The HyperText Experience

Are you experienced?

What is HyperText?

French philosopher Roland Barthes once wrote about what he considered to be the 'ideal' text:

"the networks (reseaux) are many and interact, without any one of them being able to surpass the rest; this text is a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilises extend as far as the eye can reach, they are indeterminable . . . ; the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language."

Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Trans. Richard Miller.
Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1991. p. 5-6.

Hypertext brings Barthes' textual ideal to life. Broadly speaking, hypertexts are textual documents with transparent linkage to other documents that exist within a larger network. Unlike their static predecessors, these revolutionary information mediums make possible a dynamic structure in which viewers can jump between kernels of information using 'hyperlinks.' Furthermore, hypertexts allow so much more than written text and images; with music, video and interactive games and features all at the fingertips of a user. The World Wide Web is, of course, the most famous implementation of hypertext. It's hard to convey the profound impact that this technology has had on society without reciting grossly overused cliches. To put it simply, yet truthfully, hypertext has radically changed the world as we know it.

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