For the want of a better word as a phrase in this text is used as a lens from which I will ask where the search for the better word in design can lead to through the use of hyperlinks as a tool for searching and thinking.
For the want of a better word
For the want of a better word
For the want of a better word
For the want of a better word
For the want of a better word
For the want of a better word
For the want of a better word
For the want of a better word often includes the use of a thesaurus as an apparatus through which we search for related words, phrases, idioms, or terms that might be better suited to the message we are trying to convey. We search language and its many avenues in the hopes that we can find a more appropriate or impressive way of stating an opinion. In some regards, a hyperlink could be said to be a digital cousin of the thesaurus as an online method for associative searching.
In a talk given by Chus Martínez at the Institut Kunst HGK FHNW, titled ‘Come Get It Bae. Excuse me? BEA… Before Anyone Else’, she questions towards the end – and I will now surmise – “what the future of design is, if not the future of form, if a different perception and idea of time takes place?”. We traditionally think of time in the physical world as a sequence of past—present—future, but in the digital world, a hyperlink tangles this line of time. A hyperlink is not linear. Has anybody read an entry in Wikipedia from the beginning to the end without paying attention to the hyperlinks; beautiful blue words you can click and are transported somewhere else? This somewhere else is not in the line. “The volume of a hyperlink and the way we read is above, below, behind, and within”.
Kenneth Goldsmith, in the introduction to his book ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’, writes in agreement with Martínez that “the web is not monolithic, but instead is multiple, diverse, fractured, contradictory, high and low”. In other words, the web and its hyperlinks are full of messed up gestures that reverberate against our understanding of logic and structure. He goes on to ask, “What if […] we explore the opposite: embracing the disjunctive as a more organic way of framing what is, in essence, a medium that defies singularise?”, and I would add how can we explore this within the framework of design?
If we believe – as Martínez and Goldsmith do – that hyperlinks and the web as a whole are non-linear, then you could start to consider hyperlinks as a digital form of poetry. Martínez cites within her talk, The Poetry Club, Fred Moten and of course Kenneth Goldsmith as being at the forefront of this type of thinking which looks back to the form of poetry in relation to modes of design. This reference to poetry isn’t about the literary form, which traditionally expresses feelings, but instead interprets poetry as an expression of intelligence possessed by technology. This observation can then be translated into design processes and – as in the want of a better word – lead to new connections and new forms that express an intelligence that is not governed by logical timelines, but by chance connections and linked outcomes. Perhaps design that ignores the lure of linear thinking and instead falls down a rabbit hole of hyperlinks has the potential to produce an outcome, one which displays a new type of poetic intelligence about the topic it is handling.
However, it is also useful to acknowledge that not everyone thinks in the same manner. Some people only think in straight lines and might not understand the concept of hyperlinks as poetry. Therefore, to put it a different way, a hyperlink could also be equated to mind-mapping exercises in which there is perhaps more of a direct link with the neural networks of the mind. Showing relationships among pieces of the whole. A technique that is already used within design processes as a means of linking ideas that leads to innovation and new connections.
Does a hyperlink limit branch-like thoughts and connections that occur through the process of mind-mapping by doing the linking for you? Or do they lead down branches of thought that were in the past inaccessible?
It is important here to jump back to the history of the hyperlink, developed by Tim Berners-Lee during the creation of the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee ‘saw the possibility of using hyperlinks to link any information to any other information over the internet’. The term ‘hyperlink’ was originally coined by Ted Nelson in 1964/5 inspired by ‘As We May Think’, an essay by Vannevar Bush, which states that what is ‘useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted’. For scientific research to be helpful it needs to take a form, needs to be designed in a way that can be readily accessible to all, since research that goes unused – or unnoticed – is arguably redundant. Therefore, to answer the question above, hyperlinks open up a means of sharing, accessing and freely distributing research, information and memes for anyone that can access it to discover. They are not directive but rather suggested branches to click on.
If we consider that a hyperlink is a means to share information and that part of design's role is to distribute, create or make information accessible, then is it not intriguing to use hyperlink thinking and methodology as a design mechanism or influence. People tend to think via associations and, in a similar way to hyperlinks, their minds can jump from one thought to another. Consequently, the way we think, and the use of hyperlinks is perhaps not so disparate, and thus their use within design may not confuse the user but rather make the outcome more pertinent.
Recently, and in part due to the global pandemic, the use of the digital realm has seen more and more design take to the internet, with NFTs (non-fungible token), online viewing rooms, virtual house tours and changes to interfaces that can lead an attorney in the states to look like a cat. Hyperlinks are indeed part of the toolbox of design, but they are yet to become a hard influence within design methodology.
Design functions to provide a message and supply information in a visual or typographic form. A hyperlink, non-linear way of thinking can help to elaborate on this message and provide a new reading of the information. It can take you away from an online location in the same way that a synonym can get a message carried away from its original point. For example, in searching for an element of design online such as a typeface, you could end up on the type-designers website, then get linked to an article about them from 6 years ago, which leads you through to another text by the same author about Breaking Out of Prison with a Ouija Board and Some Clever Tricks. On the internet you might metaphorically fall down a rabbit hole; a saying used for something that transports you into a wonderful or troubling surreal state or situation which often consumes time in a hazy wash.
As Kenneth Goldsmith simply admits this “is important stuff I’ve stumbled on to. I’m struggling to see what’s so shameful about this”, when faced with the argument that periods spent freely falling down rabbit holes and getting transported to new places through the flick of a finger is a waste of personal time and productivity.
The possibility of creating a design that has a volume which is “above, below, behind and within”, that is to say a three-dimension element, is fascinating. It is this possibility that is held within hyperlink thinking that could lead to new understanding of time, a new future of form and ways of designing a message that take you down a rabbit hole but never let go of your hand. Design that looks at information in a poetic way that might otherwise have seemed inaccessible or bizarre in the physical world.
The ‘want for a better word’ holds the potential for design that is different to what we see now, that can lead to beautiful confusion and skewed outcomes that link happenings which before seemed too far removed in the past—present—future line of time. This form of design isn’t necessarily better than the modes of design thinking that exist today such as system, critical, speculative, or inclusive, it is just a form that I believe has yet to reach its full potential.
Linking back (or up) to Chus Martínez at the Institut Kunst HGK FHNW, hyperlink thinking is about ‘developing the possibility of not reading, the promise of design is not the line’.
