Eighteenth-Century Cities in an Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Creating a CD-ROM -- Hyperlink Structure and Interpretive Approaches

Eighteenth-Century Cities in an Interdisciplinary
Curriculum: Creating a CD-ROM -- Hyperlink Structure and Interpretive
Approaches

Liliane
Gallet-Blanchard
Department of English Université Paris
IV-SORBONNE
Liliane.Gallet@wanadoo.fr

Marie-Madeleine
Martinet
Department of English Université Paris
IV-SORBONNE
marie-madeleine.martinet@paris4.sorbonne.fr

1999

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA

ACH/AlLC 1999

editor

encoder

Sara
A.
Schmidt

The presentation shows how hypertextual modelling gives multiple contexts to
documents in urban studies, representing an interdisciplinary approach. It
starts from the example of a hypermedia program on eighteenth-century cities
developed with Director authoring software by the Research Centre "Cultures
Anglophones et Technologies de l'Information" (CATI) - Université de
Paris-Sorbonne.
Such a program focuses on the documents' integration in a contextualized
setting (Carter). The pathway structure (McAleese) allows the types of
hyperlinks to represent distinct approaches to the subject (Deegan).
Integrating electronic documents into humanities studies (Seaman) introduces
alternative methods, in accordance with the capacity of hypermedia programs
to develop sequentially for literary texts or to follow hypertext links in
cultural studies (Madsen). This procedure exploits the aesthetics of
cyberspace and its own structures, making full use of the meanings which are
encoded in the medium (Murray).
The range of documents aims to reconstruct the total experience of the urban
world. It complements interactive maps with photographs, pictures and
animations, and with literary descriptions or audio files -views of music
rooms with extracts of works performed there-; it adds interpretive
documents, encouraging reflexive interactivity.

Data and structure
The program is designed so that the data should always be seen as part of the
structure in which they are embedded (Delany and Landow). It places each
document in a series of choices between views in different scales (an
overview of a topic, or a map of a city, leading to subchapters or to
buildings indicated by hot spots, with return buttons to the overall view),
and in several contexts--for instance a topographical setting and thematic
references, as a multidetermined hub of links (Vauxhall linked to a map, but
also part of chapters on gardens, music and literature). The semantic
structure can change, recentring the thematic nodes: while the navigation
bar remains identical, new sets of buttons appear according to the
contexts.

a)users can at any moment alternate between the information delivery
level and that of organization, accessing the site map with its
hierarchy of subject headings, where the title of the section containing
the current frame is highlighted; for example they may start from a city
then move to its section on religion and from there to a general chapter
on religion: switching to the site map at that point will highlight
'Topics/Religion' emphasizing that the user has moved from topographical
to thematic navigation.
b)section and screen: sections are arranged so that a constant element
(eg. a map or a view of a building) is retained through several screens
while another part of the screen displays additional details in
sequence; a button 'return to top screen of section' allows the user to
replace a frame in the overall structure.
c)screen and document: anchors open on context-sensitive
hyperlinks.

Software concepts and interpretive research
The conditional links incite the students to make a selection between buttons
to move to the next screen, increasing their awareness of the spatial
dimensions and temporal structures in literature (Dawson) or in art.
Software concepts can be incorporated into issues-based approaches (Bass), so
that the variety of interactive effects emphasizes methodological
differences in interdisciplinary subjects. Hypermedia integrates the
specific software applications developed by several disciplines, imaging
their respective methods and goals. Modelling of theories draws attention to
methodology (McCarty). Interactivity enriches the interpretation, for
instance supplementing architectural morphology with the analysis of society
and showing the building in use (Scott), or experiencing the visual axes
from many locations of the plan (Thomas). These effects are obtained using
the 'perspective' facility in a CAD software, in a simulation of
architectural draughtsmanship: having to choose between viewing a building
in elevation or in oblique perspective differentiates between these options
in architectural drawing (Hiley).
The options of hyperlinks on complex documents correspond to distinct
interpretive methods, keeping the other options as a background. Some are
branching buttons, leading to several types of contextualization, such as
that of social and economic life (the museum of eighteenth-century life at
'No 1 The Crescent' or Covent Garden as a market), or literary and artistic
representations (Fielding's descriptions and Hogarth's paintings). Others
start problem-solving sections in activity spaces, for instance integrating
the history of mathematical methods into social history: in a simulation of
cartographic methods, interactive objects representing surveyors and their
instruments can be activated by the user to reconstruct the phases of
map-making; the two options underline the differences between surveying,
where the user has to move a figure of a surveyor associated with
conditional scripts, and using trigonometry, where the user has to enter
calculations in an editable field.
Mediating documents through electronic presentation emphasizes the
interaction of content and method.

References

Randall
Bass

Integrating Research and Pedagogy through an Electronic
Archive Project in an American Studies Curriculum

ACH / ALLC Conference 1994

1994

Bryan
Carter

From Imagination to Reality: Using Immersion Technology
in a Literary Setting

DRH 98

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John
L.
Dawson

A Dimensional Analysis of Narrative and
Dialogue

ACH / ALLC Conference 1994

1994

Marilyn
Deegan

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Delany

George
P.
Landow

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Cambridge, Mass.
MIT
1991

Mike
Hiley

Presenting Heritage on the Web

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<>

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Catherine
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Willard
McCarty

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<>

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Madsen

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4-6
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Janet
H.
Murray

Hamlet on the Holodeck or Towards an Aesthetics of
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ACH / ALLC Conference 1994

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Scott

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David
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Judith
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<>