@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ Each of the scripts ended up structuring possible circulation, writing and readi
<br>
### `__MAGICWORDS__`
<small>`__MAGICWORDS__` have started being used in this way by amy pickles and Cristina Cochior during a Read & Repair session on Digital Solidarity Networks (2020), and have been re-used in multiple other sessions since.</small>
<br>
`__MAGICWORDS__` is an open ended system for collective annotation of a text, using small instructions that can be activated during a collective reading experience. In the field of software, and specifically in the MediaWiki software, magic words appear as words with special programmatic functions, connecting a specific cue to a programmatic action, such as adding the current time on a page. Within the context of Varia's research, the `__MAGICWORDS__` are used to manually perform programmatic gestures with the text without the involvement of code.
@ -34,10 +36,11 @@ Magic words emerged from a curiosity to see what kind of social incantations can
<small>`__MAGICWORDS__` have started being used in this way by amy pickles and Cristina Cochior during a Read & Repair session on Digital Solidarity Networks (2020), and have been re-used in multiple other sessions since.</small>
<br>
### `x-dexing`
<small>`x-dexing` was made by Jara Rocha and Manetta Berends to navigate and cross the book Iterations (2020), and appeared in a couple of other workshops and different versions since.</small>
<br>
`x-dexing` is a cross-reading practice that through chance operations guides the reader in going over a body of texts. Contrary to an index, the `x-dex` invites to perform a non-linear distribution of attention across textures, semantics and aesthetics of the texts at hand.
@ -52,10 +55,10 @@ If “indexing” would be about gaining access through the illusion of complete
<small>`x-dexing` was made by Jara Rocha and Manetta Berends to navigate and cross the book Iterations (2020), and appeared in a couple of other workshops and different versions since.</small>
<br>
### `word2complex`
<small>`word2complex` is a continuation by Manetta Berends and Cristina Cochior (2021) on the collective unfolding of word2vec in Algolit (2017).</small>
<br>
`word2complex` is taking the algorithm word2vec as starting point for a discussion around how users can read alongside algorithms and how algorithms construct machinic readings of text. As a reading exercise, `word2complex` investigates how algorithms order our experience and understanding of relationality between different words, by calculating semantic distances and context similarities. By staying close to the logics of word2vec, `word2complex` aims to rethink contextual ways of calculating and proposes to form semantic distances between contexts in more-than-computational ways.
@ -70,9 +73,6 @@ Language analysis algorithms are pervasive in an online realm that is heavily te
<small>`word2complex` is a continuation by Manetta Berends and Cristina Cochior (2021) on the collective unfolding of word2vec in Algolit (2017).</small>
## Reflection
Forms of collective annotation, close reading and cross-linking, as proposed by the three scripts above, invite the formation of a social environment in and around text. They create space to engage with the ideas within a single text, to find connections between multiple texts, or to relate the text to a specific context or situation.
