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Donna Leishman |
Jason Nelson |
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Donna, in your thesis (online at your site) you talk about the poetics of a Multiple State Environment. Could you say more about that?Multiple State Environments (MSEs) refer to structures that have not one true static state but have different possibilities, and as such come with implied, designated, or yet to be discovered rules which govern the users' performance in creating the different structural positions. Thus MSEs are artifacts in flux, fundamentally awaiting change—poised to evolve as opposed to being static or concrete. With MSEs, the invisible rules of manipulation are of equal importance to the visual appearance. The term "environment" is used to mean a representation of space, instead of worlds, stages, or sets. I use the term Multiple State Environment in preference to interactive narratives or digital narratives. Ludologist Gonzalo Frasca (http://www.ludology.org) drew a fantastic analogy between Dual/ Multiple State Environments and the children's toy, "Transformer": "... there is a very particular kind of toy, known as 'Transformer.' Based on a Japanese animated television series, the Transformers are robots that can transform themselves into different machines. When you first open a box containing a Transformer, you see a puppet with all the characteristics of a robot. After certain manipulations—which may be tricky and, in certain cases, puzzle-like—the robot can be transformed into, let's say, a plane. The toy is articulated, made of connected moving parts but at any moment you have to dismantle it into different pieces: the transformation takes place without the toy losing any matter. Obviously, the toy has two different states: robot and plane...Our problem starts when we try to understand the Transformer as a whole. Is it a robot or a plane or both at the same time? "Imagine that we gave a Transformer to a child who has never watched the television series and is not familiar with its ability to change. If the transformation is not easy to perform—actually, it is quite common that you have to use a lot of pressure to transform the toy—the child will just use it as a robot and never discover that it could also become a plane. In order to fully appreciate the toy you need something more than the mere object: you need a rule of behavior. In this case, the rule is 'if you perform certain movements, your toy will change its state.' Without that rule, the toy is simply a robot; with it, it becomes a Transformer, a dual state toy." [Frasca Videogames of the Oppressed http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/Boalian] |
Interview QuestionsBiographical BackgroundReception | Role of the ReaderInterfaceWork ProcessElectronic Literature CommunityFuture WorkSecretsSpace | StateConnect Digital | MaterialGamesPotentials of the FieldEssaysThe Artists on Each Other's WorkTalan Memmott's Commentary on Each ArtistLaunch the ArtworksDeviantLeishman SitePandemic RoomsNelson IndexBiographical InformationStephanie StricklandMajorie Coverley LuesebrinkDonna LeishmanJason NelsonTalan Memmott |
Jason, you say that your work is not an echo of real space, does not use the windows and boxes and doors that Donna's does. You feel that each of your pieces is a kind of "critter," with a specific vitality and volition. You have said that you feel that "quality of movement" has a lot to do with this perception of vitality and in Uncontrollable Semantics, for instance, you tie it to "depth of files." Can you say more about the 50 different layers in this piece and how they operate?Each of my layers is unique and may or may not have any connection with the effects of the next cursor move. Each of the 50 layers of Uncontrollable Semantics is a movie-within-a-movie. I remember mapping out this work, taking a 3x3 piece of foam board and drawing, lines awkward and messy, a grid. Each grid would be a page, a section, a small world. Before this I decided I wanted to make a work based almost solely on the mouse follower, to create spaces that wouldn't really exist without the user's movement and interaction. So I suppose the first step was mining the internet for Flash based mouse followers. From the first few I found I created a mini grid, just four works. The problem with that mini grid was that I didn't know to tie the works together. Hence the semantics, the text-titles-definitions. So to create the work I turned off my computer and just created a grid poem, 50 concepts. I started in random places, leaping around and letting free association take over to move from idea square to idea square. Around the time I was writing this grid poem, I watched a documentary on black holes, mapping gravity within space, the weight of dense objects and the universal grid, objects pulling other objects into them. And certainly considering I was creating these alive spaces, these paintable creatures, the idea of space, holes, dense and shallow creatures all pushing and shocking, swirling and borrowing gravity, gave Uncontrollable Semantics a visualization. Gave the work a way of being, a cosmic documentary expert pointing at simulations and espousing this is the universe, and time, and energy, a clever little guess into how things might work.  From Uncontrollable Semantics Once the grid poem was complete, I then had to reinterpret those terms, had to create these net art/cyber poetry definitions of the terms. And since most of the pages are devoid of text-text, I had to combine the movement with the interactions with the sounds with the images to translate each term. So the 50-word poem became 50 different poems. I suppose the original was a poem of titles. And the process was then to fill in beneath them. The random linking holes and the traps came later as a way not only to erase the worst of the 50 grid, but also as a way to encourage exploration throughout the work, and to offer some prizes and consequences, to throw wee bits of dark matter into the galactic swamp. In as far as the comparison to Donna's work, I suppose the easiest and most honest answer is that I can't draw, can't design, have no formal arts training, and am messy beyond comprehension. That of course didn't sound easy at all. I just find that my print poems tended to run the abstract track, the words don't fit, meanings all akimbo, lines of understanding lost and contradictory. And that same "what the hell is this mess" approach to creation extends to my new media/net art/ e-lit work. In addition, I find that although animation that bounces off real landscapes can be damn gorgeous and effective, I would rather see the artwork attempt to create its own physics, its own understanding of what a house is and where buildings grow, steel-framed stems, and windows that flex with the sway, the wind and being fired on a Tuesday afternoon. |
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