Stephen E. Dinehart's IMD Blog

After all this talk of Hypertext, I thought it would be good to publish some of my thoughts on the subject. I think that the idea that a user must “click around” to navigate a hypertext is foolish. The option is always there but is by no means a requirement. I believe hyperlinks are intended not a as a must for the viewer/user but as a way of escaping the linearity of traditional literary structures. So for instance in this passage from the Tao Te Ching:

”道可道、非常道。名可名、非常名無名天地之始有名萬物之母。故常無欲以觀其妙、常有欲以觀其徴。此兩者同出而異名。同謂之玄。玄之又玄、衆妙之門。
The Tao that can be followed is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the origin of heaven and earth”

One could further dive into the definitions of “Tao”, “heaven and earth”, etc. if curiosity brought them to it, by selecting the hyperlink that represents that word.
I think that requiring a user to navigate is just as much of a trap as confining them to the world of linearity. The idea is to provide both.

Although I’ve never spoken to Ted Nelson on the subject I believe his vision was one in which all text would be “Hyper” not just a few given words. So that once something like Xanadu was built it would be a deep hypertext that allowed the viewer/user to find out about anything about the text, video, etc. It would allow for the kind of reading/writing that represents our flow of consciousness much better then traditional linear forms of reading and writing. Satisfying the creative impulse seemed to be the aim of hypertext, so that a reading might be better represented by a stream of meandering thought.

I believe that Nelson intended hypertext as a method to navigate through hypermedia, so that all of our media becomes intertwined, and navigable.

Electronic Ink
LCD's and CRT's suck for reading but not electronic ink! Check out what this company is trying to do. If I could create for a medium like this, I would be one happy camper!
This just get's my mind fired up for the potential of it all!

In Ted Nelson’s “Computer Lib/Dream Machines” (1974) he describes types of hypertext:

1. Collateral Hypertext: compound annotations or parallel text

2. Stretchtext: changes continuously

3. “fresh” or “Specific” Hypertext: consists of materials written solely for an expressed purpose.

4. Grand Hypertext: consists of “everything” written about a subject, or vaguely relevant to it, tied together, in which you may read in all directions you wish to pursue.

5. The dream: Everything as hypermedia/hypertext (crosslinking and tracking to whatever you want to read or experience)

Nelson saw it as an on going project that would someday unify all of humanity’s knowledge into one place, getting back to our roots, allowing egalitarian access to, knowledge, our shared heritage. Just as Vannevar Bush’s Memex was intended.

While this was written prior to the dawn of hypermedia authoring tools, I think Nelson’s thoughts on the subject are extremely relevant.

Again let me state that I don’t believe he, Nelson, intended hypertext as a requirement for navigation, but as an option. This I think is most important, the integral approach, combining the strengths of linear narrative and interactive narrative. Abandoning one or the other would be of no benefit. Allowing the user to take the ride and make decisions when they are compelled to would make for a more engaging experience. In this way stories will have a life of their own, that can be altered or acted on by the viewer/user. The experience then becomes co-created by the author and the viewer/user. In this way the author is saying “Welcome to my world, sit back, enjoy, but when compelled feel free to investigate."

This is the beginnings of my idea for Peggy’s 518 class.

What is reality but a series of unfolding narratives occurring in a polyrythmic order over time? An infinite amount of stories exist at any given moment, some are starting, ending, just reaching climax, others still not even a dream. What if you were to take reality and cut a cross section of it? What would it look like?

I believe our present perception of being is actually a wave moving up the hyperstring which is our four-dimensional being. We live in a brane world, as in a membrane moving through the bulk of time.

A part(ment) is a exploration into the moment. The positions of various membranes frozen in the bulk of time will be examined. It will be a flash piece, inspired by the work of Hi-Res.

This is a further elaboration of the structure for my peice A part(ment). I view this as a chaotic system for navigation of a point in space-time. It would be impossible to map all of the occurances with-in a moment (definitons 1,2). What I seek to create is a modular mutidimensional nodal structure, which when navigated (via V/U or program) can give the ability to move betwix space-time itself. This process, is an experience only likened too jumping through a wormhole or Einstein-Rosen bridge





This jump can be minute though, not nessecarily over vast distances of space-time, from say human too human perspective or too one of micobial biofilm.

I will try to create a low-bandwidth version of my first demo of A part(ment), which I created for Peggy's 518 Class, later this after.

I choose the title for two reasons. First, when the idea hit me I was in my friends apartment so the nodal system I visualized at that moment was relative to that space-time location. Second is the pun or play on words which is implied-
ripped from dictionary.com

a·part·ment (-pärtmnt)
n.

1. A room or suite of rooms designed as a residence and generally located in a
building occupied by more than one household.

2. An apartment house: a row of high-rise apartments.

3. A room.

4. A suite of rooms within a larger building set aside for a particular purpose
or person.

5. A compartment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[French appartement, from Italian appartamento, from appartare,
to separate, from a parte, apart : a, to (from Latin ad-. See ad-) + parte, side
(from Latin pars, part-. See part).]

com·part·ment (km-pärtmnt)
n.

1. One of the parts or spaces into which an area is subdivided.


part (pärt)
n.

1. A portion, division, piece, or segment of a whole.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pars, part-. See per-2
in Indo-European Roots.]

ment

2. Action; process: appeasement.

3. Result of an action or process: advancement.

4. Means, instrument, or agent of an action or process: adornment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin -mentum, n. suff.



other links:

Black holes
in the news

Experiental
Spatial Mapping

On the advice of my fellow students, I have posted a link to a page containing my Flash based Alpha phase concept for Apartment. I will be developing this out as a combined final project for Interacive writing 516 and for Interactive Animation 501. Please examine it and let me know what you think.
SED

Link to file