Alright, so these two readings were by far my least favorite of the entire semester. While I think that the Jackson piece was rather intriguing, I still do not know what to make of Mark Amerika.
This is the installation in the Guggenheim I was talking about in class:
Here text is used as a form of art. I suppose that the random sayings spread throughout the display may add up to an overall theme. This is most likely the case with Filmtext. I will the first one to admit that I did not give Filmtext as much attention as Patchwork Girl. I really tried to get into it, but I ended up just getting frustrated. I felt a similar frustration when dealing with Jackson, but that piece at least had a sense of accomplishment to it. I was able to draw themes out of the work, and to connect all the links into a somewhat cohesive story. However, there must be something appealing to Amerika that I just don’t get. Apparently Amerika has published novels according to Wikipedia. He then went on to create various net art such as Filmtext. His goal was apparently to expand writing into new media technologies….which I think we can agree he definitely did.
Perhaps the problem with Filmtext is that the linearity has gone completely out the window. Patchwork Girl was not linear, but it very much could be if navigated correctly. Does Amerika want us to be scratching our heads and trying to piece together some sense of a narrative?
I feel like I am merely going to repeat myself in this blog, so I am going to wrap up early.
Bottom line: I don’t get Filmtext, but if you do…more power to you. I’ll stick to some good old fashioned linear text.
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