This website has been designed to present history hypertextually. Much of the use of hypertext in history has been what Janet Murray would term 'additive' in nature in that it does not take advantage of the inherent qualities of computers and the internet as a medium. To show that this website is 'expressive' rather than 'additive' it is necessary to show how the design of this website takes advantage of the four qualities that Murray sees as being inherent in digital environments:
1) Digital environments are procedural
Digital environments are seen to be good at reproducing processes because computers are, at a fundamental level, engines operating according to procedural rules. In terms of the impact that this might have on 'doing history' it is perceived that hypertext may allow the reproduction of thought processes. Traditionally this is seen as facilitating 'associative thinking' where, as Vannevar Bush outlined, the human mind 'with one item in its grasp, ...snaps insatntly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain.' Therefore we find many attempts to produce interconnected, non-linear narratives to facilitate this thought process.
It is the suggestion here that the 'associative thought' model may not translate well to historical inquiry. It is worth noting that history, to the extent that it can be defined as a discipline at all, must be defined as a way of thinking, as a methodology for analysis. Certainly there is much variety in historical modes of thinking, and its precise terms are almost impossible to define, yet it would appear to be a distinct possibility that 'associative thinking' could mark a clear deviation from the strict processes of analytical thought that would appear to constitute historical thought.
That said, this website looks to reproduce a 'more historical' thought process than associative thinking. Through its linking structure, it attempts to reveal the process of comparative and contextual thinking, in other words, it forces the reader to compare across time and to look at the contexts of the sources it contains. As such, then, it is hoped that the site provides a new model for producing 'expressive' history in digital environments in that it shows the possibilities for presenting historical thought processes, however they may be defined.
2) Digital environments are participatory
This site can be seen to be participatory in two ways. The first is obviously that it allows user navigation. Whilst this navigation is not unrestricted, at each page the user will still have at least five other squares of the grid to move to. Furthermore, within each square, the user has the possibility of choosing which of many pieces of information they are going to read, or which link they are going to follow.
Secondly, the content of the site has been designed to encourage more participatory reading. Much interpretive work needs to be done to 'make sense' of the disparate material on the site, the onus of which falls to the user. The user must decide where they must go to make sense of the informattion they have accessed on the movies of a particular decade-should they look to the film industry, to the broader culture of the era, to the preceding decade, to the censorship of film? The site offers no easy answers to any of the questions that it may pose to the user. As such it encourages them to participate in the site.
3) Digital environments are spatial
Murray has stated that 'the new digital environments are characterized by their power to represent navigable space. (Murray 1997: 79) This is 'spatial quality is created by the interactive process of navigation.' (Murray 1997: 80)This site tries to take advantage of this quality by using a grid as the structuring principle. The user of the site can move backwards and forwards in time, as seen spatially as they move up and down the column. They can move across time, as seen spatially as they move across a row. The fact that the grid has been reproduced on each page, indicating where the user is currently located helps this process. Indeed, Murray has commented that 'the computer's spatial quality is created by the interactive process of naviagtion', and the
It is hoped that the impression that the user gets from the grid is that of moving through the grid. This should help the site in encouraging comparative and contextual thought, because it represents history spatially. In other words, when the user moves from the history of the 1930's to that of the 1940's, it should feel like the user has moved forward to the 1940's. Therefore, the spatial nature of the grid as an organising principle should take advantage of this quality of the environment in order to more fully realise the aims of the site.
4) Digital environments are encyclopedic
According to Murray, 'computers are the
most capacious medium ever invented, promising infinite resources'. (Murray
1997: 83) This site is designed to take advantage of this quality
in two ways. Firstly, each square in the grid can theoretically contain
an infinite quality of material, and in an ideal world, where theoretical
possibilites gelled nicely with practical concerns, it would have been
possible to provide an exhaustive coverage of every issue within each page
of the site. The second way that the site is encyclopedic is that
it is interlocked with the infinite internet. Some of the links on
this site lead to pages that consist of dozens of other links. if
we assume that the site provides a way of ordering thought processes, then
this ability to link to a variety of materials, within the bounds of that
thought process is invaluable to the utility of the site.
Conclusion
Ultimately it is hoped that the way that this site has taken advantage of these qualities means that it provides a model for an 'expressive' hypertextual history. Hopefully, this model allows the user to 'do history' in hypertext, to participate in thethought processes of historical inquiry, and to do so in an encyclpoedic and spatial environment. If it does, then it possibly provides a new arena in which history can be done.
WORKS CITED
Bush, V., 'As we may Think', Atlantic
monthly July 1945.
Murray, J., Hamlet on the Holodeck:
The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, Cambridge, 1997.