Resisting the Epic
Text, Design and Programming by Erik Loyer
1999
This project uses the Shockwave plug-in, which is currently unsupported by most browsers. As an alternative, view the project's video documentation below.
Resisting the Epic is an interactive essay adapted from a talk given at the 1999 Interactive Frictions conference about the ways in which the lust for an epic canvas can compromise digital creators.
Images
At the piece begins, its argument is laid out in linear fashion, reflecting the epic mindset’s tendencies to create static structures.
Once the user begins to reshape the argument, placing pieces of it inside the box, the text begins to disintegrate.
Upon placing the whole argument inside the box, the user simultaneously destroys the text and symbolically achieves the bounded condition so conducive to creativity in the digital world.