Hypermedia as an Interpretive Act

Abstract

This essay will explore the epistemological foundations of hypertext and hypermedia, focusing on the need for an especially acute awareness of cognitive issues in the design and execution of academic data bases. Since hypertext as a technology has the potential to organize massive bodies of primarily academic information, we will address a number of basic interpretive and pedagogical concerns about the interpretive ‘freighting’ which such electronic intellectual archives might unintentionally produce.At this stage of development, there is a great deal of interest and enthusiasm from the computer community in hypertext and hypermedia, but we must not ignore the ideological and hermeneutical implications of what may appear to be simple technical decisions. This essay will explore some of the implications of such ‘technical decisions’, suggesting that academicians as ‘gatekeepers’ of knowledge, must be aware of this cognitive overhead and consciously incorporate strategies in future hypertext databases which attempt to clarify their creators' critical assumptions. While hermeneutical neutrality is not possible in this cognitive universe, future hypertext and hypermedia systems must be self-consciously aware of cognitive issues.