---

introduction | cognitive linguistics | technopoesis | reusable images | conclusions

Technopoesis of the Visual
The old debates about whether "found art" is really art parallels the issue of whether the technical, coded aspects of a web page can be viewed as aesthetic. In each case, an important question is invoked: What makes the difference between something created as art, and something made for any other purpose – or even something found in nature – that is eventually deemed art through some interpretive act? In other words, to what extent is "design" a necessary element of aesthetics?
          When we begin to unravel these questions, the end result is often to reach a conclusion that it is the interpretive act that gives an object an identity as art, just like it is interpretation, becoming aware of metaphor or specific structures, that identifies some texts as containing poetic elements.
          But while poetics is largely a matter of interpretation (of finding something special in the language or its meaning), it has historically been an issue of form and structure as well. And the writers of what is considered to be great literature are often lauded for their craft –

More information on technopoetical can be found in Erin Smith's "Reading and Mis[s]reading the eneriwomaninterface"

for their skill in working with language at it's most minute levels, in carefully choosing each word and tailoring each phrase. Though I draw on metaphor to make the connection, such an attention to detail and effect is to treat language as a code, and to call to our attention that the coding involved in something seemingly as unliterary as the HTML behind Webpages may not be so very different after all.
          On a different scale, zooming out to consider that most common element of coding: the reusable, interchangeable element, we can pinpoint a unique feature of Web-authoring – the reusable image.