Designed Literature (Part Two)

(Continued from Part One)

At the convergence of these typographical trends, modern software lets an author design his own text. Certainly, writers have not absorbed all aspects of typography, and the actual crafting of fonts is still reserved for typographers. But page layout, typeface, proportions and color have all been left to the public by Adobe Suites and freeware.

The world of words is going the way of the music industry. An author can now self-publish by drafting in InDesign, exporting to .azm, and posting a file to Amazon for sale. Today, many authors self-publish, letting readers pay what they think the book is worth. (Additionally, if the bibliophile requires it, an ebook file can be printed for an upcharge by any number of sites that offer Print On-Demand services.)

This phenomena is certainly an economic boon for mainstream authors, but it carries with it the history of avant-garde self-publishing. Most art books of the last century were self-published, and even giants like Joyce personally printed their early works.

So, all this is unexciting. Digital self-publishing is a more convenient incarnation of past practice; nothing new. Certainly, this seems an adequate survey of the present.

But true art is created with the future in mind. So, in pursuit of relevance, I will mention some of the places I see literature meeting design in new ways.

Designed Literature (Part One)

Everything is designed. The keyboard I type on, the clothes I wear, the interface I toggle, the desk, the fridge magnets, the storebrand tea, etc etc. All designed. Humans, like all creatures, are always adjusting their environment to make survival more convenient.

Since the industrial revolution, the mass production of industrial designs has changed our landscape so much that neo-luddites (who prefer the term "environmentalists") call for an end to all industrialization, for the sake of "recovering the environment". But it's obvious that man has not destroyed "the environment"; he has made a new environment better suited to his needs.

The new landscape is here to stay, and it will only grow. We ought to accept design, and try to be discerning about it, rather than ignore or reject it, because it democratizes discovery, improving quality of life for everyone.

So, to focus on a field of design chronically behind the rest: literature. Any designed text is a work of typography, which is usually taught with graphic design. People who study typography may work printing posters, designing typefaces, or printing books. So, now that the connection's established, let's look at designed literature as a continuum.

The (Increasing) Importance of Intermedia: An Unjust Survey of Videogames

Art has recently tended toward medium melding: painters have been writing on their canvases; writers have been doodling on their manuscripts; and installations target all the senses, aiming for an unprecedented sort of participatory immersion. But, even the immersive installations are fast losing their edge, and new media promise a future of increasingly integrated art mediums.

I use the word melding because it fits the intermedial approach. As art evolves, we will see it, not as a sum of its parts, but as a whole. In the future, people won't think of film as a mix of music and pictures; they will think of it as film. Intermedia is art where a meeting of mediums achieves something that can't be done with one medium alone: a synergetic spirit must permeate the piece.

Dick Higgins intended this method of analysis when he defined intermedia, and later when he defended his word and distinguished it from multimedia. Multimedia is obsessed with the preconceived notion of media: we think in terms of what we already know. Indermedia asks us to look where mediums merge, to accept a piece as new.

Interestingly, or perhaps fittingly considering the decentralization of Fluxus and Mail Art, intermedial aesthetics are being adopted by low culture faster than they can be considered in ivory towers. Gamers, for instance, are beginning to demand narrative sophistication; and most players don't dissect their favorite games, evaluating music, dialogue, animation, and textures independently. They see a whole.

Futurism in Stevens' Age of Adz

Sufjan Stevens' 2010 album, The Age of Adz, was inspired, in part, by the art of Royal Robertson. The schizophrenic's art was characterized by apocalyptic assurances (motivated largely by his ex-wife) and "futuristic images". To sonically realize Robertson's sci-fi scrawlings, Stevens incorporates portions of the Futurist musical program.

Video Essay at TriQuarterly

Digital lit mags make intermedial art easier to publish. With luck, this new trend will be a pleasant BLAST! from the past.

http://triquarterly.org/essay/on-the-form-of-video-essay

Intentions

I will publish blog entries for my independent study in intermedia here. Hope to get one cranked out by the end of the week. Thinking about the Futurist sounds in Sufjan's Age of Adz or interactivity in the Wilderness Downtown music video. I could pick some hypertextual poetry, but that would be too easy.