David Clarke has created a new work of net art called Sign After the X (
http://signafterthex.net ) in collaboration with Marina Roy and Graham
Meisner. Sign After the X is structurally similar to some of Clark's earlier
works such as A is for Apple (http://aisforapple.net ) and 88 Constellations
for Wittgenstein ( http://88constellations.net ). The form of these works is
one that Clark has been developing for some time now; A is for Apple, the
first of them, was published in 2002.
The nodes or chapters or sections of these hypermedia works are done in
Flash. They're multimedia approaches to a subject. We hear a voice reading a
text about Freud or Lacan or Wittgenstein or X (etc) while Clark's animated
visuals improvise with the text--in the sense that the visuals explicate or
explore or expand or riff on the text's meaning. Sign After the X is
organized into five categories: Mind, Body, Land, Language, and Law. Each of
these contains anywhere from four to thirty nodes/Flash works.
The putative subject of Sign After the X is "the letter X and it's multiple
meanings in our culture". And, yes, I can see that in some of the material
presented. But it seems to me there's considerably more going on than that.
For instance, in the 'Mind' section, we encounter about thirty hypermedia
works, many of which are explanatory of or exploratory of Freud's ideas.
Perhaps these are indeed related to X, but I don't know how. However, that
is not a criticism; the hypermedia works are often compelling in their
voiced text and almost always are interesting in their visual nature and
workings. The connection with X is not obvious and might emerge with more
exploration of other parts of the work, which is unusually large for a work
of net art.
Some of the hypermedia works are not so good. The reading of Coleridge's
"Kubla Kahn", for instance. Particularly by the guy who normally reads those
theorified texts. Yeesh. But many of them are fascinating and considerably
more original than a bad reading of "Kubla Khan" accompanied with mild
visuals. The interest of Clark's work, to me, is in his avoiding, for the
most part, such cliches of digital literary production. His background is
in visual art. The individual nodes are often very polished, and that which
links them, and the resulting overall shape and semantic, thematic
structure, are of great interest in these fascinating works by David Clark.
I don't see anyone else exploring this sort of form in the same way Clark
has been since 2002.
If you find Sign After the X of interest, you should also check out his site
http://chemicalpictures.net for other projects and writings.
ja
http://netartery.vispo.com
http://vispo.com
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