My text-based web animations have their roots in electric signs. What separates them aesthetically from electric signs is the vast technical gap between digital displays and electric light displays. Digital displays allow for a level of detail never imagined by designers of electric signs, whose aim was grandness rather than subtlety. Such subtlety has redefined electronic text. Also, the web, the primary outlet for electronic text, has societally ingrained itself more deeply than any previous communications technology. No prior communications technology combined the ability to send/receive mail, manage finances, purchase/sell merchandise, and retrieve/post information.
E-mail is the topic of Evany Thomas's online essay, Learning to Talk Again, or: Flesh for Fantasy. Thomas describes meeting people she had known only electronically, who turn out not quite as she imagined. She points out this is really no different from being surprised or disappointed by the physical appearance or vocal intonation of a writer whose work you admire because it doesn't jell with an impression you had of them. Yet Thomas is astute enough to realize e-mail is in a fledgling state, part of the evolving tapestry of the web. She refers to Teleportec, a company that has set out "to establish the global standard for face to face distance communication." Teleportec make "teleporters" that transport life-sized 3-D images over the Internet.
Of course, 3-D dates back to those silly 1950s' 3-D glasses. It's all a matter of fine-tuning via new technologies. Thus I feed off what I learned from electric signs and, to a lesser degree, from film/video titles; however, in the end, I am driven by a poetic vision. Even if most of the animations on Illumination Gallery are densely visual, they stem from poetic inspiration. Oddly, though, as I gain greater control over the visual realm, I find myself drawn to the sparse visualization of electronic text loops. I am fascinated by the ease with which electronic text can turn in on itself when rendered digitally. Much as e.e. cummings was fully aware of how his poems mapped out over a printed page, I am equally aware of how my verbal compositions splay out visually across a computer monitor. Tempo, rhythm play their role. Constructed properly, electronic text loops seep into one's consciousness, existing both on a vertical and horizontal plane. Words veer out horizontally and at the same time ripple vertically, then abruptly repeat, bringing attention to a pattern, submerging syntax in a digital stain reflecting the way words melt into our minds.
Word Stain 1, the animation rinning above, attempts to illustrate this. A high-speed Internet connection is required to properly view it.
© 2005 Peter Schmideg