gas

A Proposed New Media Meditation on the Self by Gavin Andrew Stewart

The Artistic Context

To date, my e-lit work has focused on the network, collaborative and multi-user aspects of computer-mediated textuality. I have used server-side technologies (such PHP and postgresSQL) to create dynamic, stable ‘on-the-fly’ html texts that explore the role of the programmer and the author-participant in the production of dialogic responsive understanding (for a fuller theoretical treatment of this subject see the essay ‘Becoming Together’ at http://www.users.waitrose.com/~stewartga/essays/Becoming.htm). The Castle Gardens, for example, is a multi-user ‘garden’ that challenges the limits imposed by the conventional MUD program (a brief demonstration version of the program is available at http://diffie.luton.ac.uk/~gs/castle/home.htm). It aims to produce a more literary and meta-textual experience for the reader/player/user, by extending the range of rhetoric available for their use. It does this by introducing some narrative elements, such as a database table of ‘back stories’ that serve as a symbolic, cultural memory for the Garden. It also does this by introducing a sense of the meta-dramatic, by allowing the player /users to create their own character-based chatterbots (ELIZA-oids). In doing so, it explores the fluid roles of the programmer and the author-participant in production of meaning. However, it is visually constrained by the limited possibilities provided by html and my practical skills as a visual artist.

Academic Context

In parallel to my programming, my PhD studies at the University of Luton with Dr Adrian Page have brought me into contact with the philosophy of dialogism. In particular, I have read and appreciated the philosophical works of Mikhail Bakhtin and Valentin Voloshinov. These studies have drawn my attention to the importance of the emerging aesthetics of instability and temporal structuring of computer-mediated texts, explored by artists such as John Cayley, Andy Campbell, Jim Andrews and Peter Howard. These texts excite me, with their structured use of animation, sound, video and interactivity. I am currently working on a thesis that argues that these works prefigure a new and valuable type of cultural experience.

I am keen to bring my interests together and to explore the artistic possibilities of computer-textuality in a large scale net-based, animated e-lit work called gas. I am hoping that TEXTLAB will provide a perfect platform for developing this work.

The Aim and Name of the Work

The overall artistic aim of this work is to explore the dialogic relationship between self and the other. It is noteworthy for this work that the ‘self’, as described by Bakhtin, is a dynamic, swirling, unfinished condition that he calls ‘becoming’. The metaphor of a gas seems to describe this condition very well. The same gas metaphor seems also to me to fit well with the borderless, unstable, temporally-shifting qualities of networked computer-mediated texts. Finally, it is also a convenient pun on my own initials. Gas, therefore, is a cipher to my self; a small ‘gas’ text that conveys a small sense of the way in which language is important in the ‘becoming’ of selfhood.

The form of work

gas will be a dynamic, database-driven, text-, sound- and image-based work that will explore the potential of the multimedia computer discussed above. It is important to me that the work has a restless, unstable, swirling quality to it. The audio and visual aspects of the work will be essential for conveying this turbid quality.

At this stage, I imagine it will be structured into a series of symbolic motifs that I am calling ‘elements’ (for example - oxygen, nitrogen, neon etc.) that could be explored separately to reveal different aspects of relationship between the self and others or taken as a collection. Neon, a noble gas, for example, could be symbolic of the empire of intellect, of artificial light, inert-ness etc.

Each of these elements might then be represented in a number of different ways in a number of different interfaces (located on a number of different servers), providing multiple ways of approaching an already multiple text.

Current Experience

My background is in traditional, lyric poetry. I have written poetry, short stories, novellas, essays and non-fiction for over twenty years. I also have some experience in programming (BASIC, C, PHP, html). I have worked with a number of web-design packages (e.g. Photoshop7.0, Dreamweaver MX, Firework MX and Flash MX) though I prefer to code my own website by hand. However, I am much less experienced in film and the visual arts. One of the many reasons that I am looking forward to participating in TEXTLAB is that I would like access to ideas and technology for manipulating sound and moving images, to compliment the literary and philosophical skills I am currently developing.

Technology

I am keen to explore the possibilities of using an animating program to produce the interface for this project. I am also keen to make the work available as widely as possible, so I am considering using either Flash or Director as a possible web-based design choice. However, I would need training in the advance aspects of these programs. I would also need training in the advance manipulation of images and sound as well.

I also wish to explore the additional possibilities presented by joining the interface program to a database. This will allow the work to grow and mutate by including the words, images and sounds of collaborators. It will also give the project the chance to explore the computer’s considerable aleatoric possibilities as well.

September 2003

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