INTERVIEW WITH TALAN MEMMOTT BY PETER OLIVETTI
Spring, 2001

Peter Olivetti: How you would describe "Lexia to Perplexia" in one or two sentences?

Talan Memmott"Lexia to Perplexia" is something of an observational application, a deconstruction of Internet attachment. It operates as a narrativizing device; in that, User interaction produces the narrative and the narrative itself is that of the Users engagement with the application. As well, the work provides commentary on alterations in ontology and the general linguistic economy that have emerged via the Internet.

PO: How long has you pursued the net art medium?

TM: I have been working on the web since late 1995. My first creative applications of any value were developed in 1997. What is interesting is that I don't really see the theoretical backing or my engagement with the medium as changing drastically pre-web to now... The web, the net art media/um brought together a number of my creative interests -- writing, painting, installation, theater -- and provided a technology to implement and distribute them. Though much of what is done with text in "Lexia to Perplexia" is generally not possible on a flat page, or in an installation the creative/conceptual process of development is not that much different for myself.

PO: Especially when interacting with a piece like "Lexia..." how do you feel it relates to us having Cyboratic personas, or in such a chase relates to the Cyb.organization?

TM: The commentary within "Lexia to Perplexia" reflects heavily on the hidden narratives of our wanderings through cyberspace. As we transverse remote regions of cyberspace from the comfort of our own terminals, a hidden formal narrative is written through our passage. This text, which is no doubt lengthy as we make deposits into various server logs, databases and pass through various protocols is in some ways transliterated through "Lexia to Perplexia." The subject renders itself and the User becomes an unknowing protagonist in this missed.story. In regards to cyborganization - of bodies with organs elsewhere -- this is mostly developed through intent. Each cursor move marks a desire, of which we hope a specific object will be returned. This extra-mentalism, or hyperlobal operation is the most obvious form of cyborganization, beyond the simple interfacing with a terminal. The extension of "I" to include an elsewhere, even if that elsewhere is the terminal right in front of you (I+device) is how a Cell.f is initially constructed, and from it Cell.f ID.entity.

PO: How do you think we change when we "log on," in the sense of our indentity, or, of course, in terms of the I.D.entity?

TM: Even prior to logging on, when first seated at the terminal we are cyborganized and reconfigured to operate within this hybrid state. ID.entity is form from this composition -- the exchange between local and remote agencies, our informational depositions, etc. Through this we are 'subject' to various, what Alan Sondheim calls -- jectivities. In essence, ID.entity differs from identity by being transposed within a local/remote differential. Where Identity can be localized, reified at the body, ID.entity is only made evident through a remotional attachment to the Cell...f that is elsewhere, neither (t)here not (t)here.