I read bpNichol's 'First Screening' and watched the javascript version and after completing both I walked away with many questions. I feel what is absent is why bpNichol's even decided to do the 'First Screening' in the first place. Reading the 'First Screening' seemed easier then either watching the javascript version and reading the code. The question's I have are why did he decide to do this? How difficult was it to transfer these writings onto a floppy disk? All in the mean while I was confused about the javascript version and the coding. To me, a uneducated person when it comes to coding, found it very confusing and looked like scramble to me. The dimension on time from 'First Screening' was clearly shown from the readings, "He distributed First Screening through underwitch, an imprint he started in 1979 with a small group of poets." The time when this was completed was the 80's and the technology then was much less advanced as it is today. BpNichol at the time of making this creation, technology was not advanced and was quite hard to bring his works to massive amounts of people, "First Screening consisted of 100 numbered and signed copies distributed on 5.25" floppies along with printed matter." In present day with social media and the advancement of technology to get content into main stream media and essentially into peoples lives is much more instant. In the 80's computers and technology were so outdated and new that the systems just weren't adequate enough to get media to the general public.
The original recordings of 'First Screening' were much older and outdated technology. The screen was difficult to follow and understand, once updated to the Javascript version. The picture and clarity of the poem was much easier to follow and understand. The frame by frame and coding for the Javascript was clearly newer and fresher. Reading the code was difficult and to someone who doesn't understand coding, the codes looked like a bunch of numbers on a page.
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The Aarseth essay was dense, but highly insightful. The essay made me see certain aspects not typically associated with cybertext. The maze in Theseus' story being a linear path because he does not get lost or is able to meander around by the storyteller (4). Also, footnotes being a non-linear way of looking at a primarily linear text (5). If you were to tell me that this was made yesterday I would believe you. Despite being made two decades ago, the themes of audience participation creating the story are extremely prevalent today especially in video games. Aarseth says, "when you read from a cyber text, you are constantly reminded of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard" (2). In modern video games like Mass Effect or The Witcher Series, stories branch out at many points throughout the game causing the player to choose how the story unfolds thus denying the other path, similar to "Garden of Forking Paths." Furthermore, in this scenario the reader is in control instead of any other text where the reader is passive and merely experiencing events unfold (3). Expanding beyond the plot of a story being dictated by the reader, how one plays a game also contributes to how this story unfolds. For example, let's say that I play a fantasy game and I only use a sword. That is a different story than when I replay the game using magic or perhaps in an alternate timeline where I began with magic (to further add to the Borges allusions). I would liken the disparity between cyber text and text to playing Dungeons and Dragons. Cyber text is a Dungeon Master that would allow for the players to do anything they wanted (as long as it was on their character sheet) and go anywhere (multicursal). Conversely, text is the Dungeon Master that keeps the players to a specific plot and denies all actions they don't like (unicursal).
I find the idea that there are certain texts that need audience participation similar to or an expansion of "death of the author," where the meaning the author of a work intended doesn't matter. Rather, it is the reader's interpretation that is important. In the case for cybertexts, the author sets up a series of events (or a labyrinth) that the reader can further explore. The story is now the reader's responsibility.
The only bits I found that were out of date were the references to adventure games and multi-user dungeons since they are rarely used now. In terms of artificial intelligence programming, I found it a little amusing that there was only "one" AI (ELIZA). Nowadays, you can't access your emails without encountering a bot (insert John Mulaney routine here). If the other programming references were archaic, I didn't notice because that isn't my field of knowledge.
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