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This shift, not a "death of the author", but rather a rebirth of the author as organising
agent has been proposed by Mark Amerika, author and main initiator of the Alternative
X internet site, one of the most varied and interesting literary sites on the WWW and
the voice of the Avant-Pop movement, that, while firmly rooted in both (postmodern)
avant-garde writing and pop-culture, wholeheartedly welcomes and experiments with
hypertext writing.
One of the main tenets ofpostmodemism is: I,whoever that is, will put together {...J
bits of data and form a Text, while you, whoever that is, will produce your own
meaning based on whatyou bring to the Text. One ofthe main tenets ofAvant-Pop
writing is: I, whoever that is, am always interacting with data created by the
Collective You, whoever that is, and by interacting with and supplementing the
Collective You, will find meaning. In a Data Age where we all risk suffering from
Information Sickness, one cure is a highly potent, creatively filtered tonic of (yes)
textual (or multi-media) residue spilled from the depths ofour spiritual unconscious.
Creating a work ofart will depend more and more on the ability of the artist to select,
organize andpresentthe bitsofraw data he or she has at her or his disposal. We all know
originality is dead and that our contaminated virtual realities are always already
readyrnade and ready for consumption! (my italicsj'<
Electronic texts based on random principles and with the intention to make authors
redundant for the creation of literature, therefore tend not to be hypertexts and also to
rely on the computer not only to define the reading order ofgiven text elements, but go
in fact further and let the computer select these text elements. Programs like the
"random postmodern thesis generator" or the HyperCard Stack DADA-POET use
random material out of any chosen text to create their texts. A poem created with the
latter program based on the text ofthe first chapter ofthis thesis reads:
"the"
a dominant that single absence
modernity their for has build
stripWd texts century changed a stripWd
distinguishing a
contrasted concept consult the
a move different to
and author
forms become in grasp of
124 Mark Amerika, "The Avant-Pop Manifesto (Remix)", in In Memoriam of Postmodemism , at:
http://www.altx.com/memoriam/pomo.html
Chapter 2 - page 82