Talan Memmott

Talan Memmott is a Lecturer in Digital Culture at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. He holds an MFA in Literary Arts/Electronic Writing from Brown University and a PhD in Interaction Design from Malmö University. Memmott is a practicing artist, an academic, and a media theorist. His creative work has been presented at numerous conferences and festivals, and been the subject of a number of critical articles and books. Memmott is Vice President of the Electronic Literature Organization, the Coordinator of the Nordic Digital Culture Network, and 2010-2013 was a researcher on the ELMCIP European research project.

To learn more about Talan’s work, visit: talanmemmott.com

Lexia to Perplexia is a deconstructive/grammatological examination of the “delivery machine” with its text falling into the gaps between theory and fiction. The work, developed between 1998 and1999 makes wide use of DHTML and JavaScript, both emerging technologies at the time. At times its interactive features override the source text, leading to a fragmentary reading experience. In essence, the text does what it says: in that, certain theoretical attributes are not displayed as text but are incorporated into the functionality of the work, introduced iconically or through interaction, which begs the questions – where is the text, and what is reading in this environment? Additionally, Lexia to Perplexia explores new terminology for the processes and phenomena of technological attachment. Terms such as “metastrophe” and “intertimacy” work as flashpoints within the work and are meant to inspire or encourage an unpacking of both the terminology and the set of phenomena that arise from a technologically oriented culture. The Lexia to Perplexia interface is designed as a diagrammatic metaphor, emphasizing the local (user) and remote (server) poles of network attachment while exploring the “intertimate” hidden spaces of the process.