Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe
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- Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe
- Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe
- CHAPTER 1:INTRODUCTION 12
- CHAPTER 2:MALLEABLE TYPE: A HISTORY 34
- CHAPTER 3:AESTHETIC ANIMISM 78
- CHAPTER 4:SOFTWARE STUDIES 98
- CHAPTER 5:CONCLUSIONS 155
Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe William David (Jhave) Johnston A Thesis in the Humanities Doctoral Program
Of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Montreal, Quebec, Canada November 2011 © David (Jhave) Johnston. 2011. SIGNATURES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: David (Jhave) Johnston Entitled: Aesthetic Animism: Digital Poetry as Ontological Probe and submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Humanities) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: _______________________________________ Chair Dr.V Venkatesh _______________________________________ External Examiner Prof. John Cayley _______________________________________ External to Program Dr. J. Camlot _______________________________________ Examiner Prof. J. Lewis _______________________________________ Examiner Dr. C. Salter _______________________________________ Examiner Dr. Sha Xin Wei _______________________________________ Supervisor Dr. O. Dyens Approved by ___________________________________________________________ Dr. E. Manning, Graduate Program Director November 11, 2011 _______________________________________ Dr. B. Lewis, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to my thesis advisers for their assistance during this process. I am grateful for their guidance, astute experience and extreme candidness. Errors or excesses remain mine. Inundated in information, in the age of the internet it is certain that many ideas in this thesis were first expressed elsewhere. I have tried wherever possible to cite all sources, but it is probable that the pioneering work done by many thinkers (among them Jay David Bolter, Richard Lanham, Johanna Drucker, Katherine Hayles, Loss Pequeño Glazier, Bill Seaman, Stephanie Strickland, Eduardo Kac, Eric Vos, Christopher Funkhouser, John Cayley, Francisco Ricardo, Charles Hartman and many many others) has seeped into my mind. In addition, the following people each at some time proved themselves invaluable in offering encouragement: Rita Raley, Jake Moore, Anke Burger, Chris Funkhouser, Amy Hufnagel, Laura Emelianoff, Vasilios Demetrious, Skawennati, Jessica Pressman, Davin Heckman, Jim Andrews, J.R. Carpenter, Daniel Canty, TBone, Stephanie Beliveau, Bruno Nadeau, Patrice Fortier, Erin Manning and Frances Foster. Big thanks to Lazarus for listening to my doubts and offering good sensible counsel. Bina Freiwald for indefatigable grace and encouragement. And a huge thanks to Stephanie Strickland for her fastidious editorial eye which helped me immeasurably. During my research work I was given the opportunity to exhibit by Oboro, BNL de Montreal 2011, ELO @ Brown 2010, e-Poetry 2011, Fais Ta Valise, Beluga Studios and NT2. Such opportunities to place online work into physical contexts provide valuable perspective. I need to thank my family, especially Mom, for continual support. And lastly Sophie Jodoin who saw me through this intellectual rite of passage. DEDICATED To
Laurie Walker and my gentle stepfather Murray Thorner TABLE OF CONTENTS How can this document be read? 9 What is Digital Poetry? 9 Preface 10
1.1What is this thesis about 14 1.1.1Precedents 15 1.1.2Strategies 16 1.2What is Software-Studies? 18 1.2.1Practice-Led Software-Studies 18 1.3The Turn toward Living Language 19 1.3.1What I Propose 25 1.3.2Machinic Language is Living Language 27 1.3.3Between Boole and Disney 29 1.3.4Methodological Notes 31
2.1Visual Language 34 2.1.1Pubs, Psychedelia and Illuminated Manuscripts 35 1.1.1Visual Language in Poetry 37 2.2Early History: Malleable/Sculptural Text 38 2.2.1Pre-Historic Malleable Type:Clay 38 2.2.2Cabbalists & Alchemists 39 2.2.3Duchamp’s Anemic Cinema 39 2.3Opacity: an inversion of typographic transparency 41 2.3.1Mary Ellen Solt : sensual concrete 41 2.3.2J. A. Miller’s Dimensional Typography 44 1.2Digital Malleable Precursors 46 2.3.2.1Eduardo Kac: Holo and Bio Poetry 48 1.2.1Poet-Painter Hybrids 50 2.3.2.2Peter Ciccariello : A painter-poet 50 2.3.3Programmer Poets 51 2.3.3.1Knuth Said 52 2.3.3.2Peter Cho : from TypoTypo to Takeluma 52 2.3.3.3Ben Fry’s Tendril 54 2.3.3.4Karsten Schmidt: programmer of dimensional typography 56 2.3.4Contemporary Practitioners: Motion Graphics & Mammalian Malleability 59 2.3.4.1Graffiti and Hacktivist Typography: Eyewriter 60 2.3.4.2Ads as Tech Ops : attack of the Filler poems 61 2.3.4.3A Hypothetical Letter-Object: Oggiano Holzer Zeitguised 62 1.3Text/image Conjunctions: On The Path to Embodied Letterforms 64 2.3.5Visual Language: Volumetric and Situated 69 2.4Second Life, the 2nd Life of VMRL 72 2.4.1CAVE: spelunking the virtual 74 2.4.2As Far Away from the Page as Possible 76 2.4.3In Closure: From Watching to Reading to Watching 77 CHAPTER 3:AESTHETIC ANIMISM 78 3.1Aesthetic Animism: Introduction of Term 78 3.1.1Evolution Argument 80 3.1.2Prosthetic argument 82 3.1.3Assimilation argument 84 3.1.4Network argument 86 3.2Hybridity: things come together as they fall apart 89 3.2.1Language’s Latent Tongue 90 3.2.2Bouba/Kiki : Shape-Sound Synaesthesia 92 3.3Summary Synopsis of Volumetric Argument 94 3.4Summary of Aesthetic Animism Arguments 95
1.2Timeline Hegemony: a paradigm reconsidered 100 4.1.1Ancient History: When vases were in vogue 101 4.1.2GUI History 101 1.3.1Early Animation Software: Alan Kay, VideoWorks (1985)Amiga (1985) 102 4.1.3Timeline’s Fundamental Parts 106 1.3.2Implicit Principles of Timelines 107 4.1.4My Claims about Timeline 108 4.1.5Homogenous Granularity 110 1.4SOFTWARE CASE STUDIES 112 4.2SOFTWARE CASE-STUDY : Compositing After Effects onto Poetics 113 4.2.1Ancient History: George Meliés and the Heel of Time 114 4.2.2Motion Graphics: IBM’s first Artist-in-residence John Whitney 115 4.2.3After Effects: A Brief History of Hybridity’s Origin 115 1.4.1Kinetic Type, Compositing Suites & The Hybrid Canon 117 4.2.4Is Compositing only Gloss? Bi-Stable Decorum. 120 4.2.5A Tentative Hybrid Theory: Composition 122 4.3SOFTWARE CASE-STUDY : Mudbox 125 4.3.1A Very Brief History of Sculpting Software 126 4.3.2As Usual a Disclaimer 127 4.3.3The Mudbox Interface 129 4.3.4What does Mud have to do with Language 130 4.3.5Shape Semantic Synergy, Motion-Tracking and Music Videos 131 4.3.6What do Ads have to do with Poetry again? 133 4.3.7Re-awakening the Inert 134 4.3.8Working in Mudbox 137 4.3.9The Impoverished Hand Fed by the Empathic Head: Sculpting 5.0 138 4.3.10How does this relate to Timelines? 140 1.4.2Instrumentality 141 4.3.11The Role of 3D in Future Writing 141 4.4SOFTWARE CASE-STUDY : Mr Softie 143 4.4.1Mr Softie History 144 4.4.2Creative Practice in Mr Softie 146 4.4.3StandUnder: a specific case-study of Mr Softie Use 147 4.4.4Parameters and Palpability 149 4.4.5Synthesis of Interaction and Instinct 153 CHAPTER 5:CONCLUSIONS 155 5.1.1A Theory of Multimedia Synergy: in-out-between 157 5.1.2Outside Words, Interior Worlds 158 5.1.3Aesthetic Animism Reconsidered 159 5.1.4Lumps, Logarithms & Kristeva’s Chora 160 1.2.1The Expanded Field 162 5.1.5What May Be 163 APPENDIX: Research Creation & Image-Essay 167 APPENDIX: The Ekphrasis of Interiority 168 Bibliography 170 Download 0.56 Mb. Share with your friends:
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