It’s certainly not “Afternoon: A Story,” which is a backhanded compliment if I’ve ever made one. First, it’s quite accurate in that the “Liquidity Issues” strays about as far from the hypertext of “Afternoon” as you can get. But, second, “Afternoon” was, is, and will be remembered as a touchstone for new media. No, it’s not as shiny as many new media projects, but it broke ground and will be remembered for that. “Liquidity Issues,” breaks no new ground. It is shiny, though.
As I suggested, “Liquidity” is not hypertext in just about any sense of the term. Yes, you do have to click to advance the lexias, but you can click anywhere and the same thing happens. More than once I found myself hitting the space bar in a “strike any key to continue” sort of brainlessness. In hypertext, you control – to an extant – the navigation of the project. There is only one direction in the project, forward. No backward. No sideways. Forward.
That said, it is shiny. Again, differentiating itself from hypertext of the past, “Liquidity” is done in Flash and though you don’t control where you go, the swooping aspect of the view gives the impression of a motion picture. Beyond the initial presentation, the project is a multimedia smorgasbord that both works and leaves the reader wanting more. But more on that later. It is safe to call “Liquidity” new media, as its presentation could not be done otherwise. On this point, I invite attack, as the stubbornly linear delivery and relatively static presentations certainly could be done in print media. However, where “Liquidity” deviates is that it does have a moving “camera” view. Starting with the first click where the viewer begins immediately with what will eventually be the final picture of clouds. From there the camera pans down to the right and across a row of pictures to present the initial lexia. This pan immediately creates foreshadowing for the rest of the project – “When am I going to see that picture? What does it mean in relation to what I have read/am reading?” Also unlike print media, the authors’ control of the “camera” means that you see what they want you to see in the order that they want you to see it, but the pans give the impression that there is more to view than you are privy to at one given time.

So it is new media, but lacking any real navigation and with a painfully linear presentation, “Liquidity” falls far from being called hypermedia. The presentation of “Liquidity” defies the hyper-ness of hypermedia/hypertext, while delivering all the shiny goodness of hypertext. It would not be unfair to call it eye (and ear) candy