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Exploring (the poetics of) strange (and fractal) hypertexts

Exploring (the poetics of) strange (and fractal) hypertexts
Exploring (the poetics of) strange (and fractal) hypertexts
The ACM Hypertext conference has a rich history of challenging the node-link hegemony of the web. At Hypertext 2011 Pisarski [12] suggested that to refocus on nodes in hypertext might unlock a new poetics, and at Hypertext 2001 Bernstein [3] lamented the lack of strange hypertexts: playful tools that experiment with hypertext structure and form. As part of the emerging Strange Hypertexts community project we have been exploring a number of exotic hypertext tools, and in this paper we set out an early experiment with media and creative writing undergraduates to see what effect one particular form – Fractal Narratives, a hypertext where readers drill down into text in a reoccurring pattern – would have on their writing. In this particular trial, we found that most students did not engage in the structure from a storytelling point of view, although they did find value from a planning point of view. Participants conceptually saw the value in non-linear storytelling but few exploited the fractal structure to actually do this. Participant feedback leads us to conclude that while new poetics do emerge from strange hypertexts, this should be viewed as an ongoing process that can be reinforced and encouraged by designing tools that highlight and support those emerging poetics in a series of feedback loops, and by providing writing contexts where they can be highlighted and collaboratively explored
Hargood, Charlie
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Davies, Rosamund
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Millard, David
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Taylor, Matt R
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Brooker, Samuel
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Hargood, Charlie
9c24b7b0-ee48-41ba-9868-5b97b804f7d3
Davies, Rosamund
1f356454-3a04-4f58-aa72-01eddede80fc
Millard, David
4f19bca5-80dc-4533-a101-89a5a0e3b372
Taylor, Matt R
401d0730-580a-4b30-9232-1cfbf9e26d60
Brooker, Samuel
13dd0504-a4c6-4dbd-8e3b-6083569c94dd

Hargood, Charlie, Davies, Rosamund, Millard, David, Taylor, Matt R and Brooker, Samuel (2012) Exploring (the poetics of) strange (and fractal) hypertexts. 23rd ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, Milwaukee, United States. 25 - 28 Jun 2012. 5 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

The ACM Hypertext conference has a rich history of challenging the node-link hegemony of the web. At Hypertext 2011 Pisarski [12] suggested that to refocus on nodes in hypertext might unlock a new poetics, and at Hypertext 2001 Bernstein [3] lamented the lack of strange hypertexts: playful tools that experiment with hypertext structure and form. As part of the emerging Strange Hypertexts community project we have been exploring a number of exotic hypertext tools, and in this paper we set out an early experiment with media and creative writing undergraduates to see what effect one particular form – Fractal Narratives, a hypertext where readers drill down into text in a reoccurring pattern – would have on their writing. In this particular trial, we found that most students did not engage in the structure from a storytelling point of view, although they did find value from a planning point of view. Participants conceptually saw the value in non-linear storytelling but few exploited the fractal structure to actually do this. Participant feedback leads us to conclude that while new poetics do emerge from strange hypertexts, this should be viewed as an ongoing process that can be reinforced and encouraged by designing tools that highlight and support those emerging poetics in a series of feedback loops, and by providing writing contexts where they can be highlighted and collaboratively explored

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More information

Published date: 25 June 2012
Venue - Dates: 23rd ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, Milwaukee, United States, 2012-06-25 - 2012-06-28
Related URLs:
Organisations: Web & Internet Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 338870
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/338870
PURE UUID: 2c070e3b-6428-450e-a03d-8dd575eb2dfd
ORCID for David Millard: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-2710

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 18 May 2012 08:39
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:59

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Contributors

Author: Charlie Hargood
Author: Rosamund Davies
Author: David Millard ORCID iD
Author: Matt R Taylor
Author: Samuel Brooker

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