 | |
| Author | Amaranth Borsuk and Brad Bouse |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Digital poetry, electronic literature |
Publication date | 2012 |
| Website | https://www.betweenpageandscreen.com/ |
Between Page and Screen is an experimental book written by Amaranth Borsuk and Brad Bouse. Published in 2012, the book integrates printed media with digital technology through augmented reality. Instead of traditional text, it contains QR codes that prompt the digital text to show up on the screen when viewed through a web camera.
Between Page and Screen explores the relationship between physical media and electronic media. Borsuk was first inspired by this relationship while writing her dissertation at the University of Southern California, which later led her to work together with Brad Bouse on the book. [1] Other inspirations include the etymologies behind the terms page and screen, which are referenced within the book's poems. [2]
Borsuk describes the process of creating Between Page and Screen as "careful, mysterious, guarded", [2] suiting the minimalist aesthetic and themes of the book.
The first edition of Between Page and Screen was first published as a handmade book, which was letter-press printed at the Otis College of Art and Design. In contrast to its second edition—which is the one currently available for purchase on the website—the first edition contains no text. [3]
There is no text in regards to the story of Between Page and Screen. The only textual elements within Between Page and Screen are blurbs such as editorial notes, authors' bios, and review excerpts. [4] The content of the book itself is navigated through the use of the QR codes on its pages, which were built with the structure of the open-source software FLARToolKit. These codes were made deliberately distinct with their asymmetry and square design [5] in place of having page numbers within the book. [6]
When the codes are processed through the web camera, the corresponding text is projected into digital space. These texts follow the epistolary romance between the book's two character, P. and S. [1]
The state of Between Page and Screen as a physical book and multimedia story has been critically analyzed by several reviewers and electronic literature scholars. Several reviews discuss how readers must re-learn how to read in order to understand the work, which de-familiarizes the reader with the practice and forces them to actively engage with the process of reading: [5] [6]
The so-called defamiliarization (estrangement) disrupts this automatic, mechanical process of reading and understanding (guessing the meaning) which kills the words and the literature. It can be achieved by confronting the reader with something which cannot be processed automatically (or which, if processed in this way, makes no sense and provokes the reader to stop for a moment and think). [7]
- "So whilst the object itself contains many of the conventional traces of the book, the text itself remains concealed: meaning that the object circumvents being conceptualised as a book, but instead is understood as part of a multimedia system, whose pages function in the creation of a ‘textual environment’ (1) , as Ortega puts it." [4]
- " The work requires us to learn how to read it—to learn to adopt an embodied position through which to hold the book in front of the web-camera and to position ourselves where we can view the projected text askance between page and screen. It defamiliarizes our accustomed practice of reading and our normative stance of holding a book. In doing so, it demands that we turn our attention to the material of literature." [5]
-- "In re-learning to read, hopefully the reader is reminded that the book has always structured our relationship with it." [6]
- " Between Page and Screen dispels this ideology of the page and the anthropocentrism associated with codexical media. In doing so, it reminds us that, in the age digital reading, humans are not the only actors making, processing, and reading literature. Computers are also active participants, particularly when it comes to digital text and literature." [5]
- "Should BPaS be referred to as a book, a website, an Augmented Reality (AR) engine or all three? Does focusing first on the printed book unjustly take attention away from the technological prowess of Brad Bouse, the AR designer?" [4]
--- "So, firstly – the literary images present in Borsuk and Bouse’s work employ the device of estrangement."
-- "Secondly, the aural form of the texts comprising Between Page and Screen (let us recall here all the word plays with etymology discussed above) is a clear example of what estrangement can be. It seems important that this level of the text is really “Gogol-like”. Because the words do not sound as “normal” and the puns and other word-tricks interrupt the mechanistic act of processing, the text cannot be read automatically. We cannot “guess” or “recognize” the meaning – we have to deduce it from the whole form of the literary communication."
-- "Thirdly, it is indisputable that defamiliarization was applied to create the visual and the material form of the book. Neither the animated poems nor the material book (which cannot be read “normally”) can be processed “automatically”. One has to stop, think about the whole act of reading and find a way to correlate the letters – moving, metamorphosing or just spread in space – or even to discover the words 20. And this leads us to the last but not least thing – to the defamiliarization of the act of reading."
-- "The reflection about the media-text relation, which is one of the topics of Page and Screen, enters into the reader’s world. And they have to stop automating the “natural” act of reading." [7] - "In an era of “convergence culture,” wherein readers are producers and content streams across multiple media platforms, we need not be beholden to traditional categories and constraints for describing and isolating media or genres or historical trajectories. Between Page and Screen argues this point by producing a hybrid reading practice that is not just about using multiple media but also about bridging and blending them. The work invites us to read for connections between old and new media, between different types of machine writing." [8]
- "The cultural awareness about using a digital device in the reading of a print book is something that develops alongside the technical innovation that is taking place worldwide. In other words, minds change along with the tools.Both the human and the machine are required in order to read in an augmented reality environment. However, it is not only the skills of the readers reading augmented reality that are combinatory; the demands that are posed on the creators of augmented reality stories are also diversified" [9]
A book is a medium for recording information, often a work of fiction or nonfiction, in the form of writing or images. Books are typically composed of many pages, bound together and protected by a cover.
Defamiliarization or ostranenie is the artistic technique of presenting to audiences common things in an unfamiliar or strange way so they could gain new perspectives and see the world differently. According to the Russian formalists who coined the term, it is the central concept of art and poetry. The concept has influenced 20th-century art and theory, ranging over movements including Dada, postmodernism, epic theatre, science fiction, and philosophy; additionally, it is used as a tactic by recent movements such as culture jamming.
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range in dates from the earliest writing in cuneiform, impressed on clay, for example, to multiple unpublished versions of a 21st-century author's work. Historically, scribes who were paid to copy documents may have been literate, but many were simply copyists, mimicking the shapes of letters without necessarily understanding what they meant. This means that unintentional alterations were common when copying manuscripts by hand. Intentional alterations may have been made as well, for example, the censoring of printed work for political, religious or cultural reasons.
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images in picture books can be produced in a range of media, such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor, and pencil. Picture books often serve as pedagogical resources, aiding with children's language development or understanding of the world.
Electronic publishing includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the editing of books, journals, and magazines to be posted on a screen.
Speed reading is any of many techniques claiming to improve one's ability to read quickly. Speed-reading methods include chunking and minimizing subvocalization. The many available speed-reading training programs may utilize books, videos, software, and seminars. There is little scientific evidence regarding speed reading, and as a result its value seems uncertain. Cognitive neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene says that claims of reading up to 1,000 words per minute "must be viewed with skepticism".
Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible. For its theory and methods, the field draws on disciplines ranging from ancient history, historical criticism, philology, theology, textual criticism, literary criticism, historical backgrounds, mythology, and comparative religion.
Ergodic literature is a term coined by Espen J. Aarseth in his 1997 book Cybertext—Perspectives on Ergodic Literature to describe literature in which nontrivial effort is required for the reader to traverse the text. The term is derived from the Greek words ergon, meaning "work", and hodos, meaning "path". It is associated with the concept of cybertext and describes a cybertextual process that includes a semiotic sequence that the concepts of "reading" do not account for.
Digital poetry is a form of electronic literature, displaying a wide range of approaches to poetry, with a prominent and crucial use of computers. Digital poetry can be available in form of CD-ROM, DVD, as installations in art galleries, in certain cases also recorded as digital video or films, as digital holograms, on the World Wide Web or Internet, and as mobile phone apps.
Reading comprehension is the ability to process written text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Reading comprehension relies on two abilities that are connected to each other: word reading and language comprehension. Comprehension specifically is a "creative, multifaceted process" that is dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
In typography, line length is the width of a block of typeset text, usually measured in units of length like inches or points or in characters per line. A block of text or paragraph has a maximum line length that fits a determined design. If the lines are too short then the text becomes disjointed; if they are too long, the content loses rhythm as the reader searches for the start of each line.
Nick Montfort is a poet and professor of digital media at MIT, where he directs a lab called The Trope Tank. He also holds a part-time position at the University of Bergen where he leads a node on computational narrative systems at the Center for Digital Narrative. Among his publications are seven books of computer-generated literature and six books from the MIT Press, several of which are collaborations. His work also includes digital projects, many of them in the form of short programs. He lives in New York City.
Cybertext as defined by Espen Aarseth in 1997 is a type of ergodic literature where the user traverses the text by doing nontrivial work.
An ebook, also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as "an electronic version of a printed book", some e-books exist without a printed equivalent. E-books can be read on dedicated e-reader devices, also on any computer device that features a controllable viewing screen, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Noah Wardrip-Fruin is a professor in the Computational Media department of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is an advisor for the Expressive Intelligence Studio. He is an alumnus of the Literary Arts MFA program and Special Graduate Study PhD program at Brown University. In addition to his research in digital media, computer games, and software studies, he served for 10 years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Literature Organization.
Foregrounding is a concept in literary studies that concerns making a linguistic utterance stand out from the surrounding linguistic context, from given literary traditions, or from more general world knowledge. It is "the 'throwing into relief' of the linguistic sign against the background of the norms of ordinary language." There are two main types of foregrounding: parallelism and deviation. Parallelism can be described as unexpected regularity, while deviation can be seen as unexpected irregularity. As the definition of foregrounding indicates, these are relative concepts. Something can only be unexpectedly regular or irregular within a particular context. This context can be relatively narrow, such as the immediate textual surroundings, or wider such as an entire genre. Foregrounding can occur on all levels of language. It is generally used to highlight important parts of a text, aid memorability, and/or invite interpretation.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to books:
Amaranth Borsuk is an American poet and educator known for her experiments with textual materiality and digital poetry. She is currently an associate professor at the University of Washington Bothell's School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, where she teaches undergraduate courses on poetry, philology, and experimental writing. She also serves as the Chair of the school's M.F.A. program in Creative Writing, which she co-chaired from 2018 to 2022.
Written in 2003, and published by Taylor & Francis Group, Gunther Kress' book Literacy in the New Media Age explores how the introduction of modern technology has impacted the way individuals interact with their culture through written and oral communication. Expanding upon the idea of the evolution of media and writing in a digital medium, Kress looks at the impacts of media communications on societies and cultures and vice versa.
Caitlin Fisher is a Canadian media artist, poet, writer, and Professor of Cinema and Media Arts at York University in Toronto where she also directs the Immersive Storytelling Lab and the Augmented Reality Lab. Fisher is also a Co-founder of York’s Future Cinema Lab, former Fulbright and Canada Research Chair and an international award-winning digital storyteller. Creator of some of the world’s first AR poetry and long-from VR narratives. Fisher is also known for the 2001 hypermedia novel These Waves of Girls, and for her work creating content and software for augmented reality.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)