Word processing as an act of collaboration–description of a media artwork

Authors: Rutherford

Journal: Media Practice and Education

Volume: 20

Issue: 3

Pages: 232-243

eISSN: 2574-1144

ISSN: 2574-1136

DOI: 10.1080/25741136.2018.1464739

Abstract:

As described in an earlier contribution to the journal (Photography as an Act of Collaboration–Vol. 15, Issue 3), my research explores the possibilities and implications of treating the camera and the photographic process as an active collaborator in the creation of scenes, events and ‘moments’ that did not exist until brought into being by the act of photographing them. The media artwork described here is the result of an experiment to explore the possibility of establishing the same co-operative relationship with word-processing software as a way to give voice to my unconscious that I had succeeded in establishing with the medium of photography. Despite comprehensively stripping the original text of both sense and sequence, the resulting text not only retains an uncanny degree of consistency with both the style and meaning of the original, but also reveals insights which had been only latent within the original. The result would appear to reinforce the findings of my previous research in photographic practice: that, by giving up conscious, rational control over the means of expression, we can (sometimes) create the conditions necessary for a constructive and often illuminating dialogue with the deus ex machina.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/30218/

Source: Scopus

Word processing as an act of collaboration: description of a media artwork

Authors: Rutherford

Editors: McDougall, J.

Journal: Media Practice and Education

Publisher: Taylor & Franciis

ISSN: 1468-2753

Abstract:

As described in an earlier contribution to the JMP (Photography as an act of collaboration - Vol 15, Issue 3), my research explores the possibilities and implications of treating the camera and the photographic process as an active collaborator in the creation of scenes, events and ‘moments’ that did not exist until brought into being by the act of photographing them.

The media artwork described here is the result of an experiment to explore the possibility of establishing a similarly collaborative relationship with the ‘agency’ of word-processing software that I have endeavoured to establish with the medium of photography.

Despite comprehensively stripping the original text of both sense and sequence, the resulting text not only retains an uncanny degree of consistency with both the style and meaning of the original, but also reveals insights which had been only latent within the original. The result would appear to reinforce the findings of my previous research in photographic practice: that, by giving up conscious, rational control over the means of expression, we can (sometimes) create the conditions necessary for a constructive and often illuminating dialogue with the deus ex machina.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/30218/

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjmp21/current

Source: Manual

Word processing as an act of collaboration: description of a media artwork

Authors: Rutherford

Journal: Media Practice and Education

Volume: 20

Issue: 3

Pages: 232-243

ISSN: 1468-2753

Abstract:

As described in an earlier contribution to the JMP (Photography as an act of collaboration - Vol 15, Issue 3), my research explores the possibilities and implications of treating the camera and the photographic process as an active collaborator in the creation of scenes, events and ‘moments’ that did not exist until brought into being by the act of photographing them. The media artwork described here is the result of an experiment to explore the possibility of establishing a similarly collaborative relationship with the ‘agency’ of word-processing software that I have endeavoured to establish with the medium of photography. Despite comprehensively stripping the original text of both sense and sequence, the resulting text not only retains an uncanny degree of consistency with both the style and meaning of the original, but also reveals insights which had been only latent within the original. The result would appear to reinforce the findings of my previous research in photographic practice: that, by giving up conscious, rational control over the means of expression, we can (sometimes) create the conditions necessary for a constructive and often illuminating dialogue with the deus ex machina.

https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/30218/

Source: BURO EPrints