Performative writing through permutations and the switching of subjectivities in "Time, diffracted"
Submission Type
Paper
Start Date/Time (EDT)
20-7-2024 10:30 AM
End Date/Time (EDT)
20-7-2024 11:30 AM
Location
Hypertexts & Fictions
Abstract
This critical practitioner reflection expands on an experimental form of performative writing which I developed in response to the constraints of writing for an environment where I could not control at which point my reader would start listening to the text. “Time, diffracted” is a branching literary work written for listening in which I place long looping voice recordings (approx. 10 minutes), soundscape and musical recordings (of varying lengths) in a navigable 3D environment for the browser.
As readers navigate the 3D environment at their own leisure, they may happen upon a voice recording anytime after it has “started”. This makes it difficult to think of writing from a linear perspective, since different reader’s beginnings will occur at any possible point in the recording. My initial solution to this was to attempt to write in a loop: whatever I wrote would make sense wherever the reading started.
When I began recording the text (written as a loop of six or so sentences) I found myself making slight variations to the text as I read it through again. I switched an “I” to a “you” and was intrigued by how this changed the meanings in the text. I continued my performative reading in this manner, and found myself rearranging the order of the sentences, playing especially with the switching of subjectivities, using my source text as the basis for a performative form of writing that, in the moment, sought to extract new meanings from the original text.
My performative writing is like emulating an algorithm, one that interprets the permutation it outputs and responds to this in the subsequent sequence of words. This talk will present my approach and situate it within practices of non-linear reading and writing for digital environments (eg. Caitlin Fisher’s Circle).
Access the work here (chrome advised), click on “create a room with this scene”: https://hubs.mozilla.com/scenes/6s9wcCk
Recommended Citation
Marttila, Terhi, "Performative writing through permutations and the switching of subjectivities in "Time, diffracted"" (2024). ELO (un)linked 2024. 23.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2024/hypertextsandfictions/schedule/23
Performative writing through permutations and the switching of subjectivities in "Time, diffracted"
Hypertexts & Fictions
This critical practitioner reflection expands on an experimental form of performative writing which I developed in response to the constraints of writing for an environment where I could not control at which point my reader would start listening to the text. “Time, diffracted” is a branching literary work written for listening in which I place long looping voice recordings (approx. 10 minutes), soundscape and musical recordings (of varying lengths) in a navigable 3D environment for the browser.
As readers navigate the 3D environment at their own leisure, they may happen upon a voice recording anytime after it has “started”. This makes it difficult to think of writing from a linear perspective, since different reader’s beginnings will occur at any possible point in the recording. My initial solution to this was to attempt to write in a loop: whatever I wrote would make sense wherever the reading started.
When I began recording the text (written as a loop of six or so sentences) I found myself making slight variations to the text as I read it through again. I switched an “I” to a “you” and was intrigued by how this changed the meanings in the text. I continued my performative reading in this manner, and found myself rearranging the order of the sentences, playing especially with the switching of subjectivities, using my source text as the basis for a performative form of writing that, in the moment, sought to extract new meanings from the original text.
My performative writing is like emulating an algorithm, one that interprets the permutation it outputs and responds to this in the subsequent sequence of words. This talk will present my approach and situate it within practices of non-linear reading and writing for digital environments (eg. Caitlin Fisher’s Circle).
Access the work here (chrome advised), click on “create a room with this scene”: https://hubs.mozilla.com/scenes/6s9wcCk
Bio
Terhi Marttila is a Finnish artist and researcher who appropriates programming, language and voice to make things that meander at their crossroads. She works predominantly in the digital realm, creating works that exist as web pages. Terhi is based in Portugal and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Interactive Technologies Institute (eGames lab). Her work has been published in the Electronic Literature Collection 4, taper#11, The New River, nokturno.fi and raum.pt as well as at various academic conferences.