Cynthia B Rubin wrote:
> I may not really understand it either. . . I am primarily a visual
> artist, and my works often begin with random layering of my own
> photos - manipulated until they become "poetic".
That's interesting. I briefly puzzled over applications like that
(graphics, video, and also sound). I figured the trick would be
to somehow break the work into components. And perhaps the easiest
type of component to implement would be layers.
And here you are working in layers...
> My question: I assume that one can also use this to combine bits of
> one's own writing. The taking things from all over the web creates a
> layer of complication and distance which is intriguing, but perhaps
> an entirely different issue? Isn't this 2 things in one:
> 1. combining words and phases
> 2. taking from throughout the web
I agree, you've analyzed it correctly. Those 2 are logically separate.
And here is a possible 3rd:
3. remembering exactly where the pieces came from,
and how they were combined
(thus preserving info on authorship,
and info needed for decomposition/recomposition)
Maybe nature agrees too, because we could argue
those are the 3 essential functions of genes, as this list implies:
http://zelea.com/project/textbender/d/gene/
1. building blocks, to physically compose and re-compose the text
2. atoms of communication, to convey compositional ideas
from author to author
3. conservative elements, to maintain the fidelity of information
and its authorship in a changing population
And sure, you could work solo, and still benefit from 1 and 3.
But your image manipulation tools probably give you those benefits
already. (Writers are not so well served by their tools/media.
Unknowingly, they are stuck in the past, held back
by an old and dominant technology.)
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