88 Constellations for Wittgenstein (to be played with the Left Hand)

• CreatorDavid Clark
• Year Published2011
• Published InElectronic Literature Collection 2

"88 Constellations for Wittgenstein (to be played with the Left Hand)" debuted at the 404 Festival of Electronic Art, Trieste, Italy in 2008 and was published in 2011 in the Electronic Literaure Collection 2. The author describes this work as "an interactive, non-linear net.art piece that explores the life and philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein through a series of animated vignettes created in Flash. Each of the 88 sections corresponds to one of the 88 constellations in the night sky. Each constellation becomes a navigation device for the viewer to negotiate the associative relationships between these vignettes. As well, viewers can interact with each collaged animation using their left hand to trigger events from the computer keyboard (in homage to Ludwig Wittgenstein's brother Paul (a concert pianist who lost his right arm in WWI but continued his career performing piano works composed for the Left Hand). This work considers questions that Ludwig Wittgenstein pondered in his career as a philosopher: logic, language, the nature of thinking, and the limits of knowledge -- all in relation to our contemporary digital world."--From Electronic Literaure Collection 2