A Field Guide to Artificial Nature

The Text is Hot

Literary works are environments unto themselves, complete with complex ecologies, varied geographic terrain, and intricate weather systems. The Literary Field Guide provides an overview of the textual ecology that you are about to read. Dry? Rainy? Sunny? Moist? Will you need an umbrella or sunscreen or both? Are there mountains to climb or rivers to ford? What is the flora? Should you fear the fauna? The Field Guide has you covered.

As a teaching tool, the Field Guide attempts to create a site and sense of engagement between the viewer and a complex literary ecology. As a provocation, the Field Guide creates data visualizations of literary landscapes in hopes of calling attention to the artificial and constructed natures of all such visualizations.

How It Works

Upload a txt file to try it out for yourself. If you don't have a text file handy, the following are great places to get one: