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Andrews also likes to bring to the forefront of his
work the source code, what makes it all possible, what is not seen, what he calls the
" 'neath text." He does this in his Pop Up Poems, in which the poem appears in a
drop down menu, a web utility usually reserved for forms. The first line of the poem is
all that can be seen unless the reader clicks on the drop down arrow, and can then scroll
down through the poem, able to click on any line and have that be the sole line that
appears when the drop down is not open. Does Andrews' cutesy name for source coding effect our perceptions of what it is? In essays, he talks about 'neath text as referring to the programming, especially Dynamic HTML, but in his pop up poems, he also uses 'neath text to refer to the parts of the poem that cannot be seen until the drop down menu is activated. The code and the poems are two different texts, yet he considers them both 'neath text. I think that blending conception makes evident the idea that programming is no longer the sole domain of the computer genuises, but rather a language of poetry and literature. As Brian Lennon describes, this naming is part of a rethinking of the computer's teleology. |
