[LEAuthors] Leonardo Electronic Almanac vol 12, no 09, September 2004
nisar keshvani
nisar at keshvani.com
Mon Sep 6 22:25:34 EDT 2004
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Leonardo Electronic Almanac volume 12, number 9, September 2004
http://lea.mit.edu
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ISSN #1071-4391
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| CONTENTS |
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INTRODUCTION
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FEATURE
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< The Intertextual Thread: A New Cultural Unit in Hypertext, by
Motti Benari, Ziva Ben-Porat, Efrat Biberman, Liza Chudnovsky,
Tammy Amiel-Hauzer and Eyal Segal >
LEONARDO REVIEWS
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< Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment,
reviewed by Jan Baetens >
< Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American
Movie Business, 1953-1968, reviewed by John F. Barber >
CLASSIFIED AD
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ISAST NEWS
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< Leonardo/ISAST Corporate Membership Program >
< Leonardo Experimental Publishing Initiative >
< Announcing Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) >
< LABS Peer Review Panel Members >
< Steve Kurtz and the Critical Art Ensemble >
< LEA Cfp - Geography of Pain >
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| INTRODUCTION |
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In this month's LEA, our central feature is an article co-
authored by Motti Benari of Israel along with five colleagues in
which the authors describe their fascinating project, CULTOS,
which is based on the intertextual thread, a "new cultural
unit."
In the article, they present ways of expanding the use of
hypertextual and intertextual methods, which can aid in a number
of fields, including academic research.
In Leonardo Reviews, we present reviews of the books *Neo-
Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment* and *Ghouls,
Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie
Business, 1953-1968*, an unlikely but revealing subject for
academic critique.
In our news section, we bring you up to date, as always, on the
latest developments in the Leonardo/ISAST community, including
initiatives to pursue experimental publishing projects,
publication of abstracts of academic theses, and a news item
that illustrates the urgent need for artists to be aware of
potential legal infringement on their civil liberties. All in
one issue ...
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| FEATURES |
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THE INTERTEXTUAL THREAD: A NEW CULTURAL UNIT IN HYPERTEXT
Motti Benari
Porter Institute, Gilman Building 484, Tel-Aviv University,
Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv
motti.benari at salzburgresearch.at
Ziva Ben-Porat
Porter Institute, Gilman Building 484, Tel-Aviv University,
Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv
zivabp at post.tau.ac.il
Efrat Biberman
Binet St. 20, Tel Aviv 69091, Israel
biberman at post.tau.ac.il
Liza Chudnovsky
Zharia Ha-Rofe St. 21/9, Holon, Israel
elizabe at post.tau.ac.il
Tammy Amiel-Hauzer
Levi Eshkol St. 108, Tel-Aviv 69361
amielhauzer at bezeqint.net
Eyal Segal
Moshe Kol St. 1/16, Tel-Aviv, Israel
eyalsega at post.tau.ac.il
ABSTRACT
This article presents the "intertextual thread" as a new
cultural unit, focusing on the way in which it may become a
flexible, standard hypertextual format for creating and
organizing multi-textual webs. The intertextual thread is a
structure that incorporates texts together with rich data on the
relations between the texts. The future use of threads may be
valuable for many purposes, such as academic research, education
and cultural preservation.
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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 PREFACE
In recent years we have been witnessing a remarkable ongoing
technological development; at the same time, the coming of age
of cultural studies has encouraged the crossing of traditional
borders between disciplines and fields of research (e.g. "high"
and "low" culture, cross-cultural studies). These developments
have been instrumental to the flourishing of hypertextuality
[1], which opens new and exciting possibilities for knowledge
organization and processing, especially in the field of
intertextuality. So far, however, hypertexts have been rather
disappointing in this regard, allowing mostly for an
unstructured and (potentially) endless navigation among data
units. We might have expected more efficient authoring tools (by
means of software) and some standardized structures that would
exploit the full technological potential in the field of inter-
and hyper-textuality. This, we believe, is one of the major
achievements of our project. We have developed a theoretical
data-model and the proper tools to offer a new cultural unit
that we call an "intertextual thread." This unit is a
hypertextual structure that incorporates texts (imported by the
author of the thread as digitized multi-media files), together
with rich data on the relations between the texts (selected and
imported by the author of the thread from a graded data-model).
This article focuses on these new cultural units and the way in
which they may become a flexible standard format for creating
and organizing multi-textual webs.
1.2 HYPERTEXT AND INTERTEXT
In order to provide a preliminary notion of what we mean by the
concept of "intertexuality," let us consider a concrete example.
In spring 2004, the Metropolitan museum in New York held a
comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the influence of Spanish
paintings on French and American artists. In the exhibition's
catalogue [2], among the vast range of paintings, two specimens -
one by Diego Velázquez (*The Jester Pablo de Valladolid*, 1632-
35) and one by Édouard Manet (*The Tragic Actor*, or *Rouvière
as Hamlet*, 1865-66) were shown next to each other in order to
demonstrate the great influence Velázquez's paintings had over
Manet.
There are many obvious formal similarities between the two
paintings, for example the overall composition, spatial
organization, use of colors and lightening. There are also
important similarities of content between them: each of the two
paintings depicts a historical figure and in both cases, that
figure is acting, representing a fictional character. Also, both
paintings challenge pictorial conventions of their time. Looking
at the paintings also reveals, against the background of these
similarities, significant points of difference between them,
such as the hand gestures of the depicted figures, their facial
expressions and their relations to the viewer. The comparison
between the two paintings thus reveals a great variety of formal
and thematic relations, which can relate to the whole painting
or just to a segment of it.
Aside from these multiple relations between the paintings, each
stands in many relations to other paintings (including, of
course, those that belong to the same artist's oeuvre), artworks
from other media, reality materials (such as the historical
identity of the depicted figures or facts that relate to the
artist's biography), cultural discourses and conventions,
interpretive discussions, etc. [3] To be more specific, *The
Tragic Actor* relates, for instance, directly to Shakespeare's
*Hamlet* and thereby also indirectly to other artworks relating
to the play, such as Goethe's *Wilhelm Meister* (1796) or pre-
Raphaelite paintings depicting Ophelia (more or less
contemporaneous with Manet's painting). Today, a viewer can also
connect the painting with later artworks, such as cinematic
versions of *Hamlet* (Laurence Olivier's *Hamlet*, 1948; Kenneth
Branagh's *Hamlet*, 1996), or modern "rewritings" of it (like
Tom Stoppard's *Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead*, 1966).
Similarly, Velázquez's painting relates to a vast range of
paintings and other artworks referring to people of the royal
court: clowns, midgets, etc.
Is it possible to formulate such an intricacy of relations in a
way that will demonstrate its multi-level complexity and, if so,
how? Moreover, how can we express the uniqueness of each
relation, while presenting simultaneously the network of all
relations? And can this network of relations preserve its
dynamic nature, while new connections are constantly being
created and re-created?
The answer to these questions, we believe, lies in the
structure of the intertextual thread with its multi-layered
organization, which enables both the presentation of a global
layout and a thorough study of each of its components. Thus, a
relation in an intertextual thread is not a simple one-
dimensional link, as is the rule in HTML formations, but a
loaded data body. The main subject of our article is a detailed
description of the intertextual thread and a discussion of its
relative merits, but before embarking upon this topic, we would
like to try and place our project in the broader context of the
hypertext idea as envisioned in the second half of the twentieth
century.
1.3 THE IDEA OF HYPERTEXT
In 1945 Vannevar Bush, who is widely acknowledged as the main
precursor of the hypertext, proposed a system he called Memex,
which was meant to supply a solution for the problem of the
explosion of information. He aimed for the possibility of
documenting and preserving the whole investigative process, and
the work with various bibliographic materials involved in it.
Memex - the electro-magnetic device envisioned by Bush - was
supposed to enable the researcher to "save" his bibliography in
the interlinked form in a way that imitated, in his opinion, the
functioning of the human mind: as soon as one of the interlinked
documents is summoned unto the surface, the whole chain
(composed of linked documents) is summoned along with it.
Bush's disciples continued to develop systems capable of
maintaining large multiply-authored investigative nets, where no
document can appear in an autonomous form, disconnected from its
textual environment. The most famous among those was Theodor
Nelson's Xanadu (which was never completed), described as
follows:
"The Xanadu system - more properly, the Xanadu network storage
engine - is a file-server program for linked compound documents.
It is designed to run on a network and manage to update and
delivery of document fragments on demand (not just full
documents) from anywhere on the network. . . . With respect to
any document or fragment, a user may request all other documents
linked *from* it, all other documents linking to it, and all
other documents presently containing the portions of it" [4].
A similar vision was expressed, 17 years later, by George P.
Landow and Paul Delany, with regard to the hypertext's impact on
literary theory:
"A comprehensive hypermedia environment for literary study
would be based on scholars' workstations with appropriate
communications and peripherals. The textual foundation (or
'textbase') of this environment would be a large corpus of
literary texts in machine-readable form. Access to this corpus
would be controlled by a customized hypermedia program that
would both operate on the corpus directly, and control a variety
of other resources" [5].
In other words, the original vision was of an investigative
environment, composed of sophisticatedly interconnected
documents and capable of an unlimited expansion by multiple
authors. Adding a document to such a web means a compulsory
interpolation of that document into a highly complex system of
relations. As a matter of fact, most of the presumed pedagogical
implications of hypertext are based on the Nelson-Landow model
of the investigative web (see for example Landow's Victorian Web
[http://www.victorianweb.org], which may be considered a "small"
prototype of such a web).
The Internet may seem a complete fulfillment of the Nelson-
Landow vision, but in fact it often serves only as an additional
medium for (self-)publishing traditionally formatted research
documents. As a result, the Internet is overloaded with
documents published in the most traditional ways and therefore
functions mainly as a huge database, rather than as a real
hypertextual web. In the domain of literary studies, at least,
we were unable to find any web that could serve as a good
example of the realization of the Nelson-Landow vision (projects
like online encyclopedia Wikipedia [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page ] may be considered as
its closest realization to date).
Moreover, while the original vision, as described above, was
preoccupied with the structure of hypertextual nets composed of
interlinked documents, there was not enough (if any) attention
paid to the structure of the link itself. Generally, links were
conceptualized as mere "vehicles," used for "transportation"
from one document (or a segment of it) to another [6]. Literary
scholars, who use electronic hypertext for presenting and
articulating intertextuality, should have been more unsatisfied
than anyone else with the limitations of the existing
hypertextual format. For an illustration of the problems
involved, let us quote from an article by David S. Miall, in
which the author criticizes certain ways of hypertext theorizing:
"Landow's interlinking model, moreover, can address only the
most superficial relations between texts. If Milton echoes
Virgil in a line of *Paradise Lost*, the meaning of that
connection cannot be captured by clicking on a link to the
relevant passage in the *Aeneid*. . . . A hypertext system is a
valuable tool for alerting the student of Milton to the kind of
work that needs to be done; but none of the more significant
aspects of Milton's text, or any literary text, lies within the
representational capacity of hypertext" [7].
We claim that the CULTOS software successfully solves the
problems of both the lack of textual polylogue and the one-
dimensionality of links, and in so doing may constitute an
excellent basis for the intertextual web, which would closely
resemble (or even improve in certain respects) the Nelson-Landow
vision.
2. NEW TOOLS FOR A NEW NOTION
2.1 THE CULTOS PROJECT
The CULTOS (Cultural Units of Learning - Tools and Services)
project is an international European endeavor co-funded by the
European Commission under the IST Program [8]. The project was
initiated by Ziva Ben-Porat from Tel Aviv University as a
preliminary stage of her broad cultural vision of LEIT (Library
of Explicated Intertextual Threads). Its immediate objectives
were primarily technological: "to develop new knowledge-aware
multimedia authoring and presentation tools for non-technical
experts, for cross-media integration of cultural multimedia
artifacts" (Quoted from our website:
http://www.cultos.org/index.html). In this article, we focus on
the major non-technological achievements of the CULTOS Project.
Therefore, we describe the technological achievements only in
brief, and enlarge on the general cultural ideas promoted by the
project and its contribution to the study of intertextuality.
Technological Achievements [9]
Specification and implementation of the properties of
autonomous portable meta-data objects (Enhanced Multimedia Meta
Objects - EMMOs). As the main "unit of value," EMMOs
"encapsulate" meaningful relationships between multimedia
objects and map them into navigable hypermedia structures.
Adaptation and development of end-user tools. System tools and
integration tools that support autonomous, portable meta-data
objects:
1. An authoring tool to be used by a "thread-builder," i.e. for
creating and designing the new cultural units by integrating
data from a given ontology with multimedia files uploaded
through an autonomous multimedia import tool.
2. A transformer for creating a presentation environment in
which the new cultural units can be presented to a "thread
viewer."
3. Server-side support tools.
4. Improved tool for constructing ontologies - we used software
of one of our technological partners to construct our ontology
[10]. As a result of our cooperative work, this software was
further developed and improved.
Content (Non-Technological) Achievements [11]
Developing the idea of the Intertextual Thread as a new
cultural unit, usable for research, education and other cultural
goals.
Developing an ontology, i.e. a data model in the field of
intertextuality, which can be used for the description of
relationships between texts. This data model aims to include all
possible relationships, and is proposed as a standard for
literary research and neighboring domains.
Identifying as many intertextual relations as possible
(traditionally acknowledged relations like parody, or less
acknowledged ones, defined by us); then mapping all these
relations onto the model.
Developing showcases of Intertextual Threads.
The first point, which is the most directly pertinent to the
subject of this paper, will be elaborated at length in the
following sections; the other three points will be dealt with
more summarily.
A thread incorporates three types of data:
1. Texts. We use the term "text" to denote any semiotic object:
- Artistic texts (or segments of texts) from all possible media
(e.g. literature, music, visual art, theatre, motion-picture),
introduced as an attached media file or represented by a label.
- Non-artistic texts (or segments) of any kind (e.g.
analytical, documentary, explanatory) introduced as an attached
media file or represented by a label.
- Fictional or non-fictional world elements (e.g. agents,
events, places), provided their semiotic significance is under
consideration, represented by a label.
- Abstract knowledge frames (e.g. genres, schools, themes) that
can be related to concrete texts, represented by a label.
2. "Supplementary Data" (additional information about the
texts). Thread builders can add data concerning the text's
nature, qualities and other features (e.g. bibliographical
details). They can do that by linking the text to leading
concepts (its super categories, e.g. a written text, mosaic,
print, video clip) and to extending concepts (other categories
that can supply information) and by choosing appropriate entries
for attributes that become available as soon as the leading and
extending concepts are selected.
3. Intertextual data. A text and its supplementary data form an
entity. Thread builders can associate any two entities by
defining the intertextual relations between them. Defining
intertextual relations is the main goal of creating a thread -
portraying the diversity and the complexity of the relationships
between texts and/or texts' segments and components (e.g.
characters, stylistic patterns, ideology). In accordance with
our wide definition of the term "text," our definition of
"intertextual relations" is similarly broad, possibly including,
in addition to allusive relations between artistic texts,
relations in the nature of a "criticism" or a "commentary,"
relations between a concrete text and abstract knowledge frames
that are relevant to its understanding and relations between
artistic texts and historical frames of reference
(data/explanatory texts, abstract discourse frames, and concrete
reality items - events, people, places, objects - perceived as
carrying a semiotic significance).
The Intertextual Thread as a New Cultural Unit
As mentioned above, the broad definitions we adopt of both the
"inter" and the "text" parts of the term "inter-textuality" make
the intertextual thread a tool for presenting much more than
"intertextual relations" in their traditional (and limited)
sense - "allusions" by an artistic text to a former artistic
text. A thread may be used for illustrating a variety of other
kinds of relations, such as between a text and its adaptation to
another medium, a text and its commentary, a text and a theme it
actualizes, a text and a cultural discourse to which it belongs,
or between segments and components within the same text.
However, while the very broad interpretation we give to the term
"intertextuality" seemingly aligns our approach with "radical"
or "post-structuralist" approaches to the field [12], our
ontology also has some important "traditional" features, mainly
the privileging of careful differentiations between types of
relations (in which we follow semiotic-structuralist approaches
[13]), and the preservation of traditional category boundaries
(e.g. between artistic/non-artistic or fictional/historical
texts).
Thus, we claim that the thread is both general and structured
enough to be viewed as a new cultural unit, alongside other
established cultural units, such as a paper, a book or a Power
Point presentation. The future use of threads may be valuable
for many purposes and we tend to group these into three
categories:
Academic Research - Intertextual threads based on a well-
structured ontology make possible a new format of presenting
academic research. This format has some unique advantages (as
well as some limitations) in comparison to papers. Thus, threads
are not meant to substitute for papers but to provide further
options, either as a preferable alternative or as a
complementary tool [14].
Education - Threads may be effectively used as digital
supplements in conventional "tutored" education on various
levels, as well as in self-education, assuming they will be
accessible on-line or published on CD-ROMS. Generally speaking,
threads may be used in all disciplines dealing with textual
analysis, but are particularly useful in those that frequently
deal with relations between texts, i.e. intertextuality. A
thread may be used as a schematic representation and
visualization of the content of a lesson/lecture; due to its
flexible modular structure, the same thread may easily lend
itself to a refocusing for different subjects and educational
purposes and may allow the teacher a wide range of choices with
regard to the amount of information and the level of complexity
that should be involved in the learning process. And since a
thread contains all the data needed for its understanding (e.g.
the analyzed texts, the defined and explicated relations between
them and an access to the underlying ontology), it may function
as a "self-sufficient" learning system.
Cultural Preservation - Cultural memory and heritage are
nowadays major cultural issues, and many resources are allocated
to their preservation. We believe that the use of the cultural
unit of the intertextual thread within the framework of a
hypertextual library (termed LEIT - Library of Explicated
Intertextual Threads) can constitute an effective tool for
dealing with some of the problems involved, especially by
providing a counter-force against the weakening of cultural
memory [15].
The Intertextual Thread vs. Other Modes of Knowledge
Organization on the Internet
Currently, the most overspread and theoretically established
form of knowledge organization on the Web is hypertextual
structure; therefore, a discussion of the thread in this context
is called for. As was clarified above, the theoretical and
structural basis of the thread is necessarily hypertextual;
however, it has certain advantages over the standard forms of
hypertext found on the Internet.
o Highly Informative Links
CULTOS's linking system has a salient advantage over typical
HTML links, because it enables a supply of rich input on the
relations previously defined in the thread (see Figure 1 at
http://lea.mit.edu [16]).
Such additional information makes distinctions between the
relations easy and efficient. CULTOS software not only makes
these relations visible to the user in a clear and organized
fashion, but uses a visual schematic mapping which makes their
presentation even more noticeable. Labels of texts and of
relations are interwoven into an illustrative web-like picture
of the whole thread (see Figure 2 at http://lea.mit.edu). [Both
figures show parts of a mini-thread that relates to a paragraph
from
Julio Cortazar's "Hopscotch." It was created by Liza Chudnovsky
and included in her paper, "Where the Book Meets the Hypertext:
Towards Creating Synergetic Literary Objects," presented in the
Inscriptions in the Sand 04 Conference, organized by Eastern
Mediterranean University, 3-4 June, 2004.]
In this general graphic presentation of the thread, the viewer
can already identify to some extent (through the different
labels) the distinctiveness of each relation. Furthermore, the
phrasing of the labels specifies which of the linked texts is
the (chronological) source and which is the target. Each of the
relations can, by request, provide access to a deeper layer of
information. By clicking the label, the viewer can get an exact
definition of the relation and a set of redefined attributes
providing further data, which often turn the link into a
detailed and sophisticated comparison of similarities and
dissimilarities between the texts involved.
o Better Fitness for Multiple Authoring
Although the hypertext easily accommodates links and documents
added by multiple authors, it is not very comfortable for
cooperative analysis of the same textual corpus. CULTOS software
easily makes possible the cooperation of an unlimited number of
researchers in the creation of the same thread and even of
relations between the same entities. Moreover, since the program
requires the signing of relations by their creators, multiple
authoring does not result in anonymity and confusion, as is
often the case in current multiple authored hypertexts.
o The Possibility of Creating Relations between Marked Text
Segments
In HTML, there is no standard way to connect two marked textual
segments without extracting the target segment from its "mother-
text;" typically, the "focusing" is done by a meta-textual
explanation [17]. The method of linkage used in a thread, on the
other hand, offers a better solution for this problem by making
it possible to create relations between several complete texts
as well as between any of their marked segments. This enables
the creation of better-structured hypertexts without
relinquishing their immanent openness.
o Automatic and Accurate Mapping
Standard HTML editors do not include the function of automatic
mapping of the hypertext's contents (creating a graphic display
of the site). Typically, such mapping is performed "manually;"
the traditional list of contents is the most widespread way to
map a site in order to simplify navigation. However, a leveled
hierarchical list cannot represent all the links contained in a
hypertext. CULTOS software not only automatically maps all
elements included in a certain thread but also (as mentioned
above) includes a thread-map of all types of relations that
exist between all the thread's entities. This device undoubtedly
simplifies navigation and enables the user to perform focused
searches in the thread.
o Maximally Open but Structured Net
We consider the CULTOS software to be a proper tool for
creating maximally open yet structured and searchable nets (e.g.
digital libraries of threads). By "openness" we mean the
possibility of endless amplification by all users of the system
from all over the world [18]. This feature is common to the
threads' library and to the Web taken as a whole. However, in
contrast to the Web, a digital library constructed from
intertextual threads would impose boundaries not only on the
level of the single text, but also on the level of the whole
thread. We argue that such an additional degree of organization
and unification is highly advantageous for a system as
potentially open as a hypertextual net.
Such a digital library is also supposed to be fully searchable.
As a matter of fact, the possibility of searching a database
effectively enables the users to benefit from the right of free
choice (e.g. selective interactivity), which the theoreticians
of hypertextuality have promised them, but which is in practice
often rather illusory (in small and restricted hypertextual
nets) or unachievable (in huge and unrestricted nets).
In sum, the idea and practice of building intertextual threads
is a mode of knowledge organization that matches the idea and
practice of the hypertext and aims to utilize its potential in
new ways, partly inspired by the Nelson-Landow vision, for
intertextual research and analyses.
3. WHY USE A THREAD?
3.1 THE THREAD AS AN ACADEMIC RESEARCH TOOL
The CULTOS project creates a new kind of hypertextuality, in
which the connection between texts is not a one-dimensional link
but a multi-layered data storage, showing by request the nature
of the relationship between the relevant texts. It can be used
for publishing a research as a lecture, instead of - or in
combination with - a PowerPoint presentation. It can also be
submitted to an online magazine, instead of - or in combination
with - a paper. Having already compared the thread with other
modes of hypertextual knowledge-organization, let us now compare
it with a major non-hypertextual mode: what are the relative
advantages (and disadvantages) of using a thread over a paper?
We distinguish, in this context, between the thread-author and
the thread-viewer (end user). Most advantages, we believe, are
for the viewer (but indirectly for the author as well, since
everyone wants to have an audience).
The Thread-viewer vs. the Traditional Paper-reader
Flexibility
The greatest difference between reading a paper and viewing a
thread lies in the higher degree of flexibility the addressee
enjoys in the latter. A paper has a linear structure and should
be read in its entirety from beginning to end; an intertextual
thread, on the other hand, encourages users to choose their
preferred order of viewing, and easily allows them to focus on a
particular section of the thread while ignoring the rest of it,
since single sections of a thread (from the level of a single
relation between two texts) are, as a rule, much more logically
autonomous than the sections of a paper. The multi-layered
structure of the thread encourages viewing in stages: the
viewers decide for themselves to what extent they want to dwell
on each thread. A thread has a label, an abstract and a graphic
layout. The viewer can use any of these to get a first
impression of the sorts of texts and relations that are
involved, or of the general idea behind the thread; can linger
on any particular section of the thread, overlooking the rest of
it; can ignore encapsulated mini-threads, or navigate into each
of them. S/he is then able to focus on some of the texts, or on
the relations that s/he finds particularly interesting. Interior
search engines should increase this flexibility by enabling
sophisticated quests based on the attributes input. Viewers
should be able to look, for example, for:
All the texts parodying *Hamlet*, while maintaining similar
interrelations between the characters.
All the cases in which a character in a text is perceived as
alluding to a character in an earlier text, while a
transformation of gender takes place.
All cases in which a text is perceived by society as
prophesizing a historical event.
All artistic texts that reinforce "anti-globalization" discourse.
Subjectivity
A thread is basically as subjective as a paper, yet there might
be a greater temptation to resort to threads as some sort of an
objective truth because of their logical classificatory nature.
In order to minimize such a risk, the author of each relation in
a thread has to sign it. The signature helps us to remember that
each "given" relation has at least some interpretive aspect and,
at the same time, enables the integration of the author's
identity and prestige as an additional factor in judging the
validity of the data. Furthermore, in order to render the
subjective dimension of the thread more transparent, we have
included two complementary attributes for each relation:
The degree of the relation's explicitness - explicit, implicit,
or "subconscious," as in some advertisements that aim at
creating an intertextual effect without arousing any awareness
to it.
The validity of the relation - the author expresses the extent
of his/her readiness to substantiate the claim presented by the
relation: certain, probable, possible.
The Thread-Author vs. The Traditional Paper-Author
Lack of Sequence
The traditional paper author puts a lot of effort into editing
the paper in what s/he considers to be the most effective linear
order, because s/he has control over the sequence of its
reading. The thread author, however, gives up this sort of
control. The only mechanisms s/he can use to control the viewing
of the thread are:
To divide a complex thread into several mini-threads, each
reflecting a simpler or more clearly articulated idea. In a
limited (and exceptional) case, a mini-thread may consist of no
more than two texts.
To add an abstract - a description of the idea animating the
thread (and any of its mini-threads), which may also function as
a recommendation for a certain viewing sequence.
To use the graphic layout of the thread in order to call
attention to some of its organizing principles (e.g. pinning the
principal texts to the center).
Still, these mechanisms are much less effective than
controlling the reading sequence. Thus a general position or
argument can be better presented through a paper. A thread can
be easily broken into smaller units, an act resulting in a
weakening of the overall picture; and even when not broken into
smaller units, a thread tends to be perceived as a series of
interpretive claims and judgments, while the unifying idea
behind them may not be so clear to the viewer. Evidently, if the
author has a new general hypothesis to offer, a thread would not
be the ideal place for it. On the other hand, if the author
wants to offer specific comparative observations, to analyze
influences, or to describe various actualizations of the same
idea in different texts, the construction of a thread may prove
a highly efficient methodological tool.
No Size Limitations
The traditional paper has obvious size limitations. Although
online publications pretty much cancel the cost factor, they do
not cancel the cognitive - and institutional - factors behind
these limitations. As a rule, a paper should not be longer than
35-40 pages, since it should be possible to read it in "one
sitting" (or one concentrated span of attention), and it should
not be shorter than 10 pages, otherwise it would be considered
as underdeveloped. A single notion or insight that comes into an
author's mind may not be sufficient for a paper; it can be added
as a footnote to another paper, but only in a condensed way and
depending on how significant is its contribution to the paper's
main topic of discourse. A thread, on the other hand, has no
real size limitation. Basically, its weak sequentiality
(described above) dismisses the main factor behind size
limitation; a thread can never be too long if the cost of
discontinuing is so much minimized.
Clarity vs. Individuation
When we talk about precision as a quality of a presentation, we
may tend to confuse two different meanings:
Individuation. The refinement of the referent-meaning's
uniqueness - striving for a sort of exclusive depiction that
would help the readers to distinguish as clearly as possible the
idea under discussion from any possible alternative idea.
Clarity. The transparency of the communication - striving for a
common ground with the readers, so that their comprehension will
be as similar as possible to the author's intention.
The use of the term "precision" for both meanings is
misleading, unless we explain to which sort of precision we
refer. The difference between a paper and a thread is, in a way,
parallel to the difference between these two types of precision.
While the paper is a much better vehicle for achieving
individuation (emphasizing the uniqueness by an extensive
discussion and elaboration, figurative language, or other
rhetorical means), the thread is better suited for providing
clarity. The process of classification constrains the author to
clear-cut decisions and exact definitions and much less can be
left in "gray areas," that is, there is much less room for
ambiguity and vagueness on the relations' level of the thread.
Analytical vs. Holistic Thinking
The process of classification tends to transform intuitive
holistic understanding into a set of simple and straightforward
relations. A complex relation can be illustrated in a paper
through descriptive formulations, exemplifying instances or
impressionistic language. In an intertextual thread, such a
relation will have to be divided into several simpler relations.
This process has some disadvantages: the breaking of complex
ideas into their basic components is not so easy; it requires
training and experience and is not a typical part of the
literary scholar's task. Yet when successfully done, such a
process leads to a better awareness (of both author and readers)
of the nature of the complex relation.
4. SUMMARY: FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION
Beyond its uses in the fields of literature, the arts and
cultural studies discussed so far, the new mode of data
organization developed by the CULTOS project - threads combining
texts of all types and a description and analysis of their
interrelations, all presented in a user-friendly multi-layered
structure - may prove relevant and useful for many other
domains. The full potential of the tools and the concept of new
cultural units, as described in this paper, is not yet clear. In
order for it to become standardized, aggressive marketing is
needed (as in the case of PPT software, which can be seen at
http://www.iki.fi/~jalkanen/PPT.html ) as well as a great deal
of practice and patience. Numerous organizations have already
shown considerable interest in using the new cultural units of
intertextual threads for several tasks in different fields: the
Salzburg Research Institute (Austria) and Tel Aviv University
(two of the leading partners in CULTOS) for advancing the
original LEIT vision of digital libraries based on intertextual
threads; Salzburg Research for a project about systematization
of knowledge in areas such as medicine and economics; a group of
psychologists from Technische Universitat Berlin (Germany) for
developing a standard database unit for legal evaluations
concerning children's custody (in cases of divorce); and Digital
Art Center in Holon (Israel) for developing a sophisticated
method of indexing its digital archive of video art, new media
and net art. Such projects will probably require some
adjustments in the ontology, such as the use of different
terminology, decreasing or increasing the number of relations,
adding new concepts, etc.
Our vision includes other domains as well. Basically, we
believe that a very wide spectrum of fields, from military
intelligence analysis to artistic expression, can profit from
the intertextual thread as a new and effective mode of knowledge
organization in the realm of seemingly endless hypertextual
navigation.
_____________________________
REFERENCES AND NOTES
1. The term hypertext, as it is used in this paper, denotes a
text composed of blocks of text and the electronic links that
join them, in any media (see Paul Delany and George P. Landow,
"Hypertext, Hypermedia and Literary Studies: The State of the
Art," in *Hypermedia and Literary Studies*, eds. Paul Delany and
George P. Landow, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press (1991) p. 4.
2. Gary Tinterow and Geneviève Lacambre, eds.,
*Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting*, New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, in association with the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (2003).
3. At this point, some readers may protest that not all of
these relations are, strictly speaking, "intertextual." We
believe they are, because of our wide definition of the notion
of "text;" this issue will be discussed later in the paper, in
section 2.2.
4. Theodor Nelson, *Computer LIB: Dream Machines*, Redmond, WA:
Tempus Books (1987 [1974]) p. 146; emphasis in the original.
5. Paul Delany and George P. Landow, "Hypertext, Hypermedia and
Literary Studies: The State of the Art," in *Hypermedia and
Literary Studies*, eds. Paul Delany and George P. Landow,
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press (1991) p. 39.
6. Recently, Nelson has proposed a solution for the problem of
links' invisibility, which, according to him, interfered with
the creation of well-structured nets (see his Cosmic Book
software) http://www.xanadu.com/cosmicbook .
7. David S. Miall, "Trivializing or Liberating? The Limitations
of Hypertext Theorizing," in *Mosaic*, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 167-
168 (1999).
8. EC: sixth call, IST (Information Society Technologies)
http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ . A two-year project concluded 31
October 2003.
9. The technological partners participating in this project
are: Salzburg Research (Salzburg, Austria); Universitat Vien -
Department of Computer Science and Business (Vienna, Austria);
Intelligent Views (Darmstadt, Germany); and Mercatis Information
Systems (Neu-Ulm, Germany).
10. The software is K-builder, by Intelligent Views, and is
based on object-oriented programming.
11. The content partners participating in this project are: Tel
Aviv University - The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics
(Tel Aviv, Israel); University of Tartu - Department of
Literature and Folklore (Tartu, Estonia); University of London -
Institute of Romance Studies (London, U.K.); University of
Southampton (Southampton, U.K.); Technische Universitat Berlin -
Semiotic department (Berlin, Germany).
12. Exemplified by Jacques Derrida, in *Of Grammatology*,
translated by Gayatri C. Spivak, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins
University Press (1976) and Roland Barthes, "The Death of the
Author," in *Image-Music-Text*, edited and translated by Stephen
Heath, New York, NY: Hill and Wang, pp. 142-148 (1977).
13. Such as the one presented in Gérard Gennete, *Palimpsests:
Literature in the Second Degree*, translated by Channa Newman
and Claude Doubinsky, Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press
(1997 [1982]).
14. We will elaborate on this category in section 3 of this
article ("Why Use a Thread?").
15. For further discussion of this, see Ziva Ben-Porat,
"Cultural Memory, Cultural History, and Cultural Canons in the
Third Millennium," in *Arcadia*, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 339-342
(2003).
16. Figures 1 and 2 show parts of a mini-thread that relates to
a paragraph from Julio Cortazar's *Hopscotch*. It was created by
Liza Chudnovsky and included in her paper, "Where the Book Meets
the Hypertext: Towards Creating Synergetic Literary Objects,"
presented at the Inscriptions in the Sand 04 Conference,
organized by Eastern Mediterranean University, 3-4 June, 2004.
17. As mentioned in [6], Nelson has attempted to solve this
problem (of the links' invisibility) in his Cosmic Book software.
18. We do not exclude the possibility that less qualified users
(such as students of all levels of competency) will be able to
publish their threads in such library-like nets, side by side
with researchers and educators.
CONTRIBUTORS' BIOGRAPHY
Ziva Ben-Porat (former professor of poetics and comparative
literature) is the director of the Porter Institute for Poetics
and Semiotics at Tel Aviv University. Her publications include
*Lyrical Poetry and the Lyrics of Pop* (1989; in Hebrew),
*Autumn in Hebrew Poetry* (1991; in Hebrew) and as editor for
*Rewriting* (2003; a special issue of *Journal of Romance
Studies*). She has also written many articles, including "The
Poetics of Literary Allusion," in *Poetics and Theory of
Literature 1* (1976); "Method in Madness: Notes on the Structure
of Parody, Based on Mad's T.V. Satires," in *Poetics Today 1*
(1979); "Represented Reality and Literary Models: European
Autumn on Israeli Soil," in *Poetics Today 7* (1986); "Poetics
of the Homeric Simile and Theory of [Poetic] Simile," in
*Poetics Today 13* (1993); "'Sad Autumn' and Cultural
Representations: A Comparative Study of Japanese and Israeli
'Autumn'," in *In Honor of Elrud Ibsch*, eds. Dick Schram and
Gerard Steen (2001); and "Saramago's Gospel and the poetics of
prototypical rewriting," in *Journal of Romance Studies 3*
(2003).
Motti Benari is currently working at the Salzburg Research
Forschungsgesellschaft. His Ph.D. deals with cognitive aspects
of metaphorical phenomena. Dr. Efrat Biberman teaches
aesthetics in the department of philosophy at Tel Aviv
University. Her Ph.D. deals with narrativity in the visual field
from a psychoanalytic perspective. Tammy Amiel-Hauzer teaches
in the department of poetics and comparative literature at Tel
Aviv University and in the Open University. She is currently
working on her Ph.D., which is a study of Levinas and
literature, and is editing a reader of feminist theories for the
Open University.
Liza Chudnovsky teaches in the department of poetics and
comparative literature at Tel Aviv University. Her Ph.D. deals
with hypertextual and interactive aspects of postmodernist
prose.
Eyal Segal teaches in the department of poetics and comparative
literature at Tel Aviv University and is the editorial assistant
of the journal *Poetics Today*. He is currently working on his
Ph.D., which is a study of the problems of narrative closure.
MANUSCRIPT RECEIVED 8 FEBRUARY 2004
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| LEONARDO REVIEWS |
| 2004.09 |
|_________________________________|
________________________________________________________________
This month in Leonardo Reviews, we offer 18 new reviews posted
at http://leonardoreviews.mit.edu. Featured below is another
result of our collaboration with *Image and Narrative*, and we
are pleased to offer another review of Angela Ndalianis' new
book, *Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment*.
Ranging elsewhere over topics as varied as design, cinema,
architecture, the politics of visual culture, music and much
else, Leonardo Reviews offers a digest of emerging trends that
we hope are the key issues that the Leonardo community has at
the forefront of its research and practice.
Also featured this month is a review by newest panel member
John Barber - *Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the
American Movie Business, 1953-1968*, by Kevin Heffernan, reminds
us that popular appetites for particular genres and
interpretations of technology are social constructions rather
that the formal destiny of specific media. As such, his book is
a timely intervention (it seems from Barber's review) and may
affect what many of us think about ethics and media - not as a
social andmoral topic, but as the "character" of a technological
form, which is itself a social and ethical construction.
Michael Punt
Editor-in-Chief
Leonardo Reviews
_____________________________
Leonardo Reviews posted at http://leonardoreviews.mit.edu
September 2004
Activity-Centered Design: An Ecological Approach to Designing
Smart Tools and Usable Systems, by Geri Gay and Helene Hembrooke
Reviewed by Rob Harle
Artful History: A Restoration Comedy, by Jason Simon and Mark
Dion
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
The Cinema Effect, by Sean Cubitt
Reviewed by Yvonne Spielmann
Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, edited by Brenda
Laurel
Reviewed by Maia Engeli
Frank Lloyd Wright and the Johnson Wax Buildings, by Jonathan
Lipman
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie
Business, 1953-1968, by Kevin Heffernan
Review by John F. Barber
God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts, by Lynd Ward
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
History After Apartheid: Visual Culture and Public Memory in a
Democratic South Africa, by Annie E. Coombes
Reviewed by Andrea Dahlberg
La Commune (Paris 1871), by Peter Watkins
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
Les défis du cybermonde, by Hervé Fischer, Editor
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment, by
Angela Ndalianis
Reviewed by Jan Baetens
Purity And Provocation: Dogma 95, by Mette Hjort and Scott
McKenzie, Editors
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
Red Edge, by Frode Gjerstad and Lasse Marhaug
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
Rhythm Science, by Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky that
Subliminal Kid)
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the
Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933, by Emily Thompson
Reviewed by Trace Reddell
Tranzition, by Richard Pinhas
Reviewed by Trace Reddell
Understanding Me: Lectures and Interviews, by Marshall McLuhan
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
You Can Hear me, by Ehmes (Pat Mantovi)
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
_____________________________
NEO-BAROQUE AESTHETICS AND CONTEMPORARY ENTERTAINMENT
by Angela Ndalianis, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004. 336 pp.,
illus. Trade, £22.95. ISBN: 0-262-14084-5.
Reviewed by Jan Baetens
Jan.Baetens at arts.kuleuven.ac.be
With *Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment*,
Angela Ndalianis has written an important book. Although the
relationships between neo-baroque and postmodern culture (here
represented by the entertainment industry) have been stressed by
many scholars (Calabrese [1992] still being the best-known of
them), Ndalianis succeeds in broadening the discussion in
various significant ways. But how does the author
"outperform"(to quote one of her favorite expressions) the
achievements of the existing scholarship on the neo-
baroque/postmodern issue?
On the one hand, one might have the impression (which is false)
that Ndalianis' book offers nothing more than a systematic,
complete, up-to-date, popular culture-oriented view and
reworking of the baroque's posterity in today's mass culture:
she documents thoroughly issues such as "polycentrism and
seriality", "intertextuality and labyrinths", "hypertexts and
mappings", "virtuosity, special effects, and architectures of
the senses", "special-effects magic and the spiritual presence
of the technological", without saying anything that Calabrese
and others have not already said. Yet on the other hand,
Ndalianis also introduces a set of very new insights and
approaches, which transform dramatically the very terms of the
discussion, and this is what makes *Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and
Contemporary Entertainment* a real landmark publication.
Ndalianis, who accepts the use of baroque and classic as
transhistorical categories and who accepts equally the current
definitions of both concepts (following Wölfflin and others, she
thus opposes both as open versus closed, or dynamic versus
static, etc.), emphatically rejects any binary analysis of their
opposition. First, the author theorizes the relationship between
the two poles of classic and baroque in terms of continuity,
instead of split: the neo-baroque era in which we are living is
neither the result of a refusal of the classic, nor the outcome
of a degenerative process. Neo-baroque's "chaos" is not the
contrary of classicism's "order"; the first is, on the contrary,
to be analyzed as a complexification of the latter. This
reconsideration of the relationships between the two major
tendencies in our culture is a crucial shift that Ndalianis
transfers also to other dichotomies, such as modernism versus
postmodernism, in which she manages to break with the too easy
identification of postmodernism and neo-baroque. Neo-baroque is,
for her, part of the larger whole of postmodernism, not a simple
synonym for it.
Second, and this is a very logical step in the author's
argumentation, Ndalianis' refusal to oppose classic and baroque
in an absolute way helps her to re-establish the fundamental
historicity of each form taken by both tendencies. In a more
concrete manner, Ndalianis, while permanently foregrounding what
links contemporary entertainment to seventeenth-century baroque,
illustrates no less systematically the differences between those
two cultures. Taking her inspiration from Bolter and Grusins'
remediation theory (Bolter and Grusin, 1999), Ndalianis
demonstrates convincingly that given the differences at
economic, social, political, ideological and scientific level,
baroque culture and neo-baroque culture cannot be the same,
despite all the forms, techniques and goals they undoubtedly
share (baroque's catholicism, for instance, is something very
different from neo-baroque's new age sympathies).
Yet the renewing force of Ndalianis' book is not limited to the
discussions on the meaning, use and scope of the notions of (neo-
) baroque and classic. *Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary
Entertainment* makes an important contribution to the field of
cultural semiotics as well as to the theory of contemporary
culture as visual culture. In this sense, it is not exaggerated
to claim that the stances defended by the author complete the
theoretical attempts to define "visual culture" in the wake of
W.J.T. Mitchell's famous visual turn (Mitchell, 1994). Taking
here as a starting point the cultural semiotics of Lotman
(1990), Ndalianis tries to give a more concrete interpretation
of his very abstract boundary theory of culture. Culture, for
Lotman, is based on a double mechanism of inclusion and
exclusion (before anything else, the semiotic mind shapes a
universe by tracing a limit between an inside and an outside)
that Ndalianis interprets in terms of culture as "spatial
formation"(one may hear correctly an echo of Foucault's
discursive formations) and finds illustrated in the tension
between classic and baroque, the latter being fundamentally a
culture oriented towards the lack of or breaking of limits (for
instance the limits between inside/outside, real/fictitious,
spectacle/spectator, etc.).
A fourth major achievement (besides the overcoming of the
classic/baroque dichotomy, the re-historicization of these
transhistorical categories, and the valorization of the semiotic
framework in cultural theory) is the healthy polemical tone of
many pages of the book. How refreshing to read that one can
embrace postmodernism and popular culture (and thus reject any
nostalgia of a mythical high-art and unadulterated modernism),
while at the same time attacking the cultural pessimism of what
is called here the postmodern "Holy Trinity"(Baudrillard,
Jameson, Lyotard). The very positive interpretation of notions
such as seriality, copy, repetition, etc., that are for
Ndalianis signs of vitality and instruments of (re)invention,
provide a good example of the author's independent thinking.
Another good example is the polemics with the defenders of the
"classic Hollywood paradigm" in film studies such as those of
Kristin Thompson (1999), whose work tends toward a negation of
the neo-baroque in contemporary mainstream cinema.
Of course, *Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary
Entertainment* is not a perfect book. One may regret that
quantitative information (and even information overload!)
sometimes takes the place of qualitative analysis. Ndalianis
overwhelms her reader with everything he or she wants to know
about this or that aspect of seventeenth-century history or
contemporary film production, but she fails sometimes in
offering her reader what a good book of this sort cannot do
without: close reading. Although all the information on, for
instance, the technical or financial underpinnings of trompe
l'oeil ceilings or Spiderman tie-ins is very useful as such (the
book has encyclopedic qualities that every reader interested in
the genealogy of the neo-baroque will really need when tackling
the subject from a different viewpoint), some pages of the book
do not always adequately stress what is really at stake behind
some figures. There are fortunately many counterexamples of
this, among which is Ndalianis' brilliant analysis of the
opening sequence of *Star Wars*, with fine and subtle remarks on
the modifications of Hollywood's off-screen paradigm (Ndalianis
shows very well how, thanks to its new use of surround sound,
*Star Wars* revolutionizes the classic relationship between on-
screen and off-screen, bringing an end to this diegetic
opposition in order to introduce a kind of blurring of the
boundaries between the images onscreen and the space of the
audience in the theater: a typically neo-baroque move.)
>From time to time, Ndalianis also has the unfortunate habit of
quoting rather than truly reading. One has, of course, to
forgive the author for that, but this kind of second-hand
quotation sometimes produces a lack of subtlety in her
argumentation. To give just one example: in the discussion on
literary baroque, I would have welcomed a more cautious
presentation of Jorge Luis Borges (whom Ndalianis strangely
calls Luis Borges), since Borges' work, often praised for its
forsaking all South-American baroque at the level of its style,
is definitely different than, for example, the very "wild" and
definitely baroque writing of Severo Sarduy or Lezama Lima.
Corollarily (but this is a problem with many Anglo-Saxon
interpretations of the modernism/postmodernism debate), the
coupling of Borges and Derrida, which can be defended at a
strictly theoretical level if one considers that both writers
take poststructuralist stances, is seriously challenged by the
stylistic and rhetorical differences between them. But these are
minor flaws, compared to the major qualities of a book that
sheds much new light on very old problems.
WORKS CITED
Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, *Remediation:
Understanding New Media*, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press (1999).
Omar Calabrese, *Neo-Baroque: A Sign of the Times*, Princeton,
NJ: Princeton Univ. Press (1992).
Yuri Lotman, *Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of
Culture*, London: I.B. Taurus (1990).
W.J.T. Mitchell, *Picture Theory*, Chicago, IL: Univ. of
Chicago Press (1994).
Kristin Thompson, *Storytelling in the New Hollywood:
Understanding Classical Narrative Technique*, Cambridge, MA:
Harvard Univ. Press (1999).
This review appears by kind permission of Image and Narrative;
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/
_____________________________
GHOULS, GIMMICKS, AND GOLD: HORROR FILMS AND THE AMERICAN MOVIE
BUSINESS, 1953-1968
by Kevin Heffernan, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2004.
336 pp. Trade, $22.95. ISBN: 0-8223-3215-9.
Reviewed by John F. Barber, Schools of Arts and Humanities, The
University of Texas at Dallas
jfbarber at eaze.net
For the interested student of cinema, there are many books
focusing on horror films. Some provide biographical accounts,
others analyze and critique the films and/or their production
techniques, while still others document their aesthetic and
cultural contributions.
*Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold*, a new book by Kevin Heffernan, is
the first, however, to analyze and explain the numerous economic
factors that changed how horror films were produced and
distributed from 1953-1968, from the end of the studio era to
the conglomeration of "New Hollywood."
Heffernan argues that major cultural and economic shifts in
production and reception of horror films began in 1953 with
technological innovations designed to attract more viewers and
ended in 1968 with the codification of a rating system for films
previously intended for a youth audience and the development of
the adult horror film, epitomized by *Rosemary's Baby*. The
efforts of movie producers to attract the attention and money of
audiences, Heffernan argues, were largely responsible for the
evolution of the horror film genre during this time period.
For example, the brief boom in "3-D" films from 1952-1954,
rather than foregrounding bizarre and shocking three-dimensional
movie visual and narrative effects, was designed to increase
studio profits through the sale of new projection equipment to
exhibitors.
The use of color and gore, first seen in *The Curse of
Frankenstein* (1957), was similarly designed to increase profits
through exaggerated and stylized responses to conventions
completely familiar to hard-boiled movie audiences. As Heffernan
notes, audiences found their worlds becoming tougher and
tougher, and it was important for any film to be even tougher in
order to elicit the desired reaction.
New audiences were developing, however. The 1950s produced the
first ever market of teenagers with discretionary income. This
growing youth market was identified and wooed and efforts by
film producers to sell their products to this market often
directly affected the nature of the product itself. For example,
the advertising campaigns developed to attract the attention of
these young viewers, Heffernan says, sought more and more to
exploit sensational, violent or horrific content and titles,
even before scripts for the films were written or film exposed.
In this sense, the carnival-barker style of such campaigns
actually drove the production of the films in ways thought to
best match the created audience's desire. The result was
exploitation films notable for their wild hype and low
production qualities - the "B" movies prominently featured in
local theater double-features.
International co-production was extremely important for the
evolution of horror films during the 1960s, especially as an
attempt to realize increased economies from the production and
distribution of downscale genre films that could be easily
upscaled through the conspicuous utilization of new technology
or other production techniques. It meant increased opportunities
for the television syndication arms of U.S. movie studios,
especially since there was an insatiable desire for content to
fill the gaping maw of television. The switch to color, in
response to the needs of television, forced further aesthetic
changes on horror films, increasing their potential to be more
specific, more realistic.
Finally, the growing use of more graphic violence, explicit
sexuality, bleak social commentary and downbeat endings,
exhibited in films like *The Night of the Living Dead* and
*Rosemary's Baby*, both released in 1968, marked a turning point
for the low-budget horror film when producers realized that such
films could be exploited in both matinee and evening slots and
thus sold to completely different audiences, youth as well as
adult.
The result is that changes in the horror movie industry from
1953-1968 continue to form a model for exploitation of the movie
marketplace. For example, saturation booking patterns for genre
horror films then are associated with today's blockbuster
releases. The upscaling of low-budget horror films through
association with big stars and best-selling novels is another
current-day technique developed during this period. So, too, is
the concern with the international box office, the focus on
making films for the youth market, the increasing importance of
special effects, the continuing escalation of gore and violence,
and "unprecedented interest in movies by the intelligentsia" (p.
224).
In the end, Heffernan concludes that much of the evolution of
horror films stems from "the cultivation of the young as a
consumer group in the postwar period" (p. 228). Originally
conceived for and offered to a young audience, the horror films
of the 1950s and 1960s continue to attract the interest of
present-day baby boomers who parlay their zeal for the genre
into concerns with canonicity and restoration, with recuperation
of popular culture that seems to far outstrip any thought that
horror films represent texts and artifacts of misbegotten youth.
________________________________________________________________
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school will put forward truly international thinking, exposure,
visiting artists, scholars and presenters, student and faculty
exchanges and global relations. SADM aims to shape exciting
education that draws upon contrasts and richness derived from
the very best of different cultures, ideas, creativity, arts,
history and global thinking. Asia is the fastest expanding
vibrant market in terms of evolving educational programs, co-
production, production endeavors, technologies and opportunities
for international exchanges.
Our goal is to transform Singapore into a global media city by
educating artistic, creative and innovative talent empowered to
advance the arts, design and media beyond the present and into
original intellectual property development and production
thereof. SADM will become the creative haven within which
studies at all levels and artistic aspirations in innovative art
and technology, design and media will be supported via cutting-
edge research and production, all of them realized through
global education inspiring individuality and self-discovery.
SADM invites enquiries and applications from qualified
candidates who would treasure a rare and unique opportunity to
contribute their own talents, experience and ideas towards
shaping this new creative institution. New faculty appointments
will be made at various levels of faculty - assistant
professorship, associate professorship, professorship and
visiting artist.
Successful applicants will contribute to the entire school's
development, the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, teaching
and research in one or more of the following areas:
o Animation: 2-D traditional, experimental and digital, 3-D
computer animation, stop motion, original concept development
and storytelling as well as imaginative scriptwriting for
animation.
o Digital Cinema: traditional and experimental filmmaking as
well as acting and directing, scriptwriting and sound design.
o Game and Interactive Design: digital & traditional forms of
creative game and concept design, exploring interactive game
storytelling, AI character design, plus motion capture
performance within game as well as interactive art.
o Visual Communication: graphic design as well as graphic arts,
motion design and web design.
o Object Design: product design, innovations in wearable
technology and interactive furniture, character and set design
for a range of media, design and art and technology.
o Photo and Sequential Art: still visual storytelling and
original concept & storyboard design projected via sequential
arts, commercial as well as artistic photography.
o Installation Design: exploring spatial design, interactive
architectural spaces, VR/AR environments, interactive
installation, theme park ride films.
o Emotive Robotics: character robotics, acting, responsive
objects, virtual as well as organic sculpture and futuristic toy
and sculpture design.
o Creative Writing: developing innovative concepts,
imaginative, original writing and scriptwriting for animation,
film, game and advertising.
o Performing/Integrated Art: traditional and experimental
theater, acting, directing, staging, choreography and character
development, interactive performances and installation arts
utilizing motion capture technologies.
Visiting faculty and creative professionals interested in
workshops or term-long engagements in any of the above areas or
disciplines, scholars in history of film, film analysis, history
and evolution of international animation, design, art and
technology, world mythology, creative scriptwriting for
animation and film, criticism, politics and art, future media
are welcome.
Curriculum and inventive pedagogy development, course
management and personal creative work will come under the remit
of such full-time or long-term visiting faculty members.
Applicants must possess strong creative production experience
as well as some academic background. Applicants for senior level
appointments should additionally have a track record showing
academic leadership through research and course development and
administration.
SADM is being positioned as an international, creative,
original concept-driven and idea-focused educational
environment, one that projects its innovative approaches
throughits pedagogy, exposure to world's thinking, arts,
cultures and ideas, as well as via relationships with similar
institutions around the world. Hence, we seek a spectrum of
international candidates with global interests, exposure,
experience, values, commitment and passion for projecting such
values to students chosen for their creativity and desire to
become status quo mold breakers.
To apply, please submit an application form (which can be
downloaded from http://www.ntu.edu.sg/personnel/Applnforms.htm)
or detailed curriculum vitae which should include your areas of
research interest, sample of professional and personal work,
list detailing roles played on these projects or publications,
list of awards from festivals and competitions, names, postal
and e-mail addresses of three referees. Please also provide a
one-page cover letter or statement defining your personal
aspirations, reasons for wishing to join the new school and
perceived contribution you would wish to make. Applications
should be sent to:
The Vice-President (Human Resources)
NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Office of Human Resources
Administration Building, Level 4
50 Nanyang Avenue
Singapore 639798
Telefax: (65) 6791 9340
E-mail: EHLEE at ntu.edu.sg
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/personnel/Applnforms.htm
________________________________________________________________
______________________________
| |
| ISAST NEWS |
|______________________________|
________________________________________________________________
LEONARDO/ISAST CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM
Leonardo/ISAST has initiated a program to expand its community
to work with companies that are involved with research in the
intersection of art, science and technology.
$1000 Corporate membership benefits include:
- Acknowledgment of the company by logo, ad or text, in the
pages of *Leonardo* or *Leonardo Music Journal*
- The company's logo and Web link featured on the Leonardo On-
Line website
- A subscription to the bimonthly journal *Leonardo*
- A subscription to the annual volume of LMJ with accompanying
CD
- A choice of two current Leonardo Book Series volumes
- Online access to the above journals and to *Leonardo
Electronic Almanac*
- Collaboration on publication of research results sponsored by
the company
Leonardo/ISAST recognizes the interplay between artistic
innovation and economic development. The ISAST Corporate
membership program is intended to open up new avenues for the
Leonardo Network members to work with the corporate community.
To find out more about the Corporate Membership program,
contact Kathleen Quillian at isast at leonardo.info
_____________________________
LEONARDO EXPERIMENTAL PUBLISHING INITIATIVE
The Leonardo/ISAST board of directors, in conjunction with the
editors of Leonardo publications, is considering a wide range of
experiments in publishing for possible implementation over the
next several years. The exciting range of possible changes
includes more color reproductions in print, a Leonardo preprint
server, production of supplemental CDs or DVDs, and a closer
integration between *Leonardo* and *Leonardo Electronic Almanac*
(LEA) that would facilitate publication of experimental work. We
are especially interested in showcasing the work of younger
artists and scholars that tends toward the new and the
experimental.
Readers of *Leonardo* may already have noticed a number of
layout and design changes during the 2004 volume of the journal.
Thanks to the input of board member Greg Niemeyer and the
cooperation of our publisher, MIT Press, we have begun to
implement incremental changes in the look of the journal. With
an initial goal of instituting changes that afford maximum
impact at minimal cost and disruption, we are very pleased with
the results to date, which include the use of full-page
illustrations, a new look for the table of contents and a new
section called "After Midnight," curated by Greg Niemeyer and
highlighting a perspective on the arts from a different city
with each issue. We have also instituted our Corporate
Membership program, which allows us to print full-color covers
on sponsored issues. We look forward to continuing to work with
Greg to improve the look and feel of the printed journal, and we
welcome comments from our readers.
The world of publishing is evolving rapidly as technology
continues to revamp most aspects of our lives. How can we best
use the venues that are already part of our Leonardo world -
*Leonardo*, the *Leonardo Music Journal*, *Leonardo Electronic
Almanac*, Leonardo On-Line, the Leonardo Book Series, OLATS
News, www.olats.org - and what new paths should we go down?
Scholarly publishing inhabits a difficult landscape at this
time, needing to situate itself at the forefront of
technological changes and possibilities while at the same time
struggling financially through this era of budget cuts and a
tentative worldwide economy. We seek funding partners - whether
foundations, corporations or educational institutions - wherever
such partnerships resonate with the goals of all parties.
Whether or not funding partners are found, we will continue our
efforts to bring the best work in art-science-technology to the
Leonardo community by the most innovative means possible.
- Pamela Grant-Ryan, pgr at leonardo.info
*Leonardo* Managing Editor; Project Manager, Experimental
Publishing Initiative
_____________________________
ANNOUNCING LEONARDO ABSTRACTS SERVICE (LABS) OF THESIS
ABSTRACTS IN THE ARTS/SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY
LABS is a comprehensive database of Ph.D., Masters and MFA
thesis abstracts in the emerging intersection between art,
science and technology. Individuals receiving advanced degrees
in the arts (visual, sound, performance, text), computer
sciences, the sciences and/or technology, which in some way
investigate philosophical, historical, or critical applications
of science or technology to the arts, are invited to submit an
abstract of their thesis for publication consideration in this
database.
The LABS project does not seek to duplicate existing thesis
databases but rather to give visibility to interdisciplinary
work that is often hard to retrieve from existing databases. The
abstracts are available online at Pomona College, Claremont,
California, so that interested persons can access them at no
cost: http://leonardolabs.pomona.edu .
In this initial phase, only theses available in English are
being considered, but LABS will shortly accept abstract
submission for theses in other languages through a collaboration
with Artnodes of Barcelona.
Chaired by professor Sheila Pinkel of Pomona College and
comprising academics and artists, an international peer-review
panel (PRP) reviews abstracts for inclusion in the database. In
addition to publication in the database, a selection of
abstracts selected by this panel for their special relevance
will be published quarterly in *Leonardo Electronic Almanac*
(LEA) and authors of abstracts most highly ranked by the panel
will also be invited to submit an article for publication
consideration in the journal *Leonardo*.
Authors of theses interested in having their thesis abstract
considered for publication should fill out the Thesis Abstract
Submittal form at http://leonardolabs.pomona.edu
The English-language peer-review panel for 2004-2005 consists
of Pau Alsina, Jody Berland, Sean Cubitt, Frieder Nake, Sheila
Pinkel and Stephen Petersen. Abstracts will be reviewed for
inclusion quarterly. The database will only include approved and
filed thesis abstracts. Theses filed in prior years may also be
submitted for inclusion.
For more information about the LABS project, see
http://leonardolabs.pomona.edu
_____________________________
LABS PEER REVIEW PANEL MEMBERS
Sheila Pinkel is an artist and professor of art at Pomona
College, where she teaches photography, computer graphics, photo
history and media studies. She has been an international editor
of *Leonardo* since 1984.
Contact: spinkel at earthlink.net
Sean Cubitt is professor of screen and media studies at the
University of Waikato, New Zealand. His most recent books are
*Digital Aesthetics* (Sage, 1998), *Simulation and Social
Theory* (Sage, 2001) and *The Cinema Effect* (MIT, 2004) and, as
co-editor, *Aliens R Us: Postcolonial Science-Fiction with
Ziauddin Sardar* (Pluto Press 2002) and *Against the Grain: The
Third Text Reader* (Athlone/Continuum, 2002). He is currently
completing a book, *EcoMedia*, for Rodopi, due in 2005. He has
also curated video and new media exhibitions and authored
videos, courseware and web poetry.
Homepage: http://130.217.159.224/~seanc/
Contact: seanc at waikato.ac.nz
Pau Alsina is a philosopher, professor of humanities and
philology studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
(a virtual university based in Barcelona), researcher in digital
art at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and
director of ArtNodes, a forum for the intersections of art,
science and technology.
www.uoc.edu/artnodes
Contact: palsinag at uoc.edu
Stephen Petersen regularly teaches courses in the history of
modern and contemporary art at both the University of Delaware
and the University of Pennsylvania. His research activities
focus on intersections of art, technology and mass culture in
the mid-twentieth century. He received his doctorate from the
University of Texas in 2001 and is currently in the midst of
preparing a book manuscript based on his dissertation, "Space
and the Space Age in Postwar European Art: Lucio Fontana, Yves
Klein, and their Contemporaries." Contact: petersen at udel.edu
_____________________________
STEVE KURTZ AND THE CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE
Earlier this year, responding to an investigation of the sudden
death of Steve Kurtz's wife Hope Kurtz, the FBI discovered
scientific laboratory equipment used for art projects in the
home of Steve Kurtz, associate professor of art at the
University of Buffalo in New York and a member of Critical Art
Ensemble (CAE). Upon their discovery, the FBI invoked the
Patriot Act to confiscate Kurtz's equipment and sought charges
of bio-terrorism against Kurtz. Several of Kurtz's fellow
professors were subpoenaed in the process. In response to the
alarming FBI actions against Steve Kurtz and CAE, Leonardo/ISAST
sent a letter in support of the artists and encouraging the FBI
to drop all charges.
As stated in the letter signed by Beverly Reiser, chair of the
Leonardo/ISAST International Advisory Board, "The authorities
did have a responsibility to investigate Hope Kurtz's death and
the unfamiliar laboratory equipment and living cultures that
they found in Kurtz's house. However, authorities crossed the
line between making a legitimate mistake and abusing their
authority, when, after finding nothing of danger to the public,
and no evidence that Kurtz had anything to do with his wife's
death, they pressed to convene a grand jury anyway. What does
this nightmarish scenario imply for artists? Will artists
working at the intersection of art and science or technology
live under the constant threat of grand jury investigation,
confiscation of their material, potentially huge legal fees and
unwarranted intrusion into their private moments?"
In the end, a federal grand jury in Buffalo charged Kurtz with
"petty larceny," not bio-terrorism. Also indicted was Robert
Ferrell, head of the Department of Genetics at the University of
Pittsburgh's School of Public Health, who helped Kurtz to obtain
$256 worth of harmless bacteria for one of Kurtz's art projects.
"There was very obviously no criminal intent," said Kurtz
attorney Cambria. "The intent was to educate and enlighten."
See http://www.caedefensefund.org/ for further background.
_____________________________
** Worldwide Call for Submissions **
LEA Special Issue cfp: Geography of Pain
Guest Editors: Tom Ettinger and Diane Gromala (pain at astn.net)
http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/LEA2004/authors.htm#pain
As part of Leonardo's ongoing Art and Biology project, the
Leonardo Electronic Almanac (ISSN No: 1071-4391) is seeking
short texts (with imagery and project URLs) by artists and
scientists, or artist/scientist teams, whose work addresses pain
in all its forms. Projects of interest include aesthetic works
that address subjective experiences, social conditions, and
cultural constructions of pain. Projects on the art of healing
are of interest as well, especially multidisciplinary approaches
that integrate Eastern and Western traditions. We will also
consider current health science, computer science, and
engineering research relevant to these topics.
LEA encourages international artists / academics / researchers
/ students to submit their proposals for consideration. We
particularly encourage authors outside North America and Europe
to send proposals for articles/gallery/artists statements.
This LEA Special is part of a new collaborative initiative on
pain management, founded by:
* Tom Ettinger, Yale University, and interim Executive
Director, Art & Science Collaborations, Inc.
(http://www.asci.org)
* Diane Gromala, Georgia Institute of Technology
(http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~gromala)
* Julian Gresser, Chairman, Alliances for Discovery
(http://www.breakthroughdiscoveries.org)
* Roger Malina, Chairman and Editor, Leonardo
(http://mitpress.mit.edu/Leonardo)
Interested authors should send:
- A brief description of proposed text (100 - 300 words)
- A brief author biography
- Any related URLs
- Contact details
In the subject heading of the email message, please use "Name
of Artist/Project Title: LEA Pain Management - Date Submitted".
Please cut and paste all text into body of email (without
attachments).
Deadline for proposals: 15 October 2004
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-
journals/LEA/submit
Please send proposals or queries to:
Tom Ettinger and Diane Gromala
pain at astn.net
and
Nisar Keshvani
LEA Editor-in-Chief
lea at mitpress.mit.edu
http://lea.mit.edu
________________________________________________________________
___________________
| |
| |
| CREDITS |
| |
|___________________|
Nisar Keshvani: LEA Editor-in-Chief
Patrick Lambelet: LEA Managing Editor
Michael Punt: LR Editor-in-Chief
Andre Ho: Web Concept and Design Consultant
Roger Malina: Leonardo Executive Editor
Stephen Wilson: Chair, Leonardo/ISAST Web Committee
Craig Harris: Founding Editor
Editorial Advisory Board:
Irina Aristarkhova, Roy Ascott, Craig Harris, Fatima Lasay,
Michael Naimark, Julianne Pierce
Gallery Advisory Board:
Mark Amerika, Paul Brown, Choy Kok Kee, Steve Dietz, Kim Machan
fAf-LEA Corresponding Editors:
Lee Weng Choy, Ricardo Dal Farra, Elga Ferreira, Young Hae-
Chang, Fatima Lasay, Jose-Carlos Mariategui, Marcus Neustetter,
Elaine Ng, Marc Voge
________________________________________________________________
___________________
| |
| LEA |
| WORLD WIDE WEB |
| ACCESS |
|___________________|
For over a decade, Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) has thrived
as an international peer-reviewed electronic journal and web
archive, covering the interaction of the arts, sciences and
technology. LEA emphasizes rapid publication of recent work and
critical discussion on topics of current excitement. Many
contributors are younger scholars and artists, and there is a
slant towards shorter, less academic texts.
Contents include Leonardo Reviews, edited by Michael Punt,
Leonardo Research Abstracts of recent Ph.D. and Masters theses,
curated Galleries of current new media artwork, and special
issues on topics ranging from Artists and Scientists in times of
War, to Zero Gravity Art, to the History of New Media.
LEA is accessible using the following URL: http://lea.mit.edu
________________________________________________________________
_________________
| LEA |
| PUBLISHING |
| INFORMATION |
|_________________|
Editorial Address:
Leonardo Electronic Almanac
P O BOx 850, Robinson Road
Singapore 901650
E-mail: lea at mitpress.mit.edu
________________________________________________________________
Copyright (2004), Leonardo, the International Society for the
Arts, Sciences and Technology
All Rights Reserved.
Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published by:
The MIT Press Journals, Five Cambridge Center,
Cambridge, MA 02142
U.S.A.
Re-posting of the content of this journal is prohibited without
permission of Leonardo/ISAST, except for the posting of news and
events listings which have been independently received.
Leonardo/ISAST and the MIT Press give institutions permission to
offer access to LEA within the organization through such
resources as restricted local gopher and mosaic services. Open
access to other individuals and organizations is not permitted.
________________________________________________________________
< Ordering Information >
< Ordering Information >
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=27&
mode=p
Leonardo Electronic Almanac is free to Leonardo/ISAST members and
to subscribers to the journal Leonardo for the 2004 subscription
year. The rate for Non-Leonardo individual subscribers is $35.00,
and for Non-Leonardo institutional subscribers the rate is
$77.00. All subscriptions are entered for the calendar year only.
All orders must be prepaid by check (must be drawn against U.S.
bank in U.S. funds), money order, MasterCard, VISA, or American
Express. Where student subscription rates are available, a
verification of matriculant status is required.
Note: In order to place orders electronically, you must be using
a browser that is SSL-compliant. If you are unable to open the
ordering link listed above, then your browser does not support
the security features necessary to use this interface. Please use
the addresses below to submit your order. Address all orders and
inquiries to:
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MIT Press Journals
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TEL: (617) 253-2889 (M-F, 9-5)
FAX: (617) 577-1545 (24 hours)
For questions contact:
journals-orders at mit.edu (subscriptions)
For questions contact:
journals-orders at mit.edu (subscriptions)
________________________________________________________________
________________
| |
| ADVERTISING |
|________________|
Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published monthly -- individuals
and institutions interested in advertising in LEA, either in the
distributed text version or on the World Wide Web site should
contact:
Leonardo Advertising Department
211 Sutter Street, Suite 800
San Francisco, CA 94108
phone: (415) 391-1110
fax: (415) 391-2385
E-mail: isast at leonardo.info
More Info: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-
journals/Leonardo/isast/placeads.html#LEAads
________________________________________________________________
____________________
| |
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
|____________________|
LEA acknowledges with thanks the Rockefeller and Ford
Foundations for their support to Leonardo/ISAST and its projects.
________________________________________________________________
< End of Leonardo Electronic Almanac 12 (09) >
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