Some older experiments are no longer playing. Therefore, java links will be crossed-out.
who's who
Behind this site is Ariel Malka, Paris based designer and programmer, half of whose time is spent working on a wide range of interactive projects, the other half dedicated to research at chronotext.org.
Post-mortem : This is the epilog for chronotext.org, after 20 years of activity. The most important of my works are those created between 2003 (Babel Tower) and 2014 (He liked thick word soup). Don't spend much time with the others.
Stay tuned for a forthocoming reincarnation of the concept...
2022
In the country where I live, human rights legitimacy has been challenged by right wing politicians, so it doesn't hurt to raise awareness about a few principles.
At the occasion of the Human Rights Day, I decided to create a site featuring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and offering 5 differents ways of reading it.
Discovering hicetnunc, the now defunct NFT marketplace and community. Thanks to the low minting costs and the capability to host interactive works, I was able to mint most of the chronotext experiments, nowadays accessible via Teia.
2020
June…
Where do Georges Perec, Golan Levin and Jello Biafra meet on the web? On ubuweb:sound of course!
As a tribute to one of my favorites websites, I had this idea of proposing an alternative interface to the entry page.
April…
It took me a while but it finally happened:
TextNoise is an iPhone app for playing with text and generating sound.
It allows sharing via e-mail, SMS, and WhatsApp, so let's hope it goes viral!
«looking for artists who would like to provide a generative image-creating application for a book»
Stay tuned for more on my collaborations with two music makers…
twitter maze | 2010
visualizing trends from the past 24 hours
text dune | 2010
reading your own notes or Twitter timeline by making text slide over a virtual dune
2009
The iPhone seeks to become the main experimental channel for chronotext this year, and the steering committee is likely to answer the request…
Our experiments representative was quoted earlier, before fainting:
What a relief after years at a desktop computer screen, stuck inside Java and hardly visited… People are going to interact physically with us, touching, tilting, shaking us… God!
After years of solo research, the time has come for another level of interactivity with the public.
A new avenue of research will yield 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, commanding 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.
Alongside them, a growing interest in augmented reality, folksonomy, and live data sources in general will spice up the menu…
mapping, augmented | 2007
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 described from a perspective of two thousand years of Bible reading, with the commission of a permanent work at the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Additionally, considerable progress has been made in OpenGL technology, multiplying the previous figures (dozens of thousands of text characters are now flying overhead…)
javascriptorium | 2006
a metaphorical journey in 3 episodes on the theme of desert wandering…
Thanks to OpenGL, a technology previously used in costly military flight simulators and later on in electronic games, it is now possible to animate thousands of text characters in real time, laying the groundwork for a new generation of applications.
Beginning to envision works suited to physical presentation spaces (at the very same time, the Israel Museum is knocking down my door…)
sketchbook on the book | july 2005
a series of sketches wherein 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.
Additionally, the processing period is reaching its completion, and a new era of pure java (or whatever works) is dawning…
Discovering processing, a genuine programming environment, an active community, and a powerful metaphor provider: a paradigm shift!
The first version of chronotext.org is released, with a series of minimalistic sketches exploring the myriad possibilities offered by dimensional type.
featured sketches
• text cube 1 | july 2003 a cube with scrollable text on each face
• genesis 11:1 | june 2003 reading the Bible in context
• babel fish tower 3 | may 2003 generations of translated text, sliding around a cyclotron
attic – don't delete!
An additional collection of sketches reflecting how chronotext is evolving: each bit focuses on a technical or metaphorical aspect likely to be incorporated later on:
Programmatic experiments using dynamic-html and flash. Lack of appropriate framework, nothing worth publishing…
2001
The concept of chronotext is emerging after a lengthy, random exploration of the theme of interactivity in digital space ended in a series of epistemological experiences.
