Postcards From Writing
What exactly IS writing? Is picture writing something that
is half way between pictures and writing? And is it a useful concept
for thinking about new media writing and interfaces?
One
approach to these questions is provided by Integrationism, a radical
new theory of language and communication which Roy
Harris has applied to a groundbreaking analysis of writing.
In this view, writing is teased apart from
speech (transcription of speech is just one of writing's possible uses) and re-aligned
with spatial configurations in general. 'Picture writing' then becomes
a meaningless and rather ethnocentric term because the boundary
between writing and pictures is shown to be fluid, rather than fixed.
These are quite difficult ideas to grasp in a world where written
words are so important. In Postcards From
Writing, a kind of intellectual road movie, I artistically express
my own encounter with them and explore their implications for new
media writing and interfaces. My work offers users an interactive
experience, rather than simply an illustrated lecture, because user
interaction creates
dynamic and multidimensional signs that illuminate the ideas I'm trying to express.
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