In what sense can one talk about the
materiality of a digital edition? This question sounds rather odd, as a digital
edition, a digital text does not have, is not constituted by matter in the
straightforward and simple manner. A digital text is processed through
electronic, digital signs, i.e. signs that can hardly have tangible physical
qualities. And if they had, to what extant would they be relevant for the
reading of a text? In this sense, thus, the question addressing the materiality
of the digital text sounds erroneous. Hopefully, there is more to this question,
however, than mere refusal.
In a more pragmatic context the question may
well make sense. Materiality can be conceptualized not only as an ontological category
but rather as a category that is deployed for the sake of exploring layers of
meaning constituted by the container and carrier of the linguistic aspect of a
text or an edition. This seems to be a viable solution, as when the materiality
of a printed text is referred to in the context of literary studies most of the
time it is used in a pragmatic manner. Materiality in this pragmatic context
denotes the sum of those qualities of a book that influence the reading process
and thus the construction of meaning beyond the linguistic aspect of a work.
Without believing that the forthcoming list may be comprehensive, these
qualities include the size of the book, the binding, the quality and size of
the paper, the letter size and typeset, the width of the margins, decoration,
marginalia. This pragmatic concept of materiality, i.e. an exploration of a
list of qualities and features that influence the reading process can be applied
directly and indirectly to a digital edition as well.
In the case of a digital edition there is
clearly a visual aspect that influences the reading process in a more flexible
way than in the case of a printed book. In a digital edition the text is made
up of letters that have visual qualities that can be anchored in size and type,
these letters fill the “page” so even here one may meditate about space between
the letters, lines, about the width of margins. Nevertheless, in some cases,
depending on the encoding of the edition and on the file format these qualities
can be changed by the customer, or reader: the type, the size can be open to
modification, one can zoom in or out in certain cases, one can read the text on
the screen of a laptop, a tablet pc or on a smartphone qualifying the physical,
visual aspect of the edition. All these are there for the sake of influencing
the reading process, as much as in the case of a printed book, although in a
different manner. But what seems relevant is that it is only the manner that
has changed and not the extralinguistic means: they are present but in a
different way.
Another aspect that influences the reading
process is the way the digital edition can be “read.”A digital edition can be
read as a book, i.e. in a linear manner. Also a digital edition can be read in
two nonlinear ways. First, as a hypertext through clicking in diverse
directions enriching the reading experience in a way that the sequence of the
parts of the reading material is created during the act of reading itself.
Second, digital reading involves machine reading, that is making sense through
queries, exploring algorithmic patterns and a variety of visualizing
techniques. Furthermore, it is also relevant in the case of a digital edition
what kind of colours, shapes and frames surround the text itself, what kind of
note-taking techniques can be applied, how one may share these findings, notes,
observations if it is a web-based edition. All these possibilities,
opportunities, tools and methods influence the act of making sense of a digital
edition beyond the strictly speaking linguistic aspect of a digital text. And
thus all these contribute to the process of the construction of meaning, the
signifying process of a say literary work.
A further aspect of the change from print to
digital that contributes to the understanding of digital materiality concerns
the shift from the fixed to what Hayes terms as procedural. A printed text
through its materiality is present for anybody almost objectively. This
material fixity is constituted by the technology of printing: if a work is
published the result is there for a long time, and in a way that was constructed
by the publisher, printer. Along with this every modification to the book—pages
torn out, damaged, written on it—will be seen as either contribution to the
signifying process or as corruption. In the case of a digital edition, however,
what matters is the ever-changing quality of the visual appearance of the
work. What lies behind what is perceived
is a series--complicated though—of digits. This series then is translated with
certain software into different signs that are interpreted by further
programmes; the results are further made readable for other programmes until
the desired effect is reached. Because of the great number of translations, and
the number of programmes that make these translations there is a heightened
effect of fluidity in the case of these digital editions.
This fluidity is further complicated by the
fact that the process of translations takes place not only once and for all but
every time the digital edition is opened. To account for the fluid aspect of a
digital edition it is also to be added that the hardware that underlies these
procedures also influences the reading process, insofar as the speed and
resolution of the visual effect are concerned. In this respect what counts are
the quality of the processor, of the hard drive, the graphic card, maybe the
internet connection and the quality of the monitor. All these result in such a
diversity of the possibilities of difference that instead of the discourse of
fixity and corruption it is only the procedural quality that one can meditate
about. This lack of fixity is part of the material aspect of a digital edition.
Thus, it seems to me that exploring the
materiality of a particular digital text is not entirely futile. In this
respect it is not the traditional physical quality that is at stake but rather whatever
there is from coding to hardware that influences the reading process besides
the linguistic aspect of a text.
