Colloquium Archive
Anne Wysocki
Name: Anne Wysocki, Michigan Technological University
Presentation Title: "Seriously Visible: Disigned Readings of Computer-based Interactive Multimedia"
Date: September 30, 1999
Abstract
Hypertexts--because their design requires readers to choose paths through texts--are supposed to make readers more active and independent in their readings, while texts that have been given visual shape--through attention to typefaces, page arrangement, and the use of images--are supposed to make reading too easy, to remove activity and independence from readers.
In this presentation, Professor Wysocki will read two pieces of computer-based interactive multimedia as counterexamples to the above claims. A computer-based text can be designed to ask passivity of a reader as much as action and independence at the same time that its visual arrangements require considerable interpretive efforts. The readings indicate a need for teaching both the analysis and development of the visual compositions of texts.