Another Mark on the Wall (AMW) is a digital remediation based on The Mark on the Wall, written by Virginia Woolf in 1917. In the original short story, the narrator becomes fixated on a black mark on the wall which sparks a series of other thoughts. While these thoughts are entering and leaving the narrator’s mind, the focus periodically returns to the mark on the wall until the narrator finally realizes the mark on the wall is a snail. The intent of this digital version of the story is to experiment with the stream-of-consciousness narrative style, collaging the text to provide pathways for the interactor, to borrow Montfort’s terms for the user who reads, writes and plays interactive fiction. AMW falls somewhere between the interactive and hypertext fiction genres. While the interactor does not write or type responses as in interactive fiction, they do choose pathways as in hypertext fiction. The story is fixed with a beginning and an end but the interactor is generating their own experience of reaching the end. AMW also goes beyond hyperlinked actions to provide the interactor with ways to “play” with the text–make it move, disappear, enlarge, focus, etc.
To make the text “playful”, I used coding methods and typography to visually represent thoughts entering and leaving. To counteract the flat, two-dimensional aspects of text games and electronic literature, the narrator’s thoughts move along the z-axis (the axis that is perpendicular to the x-axis and the y-axis). The opening page hints at this–the first paragraph is presented while you scroll and then the black mark enlarges, taking you inside the story.
The “marks” page
The “marks” page contains all the times the narrator’s focus returns to the mark on the wall. Hovering over the sentences makes these thoughts come toward you. Hovering away, pushes them to the background. Clicking on the black mark brings you to a page of thoughts. The full text of the story was divided into seven pages, each with a different motion effect. Some pages (2, 3, 4, 7) are interactive where the text thoughts perform based on your mouse movements. On other pages (1, 5, 6), the text performs without any interference. You may choose to read the full thoughts in order or not read them at all, perhaps catching words on occasion. Each page contains motions that simulate how thoughts enter and leave our minds–they uncontrollably come from all directions at various speeds, they might invoke anxiety or calm, depending on your state of mind. In AMW, the typography is the graphical element that simulates the three-dimensional. Instead of literally showing a room, with walls, fireplace, etc., I chose to focus on the mind, thinking abstractly what this might look like.
Interrupting the thoughts on each page, a black mark and a snail randomly move across the screen. At any point, you can click on the black mark to return to the “marks” page and navigate to another set of thoughts. Clicking on the snail brings you to the end of the story when the narrator realizes the mark on the wall was simply a snail.
Inspired by the computational poetry and literary art published in Taper, you are encouraged to view the source code (⌘-Option-U or Ctrl+U) to read brief instructions for clarity. The source code also contains the full text itself, offering another way to experience this story. The contrasts between the written story of the code, the written story of the original codex, and the digital story reveal different types of persuasive and expressive practices at work, as Bogost outlines in his analysis of procedural rhetoric. Other points of departure which informed this project are Hayles’ mention of perspective and the z-axis in IF, Murray’s description of kaleidoscopic narratives, The River Poem’s transformation of an existing literary object, and John Cayley’s study of the materiality of language in Windsound.*
*To be honest, all of the readings and projects from this semester have been inspiring. So, thank you Jeff for an enlightening class! And thanks to everyone in the class for contributing to our magic circle!
