hypertext hotel readable/writable/feedable projecting going switching HYPER-Media-Culture theatricalizing interfacing Web Cams machines of desire imaginary library Interface III Collaborative Systems theatricalizing poetics of transport? feedback options hypertext-commonplace
The oldest, most ambitioned, craziest and most complex film project in the Internet is WAXweb. The cinematographer David Blair had already placed his electronic feature film, WAX OR THE DISCOVERY OF THE TELEVISION AMONG THE BEES (USA 1991, David Blair; can be ordered from, Eastgate Systems, 134 Main Street, Watertown, MA 02172, USA, Fax: 001-617-924-9051; email: eastgate-systems) in the WWW in 1993, and as a result created a form of artistic practise against the commercial video-on-demand dreams of the Multimedia concerns:
"Why should we worry ourselves sick about some 500 TV channels of the future when 5 million already exist." (David Blair)
In addition he has split up his electronically produced film into the smallest individual parts: the 85 minute film in mostly 30 second long digital mini sequences, (in the all-compatible MPEG format, which after a download of the ca. 500 k sized segments , and which, depending on the bandwidth of the network link, takes 10 sec's to download with ISDN, and ca. 10 min at 9600 baud.- ) can be played on any computer in quarter postcard size using software encoding, whereby the corresponding digital sound files (in AIFF format, each between 100-500k in size), which in addition to the original English version is partialy available in French, Japanese, and German, has over 5000 still frames in postage stamp size, (in JPEG-Format, only 13 k in size).
The limitations in format and download time, (Blair boasts that someone who wants to go down every branch will need to navigate his data system for a total of three weeks, both day and night!) contrast to the advantages of the digital compositions: the stills, sounds and film sequences are woven into a complete conglomeration of over 2,550 hyperlinks, (these are digital lateral links between electronic data), with thousands of script-like text fragments in which the user becomes literally entangled.
Not only does he continually discover new complexes during his travels through the film, or end up following new routes..., he is also continually asked to make contribution, in the form of additions and comments upon the individual scenes. On most of the more than 3000 monitor pages, between 5 and 10 comments from viewers around the world can be found, (which are also marked with each user's fantasy name and corresponding e-mail address).
The time axis in this intercommunicative film gives way in favour of the lateral link. Instead of a linear reception, an interactive approach to the film occurs- a procedure which in its totallity, appears similar to the actual process of producing a film. After several visits to WAXweb a fragmentary impression remains - The pre-announced CD-Rom, (available for Mac/Windows/UNIX), synchronised with the WWW will be the first to enable adequate data throughput for deeper access into the project.
Waxweb MOO Acess e-mail David Blair