combinatory narrative

Textual combinatics programmed from texts by Abílio-José Santos, with sound.

Work on We Descend began in 1984, when five words came unbidden into my mind: “If this document is authentic…” I had no idea what the phrase signified: Who’s saying this? What document? Why wouldn’t it be authentic? How would it be authenticated? By what authority? How would that authority be established? Where did the document come from in the first place? As I pondered these questions, a clutch of fragmentary writings began to appear under my hands — via the standard tech at the time: fountain pen, notebook paper, clipboard.

(Source: http://thenewriver.us/we-descend/)

Stop & Smell explores the boundaries of literature and digital sculpture. It invites readers to construct a narrative by interacting with illuminated (fragrant) paper flowers. As viewers smell the flowers, their understanding of the story changes and takes new directions, exploring themes of success, happiness, and expectation along the way. Stop & Smell was inspired by stretchtext literature, stories in which clicking on links expands a passage to include new text that potentially changes the meaning of the original. By incorporating classic features of literary hypertext—fragmented, combinatory narrative; ambiguous point of view; discursive agency—Stop & Smell hopes to challenge the perceived limitations of the page by introducing the affordances of the screen into an analog setting. (Source: ELO Conference 2014)