Vortext is a small programme that you
install in order to make more satisfying
page deletions, when using layout creators
like QuarkXpress.
In appearance Vortext resembles a small
bath plug, complete with a ring on top,
which sits innocently at the bottom of
each page, but does not print
out.
Next time you have a page layout to
delete, just take your cursor down to the
plug and pull it out. The entire page does
its best imitation of an emptying sink or
bath, complete with gurgling noise, as it
makes its way down the hole which the
plug has until now been covering. The
sound effects only serve to compliment
the swirling vortex (hence the name) of
broken lines of text, words, and
fragmented images now spiralling at
increasing speed down the welcoming
plug-hole.
Small deletions are also possible, by
highlighting the offending items, and
again pulling the plug. They are still
sucked out, but everything around them
remains untouched.
Vortext Delux, the upgrade to Vortex Basic
comes with a small tool kit. Blockages
caused by large, unwieldy sentences or
coagulating words can be cleared with the
plunger tool or using judicious infusions
of a powerful digital, dissolving chemical.
This is brand labelled Sarcaustic Soda, and
has the power to cut through anything
constructed from language.
Once deleted, using either version of
Vortext, everything goes into a settling
sump, which can be emptied by printing
out. This results in a layered, graphic
representation of the initial page reduced
to an illegible grey-scale strata,
interrupted by lines of colour, much like a
geographic cross-section. The longer the
sump is allowed to settle, the more even
and uniform is the image. Each of these
will be unique in their own way, and
incapable of repetition.
They can be exhibited under the collective
name of: “Vortextures, (the deletions of
the Great, the Wise, the Stupid, the
Devious and the Ordinary)”