Suchana Subedi, Hypertext

    While reading Chapter three, I was really intrigued by Judy Malloy’s project, Uncle Roger. It was published not on the World Wide Web but on WELL (the Whole Earth ‘Lectric Link) and is miraculously still available to click through via a simple google search. The story is nonlinear but separated into three sections: The party in the Woodside, the blue notebook, and terminals. What I did not expect to find as I flipped through the files was that individual options, like Jenny or individual pictures meant to give the audience some authority or power in the narrative, change depending on when you click them. For example, the same photo clicked twice in the blue notebook can often reveal two different entries, even if the images themselves are pretty similar, if not the same. I tried to maneuver around and find the same photo/entry but only occasionally did.

    I found Entre Ville to be a really interesting take on hypertext because videos have not been as common in the examples we’ve explored. I do also find the videos to be at least a little disturbing or creepy. The absence of narrative and just background sounds with a shaky camera overlaid with words gives it a disturbing unfinished, found footage feel. Some footage is more pleasant than others.

    While I was reading Haraway’s manifesto, I understood immediately what she meant by comparing cyborgs to people, people becoming inextricably reliant, dependent, and affected by technology. Similar to coding, people have environments, natural instincts, and usually a deep subconscious understanding of their social environment before they even understand anything about themselves - a coding totally subconscious to them until they gain consciousness to dissect their inherent, internal beliefs. I just really enjoyed her description of the phenomena we currently experience.