Beyond the boundaries of the e-book: aesthetics in the post-digital age

The present study is a research on digital aesthetics focusing on the performative materiality of code and the digital context that hosts it. The analysis sheds light on the code files where this performance takes place and aims to describe the nature of code, the functionalities of web technologies and the process of creating the elements and animations that appear on the User Interface, thus resulting in the aesthetics of a digital work.

Aesthetics is understood as the result of a process that takes place at the level of the software, and the analysis examines the process of how the aesthetic is generated without considering elements of User Interface and User Experience design. The User Interface is understood as a space where specific dynamics take place and are interpreted by the reader, however, the analysis of User Experience requires different theories and methodologies, which are not part of my research.

The basic idea of my work and the research questions that emerged from my practice is that code not only describes the elements and audio-visual effects appearing on the screen but also performs the actions that create these elements and audio-visual effects. Code thus has an inherent dynamic, a creative potential described as performative materiality that is at the core of digital aesthetics. Performative materiality is a characteristic of code that can be found in human language, too, and this commonality opens the possibility of analysing code with theories of linguistics and looking at code as a language. In this sense, I look at code in terms of a formal language and oppose it to human language, defined as natural language.

Driven by my curiosity to find analogies between human language and code and supported by theories developed in linguistics, experimental literature, electronic literature, code studies, and new media studies, I have designed my research as research-led practice, a method of the broader field of practice-based research. The sample works are published as e-books in EPUB3 format, which are based on web technology and share various characteristics of web pages and printed books. The EPUB3 format lies midway between print and digital culture, as it unifies the technical and aesthetic characteristics of both print books and electronic books. I will demonstrate that the design and aesthetics of EPUB3 documents are based on principles similar to those of experimental literature, artist books, and works of electronic literature, and that the performative materiality of code underpins these creative practices. Within this theoretical and cultural framework, my practice demonstrates the performative materiality of code and provides evidence for the study of the characteristics of performative materiality.