On links: Exercises in style

Abstract

Links are the most important new punctuation mark since the invention of the comma, but it has been years since the last in-depth discussions of link poetics. Taking inspiration Raymond Queneau's Exercices De Style, we explore the poetics of contemporary link usage by offering exercises in which the same piece of text is divided and linked in different ways. We present three different exercises-varying the division of a text into lexia, varying links among lexia, and varying links within lexia-while pointing toward potential aesthetic considerations of each variation. Our exercises are intended descriptively, not prescriptively, as a conversational starting point for analysis and as a compendium of useful techniques upon which artists might build.