8th European Academy Of Design Conference - 1st, 2nd & 3rd April 2009, The Robert Gordon University,

Aberdeen, Scotland

THE HYPERLINK AS A FORM OF REFERENCE: BEGINNING THE PROCESS OF CLASSIFICATION OF HYPERLINKS WHEN USED IN REFERENTIAL RELATIONSHIPS
Sebastin URIBE AGUILAR Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
ABSTRACT

Sometimes you can have an appointment with someone: on a specific day, at a specific time and place And, for some reason or the other, that appointment can be kept or not. If everything goes according to plan the appointment is a reality, but if something goes wrong, there is no meeting, nothing happens. The same thing happens with a quote on a text, as it allows a link between the text and a person, a book, other texts or other type of resources. The quote must follow a set of agreed upon rules that should be followed to the letter. Any text has within itself an infinite variety of relationships, quotes and references that form a tale/story, a universe of interlinked stories. This world is full of people, animals and objects that have links, relationships and references between them, very much like what we currently know as a website. Websites lead to navigation through a sea of texts, images and sounds. It should be fun, if the tide is right... if theres a starry sky or a compass, a reference point... a light in the harbour! The proposed work consists in a comparative analysis between Goodmans quote typology and webpage hyperlinks. Its all about finding their similarities and their differences and discovering the right process to deal with hyperlinks in referential relationships. Keywords: design, hyperlink, reference, quote, Nelson Goodman
1 INTRODUCTION

The study of forms of reference plays an important part in web design, representation and interpretation. A connecting method such as the hyperlink, that possesses the means to connect its own symbols and that usually even has the capacity to link other systems that coexist on the web such as the textual, the visual and the auditory, holds in itself all the forms of reference necessary to be studied and to understand the web. In this sense, we propose to understand the hyperlink as a system for presenting and organising information in which some words, images or sounds can be explored to obtain further information related to themselves, be it within the same document that allows their viewing (through their perception) or outside the document (through their expansion). The relationship created between all these systems demands a high, complex level of representation and interpretation, because they depend, to a considerable extent, on the context for their definition or interconnection. This research project begins with the classification process of hyperlinks used in referential relationships, applying a comparative analysis between the typology of the quote proposed by Nelson Goodman and webpage hyperlinks, through the selection of several websites as case studies.
2 THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAME

By means of a link an image, a text or a sound clip can be connected to another image, text or sound clip. Hyperlinks can be made to fulfil the necessary conditions to become any form of reference, such as quotes, examples, allusions, etc. This research deals with those both existing and potential relationships between the way links are established in books through quotes and in web documents through hyperlinks . To understand the quote one must first understand its reference. Goodman (1984, p.94) states: Reference as I use it is a very general and primitive term, covering all sorts of symbolization, all cases of standing for. The author recommends it should be understood as if it was a primitive relationship or meronimy, that is, a non-symmetric semantic relationship between the meanings of two words, for instance, there is EAD09/173

459

8th European Academy Of Design Conference - 1st, 2nd & 3rd April 2009, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland

a semantic relationship between the meaning of the word blue and the meaning of the word color. Its a complex definition, but it is better understood if we distinguish and compare its multiple forms, namely: the literal elementary reference, the non-literal elementary reference and the complex reference (Goodman, 1984). Thus understood, it becomes clear why a symbol has the possibility to stand for or refer to its object and that any graphic representation stands for, is a label of or refers to what it tries to make perceptible or comprehensible.
3 METHODOLOGY

On numerous occasions, man has imagined systems to allow the visualization of thoughts and to reach this ideal he has used many different tools and means of expression. Amongst the many disciplines that have joined that search are art, education and graphic design. And now the hyperlink is present as an instrument of expression that is no longer paradigmatic and has become a method for the construction of specific frames of information, knowledge and worldviews. Taking that into account, we designed an assessment card based on the necessary conditions, as stated by Goodman, for the making of a direct or indirect quote (Goodman, 1978, 73): A. That what is being quoted, one of its paraphrases or one of its replicas, is contained or included in the quote. B. That there is a reference to what is being quoted, naming it, expressing it or predicating it. Furthermore, we studied the theories for the analysis of the allusive, expressive and denotative power of images and their structural composition developed by Marc i Puig (1983); as well as the work presented by Groupe (1992) with the intention of considering the rhetoric of verbal speech superposed to visual images. The assessment card was structured into three parts: the first focused on the levels of textual organization and significant units of representation; the second established types of links and their corresponding position on the textual, visual and hearing systems, both for hyperlinks and for the linked content; and the third tried to find out if the hyperlink fulfilled the conditions necessary to be considered a quote. This assessment card was applied to 12 case studies categorized in three groups according to the use hyperlinks are given in each of them. The first selected group focused on web pages devoted to spaces of representation through hypertext, used to show the possibilities available only with text links. The websites studied were: Esferas (http://moebio.com/spheres/espanol.html): this site presents a series of spherical dialogue surfaces, conformed by words, whose richness comes from the way they relate to each other. Bestiario (http://www.bestiario.org/bestiario.php): through a sensorial and interactive experience this site presents personal projects that allow the viewing of complex contents and that convert information, its structure and its relationships in a spatial environment navigable in a non-linear and scalable way. Gramatrama (http://moebio.com/santiago/gramatrama/index.html): an online text that can be read linearly or changing subtexts with internal links. 6pli (http://6pli.com/moebio): an experimental tool that enables the user to view del-icio.us markers in a 3D map.

The second group presents world versions in the hyperlink routes. It is mainly formed by commercial or theme sites that, through the use of hyperlink, develop and promote the consolidation of virtual communities with highly specific interests. EAD09/173

460

8th European Academy Of Design Conference - 1st, 2nd & 3rd April 2009, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland

Imdb (http://www.imdb.com/): this site is the cinema portal with the biggest database on cinema, interconnecting movies, actors, directors and producers. Allmusic (http://www.allmusic.com/): it is a site that holds the most references on music styles and genres, ranging from the most commercial to the deepest underground. Anyfilms (http://www.anyfilms.net/): this site is an innovative entertainment experience where, through interactive movie clips, users combine contents and create their own plots and stories. Sawmovie (http://www.sawmovie.com/site.html): a narrative exercise that manifests the capacity for narration, immersion and interaction on a story presented through successive and intuitive links, full of expression and logic.

The third group is formed by websites that feature hyperlinks as world narratives, based on the presentation of graphic metaphors originated in the link, that attempt to describe entire worlds. 10x10 (http://www.tenbyten.org/10x10.html): this site is an interactive exploration of the words and images that define time. Each hour 10x10 takes the 100 most important words and images on a global scale and presents them as a unique image that encapsulates that moment in time. Phylotaxis (http://phylotaxis.com/phylotaxis.html): this site illustrates the delicate balance between science and culture through an autonomous program that orders news related to these two worlds according to the Fibonacci Sequence. We Feel Fine (http://www.wefeelfine.org/): this is a search engine that analyzes every English language blog in the world every five minutes to find the phrase I feel, receiving thus all kinds of emotional impulses that it afterwards displays on an interactive surface. Universe (http://universe.daylife.com/): this site allows each person to find his or her own constellations of interests and curiosities, from a metaphorical interactive night sky.
ANALYSIS RESULTS

In the first group of case studies, the predominant hyperlink type is text that links text. Only in a few cases is there text linking to images, which confirms its power in linking systems from different origins. Processes linking mainly thoughts and concepts are allowed, though there are also links to people who expressed or presented them. In other occasions, these sites link people by their thoughts and concepts in order to group them and classify them according to their common interests. In short: Hypertext links peoples thoughts and people with common thoughts. On the websites studied as world narratives in the hyperlink routes, the types of linking used are text and image linking text, image and sound. Two major types of structures can be clearly recognized: one formed by text boxes thematically grouped in the classic encyclopaedic form, and another formed by the experimental exercise with common themes expressed from interactive and navigable logical sequences, as role-plays. They are two forms of representing the commercial use of hyperlinks for the consolidation of virtual communities, in an attempt to be able to reproduce experiences and feelings lived through the routes and daily trips through worlds of interest. In short: The hyperlink associates groups of persons according to their interests. In the third group of case studies the predominant type of hyperlink is that of images linking images and text. The structures formed between them are similar, as they always present a world or universe represented by multiple geometrical elements or simple forms that, once united, moving or dispersed, symbolize persons, thoughts, feelings, news or facts that make up the world. Said elements are links that expand the visual or textual information on events happening in a defined time and space. These exercises are routes of reference for the narration of a world through linking. In short: The hyperlink is a connection to the visual metaphor of a world.
CONCLUSIONS

We can definitely say that a hyperlink stands for or refers to its object and also that its visual representation stands for, is a label of or refers to what it represents. Therefore, the hyperlink as a form of reference must EAD09/173

461

8th European Academy Of Design Conference - 1st, 2nd & 3rd April 2009, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland

contain or include in itself a replica of the linked object, be it naming it, expressing it or predicating it, and at the same time the relationship it proposes must be contextualized with its meaning or with the reference. Nevertheless, even when all these conditions are met, the success of the hyperlink depends more on the linked and on its context than on itself. If the link does not lead to what the viewer expects it to lead, we will have a wrong or empty link, without a nexus. The link is not a fact in itself, it is a method through which something is related, referenced or alluded to. If that something does not coincide with what the viewer expects, the link is void. But, if we consider the linked object solely as an expression or an inscription, we are establishing a relationship of syntactic replica, that is, of identical spelling. On the other hand, if the relationship established by the hyperlink is a kind of equivalence in meaning or in reference, it is a semantic relationship. To conclude, we propose that, in order to systematize hyperlinks when trying to make a quote and to consider its semantic implications, we should follow these precepts: A. That the hyperlink contains or includes a replica of what is linked. B. That there is a reference to what is linked, naming it, predicating it or expressing it. C. That the relationship proposed in the hyperlink is contextualized with its meaning or reference. To conceptually clarify the adding of this new and final condition, we suggest the following example: if we place a link containing the word France that leads to an image of the French flag, we could consider it as an indirect quote by denotation. But, on the contrary, if we are discussing the French Revolution and we say it was a social and political process that took place in France between 1789 and 1799 and the link on the word France leads to a page about that country that is not contextualized in the same time these events took place, the hyperlink is quoting France but it is breaking the context of the Revolution. That is why we claim that the relationship established by the hyperlink should be contextualized with its meaning or its reference. That is, fulfilling the third condition is fundamental for the correct establishing of links (references) and significant units of representation in specific environments (worlds). In this way we can set up more coherent universes that allow recognition in themselves, thus facilitating movement and dialog between the different voices that interact within them. The hyperlink can be considered as a system, provided we understand the rational organization of a set of objects as a system. Of what we said so far, there is an essential question still unanswered: if we take the linguistic system as model of reference by which we can measure all other social systems of meaning, and if we consider the hyperlink as a system, could we consider feasible the establishment of a linking grammar for web navigation, that allowed the organization of its signifiers, of its formal or expressive aspects, and that could even be used by graphic design as a tool for the creation of specific settings (worlds)? We sign off with that question, leaving the way, a route, a link in bold or underlined for whatever comes next.
REFERENCES CASTELLS, M., 1996. La era de la informacin. Vol. 1. La sociedad red. 2000 ed. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. GOODMAN, N., 1978. Maneras de hacer mundos. 1990 ed. Madrid: Editorial Visor. GOODMAN, N., 1984. De la mente y otras materias. 1995 ed. Madrid: Editorial Visor. GROUPE , 1992. Tratado del signo visual. Para una retrica de la imagen. 1993 ed. Madrid: Editorial Ctedra. LACKOFF, G. and JOHNSON, M., 1980. Metforas de la vida cotidiana. 2001 ed. Madrid: Editorial Ctedra. LANDOW, G., 1995. Hipertexto: La convergencia de la teora crtica contempornea y la tecnologa. Barcelona: Ediciones Paids. MARC I PUIG, F., 1983. Teora y anlisis de las imgenes. Barcelona: Ediciones de la Universidad de Barcelona.

EAD09/173

462

8th European Academy Of Design Conference - 1st, 2nd & 3rd April 2009, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland

Acknowledgements I would like to express my thanks to the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, who have sponsored my doctorate estudies, where I had developed the research presented in this paper.
Corresponding Author Contact Information Graphic Designer, Sebastin, URIBE AGUILAR Teacher Researcher at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and PhD student at the Universidad de Barcelona Canig 96 3-4 C.P. 08031 Barcelona - Espaa (34) 637 589 313 sebastian.uribe@upb.edu.co www.eseuribe.com

EAD09/173

463