A Matter of Bits

Author(s)

Matthew Higgins

First Published

2016

Original Publisher

Rutgers University-Camden

Language

E

Description

Designer's Statement, Matthew Higgins: "Electronic Literature: A Matter of Bits" is not a typical gallery show; at least not according to my experience. Books and poems do not usually appear in a gallery. But each of the works featured has a wonderfully artistic quality. Praise should be given to the curators for organizing this show not just around visuals but also around concepts. The show's argument provokes an awareness as well as a reconsideration of materiality. After discussing the exhibition with the Jim and Robert and reading the essays that would be included in the catalog, the significance of small things became apparent. The show supports its argument by emphasizing the materials involv3ed in the works, which the curators assert are not necessarily physical. Jim and Robert, who spent time installing wiring, and coding, can personally attest to the importance of small bits and pieces when it comes to actually making the works in the show function. Special thanks needs to be given to them for allowing me the freedom to create a catalog that attempts to reflect the concept of the show. I decided to look for a typographic solution. Since the works in the show are considered literature it is fitting that language should be the main subject of the design. The point was to use the basic elements of writing (i.e. letters) to explore the concept. The book begins with blanks pages. As the reader progresses though the catalog, letters and code (taken from the actual works) start to appear, and the text gradually builds in size and quantity. The letters on the first three pages spell the show title. The essays were typeset in a larger than usual size for emphasis. The text also invades the margins, coming very close to the edges. I chose Menlo for its code-like appearance. Charter was a fitting typeface for the main text. Designed by Matthew Carter, it was meat to be a serif typeface that could be used on the computer. Other serif typefaces required too much data for the computer's memory to store. (However, by the time Carter finished, someone had already solved the problem by writing a compaction routine, leaving Carter with a solution for a nonexistent problem) Storage became an issue for the curators and myself when determining how to document the works. How does one adequately photograph a poem that requires a reader to scream into it? Of course this problem of translation exists even when photographing a painting, though I think it is especially present in this situation. Rather than standing back and photographing the entire work, we took the artistic liberty of zooming in on individual parts. A sharpie, a wire, a computer key. Code is only one example of materiality. Mimicking the text, the photographs increase in size as the catalog progresses. In addition, the photo captions and page numbers are designed to fit the theme of the catalog and the show. Captions are typically treated as secondary information in relation to photographs and are therefore small and out of the way. While they remain small in this catalog, they call attention to themselves by intruding upon the photographs. The page numbers are also emphasized through size and placement. Like the captions, they call attention to themselves. My hope is that the design of this catalog works in tandem with the exhibition to produce a rethinking on what constitutes materiality.

External References

• Digital Studies