le b(imn-d. InItIge 1969) Amberes, Wide White Space Gallery/ Colonia, Gallery Michael Werner, 1969,12 aluminium plaques. (Uwcel Bt-oodthtiet-s. Museo Nacional Reina Sofia p. 142) Fig. 4 Marcel Broodthaers Ou esl Ictsigntilure? (1971) Project loll of Broodthaers's signature. From Pipjecliotis catalogue. 124 Fig. 5 Bruce Nawman The Trite Artist Helps the World by revelfilig Mystic TI-11111s (Window or Sing) 1967 Neon Light. From Art monthly Z» t* t« jek nntuvýA;! Mf NU a1 nie uu yu n4 aZ 'w319o1- ? Ap iDel *eu UIV ai nLin nP di; ÖOP uvyu nX NAn0 )l 913Lld14 ? A P'V u ain 0w oYJ a14e uVt'a yu nic ;9 AV eai a1 nf nlo wgoldil t%p a tV uV n ic ýn 33 Sew11 Ap eaj eeu Ti? ainn o' di; flooP a uV yu TL4 Nn swya? ? AMall u '1113 ain nllo; oýdl" g0P t% uV YU n4 in a sug e o iD j., uVTV ain 0; w01 cä; 0 Ij t%p ae t? YU na£i n Voý A' AOP Apül «"L nN ný')o; tV uV YU n4 AV 'Ile a inIn na;cPwIloýdY tlp'Va' a toeu uV'yu n4n); A '3wmol140TuAAP Ap Val eeu ai nit uVI yu n4 ýn aPle MdV? TV ain ric oVt%P'TB%eeuuVyu Fig.6 bill bisset; aint no woi-dsfol- th taste of yu (1974) from Medicine, My Mouth's on Fire (Ottawa:Oberon Press 1974), n. pag. 125 %3 Its a 88VIng I POeMd On 00a PagO I it like does b1nff 0 packafe pink a IMM b3aft liryin I hn - 0OCk" like nd 000000oo0oze, luehious poft to%h :ý ny cunts Its a A blonds signs docLiment Iull be looks if she again lazy but It Y(M to like hoe s too as a We this far no what I meant was Walk Its back I feel as nakid Vhat crumbul Its )X)Ots does he say it modul about sin o on 0 cbriet I was a cud bill I ull choir boy else read It they xpect what no until I puts did this 4 "s bandage wift d rsebb boris yellowtrip wbat a karloff he adwhere a beautifull Is he fuck In dayu painting no Poetry 40 yu wt V= In more quel3tlCbM I shud ya no deatbleso I wish I aakd yeopta more Ifeel. In ffam now brunevrick pomad college byus Josm hIs U a t seven years I n Sa I thot it was a g"d Idea b Cause of th way be =Ves she mlgtt abort this is th way she can play on a DiABUI string it also bums 'OhOOYU fin111Y get In there Its a Womano face axus nd crabbly be ad YU play With drOvOls Inside yellow curtains do tMmk Yu Cud hM* us lift th mgn four OW of It rubs off nothlnr like this before -Rd I ul got yu for TAis If It takes Fuckan Theory Fig.7 bill bisset; it's a saving 'Poenid (197 1) from What (Toronto: Gronk Press 1971), n pag. 126 II nn IInn lillulloll 1110111 0000 1r U0000CUM0000 00000M oooo U'000'OCUM0099 00000M 0000 1 0000' I ro u 011111 00 U0000cum ooom 00 .r oooo U0000cum 0 00 m 00 Ir oooo ooom 1,110000OQOO U'P.Qoop. um Fig. 8 bill bisset;yu cum' (1970) from Liberating Skies (Vancouver: blew Ointment Press 1970), n. pag. 127 Fig. 9billbisset anilot- (1968) form 'Aivake in th Red Desei,f (Vancouver: Talonbooks 1968), 23. 128 irbe(c degeke I emc, neper( jnkdcjetwqusqulaiayewoi schscrslsmsnspsprswststi jrhclrc%drinoLtri I inmi) nonori Fig. 10 Maria Mencia Atiolher Kitid qf1citigucige- (2002) (Photoshop image of the Image-layers from the work in Flash) Fig II Maria Mencia Atiolhel Kind (?/ Lenigmige- (Installation)(2002) DIFFERENTIA exhibition, PM Gallery, London. (May 2002) 129 Figý 12 Maria Mencia Voculeyes (2002) Image of interactive work 'Showcase V exhibition, Millbank, London. vIý 100 NNW Fig. 1.3)Maria Mencia loctilejes (2002) Drawings done by part icipants/users at Showcase I exhibition, Millbank, London 130 -8ý'. mbfij Iwo *. A.-ý-l a ý: -. .41% Ak Fig. 14 Maria Mencia A udible Willitig ExImt-imenis (2002) Simulation of Installation. View of two opposite walls. a d) crich ae dh alphabet i4 d Fig 15 Maria Mencia Genertaing Chirognaphy (200-33) Some of the letters from the alphabet. Fig. 16 Maria Mencia Thitigs come atidgo... (1998-99) stills from video animation. 131 Spottcd Woodpcckcr tchack Whacthroat %\cck-N\-cck-N\,cck-N\, eck Trcc ('rccl)cr see- see-scc_sIsIivpcc I la\Nfincli Dcak Tchee tchee...tLir-NN'cc-N\'cc Nvarce-rcc-rcc . Grcciifincli N\ali-N\ ah- N\ah-Nvah-chm - choN\- choN\- choN\lu-N\c-Nve Crossbill libb cilip-ciiip-cilip-gec-gec-gcc-gec . ... Rccd-Bunting Zcc-zec-zcc-ztirrr Grcý-Wagtall Gc-gc- gc- ge- gc-gec-gec-gee-gee Nutliacli tchirrr (rolled "r") pcc-pcc- pec-pee- pec Great Titniousc zc-too. zc-too. p'tsec-6c. tsoo-& tsoo-6c, ching-sce. ching-sce, deedcr- dccder- decder.bipir-bc-Nvit-sc-diddic Blue Titmousc dec- dec- dec- deedelddcrcc. px\-ec.pwee-tec. tee. tee, tee: se-sc-se-did-c-did-c-did-c-dit tsee-tsec-tsee-tit-it-it Coal Titniousc chcc-dcc. clicc-dec. chec-dee did-dec. did-dec. ternikec. tcrrtikce. tcrrukec. x\-ceko.%\, eccho Crcstcd Titniouse chcc-kiliarrce thcck-ur-ur-urr Willo\\ Titmousc tchay-tchay- tchay Eccs-aig. aig. aig. aig Marsh TItITIOUSC Ching-ching-ching-ching two-ow-ow-oNx Goldcrcst Err-66der- &der66dcr-cczcczcc Pied Fl\catclicr Tch6ctic. tch6etle. tch6ctle, diddic- diddle-d6. - tzit- tzit- tzit-. trul. trui. trui March Warble za-wec Red Warble tuk-tLik-t\, \, irr-tN\'irr-tN\, irr Sedge Warble tchissick Wood Warble dur-dur-du-r-dur it-it-it-it-it ChifTchaff zip. zap. zip. zap. trirr-trirr Mistictlinisli tree-vvir-ri-o-ee. tree-wir-ri-o-cc, o. trcc-\\, ir-ri-o-ce. o-\\, Cc-o-N\'it Cuckoo ctick-cuck-oo. coo- coo-cuck. cuck- cuck- cuck-oo. Nvuff- \\, Liff-\\-uf. grorr-grorr-grorr Bittern Boomp Corncrakc crex-crcx. krek-krek. rerp-rerp Common Snipe tick-ticktik-tuk-tuk-tik-tuktick-tuk chip-it, chick-chUck, yuk- vuk Fig, 17 From Shafer, R. M Me Thhikitig E'cu-1986 Chapter Wheit Woi-ds Shig: Bil-d, ýoiigs pp 232-33 Fig. 18 Maria Mencia Bird. sýSingilig 01her Bh-d.V'Songs. Installation at Sculligs Exhibition, Medway Galleries, Gillingham (Nov. 200 1). 132 01het- Fig. 19 Maria Mencia Bil-dvSitiging Bh-dv''Song. vý Installation of prints and TV screen in Lt Hiiellcy Mulfij)le, Filmoteca, Havana, Cuba (April 2002) 133 Fig. 20. Billboard on the London underground advertising holidays in the Caribbean (Closed up) 1-14 Fh, 21 CanuI Ic (It tcrback and Romy Achituv I ýx/ Raiti (1999) [online image] Available From Ars Electronica nc i y f h y I p Ih 0 h d Fig.22 Appolmaire G. Il is raitfing (1914) (From Apollmaire G. (1980) Calligi-aninies. Los Angeles& London: University of Callforma Press) I)j, Sinall and Toin White 411Miel'ut'll"L, Oclrcic// (200U) -, \ ict (From Paul Ch. (2003) Digiltil At-1. Loncloný Thames & Hudson) kein fehler im System kein efhler im systern kein chfler im System kein ehlfer im System kein chlefr im System kein ehlerf im System Vtl.*! Aje. jým . n ýý sý,Srem kein ehleri mf System kein ehleri ms fystem kein ehleri ms yfstem kein ehleri ms ySftern kein ehleri ms ystfem kein ehleri ms yStefm kein nehler ms ystemf fkei nehler im System kfei nehler im System kefi nehler im system keif nehler im system kein fehler im System Fig. 24 Gornringer E. no error in 1he ýysleny(from Install. exe/jodi catalogue) 136 I:.. 1.. from Install. Fig. 25 Jodi -video stills exe/jodi ( 2003 by Maria Mencia) Eyebeam Gallerv, New York. Fake software usin-(.,animated graphics and text. 137 Appendix I Conferences Presentations 27-28 June 2003 Digital Surface: Approaches to current research in contemporary art practice, TATE Britain. A collaborative practice-basedproject betweenthe London Institute, England, The National College of Art & Design, Dublin and the University of Art &Design, Helsinki with the support of Culture 2000 programme of the EuropeanUnion. TATE Britain, London. April 2003 CADE Conference,The Language of Image, Sound, Text in New Media Art, Hull School of Art and Design. April 2003 NJIT (New JerseyInstitute of Technology) New Media PerformanceSeries, USA. April 2003 E-poetry festival 2003, West Virginia University, USA. Jan. 2003 Digital Surface, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland. Jan. 2003 Media Centre, Helsinki, Finland. Nov 2002 IV Jornadasde Arte y Multimedia, CaixaForum, Mediateca, Generating Chirography, Barcelona, Spain. Aug. 2002 RMIT, (Royal Institute of Art and Technology) Melbourne, Australia Aug. 2002 BEAP Biennial of Electronic Arts, CABA-STAR CONSCIOUSNESS REFRAMED IV, ON-OFF,LINE,., Another Kind ofLanguage, Perth, Australia. July 2002 Radical (ResearchAgendas developed in Creative Arts Labs) Festival SMARTIab Centre & Central St. Martins College of Art & Design, London. April 2002 La Huella Multiple, Birds Singing other Birds'Songs, Havana, Cuba. Feb. 2002 The London Institute ResearchSymposium, London. Nov. 2001 Settings conference,Kent Institute of Art & Design, Kent. 138 October 2001 Vocaleyes,Showcase 1, ChelseaMillbank, London. April 2001 CADE Conference,Poster presentation,Glasgow. March 2001 Vocaleyes,Seminar in Sendolic Conceptsfor Practice- BasedResearch,Camberwell College of Arts, London. August 2000 ConsciousnessRefrained Conference, CAHA (Centre for Advance Inquiry in the Interactive Arts) Newport, Wales. Conferences and Festivals attended 9-10 May 2003 user_mode, Emotion and Intuition in Art and Design. A collaboration betweenventral saint Martins College of Art & Design and TATE Modern, London. 28 April 2001 Verbal Inter visual conference, Linking words of Art and Poetry-GreshamCollege, London. 8-11 April 2001 CADE conference,(Computers in Art and Design Education) Glasgow. 22-25 March 2001 Lovebytes, Sheffield,UK. 139 7-10 Dec. 2000 ]SEA, REVELATIONS, Paris, France. 2-3 Nov 2000 Exchange 2000, facilitating research in art-media and design, Bristol. 20 Oct. 2000 Concerning Memory, one day Symposium. Camberwell /Chelsea, London. 13 Sept.2000 Sci Art awards 2000, Royal Geographic Society Chair; Jude Kelly and Jana Levin. London. II Sept. 2000 Signature of the Invisible, Royal Geographic Society and CERN-Geneva and The London Institute, London. 4 Sept 2000 TIME conference, Association of Art Historians, London. 24-26 August 2000 CAiiA (Centre for Advance Inquire in Interactive Arts) Wales. 7 July-2000 Research into Practice, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield. 24 June 2000 The poetics of (in)materiality, ICA, London. 140 Appendix 2 Exhibitions and Residencies during Ph.D. Solo Shows & Performances Oct.01- Jan. 02 Settings, Medway Galleries,Gillingham. August 2000 ConsciousnessReframed 3, Consciousnessand Hypertextual Narratives, Multimedia Performance- Presentation,CAiiA, Newport, Wales. Group shows & Festivals May 2003 onedotzero Festival, ICA, London. April 2003 E-Poetry Festival 2003- West Virginia University, USA. Oct. 2002 ISEA 2002 [Orai] (International Symposiumof Electronic Arts), Nagoya, Japan.(catalogue) July 2002 Write Your Mind, Stock Newington Festival, London. June 2002 IV Salon Internacional de Arte Digital, Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Havana, Cuba. (catalogue) May 2002 DIFFERENTIA, PitshangerManor Gallery & House, London. April 2002 La Huella Multiple, Havana, Cuba. (catalogue) Nov. 2001-02 Interrogating the Surface, Atkinson Gallery- Millfield and Millbank, London. (CD-ROM catalogue) Oct. 2001 Showcase1, ChelseaMillbank, London. (catalogue) March 2001 Waterwall, projections on a 100 metre wall of waterspray participatory project with CopenhagenSchool, London. Dec 2000 tow, Interventions-Artists working in electronic media, London. 141 Work Selected Sept. 2002 Work selectedas participant in the categoriesof Interactive Art and Animation, CyberArts 2002, International CompendiumPrix Ars Electronica 2002. Art Residencies Sept-Oct 2002 Mukoujima Artist in ResidenceProgramme, Tokyo, Japan. 142 Appendix 3 CDROM Enclosed is a CDROM which contains: Three interactive works Anothei-Kind ofLanguage, Vocaleyesand Bh-dsSinging 01hei-Bh-ds'Songs. Quicktime movies as well as photos documentingthe work in different exhibitions. Maquette of one ofAudible WilfingExpefiments, which I did not have the opportunity to exhibit before the thesis. Ideal Exhibition requirements A nother Kind ofLanguage Presentationof Work: Installation The way I envisagethe installation spaceis preferablywith two laptop computerswith a video projector each, projecting the imageson to the same screenin order to get a multi-layered image at the sametime as a multi-layered soundscapeof phonetic compositions. Space:a closed room (as in DIFFERENTIA exhibition, PM Gallery, Ealing, London 2002 ( Technical equipmentrequired: -Either MAC or PC computers-500 megahertz,2 of them with Flash programme. -Video projector-2 of them or one projector which could link the two computers perhapswith an adapterto project all of them at once. -2 sets of speakers 143 Audible Writing Experiments Presentationof Work: Installation of 4 videos I would like to project eachof thesevideos (4), on the four walls of a room, so the writing surroundsthe spectator. The sound from the videos will vary; there will be times when one will be louder than the rest. Dimensionsof the work(s): The minimum side of the projections should be around 2.00m long. Space: a spacewith four white walls of 6m by 6m. Technical equipmentrequired: 4 DVD projectors with a time code senderinstalled in the middle of the ceiling projecting to the walls. The projection has to be 90 degreesto the wall to avoid key stoning. The time code senderwill make all the videos start at the sametime. Underneaththe projection of every image there will be two speakers. There will momentswhen the visitors will interrupt the image with their presencein the room. Alternatively the room could be of 3m by 3m although it might causesome key stoning. In this casethe projectors will be situated above the opposite wall. (A technicianshould know about this) Another alternativewill be to back project, but in this case,it will need a bigger room of 9m x 9m, leaving a spacein the middle of 4m x 4m. This will be done on back projection screens.These screens are generally2m x 1.50m. Technical equipmentrequired: 4 set of speakers(8 speakers) 4 DVD players 4 projectors I time code senderfor synchronisingthe DVDs Perhapsback screens. 144 Birds Singing other Birds' Songs Projection from computer- interactive work Multimedia sound and video installation of textual birds flying in the sky. Space:Preferably the work should be projected on to a covered window so it gives the impressionof looking to the outside when you look at the work. Dimension: Minimum projection of 2 meterslong (As in Seffings exhibition 2001, Medway Galleries,UK) Technical equipmentrequired: Computer with flash programme Data projector Oneset of speakers A board to cover the window Vocaleyes Interactive work: Drawing and sound compositions Space:A computer should be inside a false wall showing only the screen.There should be a shelvefor the mat and Wacorn stylus. (As in ShowcaseExhibition 2002 Millback, London, UK) Technical equipmentrequired: Computer with the Director programme Wacom stylus Oneset of speakers A board(s) to cover the computer 145