User:Tancre/Special Issue 8/Thoughts upon a living text

Thoughts upon a living text

For this Special Issue 8 we started to work with Steve on an annotated reader. On the contrary of the special issue 7 reader , the annotated reader analyse the text through an addictive process. The notes taken on the text constitute a para-text which exist in parallel or in an overlayed layer.
Each person has his own way of taking notes, as it can be done by writing around the text or just on a side, by highliting, underlining or earesing portions of the text to stress enphasis, by writing a parallel text on bottom of the original, or by inserting the notes in between two lines and so on...

Addictive and Subtractive analysis of a text

Working on those two different readers pushed me to confront them, and the idea of adding and subtract material to the text perfectly fits those two different approaches, leading to different interesting representation and thoughts about human beings and texts.

Subtraction

For the special issue 7 reader we was more focused on the synopsis and abstract where an objective way to calculate the effective amount of subtraction was toconstrain the text to a certain number of words to each part, for example 500 word for the synopsis and 150 for the abstract. Personally my way of taking notes was always through a stage in between the actual text and the synopsis. This first level of subtraction, which can be called summary, is a perfect example to me as I just rewrite the text without the parts I don't need, mostly reusing the same phrases reworked to make them shorter. The text is left to acquire a new simplified form. The title can be the last form of this subtractive movement, in fact it can be asserted that a book with the main text and the title contains in one its total and its minimum form.

text > summary > synopsis > abstract > title (one word)

Addiction

On the other hand the addictive process require the cohexistence with the text as a means to constant reference. The other interesting thinsg are that everything can be added to a text, not only other text but images, sounds, videos... and there can be multiple layers written from different persons. The process of subtraction can be rethinked as an addiction too because it is always other text added to the main one, that even if not presented in a publication, it still exist. Anyway the main difference is about the content, we can think of several persons writing the synopsis of the same text but the content will be always almost the same, while different person writing notes probably will have different thoughts and so contents to add. In fact the taking notes process is developed as a free movement that can be very creative both in the content and in the way of represent it, and this explain why there can be a lot of different ways of taking notes. Another

text > notes > other texts > other notes (network of books and notes)

Structuring Multiplicity / Spatial Organization

Parallelism

A good way to think to text analysis as a whole, is by placing it at the center of those two processes which goes in two opposite direction.

(one word) title < abstract < summary < text > notes > other texts > other notes (network of books and notes)

Network structure

Even if to me it is easier to think about this whole representation of texts analysis as overlapped layers, and not only as parallel different stages of a text, this layering fits more the subtractive aspect where the ultimate point is the disappearence of the text. The addictive process raise a lot the amount of complexity as there can be infinite notes and so infinite layers (the subtractive process works thorugh limitating the amount as reducing the content). Moreover notes can address other things outside of the content creating links to other texts or even to other medias, creating the typical structure of a netwrok that potentially could connect all the existent together in a multilayered network.

The living text

This way of shaping the possible constitution of a text shows an interesting parallelism with human beings as inserted between two movements, one inward which address individuality, and one outward addressing the social aspect of ourselves always related to other persons and to all the things that are outside of us, as an addiction to us.

The text becames a living object capable of inner and outer thought, or human beings become texts with a title and different notes, with a network of other correlated texts and multiple-medias. Apparently this fits McLuhan ideas of medias as extentions of the body but actually extending it to everything around us. This suggests the question 'is it everything a media?', mining the very concept of media and focusing on objects as cointainers and drivers of informations that can be emptyed to their nothingness or filled of our thoughts becoming something else of their apparent exterior aspect.