Links of Darkness: Hypertext And Horror (Mark Bernstein and Stee McMorris). Engelbart Award Paper, ACM Conference On Hypertext and Social Media. June 28-July 1, 2022, Barcelona.

Abstract: Category fiction adopts a formal narrative framework to explore topics of mutual interest to readers and writers. Originating as a means of assisting retail booksellers and movie theaters in their work of matching readers and writers, categories like “Mystery”, “Western”, and “Horror” have shaped modern storytelling. The frameworks that underlie category fiction are often confounded with their conventional surface characteristics. For example, mysteries are not puzzles, but rather interrogate how a damaged world can be understood and, with understanding, repaired. We observe that that framework of Horror is congruent to the affordances of literary hypertext. The technologies and trappings of hypertext itself share the slippery uncanniness and unheimlichkeit of other horror staples: mirrors, twins, rivers, and crossroads. Finally, it is intriguing that the history of hypertext and the World Wide Web itself falls neatly into the framework of horror.

The Web At War:Hypertext, Social Media, and Totalitarianism. Blue Sky Award Paper, ACM Conference On Hypertext and Social Media. June 28-July 1, 2022, Barcelona.

Abstract: In 2022, much of the world faced the prospect of a prolonged conventional war with a totalitarian state. The origins of hypertext lie in the wars of the 20th Century, and efforts to avoid a repeated conflict — and confidence that conflict could be contained if not entirely avoided— is deeply embedded into the architecture of the World Wide Web. The Web was not designed to confront a war, and it remains deeply vulnerable to totalitarian subversion. Our systems, platforms, and our discipline will need to adapt.