Some proposed chapter headings

Here are some rough headings for possible chapter sections, along with approximate dates. This assumes the project will be in essay format. Subjects I am more interested in will take the form of case studies rather than just a paragraph or two worked into the main body of text.

Intro - Technical/history

1. Teletext's invention and inception (1970).
1. Background: other digital media around at the time: arcade video games, links in commercial popularity and aesthetic. 1972 - Pong becomes widely popular, 1976 - teletext launched. ARPAnet in America - primitive early version of the Internet. Functionalities.
   
2. Aesthetic. 1974: the 40x24 character grid was agreed upon, including text and a few graphic characters for creating simple graphics. The constituent media of 'teletext' - Teletext and Viewdata.

Sociological

1. Teletext's growth in popularity
1. 1990s - firmly in public conscience.
   
2. Teletext and television.
   
1. Television sketch parodies - Alexei Sayle.
2. Pages from Ceefax.
3. Case study: Tom Moody's 'Dallas' project (1990). Teletext as an extension of television, a text version of the medium. Comments on television and society
4. 1997 - teletext spreads to satellite. Small case study - Data Design commercial teletext design - MTV teletext.
2. Pioneering: the medium's status as first commercially successful digital information retrieval method. Bringing technology to the masses through limited set of aesthetic restrictions.
   
3. Teletext's service - uses. Simple games. Information service. Accessibility tool - subtitling.
1. Case study: functions as compared to (early) Internet - Viewdata's crude email system; reader view pages - use of teletext pages as discussion forums etc. How the two mediums never genuinely converged.
   

Coexistence/crossing of mediums

1. Internet growth in popularity (1990s).
   
1. For the 1990s, coexisted with teletext.
   
2. 2000s: Internet begins to take over.
   
2. Teletext adapted for the web browser.
1. Jodi's 'text' piece.
2. Carola Unterberger-Probst: 'Framed'
3. Encoding to receive analogue teletext via net.
3. Teletext's expansion worldwide (1980s)
   
1. Ceefax grows from 30 pages in 1973 to 600 in mid-80s. Spread to France, America in early 80s.
2. Along with Atari home console, propagating the 'jagged pixellation' aesthetic. Paul Slocum: Atari > windowed GUI.
   

Death of the traditional aesthetic

1. From first analogue aerial switch off in 2007 to the complete switch off in 2012.
2. Differing public opinions - "sad to see it go", "natural progression of technology would see it die out".
3. Introduction of digital TTX and later Interactive TV - an evolved form of the traditional analogue version. 'Sounding death knoll' of the traditional aesthetic.
   
4. Level 1 and 2 teletext upgrades - how these relate to modern 'digital teletext' in terms of aesthetic. The 'stepping stone' between teletext and digital teletext.
   

Future of traditional teletext

1. It would seem the traditional format is doomed but the very medium which could see it die out would be the one allowing it to live on after the analogue switch off, namely the Internet.
   
2. Estonia - still the No.1 method of information retrieval ahead of the Internet. Tarmo Tanilsoo's tribute websites.
3. Case study: Lektrolab - 2006 Microtel project. People still using teletext aesthetic to create art.
   

Some conclusions

1. Despite sharing a number of functions, Teletext is not really the predecessor of the Internet, more a separately evolved medium with some similarities. Whereas the ARPA network developed in America teletext was more a British invention and, even though there were signs they might with Viewdata, at no point did the two converge.
   
1. Maybe a simple diagram showing the two separate 'evolutions' could explain this point.
   
2. The teletext aesthetic survives?
   
1. Later, the Internet allowed for enthusiasts to create homages to the medium. To date, there are over 500 worldwide terrestrial teletext services available on the Internet. This could be the medium that sees the aesthetic live on, even after the analogue version is gone.
2. The mobile web browser as having similar technical/aesthetic restrictions.
   
3. Lektrolab's project shows there are still those who value the aesthetic as a medium for artistic expression. Eboy shows that the pixel as an aesthetic is still in the public's conscience in the fact it still has commercial value (brief mention of Eboy, not worth going into great detail over).
   
4. Services such as Digitiser, even after they were taken from terrestrial screens, adapted to the online format (Digiworld). Fan sites.
   

It might be worth having an appendix with some of these timelines in them to help illustrate. Perhaps these could be written timelines as in Internet Art by Rachel Greene. Should the medium of the outcome facilitate it, include with/alongside the text/content.

Cross reference sections in some way.

Artists/artworks and their relevance

Might be good to get these into a physical format such as index cards or post it notes in order to organise them. May be the case of building these in Illustrator and printing them off.

Relevance to Teletext?

Started documenting this in a text document complete with screenshots. The index card system will allow me to organise information into sections and under headings etc. This, I feel, will be an important aspect of the project - experimentation with different arrangements will hopefully produce some ideas for outcomes. I will concentrate on this aspect for the next week or so to make sure I have some kind of organisation of the information I have collected.

Above right - example of some data that could go on the cards - artist name, artist's relevant works, screenshot.

Action plan

A series of to-dos and stuff to be explored:

1. Select information/images from blog to be presented. Convert into text format (traditional essay format?):
   
1. Pixel artists. Jodi. Probst. Lektrolab.
2. Teletext historical timeline. Invention. Initial implementation. 2012 switch off.
3. Teletext and the internet/video games/other media. Connections between teletext's functionalities, aesthetical restrictions and other similar methods of presentation.
   
2. Select a medium to convert the material to.
   
3. Rewrite/format information for the selected presentation medium. For example, if it were teletext, cut it down into one or two sentence paragraphs and reword it to be precise in as short a way as possible.
4. Work the aesthetic around this.

Raw text > Essay format > Proposed outcome format

Project plan - a rough guide

A rough plan for the first part of the text elements for the 2000 words project. I will first produce the raw text in a word processed document and continue to work on visual templates. Once the templates are complete the text can be converted to that format.

Note: a teletext page - with a three block header and two block footer - can fit 80 words of body text in three line separated blocks of text.

Chronologically:

1. Brief intro - a few pages worth = 240-300 words.
2. Pre-teletext [1950-1970]:
   > Video games - Coin op systems, home arcade consoles - 1960s, 1970s
   > ARPANET - Origins of the Internet - 1960s, 1970s
   > Viewdata - A bit about this - 1960s
3. Teletext's Golden Era [1970-1990]:
   > Its impact and relationship with other technologies around this time.
   > Talk about formats and transmission methods. Eg. telephone (Viewdata), television (Teledata)
   > Formats that have died out during this time - popularity levels.
4. Teletext and the Internet [1990-1999]:
   > Moving on to the first HTTP browser in the early 1990s
   > ASCII art - from teletext to net
5. The beginning of the end of teletext [2000]:
   > The internet taking ttx's place as primary source of info.
   > Phasing out of the medium. Transition to Interactive TV.
6. The teletext revival
   > How internet may prove to be teletext's saviour/help to generate interest in its final days.
   

There will inevitably be additions to this as I have not covered all topics in this post. Some important points to remember when writing:

• Keep bringing the project back to teletext, how the point relates to the medium of teletext.
• Relevance to pixel graphics. Make this predominant throughout.
• Critically analyse works, including pixel art, teletext art etc.

Project planning

Project brief PDF

The next part of this project is to plan out the proposed format. This is to be around 2,000 words and could consist of:

• A completed chapter/section in an essay style
• A series of detailed text captions on your diagram
• At least 4 case studies and compare/contrast examples.

In addition, a to-do list or series of references must be provided along with a bibliography. Format is to be discussed with tutors though if in doubt A4 essay format will suffice.

Some early ideas are to mimic the format used in the 1995 Teletext leaflet or to maybe do a website. For now though, it is probably best to stick to plain text, which can easily be re-contextualised as I see fit at any point. Plus, since it is necessary that all text must be word processed, it might be better to use this as a starting point and do the visual formatting later.

Finally, to the right is a section from a leaflet that caught my eye. Just thought I'd upload it - maybe I could format this into some sort of leaflet in the teletext style? The image of a remote control is certainly a relevant and important one.