Alternumerics
By Paul Chan
Alternumerics
explores the intimate relationship between language
and interactivity by transforming the simple computer
font into an art form that explores the fissure between
what we type and what we mean.
By replacing the individual
letters and numbers (known as alphanumerics) with
textual and graphic fragments that signify what is
typed in radically different ways, Alternumerics transforms
the act of typing into a digital performance and any
computer connected to a standard printer into an interactive
artmaking installation.
Alternumeric fonts are
Macintosh and Windows compatible and work with any
application that uses fonts. Each font is accompanied
by an art-piece that uses the font to explore the
relationship between what is typed, what is translatedÑand
fundamentallyÑwhat is communicated when we use language
to describe the slipperiness of the self, the friction
of desire, the pleasures of utopia, or the poetry
of silence.
This work is readable
on the web at nationalphilistine.com/alternumerics, and requires the Flash
5 plug-in to be fully experienced.
Paul Chan lives in
New York City.
Electronic Literature Organization