The Three-Dimensional Text: Computers, Writing and Performance

Abstract

At a recent conference I attended on Computers and Writing (Sussex University 1991, passim) there was a disturbing inattention to the impact the use of the computer as a writing implement is, or may be, having on the nature of the writing process. In other words, if I use a computer as a writing instrument as well as a word processor, is it changing the nature of the way I write? Behind this question of possible influence on process lies another: to what extent is the use of a computer affecting the epistemological aspect of writing, in that writing is perhaps our principal means of recording and giving shape to knowledge and experience. For if McLuhan’s thesis equating medium and message is a sound one, then the computer based text is a different medium from the conventional printed text, and hence bears, if only marginally, different meanings. There may even be differences between printed texts and the hard copy printouts of computer based texts, but for the purpose of this chapter I am focusing on computer based texts generated on and read from the screen.