J. Nathan Matias Creative Portfolio, December 2010
Academic
Philadelphia Fullerine (documentary)
Philadelphia Fullerine (research)
Comparing Spatial Hypertext Collections
Tragedy in Electronic Literature
Ethical Explanations
Operational Media Online
Syntagmatic Browser
Tinderbox Web Viewer
Truth, Trust, and the Textual Camera
Web Art Science Camp London 2010
E-LitCamp Boston 2009
Accordion for the World
The Hacktatus: Wittgenstein Design Project
Academic Integrity Marketing
Literary Choice in Interactive Fiction
Non-Portfolio Academic Work
Business
Emberlight: Visual Notes Online
Scaling for kgb's Super Bowl Television Ad
kgb Multiroom Web Chat Interface
Dr. Johnson: A Rapid Prototyping Framework
Dressipi Sibyl
TouchType
Harbour Coffee Online Sales Interface
Elizabethtown College Admissions
Etown.edu Information Architecture
Texperts and the Knowledge Generation Bureau
Performance Testing & Instrumenting Web Applications
kgb Web Application Interface Integration
Workstation Status Dashboard
Back of the Envelope
Design & Art
Swift-Speare: Statistical Poetry
Stretchtext Authoring System
Recital: Notes from an Itinerant Mind
Exhibit: Abolitionism in Britain
Sculpture: Read for the Sky
Visual Summaries Project
Design: Competetive Debate
Radio Show: Echoes of America
Design: Edward Tufte at Intelligence2
The Normative Decisionmaking Model
Card Storytelling Software
Projects with Tinderbox
Other
Libyan Higher Education Documentary
World University Documentary Prototype
The University Lives Collection
The Ministry of Stories
Timelines for Citizen Case Management
Cambridge Union Society E-Voting Policies
The Hacktatus: Wittgenstein Design Project
Autumn 2010
The world consists of a totality of interconnected atomic facts, and propositions make "pictures" of the world. (design, prototypes, analysis)

Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is an important design artifact, since has been put in digital and hypertext form many times. However, most of these designs have been carried out in isolation.

How have designers envisioned digital editions of Wittengstein's unusually-structured work of philosophy, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus? What scope remains for novel digital design approaches to reading and understanding philosophy texts?

My collaborator David Williams (who studies maths and philosophy at the University of Cambridge) asked me to join him on the Hacktatus project to find out. Thus far, we have completed:

  • A design review of digital editions of Wittenstein's Tractatus
  • A prototype anti-design called "The Oblique Tractatus." This working code demonstrates the opposite of the design values which we think should go into the Tractatus.
  • Designs and prototypes for a digital edition which is intended to serve the needs of serious study rather than casual browsing of the Tractatus structure.
  • A videogame design concept based on the theory of reality and language expressed within the Tractatus

Here are some images from the Hacktatus project, which is ongoing.

Tractatus Outline Tractatus Treemap Hacktatus Design Notes Hacktatus Design Notes Wittgenstein's Tractatus on Emberlight