chronotext is a growing collection of software experiments exploring the relation between text, space and time

beyond typography

The potential locked up in text at the digital age is huge: en route for some unvisited territories…

news

  • February 2013
    Publishing of Lui les Hébreux moi Pharaon – when spoken voice meets written text…
  • March 2012
    Alive and kicking, even working (hard) on text heads – an iOS app for interacting with spoken text
  • September 2011
    Textoy demo – physical interaction with text and a slight touch of generative sound
  • Archive | RSS

got java?

If the programs featured are not working: install java.

who's who

Behind this site stands Ariel Malka, a designer and programmer based in Tel-Aviv.

Half of his time is spent working on a wide range of new-media projects, the other half is dedicated to the research at chronotext.org.

Questions and feedback are welcome:

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2013

After almost 10 years of text experimentation, chronotext.org is about to undergo a remasterization of the existing body of work.

Deploying browser-based software created with Java has become mission impossible. The last couple of years were therefore times of transition…

So please meet our new partners: C++ and Cinder, and without further ado let me introduce Lui les Hébreux moi Pharaon, our latest creation.
Lui les Hébreux moi Pharaon | 2013
a take on Guillaume Apollinaire's poem La chanson du mal-aimé, mixing its written and spoken forms

2010

A year under the sign of Apple, Twitter and the Muse of Music…

Babel Tower – the first chronotext iPhone app – was launched, followed by Text Dune – the first in a series of experimental Twitter readers.

In parallel, Twitter Maze was produced in response to the call of Written Images:

«looking for artists who would like to provide a generative image-creating application for a book».

Stay tuned for more info about the collaborations which took place with two respective music makers during the course of 2010…
twitter maze | 2010
visualizing trends from the last 24 hours…

text dune | 2010
reading your own notes or Twitter timeline by making text slide over a virtual dune…

2009

The iPhone is asking to become the main experiment channel for chronotext this year and the steering committee is likely to accept the request…

The experiments representative was quoted earlier, before fainting:

What a relief after years behind a desktop computer screen, stuck inside Java and hardly visited… People are going to interact physically with us, touching, tilting, shaking us… God!
iphone experiments, generation 1 | 2009
3d news reader | dune reader | rollercoaster reader | babel tower reader | worm reader

2008

After years of research in solo, the time has come for an additional level of interactivity with the public.

A new branch of the research will host a growing collection of software experiments that can be fed with markup data or controlled by script.

These experiments are called slashruns and they're waiting for your participation at slashrun.org!
the war of the words | 2008
a slashrun that will turn you into a general, in charge of an army of words…

2007

A foretaste of the feast to come?

Building on the software toolkit developed at chronotext.org over the years, a handful of real-time 3d applications are ready to emerge.

In parallel, a growing interest for augmented reality, folksonomy and live data sources in general is probably going to spice up the menu…
mapping, augmented | 2007
on the art of mixing virtual content with actual photographic material…

2006

A year of recognition and maturity…

The ongoing research on text at chronotext.org can now be inscribed in a perspective of two thousand years of biblical reading, with the commission of a permanent work by the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

In parallel, considerable progress has been achieved with OpenGL technology, multiplying the previous figures (dozen of thousands of text characters are now flying over…)
the javascriptorium | 2006
a metaphorical journey in 3 episodes on the theme of desert wandering…

the javascriptorium, behind the scenes | 2006

2005

Thanks to OpenGL, a technology previously used in expensive military flight simulators and later on in computer games, it's now possible to animate thousands of text characters in real-time, preparing the way for a new generation of applications.

Starting to envision works suited to physical presentation spaces (at the very same time, the Museum is knocking at the door…)
sketchbook on the book | july 2005
a series of sketches where one can read the biblical Book of Isaiah mapped on a virtual landscape

2004


Several invitations to produce new works are the occasion to create more complete pieces.

In parallel, the processing period is reaching its end and a new era of pure java (or whatever works) is beginning…

featured pieces


toys

Playing with the different components developed for the book of sand:

2003


Discovering processing, a real programming environment, an active community and a powerful metaphor provider: paradigm shift!

The first version of chronotext.org is launching, with a series of minimalistic sketches exploring the many possibilities given by dimensional type.

featured sketches


attic (don't delete)

An additional collection of sketches reflecting the way chronotext is evolving: each bit is focusing on a technical or metaphorical aspect that is likely to be integrated later on:

2002

Programmatic experiments using dynamic-html and flash. Lack of appropriate framework, nothing worthwhile to be published…

2001

The concept of chronotext is emmerging after a long and random exploration on the theme of interactivity in digital space closed by a series of epistemological experiences.
© 2003-2013  ariel malka