A re-telling, a word taken to signify the simultaneous existence of different versions of a narrative within oral, and from now onwards, digital cultures. Thus one can speak of a ‘southern’ or a ‘northern’ rescension of a myth, or of a ‘female’ or ‘male’ rescension of a story, or the possibility (to begin with) of Delhi/Berlin/Tehran rescensions of a digital work. The concept of rescension is contraindicative of the notion of hierarchy. A rescen- sion cannot be an improvement, nor can it connote a diminishing of value. A rescension is that version which does not act as a replacement for any other configuration of its constitutive materials. […] The existence of multiple rescensions is a guarantor of an idea or a work’s ubiquity. This ensures that the constellation of narrative, signs and images that a work embodies is present, and waiting for iteration at more than one site at any given time. Rescensions are portable and are carried within orbiting kernels within a space. Rescensions taken together constitute ensembles that may form an interconnected web of ideas, images and signs.
Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta). “A Concise Lexicon Of / For the Digital Commons.” Sarai Reader 3 (2003): 357–365.
pdf