Sunday, September 10, 2006

RE: Exercise 4: Hypertext and non-linearity

There's definitely a great impact that hypertext has had on the world. Just click on the right-hand column of my blog and you'll see what I mean - the most significant impact is the WWW. It has made possible the selection and linking of individual texts from different locations and time based on individual choice. It also resulted in more than one way of perceiving things and assimilating a story. Seemingly, the degree of control to unfold the narrative has been transferred to us, the readers. As Landow and Delanu suggests, "hypertext breaks down our habitual way of understanding and experiencing tests.... by making visible and explicit mental processes that have always been part of the total experience of reading"; hence having instant access and choice to what happens next not only blurs the notion of who's the author, but also the experience of the narrative. (kind of reminds me of what Legrady said in the previous reading)

Hypertext also revolutionizes "old media" and adds a new layer of meaning to what was before a piece of linear narrative e.g. comics. "Old" comics are designed in static frames, but on WWW it now allows the user to jump from frame to frame at the click of the mouse! We can now form our own narrative that need not be sequential. Check this out - Zot! Online:"Hearts and Minds". Basically hypertext is EVERYWHERE (at least on the WWW)! It has significantly changed our access to information, making it more convenient; and also affected how we form linkages between 2 or more independent texts, with the mental process becoming more explicit.

sung by lalala @ 7:46 PM

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