The different information which a hypertext opens when the user is clicking
an icon and opens a new window characterizes the reader as appositioned
outside, as an observer who has to open the
windows of a complex building with rooms with different spatial arrangements
and borderlines. Where is the reader's position in hypertext? Is it merely
outside? This seems to be a strange metaphor which compares the reader
to a voyeur.
The metaphorical and structural topology of hypertext can be compared
with a metropolis. The reader is situated within
this metropolis consisting of an immense number of buildings with much
more windows to look through. All elements in a city are related and interconnected.The
city can be read as a text with indicators
such as center-periphery, hierarchical order, or city signs. Streams of
"users" are not only part of its structure, but constitute its basic feature:dynamics
and change within a stable network. Hyperspace cannot be merely unstable.
There must be some mechanism which creates significant structures and reduces
complexity in favor of the development of symbolic systems. The question
should not be in how far hyperspace excels three-dimensional "real" space,
but in how far the limits of space will return to hyperspace through its
users.
see also hybridization
contents
reference