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Writing
in programmable media is theorized in relation to
the surface of writing.
Within the framework of currently dominant cultural
and technological formations, the surface of
writing is conceptually simple, and this
overdetermines practices of writing. As it is
typically conceived, the surface of writing is a
flatland plane, a 3rd-dimensionless scroll (however
segmented or, indeed, fragmented) on which
linguistic symbols, similarly dimensionless, are
arrayed. Once language has come to rest on this
simple surface, any qualities it may possess of
temporality or material depth are bracketed.
Programmable media problematize this dominant but
simple model, and yet, arguably, its depthless,
timeless surface misdirects the composition and
publication of writing, even writing that is
instantiated in programmable media. In the field of
poetics, there are traditions for which the surface
of writing is complex. Although rarely made
explicit, such approaches to the writing surface
have enriched the practices of important writers,
particularly poetic writers. This essay sets out
from one important statement on the complexity of
writing surfaces and then pursues three examples of
writing on/within/amongst such surfaces, connecting
engaged poetic practices with literal art work in
cinematic and programmable media. The film titling
of Saul Bass is discussed; followed by the
author’s series of pieces overboard and translation. Finally,
there are remarks on the author’s
work-in-progress for Brown University’s
four-wall VR Cave, within which the surface of
writing is literally, graphically complex. The
surface of writing is and always has been complex.
It is a liminal symbolically interpenetrated
membrane, a fractal coast- or borderline, a chaotic
and complex structure with depth and history.
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