Sense of place
* David Kolb has produced a “hypertext essay on the nature of modern spaces in cities called Sprawling Places”:http://www.dkolb.org/sprawlingplaces/
* This hypertext has 100,000 words, 600 pages and 1,000 images
* The work is multiply linked and threaded by a number of outlines or themes
* It is possible for two (or more) people to ‘read’ the work in quite unconnected ways and in different sequences
* Kolb is also revising a ‘linear’ version of the piece (25% content overlap)
* ‘Reading’ this essay feels very different from reading a book
* Multiply threaded hypertext has not been prominent recently – Web sites have tended to close down the navigation and structure the content in more linear ways – I welcome this opening up
“Iain Sinclair’s”:http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/147_iainsinclair.shtml “London Orbital”:http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10513 tackles similar themes – the suburbs vs the City – via a series of walks around the route of the M25. Sinclair interviews J. G. Ballard (in his bunker in Shepperton) and explores periphery. The book has a beginning a middle and an end and a series of side storys and comic ‘business’ at various points. Will I be re-reading Kolbs hypertext ina few years?