Virtual Typography

2.4

2

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

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Novelty value

Designers usually try to achieve user satisfaction

through clarity and ease of information access. But

it is the challenge attached to navigating information

landscapes that makes them exciting. Any new kind

of text presentation asks for a new mode of perception.

At fi rst glance, an information landscape looks strange

and obscure. The reader must re-orientate to extract

the information; a fascinating process. If we are correct

in assuming that virtual typography has a fundamentally

new aesthetic quality, then we may expect to fi nd it in

the certain strangeness of its visual presentation, and

this strangeness evolves from its time-based disposition.

The gradual uncovering of meanings requires a different

mode of text presentation from that which is fostered by

conventional hypertext. The timing of information

determines its aesthetic quality because it prepares the

information recipient for the content. The mode of

transition can therefore be seen as an aesthetic element

that is attached to the verbal information content.

With their interactive installation, Streams of

Consciousness, David Small and Tom White ‘hoped

to evoke the fl uid contents of conscious memory’.

Philosophically, it may appear strange that the artists

offered the user the interactive control of their fl ow of

consciousness. Isn’t it precisely the unpredictability that

makes the natural fl ow of water so intriguing? Isn’t it

the fact that we do not fully understand the growth of

a tree that makes it appear beautiful? We can only sense

an underlying logic to its shape and form. It is this

moment of speculation that triggers fascination and

sustains attention, be it in relation to nature, or to verbal

and visual means of communication.

Approaching multimedia: 2.4 Novelty value

2.3 Information landscapes 2.5 The borderline between image and text

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

1st Proof Page:4 8

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