Summary Discussion
Cybertext Vs Hypertext
Sm2220 writing machine
April 26, 2005
Linda Lai
Hypertext Vs Cybertext
Hypertext:
Broadly referring to textual activities on the
computer platform
Cybertext:
a term created as critique of the current
practice of Hypertext
Hypertext
 *multiple reading paths
 *chunked text
 *some kind of linking
mechanism
Cybertext: a critique
What hypertext is capable of doing is
also and already possible in the book
form.
[consider the works of the OuLiPo, ergodic
literature and factorial fiction in general…]
What is so unique about textual activity on
the computer platform?
Cybertext: a critique
What are some of the unique features and
capabilities of the computer that we should
explore?
-- How does the material condition/feature of
computing affect quality and experience of
writing and reading?
Cybertext: a critique
Self organization…
Emergence (emergent qualities)…
e.g.
Levitated, Jared Tarbell:
http://www.levitated.net
Flight404, Robert Hodgin:
http://www.flight404.com
Cybertext
Specific problems for the written text
HOW TO OVERCOME THE CONFINE OF
GRAMMAR, STRUCTURE & MEANINGS?
Cybertext
Specific problems for the written text
HOW TO OVERCOME THE CONFINE OF GRAMMAR,
STRUCTURE & MEANINGS?
Possible solutions:
Automatic writing
Algorithm, combinatorial permutation and other
mathematical methods
Calligramme (Apollinaire, William S. Burroughs)
Haiku
Three generations of electronic
literature
N. Katherine Hayles – Writing Machine
(2002)
1895-1995
1995 and after
Possible futures?
Three generations of electronic
literature
 [1st generation]
 Hypertext theories (roughly 1985-1995):

Mainly verbal text with little or no multimedia





components
George Landow, Jay Bolter, Michael Joyce…
-emphasized the importance of the LINK
Examples of first-generation electronic hypertexts:
Joyce’s Afternoon, a story
[exclusively verbal, employed Storyspace software to link
one screen of text with another through “hot words” the
reader can activate by clicking]
Three generations of electronic
literature
 [2nd generation]
 Generally written 1995 and after: combine verbal
text with graphics, images, animation, and other
multimedia components.
  move away from Storyspace interface to
explore the rich diversity of interfaces available
in various commercial software packages as
Flash, Shockwave, Dreamweaver, SGML, VRML,
and other web-oriented languages
Three generations of electronic
literature: 2nd generation
characteristics:
 experimenting with ways to incorporate narrative with
sound, motion, animation, and other software
functionalities.
Key work: Espen Aarseth’s Cybertext: Perspectives on
Ergodic Literature
 argues for an electronic literature that is fundamentally
computational in nature – CYBERTEXT
 includes a wide variety of texts that use combinatorial
strategies: e.g. Queneau’s Cent Millie Milliards,
Afternoon a story, computer games, and even I Ching
 LINK extended to include new concepts such as
perspective, access, determinability, transience,
dynamics, and user function.
Electronic literature: future?
 [3rd generation]
 future prospects????
 -- the need to centre the interactions
between the materiality of inscription
technologies and the inscriptions they
produce.
  Technotext: text that foregrounds the
inscription technology used to produce it.