Poetics of the Web

Akma has gathered a superb collection of blogs that discuss alternatives to the spatial metaphor of the Web, continuing a blogthread I accidentially initiated. I particularly like blkros‘s raising time, not space, to our attention; one of the commenters at the site refers us to a Darren Tofts‘s essay on cybertime vs. cyberspace. In fact, there are a whole bunch o’ links there that sound well worth following. (I have the space this morning, but not the time.) And I also like AKMA’s suggestion that Tom‘s piece on the music of the Web is a richer invocation of the Web’s temporality.

Two meta-comments on the question of new metaphors for the Web:

First, it feels to me like this conversation, while highly stimulated by its blogginess, would profit from a more interactive form … such as being in the same room together. We’re disagreeing with one another often based on differences that could be worked out in person: “Oh, when you say ‘space’ you mean …. and when you say ‘metaphor’ you mean …”

Second, although anything is possible (except for what isn’t), in my heart I don’t believe that any discussion of new metaphors can surface a new metaphor. I accept AKMA’s plea that we be open to the “more” that hasn’t been thought yet:

But an ocean is lapping at our toes, and it hasn’t yet dawned on us to swim in it. After all, we experience the ocean by walking in it, “walking” is necessary, right?

(Now there’s a metaphor that works!) But I don’t think a conversation about metaphors is likely to produce new metaphors. That’s the job of poets. And, in this case, I think it’s more likely to come from a poetic engineer who creates a new piece of software that shows us the world through its eyes. After all, that’s how 2D vertical computer screens became desktops and resizeable rectangles became windows.

Categories: Uncategorized dw