Project for Tachistoscope [Bottomless Pit]

A tachistoscope is a tool used to display elements to an observer for a brief but precise amount of time. William Poundstone’s Project for Tachistoscope [Bottomless Pit] is just that: a bottomless pit of briefly flashing words whose subject is a natural disaster in the setting of a large pit. The words in this seemingly never-ending burst are chronologically presented in order to form a fictional tale to which readers must be incredibly attentive. Furthermore, rhythmic music plays in time with the word flashing, and an icon that corresponds to each word’s meaning is displayed with that word directly behind it. Icons that may accompany words could be a key, a bomb, a map, tools, a map, or even a halo; Poundstone intends for these icons to reinforce the same cognitive idea as their respective words. For example, behind the word “zone” is often a simplistic image of a compass. The image isn’t a sectioned-off area, as this would be too specific, but the image of the compass helps to activate the mind’s locational cognitive schema. Additionally, the background of this piece of electronic literature changes during the story in order to reflect the mood and tone of each event; the background was blue while describing the investigation phase of the event, and the background became pulsating-orange and then black while describing the actual disaster. The background continues to change throughout the duration of the story, and small images even begin to flash in between the flashing of each word.

The purpose of Project for Tachistoscope [Bottomless Pit] appears to be to combine visual and written communication, as each word fuses with its corresponding image to form one cohesive, two-dimensional thought in the reader’s mind. Also, Poundstone strategically times the brief flashing of each word so that the reader must watch the word burst so closely that they should not even blink; to do so would be to miss a quarter of a sentence. Because the reader cannot pause, rewind, or slow down the sequence of the words, this piece of electronic literature actually lacks navigational ability. Unlike written text, which a reader can peruse and hop around as he or she likes, this piece can only be played forward at a fixed rate that is predetermined by the author — this amount of control is not possible with print. This unique lack of navigational ability heightens users’ senses and causes them to actively engage in this work of electronic literature. The rapid flashing of the words likely hurts readers’ ability to lexically analyze the words, but the pairing of the words with an icon helps readers to instead understand the words and plot on a deeper, semantic level. Poundstone wants the reader to contemplate visual imagery and the importance of concentration to literature, and he is able to do so by creating a controlled, online environment that utilizes the affordances of electronic literature.