Class Notes - February 8
On a somewhat related note to today’s discussions the father of modern newspaper design died.
Discussion of the newspaper assignment.
Print attributes
- convenient
- personal
- static
Online attributes
- convenient
- archived articles
- updated throughout the day
- multimedia
- dynamic content
The print edition contains content that cannot be changed. Once it’s printed, it’s done. Though the physical paper can be ripped or mutilated, that doesn’t change the facts of the story or how it ends.
The online edition is dynamic content. A customized version of USA TODAY utilizes the new media principles of variability, digitalization, and transcoding. It’s called a personalized newspaper but it’s clearly not a paper.
Technology can be identified as an extension of the body. The pencil is technology because it extends the ability of the hand. The telescope is an extension of the eye. Automobiles extend the legs.
Technology tries to extend every sense.
Digital technology attempts to work in the same way, extending senses.
Digital technology struggles to appeal to all five senses, and there’s a question as to whether appealing to more senses increases the immersion.
If newspapers ever go out of print, and everything were to go all digital, we would lose some of the alternative uses (lining birdcages, washing windows, kindling, flyswatting, etc.) of the physical paper.
Contemporary Philosophy
“Readerly” and “Writerly”
Author vs. Writer
No such thing as right or wrong, valid and invalid, true or false, or intended and unintended.
There is however such a thing as good and bad.
What is “author”?
–Performs a FUNCTION
–”I” centered
–Works with standard codes and structures
–But the structures are hidden
–meanings are fixed (every time we watch Gladiator, the same meanings are present)
Think of “Author” as “authority”
What is “writer”?
–Performs an ACTIVITY
–”de”-centered
–structures are revealed
–allows the reader to manipulate the codes and structures (a Web 2.0 principle)
–meanings are not fixed, but are transferred to the reader
Authored or Written?
1+1=2 and 2+2=4
These are examples of fixed or authored statements.
Stories, movies, paintings, photographs, music, etc. that speaks to us in different ways each time we experience them are authored but have a written aspect.
Is Harold an author or a writer?
Harold is a writer, but the book is authored.
Authors create Readerly Texts
Writers create Writerly Texts
What the hell is “readerly”?
–a stable text
–assembled out of familiar signs (we know how to read it and interact with it)
–the reader passively decodes
–combines into a cohesive meaning
–meets the expectations of the reader
– 2+2=4 or Two plus Two Equals Four (both fixed meaning examples of readerly)
What the hell is “writerly”?
–makes the reader a producer of the text (a la CYOA)
–the reader actively controls the codes and structure
–has plurality (implicit meaning that varies depending upon who experiences it)
–is networked
–is decentralized
Plurality - Writerly supports connotation (multiple associations beyond literal meanings) rather than denotation (fixed meanings).
Networked - Writerly allows the reader to navigate their own course along the body of the text, freely and repetitively experiencing the text making it possible to read a text from point to point not just straight through
Decentralized - Writerly removes any hierarchy of meaning but is a galaxy that has no beginning and can be accessed from multiple entrances none more dominant than the other
A calculator (virtual or physical) is an example of a writerly text or item because we can use it and manipulate it to find sums and products etc.
Blindspot by Darcey Steinke is an example of a writerly text, or a hypertext story.
Another example of writerly text is Caveman’s Crib, an interactive room.
After break, we watched this video:
Barths makes a distinction between the work and the text. The work just sits there (the physical book) and the text is what we read (what we interpret and experience).
The readerly work will never change. We will change, so if we come back to the work in 10 years, the text may change.
In hypertext, the writerly work can change. Every time you go back to the hypertext novel, the work changes and the text changes.
In new media, everything is a text. If we can read it, interpret it, design it, and learn from it, it’s a text.
Mapping Experience Assignment
Architectural Narrative
On some form of writing surface, draw a map of the interior of an architectural interior, describing the layout of the space from the crow’s view (top down). Here are a few guidelines. Before you attempt a map, complete a walkthrough of the space. Walk around and make notes. Try to note as many features of the space as you can, including entrances, exits, rooms, passages, and halls.
Check out iPhone website for insight on flow.
Two things they’re looking for in the assignment are a map and a concise essay.
Avoid small or few-featured spaces (like bedrooms, apartments, etc).
Things to look at later
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