Feeling Like Warped Space: An Interview With David Knoebel
(The following is an interview with David Knoebel I conducted recently, shortly after reviewing his site http://www.clickpoetry.com here at the Suite. Reading this over again, I'm given new insight into the works at Click Poetry, and insight into just where my own work often fails--I could use simply a few "well-chosen elements" at times, as opposed to the visual and sonic and yes at times navigational cacophony I often unleash upon those unlucky enough to see my web pieces. Definitely a thought-provoking talk!)
To: "lewis lacook" <llacook@yahoo.com>
From: "David Knoebel" <clkpoet@ptdprolog.net>
Subject: Re: click poems
Thanks for your thoughtful consideration of my work. For what it's worth, the
billboard pieces are in Pennsylvania, not New York.
How is your relationship w/your computer?
I work on a PC laptop. I have neither named nor gendered it. I handle it carefully during travel and experience waves of anxiety if it gets bumped. I run scan disk at every boot. I try to keep its registry trim and its virus files up to date. I store my own work in one directory and back that up to a zip disk.
This is not to say that my files are in order. When I start a project, I make
sketches and tests that end up in dozens of files. While I keep them all in
a single directory, I usually lose track of which file is which. I often give
them names like fineview0.wrl, fineview1.wrl, fineview2.wrl, etc. (wrl is the
suffix that identifies VRML files.) However, this suggests
a deceptively linear development. The final piece is cobbled together from numerous
pieces of different files.
Why VRML?
When I first discovered VRML, I was euphoric for weeks. It wasn't only the idea of being able to create the illusion of movement at will through a virtual Cartesian space. VRML also allows you to expand and contract little pieces of space, so that it's not continuous at all. As the viewer moves from point A to point B, the distance can suddenly expand or contract, or a sort of warp space can transport her to somewhere else altogether. VRML makes this relatively simple.
VRML also has an easy-to-use implementation of 3D sound. As you move up, down, around, and through, the sound changes accordingly.
The downside is that the full implementation of the VRML spec requires yet-another
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