The Interview with Bill Bly about We Descend
This interview of Bill Bly, conducted by Dene Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop, took place on Friday, January 31, 2014 at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland as part of the Pathfinders project. The interview is divided into nine parts and provides insights into the development of the work.
Bly Interview, Part 1, "The Genesis"
This video clip shows Bly explaining the origins of We Descend. We learn that it generated in the 1980s from five words that came into his mind: "If this document is authentic." The work grapples, he says, with the question of authenticity, particularly that of digital data where information must be authenticated at multiple levels of production. At the time, Bly believed that the work would be a play with the first character to emerge was the scholar, but Bly struggled how to create the dialogue for it. He tells us that he learned about hypertext from reading Robert Coover's essay published in the New York Times, an experience that led him to write the authors listed in the article (Moulthrop, Nancy Kaplan, Michael Joyce and John McDaid) and develop We Descend as a hypertext novel.
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280 x 720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 5:36 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 2, "Working with Storyspace"
This video clip shows Bly talking about his experience with Storyspace, the hypertext authoring program he used in developing We Descend. He argues that hypertext captures how we really make sense of books in the process of reading. We learn that he wrote the work in long passages and, then, decomposed the work into its hypertextual form, striving to be clear rather than "playful." He privileged the Storyspace Reader that provided a window of text over the page reader that provided a full screen of text. He also tells us that the evolution of technology of that period––that is, the larger screen real estate and color––impacted choices he made with his work.
Bly Interview, Part 2, "Working with Storyspace"
This video clip shows Bly talking about his experience with Storyspace, the hypertext authoring program he used in developing We Descend. He argues that hypertext captures how we really make sense of books in the process of reading. We learn that he wrote the work in long passages and, then, decomposed the work into its hypertextual form, striving to be clear rather than "playful." He privileged the Storyspace Reader that provided a window of text over the page reader that provided a full screen of text. He also tells us that the evolution of technology of that period––that is, the larger screen real estate and color––impacted choices he made with his work.
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280 x 720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 7:12 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 3, "The Excavation Explained"
This video clip
Bly Interview, Part 3, "The Excavation Explained"
This video clip
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280 x 720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 7:59 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 4, "Building the Characters"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280x720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 5:38 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 5, "After We Descend"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280 x 720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 6:48 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 6, "We Descend's Impact"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280x720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 10:29 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 7, "The Question of Longetivity"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280x720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 5:11 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 8, "E-Lit Artifacts"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280 x 720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 12:06 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 9m "E-Lit Artifacts Continued"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280 x 720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 12:24 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 4, "Building the Characters"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280x720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 5:38 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 5, "After We Descend"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280 x 720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 6:48 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 6, "We Descend's Impact"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280x720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 10:29 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 7, "The Question of Longetivity"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280x720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 5:11 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 8, "E-Lit Artifacts"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280 x 720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 12:06 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
Bly Interview, Part 9m "E-Lit Artifacts Continued"
The video file is saved as a high-quality 1280 x 720, compressed MPEG-4 Movie (.mp4) H.264 codec, with a high-quality audio track (.aac). The duration is 12:24 minutes, streaming from the Pathfinders Vimeo video-sharing site.
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