<nettime> TEWXT: a hypertext structure without hype-links

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

http://sepans.com/sp/postes/tewxt/

On the net, the starting point in reading a text is almost arbitrary  
and driven by natural language processing and information retrieval  
tools. On the other hand branching out from any point of text is  
inevitable. TEWXT is an experimental reading/writing tool that  
realizes this experience within a web page.
TEWXT creates a hypertext structure from a corpus of text not by using  
hype-links, but by allowing users to branch-search-read at any point.

In TEWXT users can use any of the search boxes on the screen to search  
for a word within a corpus of texts, choose one of the results and  
start reading the text. At any point users can open a new box in any  
of the adjacent positions, perform another search and follow a new  
path in reading. Also it is possible to open new boxes for marginal  
notes.

This structure of text boxes can grow infinitely.

It is possible to record and replay the whole experience of reading  
(including notes) using TEWXT.

Using each box (or combination of adjacent boxes), users can apply  
natural language processing algorithms to the content of the boxes and  
transform and create new text:

	• Wikifying: highlighting and linking words within the text to  
Wikipedia articles by a natural language processing algorithm.
	• WIkiTransformation: Transforming text by substituting words within  
text using Wikipedia and the semantic relevance of the linked articles  
as thesaurus.
	• Markov Text Generation: Generating new text by applying Markov  
Chain Text Generation Algorithm to text inside a box.
	• Cellular Automata Generation: Using adjacent text boxes as cells of  
a cellular automata to generate new text.
Moreover users are able to combine retrieved text, notes and  
transformed text to create a new text which implicitly resonances the  
reading trails being used as a high-tech tool to create something like  
Walter Benjamin’s ‘Arcade’ or just go through ‘The garden of forking  
paths’.


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