Ergodic Literature & Cybertext  Cybertext Vs hypertext

Cybertext A neologism derived from Norbert Wiener’s book Cybernetics: Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948). It has thus created a new discipline called “Cybernetics.”

Cybertext Wiener’s interest is not just in the development of digital computers. He is interested in both organic and inorganic systems, i.e. any system that contains an information feedback loop.

Cybertext: Wiener The concept of cybertext does not limit itself to the study of computer-driven textuality. It focuses on the mechanical organization of the text.

Cybertext: Wiener To focus on the mechanical organization of the text… What does that imply? *attention on medium-specific aspects of literary exchange *attention on the consumer/user/reader of the text

Cybertext: Wiener *attention on medium-specific aspects of literary exchange Critical examination of existing norms Experimentation *attention on the consumer/user/reader of the text Consumer/user/reader re-figured as author.

Cybertext  ergodic literature Ergodic features: [origin: Greek words “ergon” and “hodos”] “work” and “path” The effort to traverse the text (walk through the work) is of great importance “The user will have effectuated a semiotic sequence, and this selective movement is a work of physical construction that the various concepts of `reading’ do not account for.”

Cybertext  ergodic literature Ergodic features: “Non-linear” (text) (too misleading)  “without either beginning or end” “an endless labyrinthine plateau”

Cybertext  ergodic literature Labyrinth = forking paths? Penelope Reed Doob: (TWO kinds of labyrinthine structure) *Unicursal: one path, winding and turning towards a centre *Multicursal: the maze wanderer faces a series of critical choices

Cybertext  ergodic literature Labyrinth = forking paths? Umberto Eco: (THREE kinds of labyrinth) *The Linear: (= unicursal) *The Maze: (= multicursal) *The Net: “Every point can be connected with every other point.”

Cybertext  ergodic literature Labyrinth = forking paths? “Labyrinth without exits”? Aarseth’s response: “A labyrinth without exit is a labyrinth without entrance; in other words, not a labyrinth at all.”

Cybertext  ergodic literature Labyrinth is not just a metaphor. Labyrinth points to concrete structures.

Cybertext  ergodic literature Examples of ergodic literature: I Ching, or the Book of Changes – Chinese text of oracular wisdom (Western Zhou dynasty, BC) -- made up of 64 symbols (hexagrams) which are the binary combinations of six whole or broken (“changing”) lines (64 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2) -- manipulated by three coins or forty-nine yarrow stalks according to randomizing principle -- two hexagrams are combined, producing one out of 4,096 possible texts

Examples of Ergodic Literature Guillaume Apollinaire’s “calligrammes” (1917-8) Raymond Queneau’s “Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes” (a hundred thousand billion poems) (1961) B.S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates (1969) Milorad Pavic’s Landscape Painted with Tea (1990)

What is Cybertext? Cybertext is NOT a “new,” “revolutionary” form of text, with capabilities only made possible through the invention of the digital computer. Cybertext is NOT a radical break with old- fashioned textuality.

What is Cybertext? Cybertext is a perspective on all forms of textuality.

What is Cybertext? -- a comparative view Two Kinds of Interactivity: Weaker definition: HYPERTEXT / static Weaker definition: HYPERTEXT / static Superior definition: CYBERTEXT / dynamic

Hypertext Participation, play, or even use: Both the content and the permutations potentially open to the readers are fixed. Most existing interactive narratives are hypertexts – They are in the form of a journey with something to acquire, a task to accomplish, a destination to reach etc. Most existing interactive narratives are hypertexts. They are in the form of a journey with something to acquire, a task to accomplish, a reward to grab, a destination to reach and so on. Or there is simply something to look at. Or there are a few story lines to follow depending on where one randomly branches off. Or there are a few story lines to follow depending on where one randomly branches off.

Hypertext In most cases, the reader merely follows links already constructed by the author, realizing several of the author’s scripted permutations of the narrative or prescribed resolution.

Hypertext Vs Cybertext Although the experience of reading a hypertext may feel dynamic and one has the impression that the number of iterations is inexhaustible, the number of narrative versions is in actually fixed in theory. In the case of cybertext, a machine to generate extended possibilities of expression, “the actual content of the text may be determined by a script that enables the computer to evolve its own stories” according to parameters written into the application.

Cybertext Algorithmic principles RandomnessPermutationSelf-organizationEmergence

Cybertext Examples Robert Massin, “One Hundred Million Poems” [kinetic typography] [expressive typography] “Emotion Fractal”: a recursive space filling algorithm using English words describing the human condition