About Homecoming

 

'Homecoming' is a computer-mediated textual art work produced as the creative component of my PhD work at the University of Luton. It draws both its title and its central themes from an enigmatic quote that comes at the very end of a late essay by Mikhail Bakhtin called 'Toward a Methodology for the Human Sciences'. The individual meditations that make up this work of art represent my varying responses to this most challenging utterance from the philosopher who formulated the basis of dialogic thought.

'Homecoming' deploys readings, sound effects, text, images and animation to make meaning. It also deploys many of the functions supported by Macrodmedia Flash and the Graphical User Interface to facilitate a reading experience which renews the reader-participants's awareness of their participation in the act of meaning-making. You will need a flash 8.0 player and have the sound turned up on your computer. The files that make-up the individual meditations of 'Homecoming' are large and so this piece is best enjoyed over a broadband connection.

'Homecoming' is designed to illuminate the aesthetic described in my PhD thesis: 'A Homecoming Festival: The Application of the Dialogic Concepts of Addressivity and the Awareness of Participation to an Aesthetic of Computer-mediated Textual Art' (Stewart 2006). This thesis draws on the work of Bakhtin and the Bakhitn Circle to explore the relationship between his concept of addressivity and an awareness of participation in the act of meaning-making with computer-mediated text.

 

return to home page

contact details