Retypescape
jaka zeleznikar, October 2003, July 2004 (update)
| slovensko |



Retypescape - retype the content of web page by your choice.

 


It's not only what is written. It's also where it's written and who wrote it.




Some suggested sites
(click to launch)






How
  • enter the URL (web address, such as http://www.jaka.org - don't forget to include http://) and click 'retype' button
  • or click on one of the suggested sites

  • new window will be opened and requested page will be loaded into it
  • wait until page is loaded completly (this might take some time - from few second to one minute or more if web page has a lot of content or internet connection is slow, please wait)
  • start typing - your content will override the page's (language) content (usualy place where changes first take effect is located on top left part of the window; if page is not responding click inside the window on the part of the page that is not hyperlink)

  • please note that due to technical limitations some pages or parts of pages (such as text in flash) can't be retyped (from the same reason some pages might not be 100 % functional)

  • to return to this page close the window




Author about the work

It's not only what is written. It's also where it's written and who wrote it.

How do we construct meanings and relevance of the written text? Only from its content? How does the context influence our evaluation of written information? Are 'public' web pages truly public or is it that writing for those pages is a privilege of only few people? How would a message look like if it were written on the web page by your choice by you? Check.

Retypescape ('Pretipkovalec' in the Slovene language) is semantically and culturally related to digital grafitty, hacker culture, net poetry, questioning of power, contextual semantics, rewriting of history, questions of authenticity and reliability of digital archives, ...

Retypescape is an exploration of language which remembers poetry, also, if not primarily, concrete and visual, experience of conceptual art, ...

How to read the content of the (social as well as personal) written language, which is not expressing itself through its content or (visual) form. Language which is not talking about its speaker since its content is entirely up to its recipient while its shape it determined by the already existing, chosen also by the recipient?

In this work structures of the possible get their meanings in relation to what is already existing and are at the same time necessary upgraded by the action of the user. Interaction is not the goal, it is a way.

I would like to thank to all who, mostly unknowingly, contributed to this work, especaly to co-members of the informal linguistic group Suss and to Joh.

I dedicate Retypescape to my family, Tao and especially to Helena Bozic.




Credits
Author (idea & programing): Jaka Zeleznikar - jaka.org

Jaka Zeleznikar lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia. From 1997 on participates on international festivals and exhibitions of contemporary and new media art mostly with internet related works.
Venues of festivals/exhibitions include Museum of Modern Art (Ljubljana, Slovenia), National Museum of Slovenia (Ljubljana, Slovenia), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany) and Institute of Contemporary Arts - ICA (London, Great Britain) and other venues in Europe, North and South America, New Zeland, Thailand, ...
More information on jaka.org

Production: Cberpipe/Kiberpipa
Project financially supported by: Mestna občina Ljubljana (City government of Ljubljana)



Technical requirements
  • browser with enabled Javascript (usualy default)
  • internet connection

Sugested
  • xhtml compatible browser (such as Mozilla 1, Netscape 7 or Internet Explorer 6)
  • quick internet connection and fast computer

Made with: PC, Windows XP, Mozilla 1.1, xhtml and Perl run on Apache server.