Dr. Dean Taciuch
George Mason University

Spring 2009

Digital Textuality Manifesto draft

1. If I can print it and lose no functionality, you're doing it wrong.
   The technology should be integral to the work.  An artwork in pencil on paper can do things a digital work cannot.  A digital work should do things print cannot.  I don't know what those things might be.  That doesn't matter.  Surprise me.
   
   
2. It should be multi-linear.  For years, theories of digital textuality claimed interactivity as key.  Interactivity is one of things a digital text can do, maybe one of the more important things, but not the only thing. Multi-linearity is just as, if not more, important.
   
   
3. It should have a sensory element.  Not just eye candy, but an awareness that words are objects. Words are things. Words are not just markers of intended meaning. They have sound and shape. Print has a smell, and the sound of turning pages.  Digital text has other sensory triggers. 
   
   
4. It should be distributed.  Digital files can be shared and copied effortlessly.  Digital texts must take part in this openness.  All attempts to restrict copying and sharing of digital files are doomed to fail.  All of them.  If you want to restrict your work, leave it in print: let it molder or watch it burn.