Databases and Themed Spaces
In the first post of this series, I established the modular character of tumblr posts. All posts are interchangeable and rearrangeable modules which are easily accessed and replicated. Moving forward, I'd like to introduce the idea, following Lev Manovich, that essentially all websites can also be thought of as databases. Each post or module becomes stored as part of a larger whole of discrete pieces of data which can be individually retrieved and manipulated.
Because tumblr foregrounds its own modularity through its post structure, tags, and reblogging capabilities, it also therefore foregrounds its database property. This becomes exceptionally clear when clicking on the "archive" button for any blog which displays all posts on a single screen, breaking down a supposedly linear and continuous blog into a mosaic of fragments (this is why I chose the theme I did, which displays the most recent 15 posts in this modular, non-hierarchal way). In foregrounding its database character, the tumblog draws attention to the properties of selection and combination - what data was chosen and which was left out of the database? In which order were these fragments chosen? What does the whole add up to? (This model taken from Marsha Kinder's idea of "Database Cinema.")
The way we access this data is through an interface, a graphic construct which makes it easier to navigate the web of information and produces a more seamless experience than using a command line. Just about all computer use is structured this way, where the "front end" of the interface supplements the "back end" of the database (another one of Manovich's insights). But we can conceive of the interface as something more interesting than simply a tool to access data.
Through a deliberate selection of modules and a spatializing graphical interface (as in my tumblr theme or the archive function on any tumblog) we can make the database into a themed space.
Following my fellow USC colleage, Lauren Fenton (IMAP PhD candidate @ http://laurenfenton.com/), a themed space is a territory which conveys larger ideas through the structuring of space in concordance with three major variables: attraction, narrative, and theme. Attraction is any fascinating element which captures the user's attention and stimulates curiosity. Narrative could be a bounded story, implicit or explicit, or perhaps the suggestion of a story or meaning which arises from the experience of the place (such as the loose story which accompanies theme park rides like "The Pirates of the Caribbean"), Finally, theme limits the set of ideas and styles which make up that space (for instance the Gothic cathedral is defined by a Gothic style of architecture, Judeo-Christian symbolism, stained glass, etc).
We can apply all of these principles to the tumblog. First we make it into a space. This allows us to consider the greater effect of seeing multiple fragments taken together. Attractions, such as intriguing images or words which catch the eye, capture the users attention and encourage them to explore. Looking at the pattern of the posts, themes become more visible. This "big picture" can let us imagine or analyze the possible narratives which might structure the decisions of which data to include or exclude. Or as Fenton puts it, "narrative can emerge from a series of attractions."
So what is the point of turning a database into a themed space? I think there are many benefits to such a scheme. First, a blog filled with varied attractions is, well, much more attractive than a plain text blog, and as I stated earlier, invites exploration from the user. As for narrative and theme, they really contribute to much the same endpoint: what are the main ideas this person is grappling with? Themes give clues to the "narrative" of what the blog is about. But there should be no singular or totally coherent narrative. Rather the working-out of themes through successive posts contributes to an emergent and fluid narrative.
Where before one might "work out" ideas through a series of journal entries or philosophical arguments, in this model one can "work out" ideas through creating a themed space built from evocative media fragments produced both from within and sampled from without. This spatialized, multi-media bricolage is an exciting model which presents an attractive environment with multiple points of entry for the reader (as in Barthes' conception of the novel in S/Z). Also, the ease of sampling allows for outside content to be quickly accessed in an endless stream and incorporated into the larger "narrative," meaning there is a more intimate connection between self and other which takes place in this kind of idea/identity-work. Therefore the dialectical character of idea-formation and identity formation becomes more heightened and actually more visible at the same time. As posts accumulate and new influences from the outside are incorporated, the fields of narrative and theme mutate and evolve further. Ultimately I think such a blog could be more attractive to users, and for the author, a way to enhance creativity and the generation of ideas.
