Project 4: Blurred Lines Between “Art” and “Literature”

In recent years, the definitions of age-old words have been challenged by developments in technology and its impact on thought. One piece that questions the boundaries of two specific terms, namely art and literature, is “Chemical Landscapes Digital Tales” by Edward Falco. This piece, which is available on the Electronic Literature Organization’s website (http://collection.eliterature.org), combines mock “photographs” of landscapes (created in a laboratory with chemicals and a flashlight) with “tales” that are meant to parallel the feelings and ideas suggested by the photographs. Legitimate writing is a product of intellect, encouraging intellectual thought from the careful interpretation of words ordered very intentionally. This piece is not an example of legitimate writing because its purpose is really to create a feeling visually rather than intellectually, it contains minimal amounts of written words, and it doesn’t follow a specific direction or plot. Its characteristics are, however, rather reminiscent of a piece of artwork.

When most people think of literature, certain characteristics generally come to mind. One trait that is often associated with literature is that it is written with a purpose. According to www.merriam-webster.com, literature is “writings in prose or verse; especially: writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest.” On this note, Falco’s piece could not be considered literature because it is abstract in nature. Its purpose is to provide a window allowing the viewer to create a world with characters and a story, but the viewer must create this world on their own. The assistance granted by the piece itself is minimal; indeed, Falco intentionally designed the piece so that the viewer cannot even read all the text in one or two viewings. Critic Sven Birkerts would agree with the idea that this piece is not a legitimate example of a literary text. In his book, The Gutenberg Elegies, Birkerts says “…this is the problem facing the fiction writer in our time. Not only must he figure out what to do about the flatness of quotidian experience, but he must also deal with the fact that the greater part of human activities – which once may have stood out in relief – now take place on many tracks at once, with the individual in a state of distracted absorption” (206). Birkerts would likely argue that this piece has too much going on, in too many different mediums, to be considered a “literary text.” The viewer has to get an impression from a picture and speed read as much of the writing as they can in the four to five seconds that it appears on the page, and then they are expected, by Falco, to mentally create a story based on the experience.

Birkerts touches upon an important idea in his quote, the state of “distracted absorption.” There are many writers and other intellectuals, including Birkerts, who believe that because of the amount of information that is available in our current society, most people only graze the surface of topics and never learn to dig deeper into the topics they are presented with. Distracted absorption implies that we as a society have a difficult time focusing on one activity at a time. Indeed, this can be seen particularly in students, who often report that they have to listen to music to concentrate on their schoolwork. In the case of this piece, interestingly enough, the distraction comes not from an outside source but from the piece itself. Just when the viewer starts to see the photograph the words appear. Just when they start to read the words, the whole thing, picture and words together, begins to fade. The entire sequence of events takes place in less than ten seconds.

One counter-argument that I could anticipate is that this text is worthy of study because of the fact that it uses writing to make the reader think. Furthermore, it allows for different people to read it and interpret it in different ways. However, I would argue that these qualities make it more like artwork than like a literary text. According to the online dictionary www.merriam-webster.com, art is “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; also: works so produced.” As the written portion on each picture in the piece is based on the impression that Falco got from the picture, the work is a perfect fit with the aforementioned definition of art.

As our society moves farther and farther away from traditional mediums, such as books and newspapers, we will have to redefine old words, and also create new ones, in order to accurately describe the new forms of literature and art that are created in the future. The boundaries between simple words like “art” and “literature” are becoming increasingly blurred by innovations that fall somewhere in between the two categories. Until these words are redefined, however, or until new words are created to describe the gray area between those two ideas, Falco’s piece entitled “Chemical Landscapes Digital Tales” has to be defined as art, as it fits that description almost perfectly. While art is a wonderful aspect of culture, it is not literature.

Works Cited

“art.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2010. Merriam-Webster Online. 21 April 2010 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/art

Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. New York, NY: Faber and Faber, Inc, 1994. Print.

“literature.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010. Merriam-Webster Online. 20 April 2010 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literature

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