Liam: Assignment 1

            My website would consist of a single page that forms an extended text constructed from dynamic internet content. When a user accesses the site, the page queries the most recent, public, Twitter update. Using the number of characters in said update in conjunction with several specific numbers, the site invests itself in a specific total with which to engage in broader content.

            The resultant number is used to pick specific words from both the most recent New York Times articles, as well as a selection of texts taken from Google Books. For example, if the number resulting from the Twitter process is “60,” the site would take the 60^th word from the most recent article in The New York Times newswire, followed by the 45^th, followed by the 55^th and the 120^th, 90^th and 115^th, until the five most recent articles are exhausted. The same process would exact itself on one of several texts sourced from Google Books, (Writing and Difference and Of Grammatology work for me at the moment, but such a structure allows for anything, to be used, really) forming a repeating pattern of words taken from each parallel process.

            The website takes the form of an extended text derived from the above processes. The page would continue as the user scrolled down, (much in the way Tumblr or various Google products allow) appearing as one continuous work. The page would extend itself downwards until the viewer loses interest, or the sources of text exhaust themselves. The nature of the work allows for it to be repeated (refreshed) ad infinitum, each page load resulting in a different text. The technology also guarantees that the site never draws too long on a stale referent, The New York Times shifting content constantly.

            The site operates as a piece in its own right, but also as a tool or component for further works. The three-part structure I am interested in requires a Grammatalogical misology, (this work) an occult instance (or cultural perpetuation) and a production. This website could serve as the former element in such a process, as it refigures meaning and referent, without substituting or abandoning either. However, it could just as easily be used as a tool for reading the future, conducting trances, or as a more effective means of taking in information from the internet.