Postcards and Supasigns : Extending Integrationist Theory Through the Creation of Interactive Digital Artworks

Abstract

Integrationism is a post-structuralist theory of language and communication. The theory has been applied to a groundbreaking analysis of writing as a form of communication where writing is teased apart from speech and realigned with spatial configurations in general. Although it has many practical applications, this view can be extremely difficult to comprehend when expressed as a very specific form of writing, that is, as written words on paper. A solution to this problem is offered by the creative interaction design of two digital artworks, Postcard From Tunis and Postcards From Writing. The works are interactive multimedia pieces that creatively express the integrationist theory of writing and extend it into the transformations of writing that are possible in the human-computer interface. More generally, the unique rollover-based interfaces of these works both express the integrationist theory of communication and suggest that it is necessary in order to explain the creation of communicative signs that they demonstrate are possible.