Research Assignment#4:Hypertext as Collage-Writing

The title of this research assignment is a piece by George P. Landow. I feel that this is the perfect title and the perfect way to end the semester with what we have talking about in terms of new media. As I am sitting here typing the response for this assignment on Blogger, is an example of what Landow calls “hypertext as digital collage.” Landow doesn’t necessarily define what “hypertext as digital collage” is, but he points out that, “the link establishes a symbolic as well as literal relationship between two elements in a document” (159). This is exactly how our posts appear on Blogger. Sometimes excerpts from articles and books that we find to put in our posts, are linked to the original article or book out on the Web for readers of our blogs to refer to for further understanding of our post. We can also post pictures on Blogger or either link to pictures out on the Web.

Landow also discusses hypertext as collage-writing (hence the title of the essay), which basically discusses how hypertext takes the form of texts originally produced in print. This is clearly an example of how we access assigned reading material for the course on the class website. The material that we are assigned to read were once that of print, they are either scanned or posted on the Web by code and can be accessed by clicking on link or typing in a website’s address.

The purpose of this blog was not to explain, but rather show how this article is so similar to this New Media course. Landow’s article is similar in the way of some of the material we talked about over the semester such as hypertext (O’Gorman) and the teaching aids (Blogger & readings linked off of class webpage) that we have used over the course of the semester. At the beginning of Landow’s article he talks about hypertext as a “vast assemblage.” Well that is how new media, the study of new media, and the way we have discussed new media this semester. New media is several components of technology, news, film, digital, etc… assembled or grouped together to be considered as a whole.


Works CitedLandow, George P. “Hypertext as Collage-Writing.” The Digital Dialectic: New Essays On New Media. Ed. Peter Lunenfield. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1999. 159.