Andy Campbell is a digital artist and writer who created the website, “Dreaming Methods” in order to bypass traditional writing and publishing practices. He is the Co-Director of One to One Productions Ltd which seeks to provide opportunities and access through media production and engagement with the arts. He has been working within the realm of digital literature since 1993 and provides interfaces and web applications for a wide range of clients. His style has been defined as theatrical and is known to create a narrative that can be discovered through the exploration of a space.

Campbell’s work entitled, “Dim O Gauble” portrays the story of a young boy’s frightening visions which he shares only with his grandmother. This story features ambient qualities that is built upon the interactions of the user through the use of flash animation. The user has the ability to control the pace of the story, however; they are led through the narrative by interactive directional arrows. These arrows bring focus and provide a frame for the story to be read. There is a subtle amount of animation within the work as the background images ebb and flow as the user moves their mouse. The combination of interactivity and kinetic movement emphasizes the fluidity of the art piece. The piece itself is supported by an audio track featuring African drums. This works to give an overall feeling of mysticism and sets the tone of the story. It can be said that this is mainly a visual piece of work as the images which both overlay and underlay the written text appear much more prominently.

“Dim O Gauble” features areas of futurist literature. It specifically utilizes what is referred to as “Multilinear Lyricism” (Marinetti 7), which is an idea conceived by F.T. Marinetti. Within the work there are lines of prose which dominate the screen and grab the user’s attention. Off to the side are several lines in smaller print which fade out rapidly. The art style of these smaller lines and the methods in which they undergo change are examples of what N. Katherine Hayles refers to as, “Dynamic Images” (74). These lines give way for contemplation upon the larger, more emphasized sentences. Multilinear lyricism can also be found through the “musical sensations and analogies” (Marinetti 8). It is the case that the background ambient music allows for a more impactful  emphasis on specific pieces of the story. N. Katherine Hayles comments on materiality within the e-literature realm which works its way into Campbell’s story. Through the “text’s physical characteristics and its signifying strategies” (Hayles 72), the story allows for further interpretation. At one point during the story, the text changes itself from one word to its polar opposite. This is what Hayles would define as the hypertext being mutated and transformed. The word “achieves its dynamic power of mutation through the very rapid fragmentation of binary code” (Hayles 81). Through this change, the user can approach each distinct piece of writing as its own entity and allows for a breaking down of not only the story as a whole, but each individual piece. Campbell incorporates “multimodality” (Baetens 23) in this work through the combination of prose, graphics, and audio. This amalgamation allows for multiple understandings of the work by both the author and the user. It is an expression of “artistic innovation and creation” (Baetens 20). Dim O Gauble pushes the boundaries of art and literature by providing the user with a dynamic reading experience.

Works Cited:

Baetens, Jan. “Electronic Literature. New Horizons for the Literary (The Ward-Phillips Lectures in English Language and  Literature).” Online Magazine of the Visual Narrative. N.p., Nov. 2008. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

Hayles, N. Katherine. “Print Is Flat, Code Is Deep: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis.” Poetics Today 25.1 (2004): 69-90. Web. 20 Mar. 2013

Marinetti, F.T. “Destruction of Syntax – Imagination without Strings – Words-in-Freedom.” Futurism (1913): 1-8. Unkown.nu. Web. 31 Jan. 2013.