I come from that skeptical post-structuralist mindset that says
you can't get away from noise, and you really can't clarify your
intention beyond a certain point, or be certain it will be embodied
in your communication as received. That's not to say you can't be more
or less noisy, more or less clear, and in the web you have control over
two of the three phases of the process (projection and interface) rather
than just one (projection), so I guess that's hopeful.
If you're interested in the question of noise, you might want to look at
an excellent book:
PN98.I54 P38 1988
The noise of culture : literary texts in a world of information /
William R. Paulson.
and if you get interested in that, you should look into Paulson's
inspiration, Michel Serres, particularly (on the subject of noise):
PQ 2679 .E679 P313 1982
The parasite / Michel Serres ; translated, with notes, by Lawrence R.
Schehr. [1982]
> -What effect do you think the use of graphical motifs has on the
> ENSP 481 web site? Why do you think that particular motif was
> chosen? What are the different impacts of the motif
> aesthetically and in terms of content?
Personally, I think the use of graphical motifs is *excellent* and
*inspired*. I can't say why these motifs were chosen (aside from all
having to do with writing technologies), but they *speak* to me.
> -Conceivably there could be a web site that consisted of linked
> images containing no text that fit together to tell a story.
I bet if you looked you could find examples of this kind of thing
already.
> Would this still be hypertext or hyper-images? What impact, if
> any, does this have on our understanding of hypertext, especially
> in relation to the concept of re-defining the book?
At some point, wouldn't it shade over into movies delivered via the
web browser? Sequenced images, no text.... I was thinking this morning
that different kinds of stories/utterances/creations require different
media: some stories are really imagined for film; others, for hypertext;
others, for print. An all-image hypertext might simply seem like a
movie translated to a less appropriate medium...
> -In the section on Inline Graphics the author says that
> hypertext/web authors must always be "courteous to the audience
> trapped behind a slow link...." Do you agree with this
> statement? Should an author need to alter his or her projection
> to satisfy ALL members of an audience? Is it rude to design a
> site with a fast-link audience in mind? Should an artist be
> forced to name an unnamed piece just to provide a text
> alternative for the text-only browser?
How would the putative artist of the all-image hypermedia piece provide
a text-only version?