Open “New Digital Emblems” by William Poundstone
Like many of his books and digital works, Poundstone has researched and thought deeply about the material he is writing about. At a certain level, this work is a series of insightful and well informed essays on art, literature, the OULIPO, Surrealism, mathematics, and so much more. At another, this is a work of digital Web art, assembling graphical and linguistic elements to create emblems— critiquing a tendency in Web design a good decade before the DML “Badges for Lifelong Learning” competition tried to make it hip again. This is also a work that contain brief, yet intense moments of visual poetry in which his language oscillates between the functionally communicative and the visual art of each emblem.
Every layer in this rich work is worth reading carefully. Within the short time frame of the Web, this piece is both timely and timeless.
Featured in Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2 and BeeHive.
