Judy Malloy's Traversal of Uncle Roger
Assisting with the traversal and interview was Aaron Wintersong, Pathfinders' videographer, whom we flew with us to New Jersey.
Malloy Traversal, Part 1, "Unpacking and Loading" Uncle Roger
This video clip shows Malloy opening the packaging for Uncle Roger and discussing each element within it. She explains that the work was originally sold in 1987 as one file, "A Party in Woodside," but was expanded to include all three parts in 1988. We can see that the version of the documentation she displays differs from the one included in the packaging used in Pathfinders. She boots up "A Party in Woodside" on the Apple IIe and explains how one would read it. She quickly moves "The Blue Notebook" and reads from it. The computer's aberrant flickering is noticeable; the computer later quit working.
Malloy Traversal, Part 2, "Examining Uncle Roger Through Emulation"
This video clip shows Malloy reading from her Dell PC because the Apple IIe borrowed for the traversal was flickering. This shift in computer platforms provides her with the opportunity to point out some of the differences between the Apple and PC versions. She continues reading from "The Blue Notebook," explaining that it entails five different stories. Of note is the information Malloy provides that contextualizes the story within her personal experience with the early computer and chip industries, a time when producing the fastest chip was the prime goal and piracy was typical. At the end of the clip, Malloy begins a reading of "Terminals."
Malloy Traversal, Part 3, "Analyzing Terminals"
This video clip shows Malloy reading from the final file of Uncle Roger, "Terminals." This story sees Uncle Roger's main character Jenny move from the chip industry to a job in word processing; thus, "Terminals" captures this aspect of the computer industry. Malloy also explains the way in which Uncle Roger was programmed––as a series of files, numbered from 1 to 100, for which the user could evoke and combine on the command line. This narrative strategy is what leads Malloy to refer to the work as a database narrative. She also explains the way in which her next work, its name was Penelope, generated and differs from Uncle Roger: its name was Penelope, like Uncle Roger, contains five storylines but was built on five different databases, one for each story, while Uncle Roger's five stories were contained in one database.
