The New Media Reader - Chapters 9-12

The three articles read for this week all deal with a developing relationship between author and reader, creator and user, artist and viewer.  Chapter 9 discussed the Sketchpad, which allowed users to think about their computer screens in a different way, a more interactive way, that allowed space to be unlimited to them.  It also created new tools for computer drawing.  But in addition, it forced a discussion of a change in human communication, now that man and machine are better able to communicate.

Chapter 10 dealt with cybernetics, the inclusion of the sciences in arts education, and the importance of opening a dialogue between the two disciplines.  The artist is encouraged to share both his or her own work as well as experiences to students, in order to extend their knowledge.  And most significantly, the chapter recognizes the importance of the relationship between the artist, the artwork, and the viewer - all of whom are interconnected, all of whom lend themselves to the art piece.

Most interestingly to me was the chapter on the Oulipo.  I remember growing up having loved the books that allowed the reader to choose the book's outcome.  I remember always wanting to know what my potentials were, so I would read the books until I was able to have read every possible outcome.  The Oulipo's use of forcing themselves to constrain their work - leaving out a letter, using some sort of literary device - allows for a more in depth analysis of the work and its' potential use by the reader.  The author is not thinking about the work in terms of what they want the reader to read necessarily as much as it is about the possibilities of such readership.