With the help of the new tools offered by computers and Internet, text is
taking new forms, and is now able to move into space, imposing its own time
on reading. The use of animated gifs in Tim McLaughlin's works (see also the
atomization section) or in No Memory by Valérie Grancher confers to words a
movement and a life of their own.
In Grancher's work, where words are replacing each other at a fast pace, or
in Grammatron by Mark America, using javascript, the relationship to time
sometimes requires words and texts to be caught as they fly by, and caught
up with, a phenomena strongly thwarting the notion of interactivity and of
the spectator's control. Je suis ton ami(e)... tu peux me dire tes secrets by Nicolas Frespech, first created with java technology, then with
Shockwave Flash, the same sentence bombarding occurrs, leaving the reader
passive, in a position analogous to the one of a cinema spectator. Once
moving, the work becomes elusive, escaping wilful seizure.
Other Web techlogies allowed for new explorations in text integration into
space and time. The use of java applet in fidget, for exemple, by Kenneth
Goldsmith and Clem Paulsen is making possible the text transition into
space, thus creating multiple relations between words and propositions. In
Truth is a moving target by the artist Erwin Redl, the use of Shockwave
makes text apparition possible, and multidirectional reading of words, thus
transforming once again the relationships that could be established between
words in order to build meaning. Mario Hergueta's work, IN the TEXT, created
with Quicktime VR, is made up of words in a circular space forming a
variable sequence according to the visitor's journey. Finally, in the
section entitled spectacle in avec tact, a work by Antoine Schmitt created
with the help of Shockwave Director technology, a short text is transforming
itself each time the visitor touches one of its components.
Works discussed more at length in the Magazine:
Tim McLaughlin, Threw the Read Window
Mark Amerika, Grammatron
Nicolas Frespech, Je suis ton ami(e)... tu peux me dire tes secrets
Erwin Redl, Truth is a moving target
