Re: [-empyre-] links



At 12:11 -0300 21/6/02, Nemo Nox wrote:
Jill Walker wrote:
Mm, but when I link, I link quite deliberately. I choose
what I link to - I might think I want to link to something
that explains this, that gives background or further
information about this, that shows that I also know about
this other thing, that brings out an ironic or self-ironic
twist, that contrasts to this, etc.

But you have no control over what's on the other side of the link. They may change the content or the design, they may block access with passwords, they may disappear, you don't know.

not sure where this conversation is going or where it started from. but i'd be wary of hypostatising the link as a specific or singluar thing. some links decay. some don't. some are about transparency (click 'home' to take you home) and some are ironic, resistant, sarcastic, interrogative or even misbehaving.


so yes, there's no control about the other end. and in some contexts this might be a troublesome thing, in others it's just one of the material conditions of the link and like other material conditions ought to be embraced rather than ignored. (for me it's a bit like deriding paper because it is finite so there is a limit to how much i can write on it compared to my computer screen. it's a silly thing to be upset about as a good or bad thing, it's a material constraint that we engage with in very real creative and pragmatic ways.)

cheers
adrian miles
--
+ lecturer in new media and cinema studies [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/vlog]
+ interactive desktop video developer [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vog/]
+ hypertext rmit [http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au]
+ InterMedia:UiB. university of bergen [http://www.intermedia.uib.no]






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