URT, you saucy minx
Over the past few weeks, experimenting with records and layers left me feeling a bit like I had a particular disposition for getting ‘eggs’, or more specifically, error messages from URT. Needless to say that after having to delete half of my project after attempting to reorder the data in one of my layers, I learned a few lessons about structuring research in a database.
One of the main lessons I learned is not to assume or depend on certain functionalities that you are not sure are present, in my case this way deleting or rearranging data. URT doesn’t like you to rush, it encourages patience and deliberation. Once you order the data fields and input information, it is best you stick with it. I continued to wish that I had been “breaking” it all semester long so that over these last few weeks when it came time to construct the project that I was familiar with the language/structure/functionality of the medium.
When I think about the limits of the medium I am reminded of something that Lori Emerson said at a talk at the New Museum earlier this Fall in conjunction with the XFR-STN project. She was talking about the writings of John Riddell and how the configuration of the object used to write a manuscript for a novel contributed to the content of the work, that the limits of the model of the computer he used would make a different novel than had he used something else. The form, or in our case the database, shapes.
This idea has been orbiting my project all semester as I have tried to think of ways to use this to my advantage, to exploit the structural limitations. Instead, I found myself muddled and, at times, at a loss (or perhaps just lost). It is one thing to intellectually understand something, it is quite another to continuously hit dead ends (links). I do not, however, count this as a defeat but rather as a demonstration of the learning the nature of structural relations within a database.
“I do not, however, count this as a defeat but rather as a demonstration of the learning the nature of structural relations within a database.” — I’m so glad to hear that you’re looking at it this way — and I can’t agree with you more. That said, I’m really sorry about the number of eggs that were thrown your way!
BTW, I wonder if Emerson was referencing the work of Matthew Kirschenbaum, who, for the past few years, has been researching the impact of word processing media on literary form and style.