Is the Internet Re-Wiring Our Minds? BOOK SA at the Franschhoek Literary Festival
BOOK SA’s Ben Williams chaired a panel of what he termed “web artists”, writers who use the web in wierd interesting, and sometimes just brilliant ways, at the FLF today. Out of the session, Williams drew three words, one from each writer which can be used to describe the effect of the internet on writers and writing: violation, communication, and introspection.
Aryan Kaganof, whose blog Kagablog is packed with material from all over identified the ability of the internet to create writers out of readers. Lauren Beukes, whose book Moxyland has been “translated” into Ebook format by Electric Book Works, furthered this with a description of the kind of reciprocity/mutual feedback that the internet is able to facilitate.
Finally, the audience was wowed by a presentation by the writer and artist Stacy Hardy. Hardy, who is involved in the production of the literary magazine Chimurenga, has “translated” JM Coetzee’s Disgrace into images word-for-word using Google Image Search. Does Google not then allow us to be more clever?
BOOK SA will follow-up with Hardy to bring you a more in-depth treatment of her conceptually brilliant work.
this article by sophy first appeared on book.co.za
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:19 pm
everyone looks dumbfounded dazed and befuddled.
what is going on?
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:54 am
we were dumbfounded by stacy’s presentation a mash-up of JM Coetzee’s very darkly pessimistic novel about South Africa and Google Images matched to every word. It was astonishing. www.disgrace.co.za