I am writing from the other side......the term has finished and I have completed the academic requirements...although I continue to labour upon the Atmosphere world it is near completion. It took Jahovah just 7 days in which to create and fill the earth will all creatures....it has taken me three months to create a reasonable appealing example of cyber-neo-Byzantine forum placed in a world resembing the famous Barcoo claypans of Queensland Australia....an interesting mix.....I wonder what people will think.
My thesis paper has been granted a high pass..It is available for reading in draft format here as a downloadable .pdf file. It is Chonotope and Cybertext (the other by Gottfrid Linge on pressence in virtual enviroments is also a very interesting and detailed piece of work). My paper developed from the idea that all depictions of reality in narrative form are situated within arrangements of time and space. There is much discussion about the 'new media' forms and how narratives are being developed in these technologies. I chose three examples of these cybertexts and plotted a type of "narrative archeology" back to what I believe is one of the most imporatant novels in English of the 20th century; Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs. I argue it is a proto-hypertext in the sense that many of the space/time constuctions in the narrative went on to influence and can be equated with the non-linear texts of hypermedia (for definitions...see the paper). A list of online cybertexts has been put up on the HUMlab website here by scrolling the right hand column there can be found a link to the list (it is also available in the English language pages).
What next?.....Mmmmm good question; some recording next week, finishing the Atmosphere world and getting it online, being a househusband for a while as 'my better half' begins studies in child art, I have applied to do some half time pedogogic subjects which begin at the end of feb. At the begining of Feburary (5-7th) is the 399th Jokkmokk S?mi Winter Market, at which I will be playing with the fantastic Nigel Shaw and Carolyn Hillier (I bought a CD of theirs in Amsterdam with 15 guilders I had extra from busking in 1998 and now I am going to make music with them..bizarre)
It actually looks like the next few weeks are also going to be busy....Ive bought a minidisc recorder also and in the tradition of Alan Lomax Im going to start compiling field recording whenever I get the chance...Jokkmokk should be an adventure.........Oh by the way.....it is not only going to be an adventure in this world...it will also be present in Cyberspace......back soon!!