This is an adaptation of Samuel Beckett's The Unnamable into online media. I ask readers to take an active role in the interpretation and re-interpretation of the text. For this project there are three blogs. This page acts as the body, the thin foil between the other sites. The blog entitled exteriority houses a copy of the text, ( the full copy of which is available from the Samuel Beckett Resources and Links site here) . The blog called interiority is set up for creative adaptation of this text.
The brass tacks:
If you'd like to participate in this collaborative artwork, go to the site exteriority and read through the text (or a portion of it). What do you think about when you read this work? Are there any words or phrases that grab you or give you pause? What does the language call forth from you? These kinds of reflections and ideas will hyperlink into the content you post on the interiority site or link to other online media. The meaning that each of us pour into the words will be mirrored, giving the text depth. Please feel free to leave writing, photographs, music, videos, etc. related to any words, phrases, or things about the text that interest you. If you want to create a post on your own site you could link through to there. Just specify what segment of the text you're thinking about in your title and leave a message in a comment or an email.
You can find a fuller explanation of all this below, but I think that the best way to approach this is to just jump right in. Any ideas on how to make this project better, please let me know. All of your voices are very much welcome and encouraged.
Introduction
Beckett's work calls out to be adapted into the online medium, and in thinking about producing this project there was one thing I kept in mind before all else: I want to retain the essence of the text. It was a conversation I had with another blogger, /t, about his poetry and his work in the online media that got me thinking about Beckett and the potential his writing had for this medium. /t's poetry is code poetry -- the code is a poem and the poem is created with code -- and so I asked him: "If the form is the content and the content is the form then what does the art work represent?" His answer: "The art is non-representational. You give it whatever meaning you want."
If you're familiar with Beckett's work then this will probably resonate with you. His plays, Waiting for Godot for example, have been baffling audiences for decades, seemingly about nothing and yet strangely compelling. And this is chiefly because, like /t's poetry, the work is non-representational. It is left to the audience to create whatever meaning they will from the work. This idea has formed the crux of this adaptation, and I have proceeded under the premise that words are empty vessels into which we pour meaning. I feel that non-representation is the essence of Beckett's The Unnamable.
Another motif that I find in this text, and also across the broad range of Beckett's writing, is an exploration of being and becoming, a philosophical questioning of self and existence. As you will see in reading the text, the lines between what is inside and what is outside are blurred, that thing "as thin as foil" is ruptured. For me, this idea is about interiority and exteriority, and so I thought to frame the adaptation project according to that scheme. The Beckett text is given on a site called exteriority because the written word is what we, as readers, encounter, what we perceive that is in the world, albeit it on a computer screen in front of you. It is perceived of as other, something exterior.
If words are empty vessels and are exterior, then the imagining of those signs into something meaningful is the work of the interior. This is the place of metaphor, of making creative leaps and connections, interpretations and re-interpretations. For this project, then, those kinds of internal reflections will be opened up -- a link being placed in the Beckett text on whatever words or phrases call themselves to the attention of the reader. These free imaginative interpretations could be conceived of as the meaning of the text (or at least the meaning for that person), and may provoke further reflection or interpretation for other readers.
As this project is one in media adaptation, it makes sense to me that the online media should be fully taken advantage of. Beckett's works are concerned with media and synesthesia / intermediality, exposing the limitations and constraints of particular media. Blogging and the online media has its own constraints; and if that wasn't enough, I've added constraint myself. I feel quite certain that this adaptation project will encounter a number of snags and problems. Furthermore I welcome and encourage this. I anticipate that communication and understanding between readers will be difficult, and the process of accurately posting readers comments and other media for me (the unnamable admin) seems problematic already. Beckett said that ultimately all art fails, especially if the goal of art is to represent something. I find that at a certain level that is true. My goal with this adaptation is to fail as well as I possibly can. Any ideas or suggestions you, dear reader, may have, I'd appreciate. As it's a collaborative interpretation project reader input is vital to the success (in any sense of the word) of this endeavor.
Blogging and the online medium imply interaction. The great strength of the form, and of artistic creation in the online medium, is the aspect of community and collaboration. Bloggers will visit other bloggers, comment on one another's work and feed on others ideas and creativity. In that way, many bloggers consider themselves both teachers and learners, and online media have evolved in this way. In terms of my own working in this medium, the aspect of community and collaborative interaction has been a defining feature. I have participated in writing groups, chain poetry, photography projects (and many others), and I feel my craft has improved exponentially because of the online community of teachers and learners. Collaborative projects such as this one can be seen as A/r/tography, a group of critically minded friends engaging in a process of inquiry and interpretation of an artwork. This project is especially a/r/tographic in that it attempts to dissolve the spatial distances between different readers, and between readers and the text. The blog media also has resonances with some of Paulo Freire's notions about education -- that it is not the subject matter that is most important, but how that subject matter is emparted. Bloggers are, by and large, extremely understanding and patient with others in the forum, and have a shared committment to authentic interaction and collaboration. In this project no voices will be intentionally silenced. Everyone can have a voice and everyone is encouraged to participate.
As a community based forum, the online medium asks you to interact; to hit links, listen to audio, watch video, play games, or even simply to type (comment and to be commented on, email, etc). In short, it engages you. Media studies, and especially Marshall McLuhan's take on media, would categorize this as a cool media, one which is "high in participation and completion by the audience" (36). However, as the internet is a medium that carries other media (text, images, video, audio, etc.) it could be thought of as a cool media with elements of both hot and cold content. McLuhan's notion that the medium is the message seems to me to be apparent when thinking about online arts. The community of artists is virtual, and imagined community that exists within the media. One of my hopes for this project is that it would test this media and flesh out some of its qualities, limitations and constraints. Every media has strengths and weaknesses, and while I don't privileged one above the other, this project is centered around a text -- a work in prose -- and so the adaptation will be kept in check by this. I find that a lot of the media and the arts on the internet are geared towards instant gratification; something you could peruse over lunch or coffee break. This project is different. By selecting an substantial section of text for adaptation, I hope to challenge the audience to dwell with the text and to be held held by it. My justification: creativity exists within constraint or it perishes, and for this creativity the project relies on the reader/creators.
In this respect, the project is also one of reader-response. As I've said before, without the readers this project would remain only a husk. A great deal of research has been done on reader-response theory, and while I don't believe that there is only one way to approach a text, there are a certain number of strategies that readers use that are both common sense and logical. In asking readers to reflect on and reply to words and phrases in a creative way is to ask them to take part in a phenomenologically oriented activity, one where the reader's experiencing of the text and the meaning they give to it is actively explored, interpreted and re-interpreted. Phenomenology is, like Beckett, interested in questions of being and becoming, questions of the self, and much current work in this field has focused on breaking down the conception of the body as simply a thin substance dividing the interior from the exterior. This, of course, is my rational for looking to this philosophy for a kind of reader-response theory, and especially for this project.
***********
(next section of this on hypertext and some interesting writing I've been looking at by Jerome McGann from radiant textuality)
If you're familiar with Beckett's work then this will probably resonate with you. His plays, Waiting for Godot for example, have been baffling audiences for decades, seemingly about nothing and yet strangely compelling. And this is chiefly because, like /t's poetry, the work is non-representational. It is left to the audience to create whatever meaning they will from the work. This idea has formed the crux of this adaptation, and I have proceeded under the premise that words are empty vessels into which we pour meaning. I feel that non-representation is the essence of Beckett's The Unnamable.
Another motif that I find in this text, and also across the broad range of Beckett's writing, is an exploration of being and becoming, a philosophical questioning of self and existence. As you will see in reading the text, the lines between what is inside and what is outside are blurred, that thing "as thin as foil" is ruptured. For me, this idea is about interiority and exteriority, and so I thought to frame the adaptation project according to that scheme. The Beckett text is given on a site called exteriority because the written word is what we, as readers, encounter, what we perceive that is in the world, albeit it on a computer screen in front of you. It is perceived of as other, something exterior.
If words are empty vessels and are exterior, then the imagining of those signs into something meaningful is the work of the interior. This is the place of metaphor, of making creative leaps and connections, interpretations and re-interpretations. For this project, then, those kinds of internal reflections will be opened up -- a link being placed in the Beckett text on whatever words or phrases call themselves to the attention of the reader. These free imaginative interpretations could be conceived of as the meaning of the text (or at least the meaning for that person), and may provoke further reflection or interpretation for other readers.
As this project is one in media adaptation, it makes sense to me that the online media should be fully taken advantage of. Beckett's works are concerned with media and synesthesia / intermediality, exposing the limitations and constraints of particular media. Blogging and the online media has its own constraints; and if that wasn't enough, I've added constraint myself. I feel quite certain that this adaptation project will encounter a number of snags and problems. Furthermore I welcome and encourage this. I anticipate that communication and understanding between readers will be difficult, and the process of accurately posting readers comments and other media for me (the unnamable admin) seems problematic already. Beckett said that ultimately all art fails, especially if the goal of art is to represent something. I find that at a certain level that is true. My goal with this adaptation is to fail as well as I possibly can. Any ideas or suggestions you, dear reader, may have, I'd appreciate. As it's a collaborative interpretation project reader input is vital to the success (in any sense of the word) of this endeavor.
Blogging and the online medium imply interaction. The great strength of the form, and of artistic creation in the online medium, is the aspect of community and collaboration. Bloggers will visit other bloggers, comment on one another's work and feed on others ideas and creativity. In that way, many bloggers consider themselves both teachers and learners, and online media have evolved in this way. In terms of my own working in this medium, the aspect of community and collaborative interaction has been a defining feature. I have participated in writing groups, chain poetry, photography projects (and many others), and I feel my craft has improved exponentially because of the online community of teachers and learners. Collaborative projects such as this one can be seen as A/r/tography, a group of critically minded friends engaging in a process of inquiry and interpretation of an artwork. This project is especially a/r/tographic in that it attempts to dissolve the spatial distances between different readers, and between readers and the text. The blog media also has resonances with some of Paulo Freire's notions about education -- that it is not the subject matter that is most important, but how that subject matter is emparted. Bloggers are, by and large, extremely understanding and patient with others in the forum, and have a shared committment to authentic interaction and collaboration. In this project no voices will be intentionally silenced. Everyone can have a voice and everyone is encouraged to participate.
As a community based forum, the online medium asks you to interact; to hit links, listen to audio, watch video, play games, or even simply to type (comment and to be commented on, email, etc). In short, it engages you. Media studies, and especially Marshall McLuhan's take on media, would categorize this as a cool media, one which is "high in participation and completion by the audience" (36). However, as the internet is a medium that carries other media (text, images, video, audio, etc.) it could be thought of as a cool media with elements of both hot and cold content. McLuhan's notion that the medium is the message seems to me to be apparent when thinking about online arts. The community of artists is virtual, and imagined community that exists within the media. One of my hopes for this project is that it would test this media and flesh out some of its qualities, limitations and constraints. Every media has strengths and weaknesses, and while I don't privileged one above the other, this project is centered around a text -- a work in prose -- and so the adaptation will be kept in check by this. I find that a lot of the media and the arts on the internet are geared towards instant gratification; something you could peruse over lunch or coffee break. This project is different. By selecting an substantial section of text for adaptation, I hope to challenge the audience to dwell with the text and to be held held by it. My justification: creativity exists within constraint or it perishes, and for this creativity the project relies on the reader/creators.
In this respect, the project is also one of reader-response. As I've said before, without the readers this project would remain only a husk. A great deal of research has been done on reader-response theory, and while I don't believe that there is only one way to approach a text, there are a certain number of strategies that readers use that are both common sense and logical. In asking readers to reflect on and reply to words and phrases in a creative way is to ask them to take part in a phenomenologically oriented activity, one where the reader's experiencing of the text and the meaning they give to it is actively explored, interpreted and re-interpreted. Phenomenology is, like Beckett, interested in questions of being and becoming, questions of the self, and much current work in this field has focused on breaking down the conception of the body as simply a thin substance dividing the interior from the exterior. This, of course, is my rational for looking to this philosophy for a kind of reader-response theory, and especially for this project.
***********
(next section of this on hypertext and some interesting writing I've been looking at by Jerome McGann from radiant textuality)
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