This paper explains and draws together two projects from different disciplines: dance studies and hypertext writing. Each project sets out to examine the processes and practices of hypertextuality, and to develop new ways of writing using electronic technology and the Internet. The dance studies project seeks to link the critical theory of intertextuality (as a means of dance interpretation) with the theoretical and practical concerns of hypertextuality. It hopes to show a convergence of the two into a working system for analysing dance in a network of people, institutions and information. The Associative Writing Framework (AWF) project seeks to explore how writers could best be supported in representing and exploring hypertextuality in a Web environment, and in producing new hypertexts which integrate or 'glue together' existing Web resources (ideas, concepts, data, descriptions, experiences, claims, theories, suggestions, reports, etc). Following the combining of the two projects we report on some initial evaluation of the AWF system by dance experts, and discuss where the relationship might lead and potential future outcomes of the collaboration

Carr, Leslie

Deveril, None

Hall, Wendy

Lansdale, Janet

Miles-Board, Timothy

English

Southampton (e-Prints Soton)

Figure 1: Mapping intertextualities of dance performance ‘Spinstren’.the meaning maker to include any number of subsequent ref-erences and links as intertextually connected works move inand out of the meaning maker’s focus of analysis, eﬀectively‘decentering’ the dance piece.A brief informal survey of dance researchers at the Uni-versity of Surrey revealed that the most common processfor meaning makers to represent their intertextual interpre-tations of a dance performance was to construct a ‘map’.Figure 1 shows one of a series of maps created in responseto the dance piece ‘Spinstren’2. This example is particu-larly interesting as it includes a number of hypertextualdevices (highlighted) in the interpretation network, suchas references to the performance (verbatim transcripting ofnarrative — “This is a story about a girl”) and intertex-tual references by name (‘Arachnology’, ‘Fanmail’), author(‘Barthes’, ‘Miller’), URL, and personal encodings (‘JGE-CV’ refers to the CV of Jools Gilson-Ellis, the choregrapher).Where the dance piece being interpreted has no narrative towhich the meaning maker can refer directly, the map mayinclude fragments of movement notation refering to speciﬁcparts of the performance (ﬁgure 2). This map then forms thebasis of an academic work presenting the meaning maker’sinterpretation of the piece, such as a linear essay/paper ornon-linear (Web-based) hypertext.The ‘map method’, somewhat ad-libbed and anarchic,based on the good old fashioned technique of writing by2http://www.auneheadarts.org.uk/halfangel/spinstren/index.html. Spinstren spins together thestory of Carla (a girl who steals a spinning top), withthe story of The Spinstren (a breed of magical women),combining spinning stories such as Sleeping Beauty andthat of the contest between the mythical characters Athenaand Arachne. The Spinstren are themselves strangelyquasi-mythical/ﬁctional, because the choreographer JoolsGilson-Ellis created them for this piece.Figure 2: Benesh notation [26] for referring to spe-ciﬁc movements in dance performance.hand using pencil and paper, develops organically as themeaning maker is struck by points in a text worthy of noteand endeavours to make the relationships apparent betweenthem. It has the obvious advantage of being a quick andeasy way to record an overview of the hypertextual struc-ture of the interpretation. However, the map quickly be-comes unmanageable and messy. Furthermore, the amountof information that can be included is limited to the mostbasic of notes (which in fact helps provide an ‘overview’ ofthe intertextual connections, but does not aid the meaningmaker in transforming the map into a presentation of theinterpretation — texts have to be revisited to recall exactlywhat part was being referred to in the map). A map alsomakes combining or comparing interpretations with othermeaning makers diﬃcult.In an attempt to devise a more structured approach forcapturing intertextual interpretations of a dance piece, re-searchers at the University of Surrey evolved a diﬀerent map-ping approach in which related texts are compared side-by-side. Interestingly, although the researchers worked inde-pendently, both the examples in ﬁgures 3 and 4 use threecolumns to delineate the emerging interpretation (both ex-amples are extracts from interpretations of ‘Spinstren’) us-ing a word-processing tool. In ﬁgure 3, the meaning maker110users with typed links in open hypermedia. InEuropean Conference on Digital Libraries, pages254–273, 1999.[18] J. Kahan, M.-R. Koivunen, E. Prud’Hommeaux, andR. R. Swick. Annotea: An open RDF infrastructurefor shared web annotations. In Proceedings of theTenth International World Wide Web Conference,Hong Kong, 2001.[19] M.-R. Koivunen and R. Swick. Metadata BasedAnnotation Infrastructure oﬀers Flexibility andExtensibility for Collaborative Applications andBeyond. In Proceedings of the First InternationalConference on Knowledge Capture (KCAP 2001),Victoria, B.C., Canada, Oct. 2001.[20] G. Landow. Hypertext 2.0. John Hopkins UniversityPress, Baltimore, 1997.[21] G. Li, V. Uren, E. Motta, S. Buckingham-Shum, andJ. Domingue. ClaiMaker: Weaving a Semantic Web ofResearch Papers. In Proceedings of the 1stInternational Semantic Web Conference, Sardinia,June 2002.[22] C. C. Marshall and F. M. Shipman, III. Eﬀects ofhypertext technology on the practice of informationtriage. In Proceedings of the ACM Hypertext ’97Conference, Southampton, UK, pages 167–176, 1997.[23] T. Memmott. Lexia to perplexia. http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/newmedia/lexia/index.htm,2000.[24] A. Miles. Singin’ in the rain: A hypertextual reading.Postmodern Culture, 8(2), January 1998.[25] T. Miles-Board, L. Carr, and W. Hall. Looking forlinking: Associative links on the web. In Proceedingsof the ACM Hypertext 2002 Conference, Maryland,USA, 2002.[26] R. Neagle. Dance movement notation. http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/royce/ugreport/node7.html,2001.[27] T. H. Nelson. As we will think. In Proceedings of theOnline ’72 Conference, Brunei University, Uxbridge,UK, 1972.[28] T. H. Nelson. The heart of connection: hypermediauniﬁed by transclusion. Communications of the ACM,38(8):31–33, August 1995.[29] J. Nielsen. Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internetand Beyond. Academic Press, London, 1995.[30] L. S. Roudiez. Desire in Language: A SemioticApproach to Literature and Art, chapter Introduction.Blackwell, Oxford, 1980.[31] m. c. schraefel, Y. Zhu, D. Modjeska, D. Wigdor, andS. Zhao. Hunter Gatherer: Interaction Support for theCreation and Management of Within-Web-PageCollections. In Proceedings of the EleventhInternational World Wide Web Conference(WWW2002), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, May 2002.[32] F. M. Shipman, H. Hsieh, P. Maloor, and J. M.Moore. The visual knowledge builder: A secondgeneration spatial hypertext. In Proceedings of theACM Hypertext 2001 Conference, Arhus, Denmark,pages 113–122, 2001.[33] J. Svedjedal. A note on the concept of hypertext.http://www.hb.se/bhs/ith/3-99/js.htm, 1999.[34] F. Vitali and M. Bieber. Hypermedia on the Web:what will it take? ACM Computing Surveys, 31(4es),Dec. 1999.[35] K. Wideroos. Awt (associative writing tool):Supporting writing process with a zigzag basedwriting tool. In Proceedings of the ACM Hypertext2001 Conference, Arhus, Denmark, pages 35–36, 2001.119

A note on the concept of hypertext.

An open graph visualization system and its applications to software engineering.

Annotea: An open RDF infrastructure for shared web annotations.

As we will think.

Authoring and Annotation of Web Pages in CREAM.

Awt (associative writing tool): Supporting writing process with a zigzag based writing tool.

Casablanca: Cult movies and intertextual collage.

ClaiMaker: Weaving a Semantic Web of Research Papers.

CREAM — Creating relational metadata with a component-based, ontology-driven annotation framework.

Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. The Johns Hopkins

Dance movement notation.

Dancing texts: intertextuality in interpretation.

Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, chapter Introduction.

Dynamic use of digital library material - supporting 118users with typed links in open hypermedia.

Eﬀects of hypertext technology on the practice of information triage.

Expanding the notion of links.

Fluid Annotations Through Open Hypermedia: Using and Extending Emerging Web Standards.

Fourth Generation Hypermedia: Some Missing Links for the World Wide Web.

Hunter Gatherer: Interaction Support for the Creation and Management of Within-Web-Page Collections.

Hypermedia on the Web: what will it take?

Hypertext 2.0.

Lexia to perplexia. http: //trace.ntu.ac.uk/newmedia/lexia/index.htm,

Looking for linking: Associative links on the web.

Metadata Based Annotation Infrastructure oﬀers Flexibility and Extensibility for Collaborative Applications and Beyond.

Microcosm: An Open Model for Hypermedia With Dynamic Linking.

Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internet and Beyond.

Singin’ in the rain: A hypertextual reading.

Storyspace 1.

Textual Analysis: Poe’s “Valdemar”. In

The Death of the Author. In Image Music Text,

The heart of connection: hypermedia uniﬁed by transclusion.

The visual knowledge builder: A second generation spatial hypertext.

Webvise: Browser and proxy support for open hypermedia structuring mechanisms on the world wide web.

Decentering the Dancing Text: From Dance Intertext to Hypertext

Decentering the Dancing Text: From Dance Intertext to Hypertext

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Southampton (e-Prints Soton)