The Network is the Narrative
Abstract of David Garcia's lecture for the Future Moves 3 workshop.
|
Narrative is a form of knowledge which necessarily develops
its propositions in a temporal sequence, in a progression.
And in so doing addresses the problem of temporality: our
time-bounded-ness, our consciousness of existence within
the limits of mortality. This fact accounts for the persistence
narratives in a networked landscape of databases whose possible
configurations are infinite.
I would like to propose a
presentation which explores the way that those who deal
with narrative on the net, those for whom "the network is
the narrative" have returned to its most primal aspect "plot".
To do this would draw attention to fact way that in English
the word "plot" has a number of meanings with a hidden connection.
Plot is not only the organising line giving momentum and
structure to a story it is also a piece of ground or a measured
area of land and we must not forget a third meaning a plot
can be a scheme, a secret plan to accomplish a hostile purpose.
It is this connection of time, space and power that revitalize
the plotting aspect of the narrative in the network.
|
|
