Chapter 2

Small outlined the history of reading machines. He started at the scroll, moved onto the printing press, then into book bindings, into the memex and hypertext, then finally webpage and screen-based mediums. I liked his point that the physical basis of the page has been replaced with the notion of a window. He also argues that dynamic typography is useful to place emphasis or save space in pages. I thought the linkage between dynamic typography and screen document was argued more effectively than in his master’s thesis.

Then, he moves into Muriel Cooper’s work with information landscapes and her project that used 3D flight to explore 3D dynamic typography. He also points out some issues with text in 3D (vanishing perspectives, inconsistent sizing, etc).

Here’s my thing: I don’t think text is meant to be the cornerstone of a three dimensional environment. Maybe some word art for a logo could be novel and fun. But, I think text works best in two dimensions. In recent virtual reality demonstrations, I’ve been unimpressed by the incorporation of text based content (and even pictures). For example, during quarantine, lots of museums tried to make virtual reality mediums. However, they were at best just 2D signs of text / paintings floating in 3D space. And whenever the type was dynamic, it was difficult to read.

This is an example of hypertext reimagined in 3 dimensions. It does a better job of communicating the scope and size of the content in its collections. How would it feel to be in a physical space with this content? However, navigation is difficult, and I always have an itching feeling of disorientation.