Exploration in Digital Literature

Introduction

Inspired by the "A5-sized staple-bound booklet called Walks from City Bus Routes published by Edinburgh City Transport" with a preface that states that the book is designed for a visitor who "wishes to have a change from the more usual places of tourist interest and to combine a little mild exercise with exploration of the lesser known parts of the city and suburbs", J.R. Carpenter developed a work of electronic literature called "Walks from City Bus Routes" to uncover the idea of exploring places that are no longer "know-able." 

"Walks from City Bus Routes" by J.R. Carpenter was developed in 2014 using Javascript with images and texts from City of Edinburgh Transport Map. This work was officially published on J.R. Carpenter's website by 2015. "Walks from City Bus Routes" takes the readers into unexpected places of Edinburgh that seem more unknown including places like farm land and woodlands that are not typically noticed under tourist eyes. By reading through detailed directions for navigating through different aspects of the city, emerging in the city by interacting with phrases like "walk more quickly" or "walk more slowly, and observing changing images of scenery, the reader explores what the city has to offer. This work fits the theme of exploration as the reader gains a further understanding of the hidden aspects that the city of Edinburgh has to offer without travelling there but still gaining the experience through the "virtual world" and the interactive visual and tactile features.

Often when people go to explore tourist destinations in places like Edinburgh, websites like tripadvisor tend to uphold very renown places. This trend can be seen the example of this link to tripadvisor's list of things to do in Edinburgh ("The 15 best things to do in Edinburgh").

The idea of exploring unknown places is not limited to this work with regards to exploring Edinburgh. Exploring the unknown in the real world includes many other tourist places around the world including sites that websites like EarthPorm lists that are not prevalent enough to be known but should be visited (Earth Porm). This website gives a list of places that people should visit despite the names of the destinations not being well known. Here, these websites add a layer to J.R. Carpenter's work emphasizing the need to visit places that do not appear first within travel sites.

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