Foreword
Ch_rn_byl is an experimental cybertext thematically-centered on the Chernobyl disaster of April 26, 1986. The aim of the work is to convey text from related sources in a decaying, unstable manner. Ideally, Ch_rn_byl distorts a reader's interpretative process in the same way that nuclear fallout distorts an ecosystem. Sources of the textual content include my own writings as well as:
- David Rothenberg's "The Zone", a hypertext poem focused on the Chernobyl accident
- An interview with Lyumilla Ignatenko conducted by Svetlana Alexievich and translated into English by Keith Gessen. Voices from Chernobyl. Issue 172, Winter 2004.
- Google Blog Search query results
In this sense, the work has no single identifiable author with respect to its textual content.
Ch_rn_byl reveals itself according to a timeline. The timeline control at the bottom of the screen contains buttons ("zero | back stop forw rand skip | slwr fstr") which change how the timeline is traversed. In particular, clicking "back" causes the content to run backwards; "forw" to run forwards; "stop" to pause; "rand" to traverse the timeline in a random continuous fashion; "skip" to traverse the timeline in a random discontinuous fashion; "zero" to go back to the beginning of the timeline. Excerpts that render lightly underlined are clickable hyperlinks which either load external web content in the rightmost frame or shortcut to points in the timeline à la secret passageway. Mousing over any text will cause it to temporarily demutate.
For those interested, the pre-written content is contained in this XML file which is read by a PHP script to create a dynamic JavaScript. Google searches are launched at run time using the AJAX Search API until a pre-set amount of content has been reached.
The JavaScript can be extremely resource intensive, so please save any important documents before proceeding! Also, FireFox executes the script more quickly and efficiently than IE. I've disabled Google queries if IE is detected because the Microsoft JavaScript interpreter cannot eval() new functions which breaks the algorithm for building display functions on the fly.
Thankyous go to:
- all the courageous souls affected by the Chernobyl accident who have shared their experiences
- David Rothenberg for sharing his hypertext poem
- Chris Funkhouser for mentoring and exposing me to new forms of textuality
—A. Saponara