88 Constellations

88 Constellations by David Clark is work of electronic-literature that is focused on Ludwig Wittgenstein's. Wittgenstein was philosopher in the 18th and 19th centuries who lived a very strange life. He was born into wealth and later inherited a large amount of money which he ended up giving away to his brothers. One of the more interesting facts about Wittgenstein is he went to school with Adolf Hitler. Wittgenstein in his work later revealed and though of himself as Jewish.

Ludwig Wittgenstein With Adolf Hitler

88 constellations is meant to be looked at with a sense of humor. From the time your run the program you can see that. Underneath the title it reads: To be played with the left hand. this pays homage to Wittgenstein's brother Paul, who lost his hand in WWI. Paul's career took off after the injury to his right hand.

Each of the 88 constellations in the sky are assigned to a person, place or event that has occurred in real life. For example No.5 is known as constellation Grus, it is assigned to Adolf Hitler. It opens a video starting off with, "Hitler only has one ball Gorman has two but very small. In the upper right hand corner

Video of Paul Wittgenstein playing Video with left hand.

(Vaughn)

With all of this being said, the piece earned a few mixed reactions from the group. I personally thought the piece was a bit confusing. On the main screen, the user is given the option to choose any constellation they want, and get to hear the associated information about their choice. At first glance, it felt like a collection of random bits of information assigned to constellations across the map. After sticking with it for a while, I was able to start seeing he connections between the stars and Wittgenstein himself. It started to present itself as a sort of biographic about Ludwig, and his life through the World Wars, philosophy, Cambridge and eventually death.  After "connecting" the dots, the reader can easily begin to understand the web of connections Ludwig created through his life.

The other's probably have a lot more to say than I do, but the piece definitely presents information in a fairly new and interesting way about a philosopher that's been obscured from history by time and bigger names. So not only did I get to learn about a man and his life, but his ideas, thoughts and life experiences as well. Win-win.