done!

I haven't posted too much lately, but the truth is that I've been working hard for my project. I have it already finished, and I only have to fix some little things to have it done!!! I'm pretty proud of what I've finally achieved, although I don't know if it will really gather everything Nadine and Marc were asking for this phase. Whatever.

Maybe tomorrow or Tuesday I will post more details about my final project. I've spent so much hours in front of the computer and am so tired that I cannot write anything else now!!!!

Hypertext: Transfiguration of Writing and The Writer

I've found this interesting video about how writing in the hypertext format influences the usually called "common" writing style.

A bit more about my idea...

I know that I've not been posting a lot about my idea for phase 1. The truth is that I still need to think more and clarify some things. I need more quotes, and some of the ones I collected at the beginning might not appear in the final project. I'm not sure yet. I have a more clear idea of the web's structure and, more or less, I'll do the following.

A structure dividing the screen in successive frames (which simulates a complex web, as the hypertext literature does in relation to the reader). This structure helps to reinforce my belief that the reader can decide their own adventure, your own path, and that the choice of a path in principle implies the renunciation of other possibilities.

The use of colors will also help this idea of the user chosing between 2 opposing views. I thought white/black/gray is the more appropriate chromatic scale, so I avoid to use too much garish colors.

I definetely need more quotes! Aaarg, and most of them are in Spanish, so it's double work having to translate them. But I guess I will have investigated enough for the next week to come up with all this. My first intention was to use images to illustrate my quotes, as well as a background image. But in the end images are not allowed for this phase, so I'll have some things to rearrange some things.

As Nadine told me in our "one on one" discussion, I'll have to try to relate my project a little bit more with the idea of "interface" and "intermediation". And yet I do not know how... I guess I could find quotes making explicit reference to these concepts...

PHASE 1: My idea...

I would like to explain a little bit more what is my idea about the PHASE 1 project, as I already started conceiving/designing it. Hyperfiction or hypertext fiction is more than just the simple act of linking documents with software tools, as this would be insufficient. This concept is not new. Cortazar with his "Rayuela" (Hopscotch, 1963) reached the edge of the hypertext. But the new thing is now technology allows the real birth of this form of literature. And most importantly, today society is prepared to adopt it. Cybercitizens, grown in audiovisual environments, claim other different forms of storytelling: they ask for images and sounds. They ask for worlds in which they could immerse. So it is the time to provoke the Singularity to introduce these new content, the evolution of the oldest and most traditional forms, into our everyday world. And that's what I want my project to be about. I want it to be a kind of window talking about the huge synergy between technology, society and literature (and the contradictions and boundaries that came across the way).

There is a very interesting text about this idea here.

collecting QUOTES: exploring hyperfiction

I've been thinking about my project during the last week, and nothing really consistent came to my mind until a couple of days ago. Since I started studying "theory and practice of the hypertext" for my journalism degree, my interest in hyperfiction literature began to grow. The hyperfiction literature is a conceptual precedent for the hypertext theory in the literay productien field, along with many other areas such as the “exquisite corpse” and other pre-hypertextual text (also called "non-texts"), about which I'm pretty sure I will write on later posts.

I have always been fascinated about how one can create a fictional story in which the reader may seek “his own path", building a parallel work (that's what hyperfiction is). Besides this, I think it may be a good topic for my project as it there is a direct relation with the binomial "art" and "technology". The quotes I've collected so far, though I maybe get some more, are related to the theory and history of hypertext (since it was discovered in the mid-twentieth century), as well as I have others from authors who have launched into the hyperfiction literature adventure. I hope something will come out of all this!

QUOTES:

"Hypertext is a system of recovery and administration of electronic information that operates through non-linear forms" Michael M. Mirabito

"a sequence of links connecting internal and external electronic text snippets, creating a text experienced by the reader as a non-linear, or rather, as multilinear or multisequential" George P. Landow

"Our inability to access a database is largely due to the artificiality of index systems. When stored data of any kind, it is sorted alphabetically or numerically, and information may only be retrieved back following it by subcategories. It can only be in one place, unless you use dual systems, we need rules about which path we must follow to locate it, but the rules bother. Moreover, after finding a piece of information, we have to leave the system to re-enter and then keep following another path". Vannevar Bush

“'Holding' a fact or an idea our mind jumps instantly to the information below; it is suggested by association of ideas, following some intricate web of roads formed by cells in the brain". Vannevar Bush

"I understand hypertext as a non-sequential writing. The writing is traditionally sequential for two reasons. The first one is derived from the spoken speech, which is sequential, and the second is because the books are written to be read in a sequence ... however, the structures of the ideas are not sequential. They are intertwined in many directions. And when we write, we always try to relate things in a non-sequential form" Theodor H. Nelson.

"With hypertext, I mean a non-sequential writing, a text that forks, which allows the reader to choose and that are best read on a screen interactive. According to the popular notion, this is a series of text blocks connected together by links, which are different itineraries for the user. " T. Nelson

"My idea was to combine in any way the external links of Enquire with hypertext, networking schemes developed for the PRC. This external hypertext links made the difference between prison and freedom, darkness and light. You could make new networks to connect different computers, and all new systems would be able to escape and relate to others. In addition, anyone who was taking a glance at it could instantly add a new node connected to a new link" T. Nelson

"What was exciting for us in these type of productions was the certainty, better or for worse, they represented something that was not possible for the work of a single mind, and possessed a degree in exceptional quality" pursuit", so peculiar in the poetry" Andre Breton

"The are a lot of possibilities: some elections are simple, others sensible, some frivolous and some dangerous .... It is you who should take the decisions. You can read this book many times and get different results. Remember that you choose the adventure, you are the adventure. If you take a foolish decision, come back to the top and start again. There is no right or wrong choices, but many choices". Choose your own Adventure Book Series

CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE

Prior to the Enlightenment, art was understood as an imitation, and plagiarism was more or less well-accepted, since it made possible for artworks to reach those areas where they would otherwise be unknown and also helped to avoid the privatization of culture. However, the advent of the Enlightenment began to promote the myth of a negative plagiarism: it started to be viewed as the theft of language, ideas, and images by the less than talented, often for the enhancement of personal fortune or prestige.

At this particular turning point, Critical Art Ensemble proposes the reverse of the myth, so that we can begin to think it is those who support the legislation of representation and the privatization of language that are suspect, and the plagiarists are those who contribute most to cultural enrichment (under certain conditions). Nowadays (an era of recombinant and digitalization), thus, new technologies make plagiarism an acceptable and even crucial strategy.

Basically, the recombinant's theory is based on the following ideas:

• plagiarism and copying has always been a key to the meanings evolution as well as for the invention
• in societies dominated by a "knowledge" explosion, exploring the possibilities of meaning in that which already exists is more pressing than adding superfluous and redundant information
• accepting plagiarism as a productive strategy does not completely mean abandoning the romantic model of production (which may be considered an anachronistic conception, though timely useful/required)

The most interesting point of the article is, perhaps, what were the consequences of the IT introduction on such concepts as "author" or "linear text”. On the one hand, the concept of “author” in a romantic way has stopped working and has become an abstract aggregate(Barthes and Foucault). On the other, hypertextuality has played (and plays) a key role in the recombinant culture (from Vanevar Bush, with his prototype Memex, until Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the www) that has made possible for production, distribution and consumption processes to become a single act, without a closed and categorized beginning and ending. Therefore, the article invites us to rethink the idea of plagiarism and reap the benefits of the present recombination methodology.

"Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp (1917). This urinal has become a symbol of the ready-made art, one of the many expressions of the recombinant strategy.

Freedom, software and society

I've been working these past days on a book review about the free software movement, and have thought it could be a good idea to post it here (not the whole text, just an excerpt) because it is really related to the main topic of this blog. The book is “Free Software. Free Society”, by software freedom activist and programmer Richard M. Stallman.

“Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.” Vaclav Havel.

“A business making proprietary software stands a chance of success in its own narrow terms, but it is not what is good for society” Richard Stallman

~

Considered the father of the free software, Richard M. Stallman has spent years solidifying a career devoted to a single cause: the fight against a proprietary software model established at the end of the 70's. The birth, and subsequent boom of this model, personally affected him, not only as a software programmer and developer, but as a political and culturally committed citizen. The work "Free Software. Free Society", published in 2002, is product of those over thirty years of struggle, a compendium of articles and essays Stallman himself has been accumulating since the very beginning of his project: to initiate a free software movement on his own, and not only by an act of rebellion, but with a firm belief of social duty.

The intersection of ethics, law, business and computer software is the main subject of these essays and speeches: a collection that includes historical writings (related to the beginnings of the free software movement, like The GNU Manifesto¹) along with new ones on hot topics in copyright, patent law, and the controversial issue of “trusted” computing. In some of the essays, Stallman takes a critical look at several issues related to the software and its social implications, such as common abuses of copyright law and patents when applied to computer software programs, and how these abuses damage our entire society and remove our existing freedoms. In others, he also discusses the social aspects of software and how free software can create community and social justice.

The structure and content of the whole text is already outlined in the prologue, written by lawyer Lawrence Lessig2 -author of two well-known books on similar topics3-. After a brief introduction to the author, whom he considers "a philosopher of the 20^th century ", the text falls squarely in the problematic issue of the term "free", a confusing word in English by the ambivalence of its meaning (not free as in costless, but free as in limited in its control by others), undoubtedly the cornerstone that bases this essays collection. According to the free software community, a program is free when the user can basically exercise four freedoms: the freedom to run a program, whatever its purpose; the freedom to modify it; the freedom to distribute copies free of charge or in exchange for money; and the freedom to distribute modified versions, so that the community can take advantage of the improvements. Contrary to what has been often criticized, the free software movement has nothing to do with a monetary issue and, as may be noted, this idea of "freedom" -in the more political and socially committed sense of the term-, constantly repeated throughout the text, is not only the key to understand Richard Stallman's project (and, of course, his work “Free Software. Free Society”), but also constitutes the anchor for the free software movement to legitimize its existence.

“Free software. Free society” in the social movements context. A personal view.

Beyond the sympathy Stallman himself or his movement work may arouse, it is necessary to review some interesting points of the book. First, it must be recognized that the free software movement is not a trivial matter, and that it is so powerful that even Microsoft Corp. has acknowledged this is its biggest threat, and possibly end up agreeing to join the movement4. In this regard, the set of essays in "Free Software. Free Society" reflects the spirit of the movement (and does not focus on a historical perspective) and the fundamental principles that led Stallman to respond against proprietary software.

Undoubtedly, the essays cover a wide spectrum and include many not very well-known arguments (it is remarkable the particularly intelligent assessment on the changing circumstances that have made copyright a bit suspicious in the digital era). Moreover, the book is didactive, and easy to understand for non-techicians: the essays cater to a wide audience, thus readers do not need a computer science background to understand the philosophy and ideas herein. Actually, the book includes a “Note on Software”5, to help the less technically inclined reader become familiar with some common computer science jargon and concepts, as well as footnotes throughout.

However, "Free Software. Free Society" is not exempt from criticism. Stallman himself has sometimes been criticized for being somewhat dogmatic and unreasonable. His uncompromising attitude on ethical issues concerning computers and software has caused some people to label him as radical and extremist6. And some of this radicalism is distilled in "Free Software. Free Society", especially in some chapters where readers can percieve proprietary software companies as the “incarnation of evil". Paradoxically, many important keys for the free software movement have been criticized for not being radical alternatives (such as the copyleft license).

Despite these criticisms, I personally find very important - and this is the main reason why I chose “Free Software. Free Society” for a book review- the fact that free software movement is beyond an IT issue. It is a technical-political revolution with very valuable ethical principles: it proves that it is possible to activate social mechanisms of production innovation based on the massive and open cooperation; that alternative tools can possibily be developed; and that there are different kinds of ways of thinking about copyright. In fact, this book talks about freedom in the IT field (access to the source code is something that, after all, only affects software developers and not ordinary citizens), just as an excuse to defend freedom in other areas of life.

~

1 Published in March 1985 in “Dr. Dobb's Journal of Software Tools” as an explanation and definition of the goals of the GNU Project. It is held in high regard within the free software movement as a fundamental philosophical source. The full text is included with GNU software such as Emacs, and is available online (http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html)

2 Lawrence Lessig is a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of its Center for Internet and Society. He is also a noted legal expert on copyright law and a committed political activist. http://www.lessig.org/

3 Code and other laws of cyberspace (1999) and Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity (2004), both released on the Internet under the Creative Commons Attribution/Non-commercial license, and published later in paperback format.

4http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm

5 This note includes a good and concise an explanation of the meaning of "source code," "compiler," "assembler," "machine code" and "operating system", among others.

6 DANIEL LYONS “The Problem With St. Ignucius”, 08.31.06 (Forbes)

http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/31/stallman-linux-opensource_cz_dl_0831stallman.html