View source for The Set of U / La Série des U

The Set of U is a typical example of adaptive generation. It is an association of a combinatory generator of sound and a syntactical animation of text that changes its tempo according to the speed of the machine. So, it is not possible to synchronize the sound and the visual. But the reader often has the impression that the sound is designed for the visual process. This result is obtained by a programmed communication between the visual and the sound that uses programmed meta-rules in order to preserve the perceptive coherence. These meta-rules also create a new kind of non-algorithmic combinatory generator by focusing the attention at different moments of the reading. In this situation, the sense created by reading can vary slightly from one reading to another. The reader himself makes this combinatory by rereading. So, this work is interactive, not by managing input devices but through meta-rules. Meta-rules are not "technical rules," but the expression of a complex esthetical intention that lies in programming and can only be perceived by looking at the program. This intentionality is not addressed to the reader but to a "meta-reader": reading is a limited activity.

(Source: Author description, Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 1).