The Cyberspace: the Space of “Orai”?
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Orai, Comings and Goings
Presentation Title:
- The Cyberspace: the Space of “Orai”?
Presenter(s):
Abstract:
What is the future of the Cyberspace? The word of “Orai” can be the clue of this theme. The literal translation of “Orai” is “going and coming. So it means “traffic”, “road and “letter”. “Orai-mono” (objects of Orai) was the example collection of letters used as a textbook of elementary education. It had a lot of illustrations and became an information booklet. “Orai-mono” was written in old epistolary style originally. It was the common style all over the country. The space of “Orai” consisted in the network of highways. What a kind of culture did the space have? The great haiku poet, Matsuo Basho moved on the highways frequently. The haiku came out of linked poem. Basho went on a trip in various places and made collection of linked poems with cultured men of the lands. One of his most famous works is “Oku no Hosomich (the Narrow Road to the Deep North)”, the diary of his trip of Japanese Tohoku region. However, he went on a trip into deep space of literature rather than into real Tohoku region. Originally Japanese literature develops from love poems commuted between man and woman. These songs created rich stories, for example, the tale of Genji, and invented the world of symbolic Japanese poetry. In the literature world the people were always conscious of intertextuality. The space of “Orai” was a kind of virtual reality of texts and images. It may provide a clue as to how the Cyberspace is and will be.
“Orai-mono” developed from an epistolary style example collection into an information booklet with illustrations. From the information exchange, the Internet built the objects of texts, images and sounds.
“Orai” is not a network of one-way communication from the center, but a network of interactive communication. The Cyberspace exists in an interactive communication network.
The epistolary style Japanese used in “Orai-mono” was a kind of a common language. English used in the Cyberspace will be a common language such as Koine or Latin. It may change into a simpler form for communication.The world of “Orai” was that of multilayer of texts and images. The artist was an editor interweaving the past works of art. In the Cyberspace quotation and editing of various contents is important. The creativeness in editing will be pursued.
The subjectivity in the world of “Orai” exists in the intertextuality. In the Cyberspace, people communicate through a computer mutually. Our subjectivity will emerge in turning the communications into the one symphony.
