Open “Project for Tachistoscope [Bottomless Pit]” by William Poundstone
This spellbinding work is like a textual film in which one word is presented at a time along with an icon as music plays along. But there’s more: there are subliminal words and images displayed in it. While you can’t look away, it does provide an exit to its interface, which that provides some fascinating context. Like the bottomless pit it describes, one feels like falling into it, trying to reach its bottom, only to eventually realize one is caught in an endless loop, falling deeper into a trance. Difficult to classify in terms of its genre, it feels like the illegitimate child of House of Leaves and Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, raised by the Noigandres Group and employed by Don Draper.
Yes. It’s that hip.
Featured in The Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 1.
