“What is Less or More than a Touch?” Multimedia Classics and Hypermedia Hermeneutics

Abstract

Hypermedia is so diverse that it is in need of documentation, analysis, and methodology. For more than 20 years, online and offline applications of hypermedia technology have combined text, image, video, animation, and sound into a total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk). This essay provides an insight into my research project, Multimedia Classics and Hypermedia Hermeneutics, focusing on why it is so difficult to describe and analyze hypermedia applications on cultural topics. It suggests how the functions, contents, and forms of hypermedia could be analyzed; to do so, it looks at Notzimmer, an interactive website story about a knockdown furniture construction kit designed by Jewish refugee Mauritius Ehrlich during World War II.