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James
Karin
Chris
Christine

references

Karin's argument is about the representation of women in pop art, and the role of that representation in legitimating the idea that women belong in the household.

The navigation bar (to the left) evokes the mechanics of image editing with its explicit visual referencing of the Adobe Photoshop tools palette. At the same time, it calls attention to the ways in which images configure meaning. Each "tool" in the palette is a thumbnail example of pop art linked to a relevant node in the hypertext. The navigation bar shows how Karin's hypertext and pop art are both engaged in a process of editing, constructing, and manipulating the meaning of their subject matter.

Even more interesting than the visual navigation is the decision to provide the reader with an "instant thesis" available almost anywhere in the hypertext. Selecting this link produces a popup window with a three-sentence thesis that reads, "Most Pop Artists were men, who could be objective towards the home, which was the subject matter of most Pop Art. Women, if not in reality, had a cultural and subjective relationship to the home. Since subjectivity is unpopular in modern art, this contributed to the lack of female Pop artists" (Jervert, 2003).

In the context of a highly experimental academic hypertext, Karin opts for a transparent assertion of her principal claim. Why wade through node after node to locate the point when one can experience immediate gratification? Additionally, much of the hypertext's project is carried by the visual. The text-based instant thesis helps the reader keep the main point in view (literally).

Karin | a logic of space | argument via image

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