you want the text to scroll or appear within a single frame. If you don’t
want the text to scroll, then you will need either to write shorter (possibly
more aphoristic) texts, or divide longer ones into manageable chunks.
Bear in mind that if there are long stretches of text (particularly in tiny
font) on the screen, people tend not to read them.
The screen can also be divided into different units, usually called
frames. To do this, first of all split the screen in two either horizontally or
vertically. There are many different ways that you can organise the split
screen: there might be two separate verbal animations running at different
speeds in the two frames, or one half might consist of images, the other
words. A set of texts in one frame and another set in the other promotes
interesting—and often unpredictable—verbal relationships between the
two. There are numerous possibilities: for example, there could be a nar-
rative in one screen-half which is commented upon in the other. You can
organise the frames so that they interrelate or are independent (even if you
treat them separately you will find that relationships seem to arise between
them). You can, of course, divide the screen into several frames—though
the more you create, the less space for words in each.
Dividing the screen into frames can also be significant for hyperlinking.
Activating a link in one frame may make text appear, disappear, move or
change in another. Much current cyberwriting engages with this kind of
approach, so that the screen appears fluid and transformative: see the work
of Loss Pequeño Glazier (1998) and Talan Memmott (2000). See also on
The Writing Experiment website the work of American Jason Nelson
(republished-a; republished-b), and Australian ‘netwurker’ mez (Breeze
republished). Notice, for instance, in Jason Nelson’s this will be the end of
you: play6: four variable creation ’ (republished-a) how clicking on the
arrows makes other fragments of text appear, and how gliding over the
screen with the mouse in this will be the end of you: play9: curious to know
(republished-b) reveals different parts of an underlying text. Notice in
mez’s piece ] [ad] [Dressed in a Skin C.ode (Breeze, republished) how
sliding the mouse over one text often opens up another.
It is also possible to create layers of text or image which can overlap with
each other, and which the reader can move to different positions on the
screen, sometimes with unpredictable effects. For example, in The Roots of
Nonlinearity: Toward a Theory of Web-Specific Art-Writing, by American
cyberwriter Christy Sheffield Sanford (republished), layers of text—
written in Dynamic HTML—can be activated and also shifted around the
screen. Sometimes clicking on a text may reveal another underneath;
sometimes a second text may pop up within the same spatial environment
but without the disappearance of the first; sometimes a text when moved
may break into two, creating new spatial effects and meanings.
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