Prologue: on the structure of the reflection

The reflection for the performance If Only has been written as a hypertext document. This is an attempt at creating a reflection that can be read as an open text: sequential and multilinear. Under each heading the reflection is written sequentially, yet it’s possible to move between these headings in a multilinear way. Established by Theodor H Nelson in the 1960´s, hypertext is considered as non-sequential writing connected by links, allowing the reader to choose different pathways in the reading. George Landow argues that the strength in hypertext lies in the ability for users to “find, create and follow multiple conceptual structures in the same body of information” (Landow, 2006, p.10). This embodies a post-structuralist understanding of the open text through an electronic medium.

If Only manifests itself as an expression that works with language, it’s connections, questioning how meaning in constructed in multilinear ways. The web-based format makes it possible for me to collect, connect and display different texts, references, fragments and thus lay open the interlinked processes at the heart of the project.