Re: StarryNight

alex galloway wrote:

> STARRYNIGHT is a new interface for viewing and
> browsing the Rhizome TextBase.
>
> When a new text is read for the first time at
> Rhizome.org it appears on StarryNight as a dim
> star.
>
> Each time a text gets read again, the corresponding
> star gets a bit brighter. Over time, the page comes
> to
> resemble a starry night sky, with bright stars
> corresponding to the most popular texts, and dim
> stars corresponding to less-popular ones.
>
> StarryNight currently contains over 750 stars.
>
> To create new stars, you may post texts to
> [email protected]. By using StarryNight, you
> increase the brightness of the stars corresponding
> to
> the texts you read, leaving a visible trace of your
> activity (intensities are updated daily, so results
> are
> not immediate).
>
> StarryNight depends on two pieces of original
> software: a set of Perl scripts that sort texts by
> keyword and record their individual hits, and a
> Java
> applet that filters this information to draw stars
> and
> constellations.
>
> StarryNight is both a mirror and a map. On the
> one hand, it offers a reflection of the Rhizome
> community's reading habits. It is up to you to
> decide
> whether to click on a bright, popular star, or a
> dim
> one that represents a text that fewer people have
> read. On the other hand, it acts as a navigational
> interface by connecting similar stars/texts into
> constellations regardless of their brightness.