Electronic Literature

"An examination of the theory and practice surrounding the genre of electronic literature and exploration of its major works and authors."

 

Interactive Fiction Winner

Posted from the blog, Crooked Timber (crookedtimber.org) who got it from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Soc Blogger Jeremy Freese won this year’s Interactive Fiction Competition, where the goal is to write a text-based puzzle game in the tradition of stuff like Infocom classics. The premise of Jeremy’s game, Violet, is summarized by the Chronicle of Higher Education:
It’s noon and you’ve still got 1,000 words to type. That might not seem like much, but it’s been months since you’ve last worked on your dissertation and distractions are plentiful. To make matters worse, your girlfriend, Violet, says she’s out the door and flying back to Australia if you don’t finish the paper by the end of the day.
What’s your next move?

This is the premise for Violet, a text-based computer game in which a graduate student is the main character. As the student, you must fight through countless distractions and solve a number of puzzles to finish the paper in time to save your relationship. The story is told by Violet, who allows you to examine objects in your office and ask for hints.

Here is a review. Naturally, a sequel must now be in the works. Who should the protagonist be? What situation should they face? Obvious possibilities include a disaffected English professor teaching somewhere in a state beginning and ending a vowel, whose only creative outlet is bitter, overwritten Chronicle columns; a busily networking scholar-blogger desperate to finagle an invitation to appear on Bloggingheads.tv; or perhaps the crisis of a senior faculty member whose long history of abusive pseudonymous commenting is suddenly and inadvertently exposed.

posted by: grigar at 11/20/08 09:39 | link | comments |

Andrew Gallix's Article in the Guardian

A week or so ago I received an email message from a guy, a person named Andrew Gallix, in England, interested in electronic literature. The email was followed by a message from Mark Amerika saying to expect Gallix's note and encouraging me to respond to him.

Essentially he asked two questions: "Am I [Gallix] wrong in feeling that cutting-edge digital writing had a higher profile ten years ago compared with today?" and "A lot of cutting-edge digital writing seems to have merged with the modern art scene. I'm thinking of you, here, in particular, of course [he meant Mark]. Am I wrong in thinking this?"

I crafted a very careful response to him. I sent a copy of my response to Mark, who agreed with me on my points, and then sent the damn thing to Gallix. The article showed up this morning with the title, "Is e-literature just one big anti-climax?." He took one sentence of my 1500 word response––the one sentence that he could contextualize to help his argument.

Here is the URL to the essay: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/sep/24/ebooks, and below is the response I sent Gallix that he quoted from. Perhaps the best thing to come out of this will be an international dialogue about elit in a very public space instead of an academic conference hall.

--


1. Am I wrong in feeling that cutting-edge digital writing had a higher profile ten years ago compared with today?

Are you asking if elit is still a viable art form, or if the publicity about it has died down? Those are two completely different issues.

The recent Visionary Landscapes: The Electronic Literature Organization 2008 conference at Washington State University Vancouver (WSUV) demonstrates that elit continues to be a viable art form. 121 elit artists and scholars from 17 different countries attended the four days of presentations and exhibits. What was telling, from my perspective, were the number of submissions for the media art show: 140 artists sent in works for the three exhibits that ran simultaneously at WSUV, Clark College, and Northbank Artists Gallery. Of these, 44 artists were selected to showcase their work; 10 whose works were considered the most outstanding were awarded bursaries. Key to the success of the conference was the fact that the artists, whether awarded bursaries or not, actually had to attend the conference and give an artist talk about their work.

Most interestingly, the electronic art forms that dominated the scene 10 years ago (i.e. hypertext fiction and poetry, interactive fiction, generative poetry), while still present in the talks and at the exhibits, have been augmented with new genres not yet common among the art produced by artists and scholars in the late 1990s. Locative drama, multimedia performance pieces, digital music-based poetry, among others, were present. Probably the most difficult aspect of elit is the ability to talk about it fast enough, so fast is the landscape changing and developing.

If the noise around elit has quieted down, it is due to the fact that digital media, as a field, has been dominated by scholars and critics trained in formalistic art theories. Lev Manovitch uses Russian formalism, for example, as his lens for formulating views of “new” media, while Oliver Grau focuses his attention on Italian Futurism. What chance does an emergent form with literature in its name have when faced with such a strong art historical perspective? That “net art” became the name of choice for some working in the area of web-based elit should come as no surprise under these circumstances.

So, why isn’t elit found in literature department, one may ask? If you look around the American academy today, you will see that literature departments are dominated by cultural studies and great books, with digital humanities distinguishing itself as a third area growing in importance. Digital humanities, however, focuses not so much on the production of native born digital writing as it does on preserving and presenting analog based literary works for digital contexts. So, in reality, unless it is a department where Kate Hayles, Matt Kirshenbaum, and a handful of other scholars reside, Michael Joyce’s work will not receive the attention that James Joyce’s does.

Yet 140 artists submitted works of electronic literature to my conference. Well over two-thirds of these artists were young people just coming out of BFA and MFA programs. This says to me that the impulse to write and create is strong and is making its way “naturally” to the digital realm, with little prodding and prompting by members of the academy. Some of these young artists wrote to me saying that they were delighted to find a venue for their art and to discover a whole field whose artists are interested in producing work in a similar vein.

The issue for a lot of us is how to continue to get out the word that there is this art form called elit. The Electronic Literature Organization is working, at this moment, to update its Directory of thousands of elit works, to complete its second collection (ELC2), and support more conferences and events like the Visionary Landscapes conference. Along these lines, it is sponsoring Brown University’s upcoming Interrupt conference (hosted by John Cayley) that will be held in October. It takes a lot of energy, not to mention, money, however, to undertake such tasks. And as you know, the US government does not provide support for the arts, particularly the electronic arts, at the same level as governments in European or Asian countries do. So, directories, collections, and conferences are financed on a shoestring. No money, no promotions. Hence, the lack of publicity that you hint to in the question you posed.


2. A lot of cutting-edge digital writing seems to have merged with the modern art scene. I'm thinking of you, here, in particular, of course. Am I wrong in thinking this?

I believe you posed this to Mark (the “you” question), but I will answer from my perspective, though I am sure Mark has more interesting things to say about this.

So much of electronic art, not just digital writing, has been subsumed under the umbrella of contemporary art. Last night the Time Based Art festival here in Portland, Oregon, just ended its 11-day run. Among the works, one could find analog, digital, and intermedial art, and all were called forms of contemporary art. A dance among the water fountains in a park? Contemporary art. Tableaux generated from an audience-driven Power Point slide show? Contemporary art. A monologue? Contemporary art. A beatbox and video performance piece? Contemporary art. Video? Contemporary art. You get the picture. But this does not seem to be the problem for most of us since all art is falling into this larger category. The real problem would be if digital writing is not included, which does not seem to be the case.

The larger issue, however, is the general view of writing: That anyone can write––and, worse, that anyone can teach writing. Because writing is integral to our lives, most of us can indeed pick up a pen and jot something down. It does not mean it is necessarily good writing, but one can make words happen in varying levels of competency. In fact, with all of the writing found on the web, one can say that writing is still a dominant form of communication. Unfortunately, so much of that writing is mediocre at best, which means that the reading audiences are getting shortchanged of quality and dumbed down by the steady diet of junk. One would think that graduating from American universities and colleges where first-year composition is the norm audiences would be particular about what it reads and how it writes. But when you consider that institutions put, many times, the least experienced instructors (i.e. grad students) and/or instructors (i.e. overworked and underpaid adjuncts) teaching four to five classes of 25 students per class per semester in writing classrooms, it makes sense that so many students are finishing college without a clue of how to put a coherent thought down on paper––or a computer screen.

But I digress. Sorry.

Yes, art that entails digital writing, like all art today, is categorized as contemporary art. But I would add that rather than seeing this as a problem, I see it as an opportunity for elit or digital writers to disseminate their work across a broader landscape. A case in point: For the last four years I have been collaborating with a multimedia performance and installation artist from Canada. In our work I write, scripting the pieces and creating the digital writing and spoken word portions of our art. The writing is given the same weight as his music and sound. In truth, we have been experimenting with the balance among what many see as competing art forms: video, animation, sound, music, spoken word, the written word, and dance, and trying to push the envelop on ephemera, both written and performative.


These comments offers a more optimistic perspective than you may have expected. I am happy that you wrote me, and I encourage you to write back with any further questions.

--Dene Grigar

posted by: grigar at 09/24/08 09:50 | link | comments |

The Elit Conference

Those of you who attended and worked on Visionary Landscapes: The Electronic Literature Organization 2008 Conference will enjoy seeing these images, video, and comments. And even if you could not join us, check this out!

The Post Conference Page on the ELO 2008 Website that John made:
http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/dtc/elo08/postconference.html
(there are two really cool videos from the conference posted)

Here is some of the publicity we generated:

1. The Columbian (Print and electronic articles)
Print copies of the article have been delivered to offices.
Electronic version:
http://www.columbian.com/lifehome/lifeHomeNews/2008/05/05302008_Works-of-art-a-click-away.cf
m

2. YouTube
“Exploding, Plastic, Inevitable” Performance at North Bank Artists Gallery by Drs. Steve Gibson
and Stefan Mueller Arisona
Posted by S. A. Atkinson, U if Brighton, UK; June 7, 2008
http://www.telebody.ws/Exploding/Movies/EPI_ELO_Original.mov

3. Blogs

“ELO Friday.” Kooneiform: Writing + Text + Games. June 5, 2008
http://kooneiform.wordpress.com/

CultureNet:
http://capculturenet.blogspot.com/2008/06/electronic-literature-conference.html

Grand Text Auto
http://grandtextauto.org/

“Envisioning the Visionary.” Professor VJ: art / remixology / politics / cinema / fiction / the-
ory / performance / writing. May 28, 2008.
http://professorvj.blogspot.com/2008/05/envisioning-visionary.html

“Loose Transcript of my Keynote at ELO 2008.” Professor VJ: art / remixology / politics /
cinema / fiction / theory / performance / writing. June 4, 2008.
http://professorvj.blogspot.com/2008/06/loose-transcript-of-my-keynote-at-elo.html

WRT: Writer Response Theory: a blog and podcast dedicated to discussing text arts forms
http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/

“Games that Matter.” Zone of Influence: A game studies blog (mostly tabletop) by Matthew
Kirschenbaum
http://www.zoi.wordherders.net/?p=107

“Mouse Button or Cursor.” MetaBlog: French Theory and Hypertext (France)
http://metabole.blogspot.com/2008/06/mouse-button-or-cursor.html


4. Twitter
Sue Thomas
http://twitter.com/suethomas

5. Flickr

ELO 2008
http://www.flickr.com/groups/elo2008/

Tim Menzies
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timmenzies/

posted by: grigar at 06/10/08 21:10 | link | comments |

Humanities + Technology + Science: The Use of Labs for the Production of Media Art

Corporeal Poetry: Experiments with 3D Poetry in the MOVE Lab"
Dene Grigar


Portfolio







http://www.nouspace.net/dene/GAMS.jpg

posted by: grigar at 05/31/08 06:36 | link | comments |

Calling All Spring Elit Students

If you are interested in attending the Electronic Literature Conference and have a few hours to volunteer at the conference registration table or help out in some way at the conference, contact Dr. John Barber at jfbarber@eaze.net.

The conference runs from Thursday, May 29 - Sunday, June 1. The day events take place at the WSUV campus in the Multimedia Classroom Building and the Firstenberg Student Commons. The evening events take place at North Bank Artists Gallery and Clark College.

--Dene

posted by: grigar at 05/18/08 16:16 | link | comments |

Exam

A reminder that our exam is on Wednesday from 10:30-12:30 in VMMC 111. Your final projects are due at the beginning of class. I plan to pass your papers back to you on that day.

We will more than likely have visitors to the class to see your projects. So be prepared!

--Dene

posted by: grigar at 04/27/08 12:22 | link | comments |

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries in Town!

Portland State University MFA Monday Night Lecture Series

All The Way From Seoul, Korea!
YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES Will Lecture About Their Work!
The Public is Invited (it's free, tell your friends)
Monday April 28th, 7:30pm Sharp!
5th Avenue Cinema Room 92
510 SW Hall St. (at the corner of SW 5th & Hall on the PSU Campus)
Portland, OR

YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES is in Seoul. Its C.E.O is Young-hae
Chang (Korea), its C.I.O. Marc Voge (U.S.A). YHCHI's pieces present a
Homeric hero searching for sublime meaning in the insignificance of a
life lived anywhere but where it seemingly counts; Asian businessmen
and bar hostesses drinking the night away; a man who dies and is
reborn a stick; a Korean cleaning lady who is really a French
philosopher; an illegal immigrant in a holding cell under the Justice
Palace, in Paris; a woman who sexually embraces corporate monopoly;
an evening with Sam Beckett in a bordello; an S O S from a beauty
queen; a night roundup followed by an execution; a frustrated bongo
player; a guy who goes to work without his pants; a girl with a
Global Positioning Satellite chip sewn into her abdomen; the second
Korean war in the eyes of W.G. Sebald; cultural identity;
nothingness; loneliness; love in a snowy region of Japan; a guy and
his girlfriend trying to get from Tokyo to Detroit; official North
Korean policy on oral sex; eating glass; movie end credits; the
Riviera; a duty-free DMZ; a James Brown impersonator; Saul; and more.

For more information on Regine go to: http://www.yhchang.com/

PSU's Art Dept. offers free public lectures every Monday night of the
school year. This is the twenty-second lecture in the PMMNLS for this
season.
The PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series is supported in part by PICA,
Reed College, PNCA, Lewis and Clark College, PSU's Department of
International Studies, and Ben Rosenberg Studio. If you or your
organization are interested in becoming a supporter of the lecture
series please let us know.

Next up in the PMMNLS:

May 5th: Rebecca Ripple

May 12th: Edgar Heap of Birds

May 19th: Karen Yasinsky

May 26th: Holiday no lecture

June 2nd: Amy Yoes

June 9th: John Malpede

http://www.pdx.edu/art/

posted by: grigar at 04/24/08 21:57 | link | comments |

Follow Up

A special thanks to all of you who showed up for conferences prepared to talk about your analysis papers. All of you received a handout that provided some reminders about about how to edit your paper for the final version. Remember that when you turn your papers in on Monday to:

1. Turn in your older version that I commented on
2. Include all of your notes and articles used in the Works Cited page
3. Put your new version on top of all of other materials
4. Clip the work together with a binder clip

I will not need an electronic copy for this version.

Papers are due at the beginning of class. Call me cynical, but with six of you absent last week when the first draft was due, I am going to be very adamant about your turning in this version on time. If you are absent for any reason save for a cataclysmic earthquake, dangerous marauders from Mars, or death/significant illness, your paper will be marked late.

We will spend Monday during class working on final projects.

--Dene

posted by: grigar at 04/18/08 08:10 | link | comments |

Conferences over Work

Below is the list of students who asked for a conference about their writing project. Please remember to bring any back up material to the conference if you have not yet given it to me. And keep in mind what I said in class; Conferencing over your papers does not automatically give you an A. For this round of evaluation, I am focusing primarily on structure and content. You are still responsible for everything else.

Andrew, 9:30
Veronica, 10
Kristen, 10:30
Matt, 11
Scott, 11:30
Mallisa, 12
Chris, 12:30
Robert, 1
Greg, 1:30
Michael, 2
Donald, 2:30
Ryan, 3
Julia, 3:30
David, 4
Nina, 4:30
Tatiana, 5

posted by: grigar at 04/14/08 13:09 | link | comments |

Monday, the 14th

Just a reminder that your drafts of the analysis paper are due tomorrow at the beginning of class. You will turn these in to me and I will look over them. Those of you interested in talking to me about your papers in a student conference will sign up for this during class time. Students who do not turn in drafts will not be able to conference with me about your papers since you will not have one ready in time.

You will have time during class tomorrow to work on your final projects. The more you get done during the next week in class, the less stress you will have at the end of the semester when so much work is due in your classes. I ask each one of you to bring in your projects so that I can see where you are in them and what you may need in the way of help.

--Dene

posted by: grigar at 04/13/08 16:39 | link | comments |