without addresses

Keywords

Structural formation of dynamic systems, complexity, orientation in sign systems, labyrinth, collecting traces, inscription, paths, routes, topology, time, without addresses

Abstract

Our idea was to initiate a self-writing Web site.

According to Roland Barthes' text 'Empire of Signs' about orientation in Tokyo, to visit that city for the first time means to begin writing it. Addresses do not exist in Tokyo. In consequence, visual experience - as opposed to its customary representation - becomes a decisive element in orientation.

To find one's way is to move. Movement gives rise to path configurations. The systems of routes which interest us with regard to this project are unplanned, two-dimensional structures that inscribe themselves on an immaterial surface. No superordinate routing system exists to point the visitors in the desired direction.

The visitors to the Web sites leave behind traces that expand into paths and produce routes. They inscribe on the map their presence. The structure - the system of routes - is formed by the totality of visits paid.

The self-writing Web site has no addresses, no index. The individual visitor acquires no knowledge of the site's overall structure.


The Website "without addresses"

Online version

The start page activates two applications alongside the opening document. The first application opens a simple text input field in a separate window. Here the visitor has the opportunity of beginning the inscription procedure.

He/she is prompted by the words:

"Tell Me Who You Are !

The entered text is used as search string for an on-line search through the Internet. An individual HTML page is generated on the basis of the findings of this search.
The visitor has now left behind a trace in "without addresses".
The results of the search are manipulated in design on the basis of various layout patterns. Text is displayed in handwritten characters, images transformed into special formats.

The layout patterns and the graphical manipulations underscore the systemic concepts of the project.

The second application generates a map on the basis of the HTML documents, showing them as dots on the map. The visitors' HTML pages are arranged on the map in non-chronological sequence.

The visitor selects dots in order to view the previously generated pages.This movement produces routes or connections between the dots. Only now does a structure emerge. The structure is expanded in real time and the personally chosen route is visualized. The visitor moves through the Web site by means of the map.

Made up by nodes and interconnections, this two-dimensional map is the only agency of orientation within the virtual space of "without addresses".

For more information send mail to blank@icf.de and kheinz@icf.de