Seems a book is really a database of some linear and other poorly sorted information (Buzzetti & McGann, "Critical editing in a digital horizon" p. 53-73)
There is
a) the content (an abstraction without form)
a) the content (an abstraction without form)
b) symbols that contribute to conveying the content (e.g., letters)
c) Markup language (e.g., punctuation but also html type such as <title>, or more precisely DTD (document type definitions)). There’s a whole group called the Text Encoding Initiative http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_Encoding_Initiative that has come up with 500 plus textual components. Thanks to Terry Elliott for this bit of information.
d) A knowledge representation scheme—a model for relating the content with the process (markup). I’m thinking they mean a print book or e-text.
Then, throw in the interpretation of the reader and the whole thing “shakes.” A book is a very unstable thing.
Are digital media strong enough to "contain all that a book is?" or perhaps they are the only container that can hold all the possibilities of a modern book--the options for searching, the way we may record or create DTD to add new levels to the experience of "book."
Is the markup part of the authoring of a book? or is it part of the societal context? There's a dual nature here, like that of light as both particle and wave. A book stills in a moment of non-reading to be a particle, and then when interpreted, when read, shifts form into a series of processes impacting on the reader who impacts on it in a self-reflective cycle.
In related news, it seems our distant ancestors may have been creating animation on those cave walls: http://news.discovery.com/history/prehistoric-movies-120608.html watch the video. Perhaps the shift of "transcribed work" has always been around.
"Media" comes from Latin for medius, the middle. Perhaps all media have always been in that tense place "in between."
Are digital media strong enough to "contain all that a book is?" or perhaps they are the only container that can hold all the possibilities of a modern book--the options for searching, the way we may record or create DTD to add new levels to the experience of "book."
Is the markup part of the authoring of a book? or is it part of the societal context? There's a dual nature here, like that of light as both particle and wave. A book stills in a moment of non-reading to be a particle, and then when interpreted, when read, shifts form into a series of processes impacting on the reader who impacts on it in a self-reflective cycle.
In related news, it seems our distant ancestors may have been creating animation on those cave walls: http://news.discovery.com/history/prehistoric-movies-120608.html watch the video. Perhaps the shift of "transcribed work" has always been around.
"Media" comes from Latin for medius, the middle. Perhaps all media have always been in that tense place "in between."
No comments:
Post a Comment