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Electronic Literature: What is it? (Characteristics of Electronic…
Electronic Literature: What is it?
Writing is is turmoil again
Emergence of writing
Emergence of Print
Emergence of Electronic literature
Anxieties
Will the freedom of publishing on the web result in a flood of worthless drivel?
Will there be large-scale social and cultural changes?
What is the future of writing?
Readers come to digital work with expectations formed by Print
Knowledge of letter forms
Print conventions
Print literary modes
Build on these expectations
Modifies them
Transforms them
Characteristics of
Electronic Literature
Created and performed within a context of
networked and programmable media
films
animations
digital arts
graphic design
electronic visual culture
A vast proportion of Electroninc Literature has
no words
has
visual
components
has
sonic
effects
computer games
Interpenetrated by
code
Cannot be accessed till it is
executed by code
Structure of
genre
determined by structure of code
known by the softwares used to create them
Evolution
Early works
blocks of text ("
lexia
")
limited graphics
limited animations
limited colours
limited sound
Best understood as continuation of experimental print literature
Introduces temporal and logical divisions between writer and reader different from those in print
behaviours/ actions/ sounds/ words/ images
all encoded as bits
as voltage differences
transliteral morphing
John Cayley:
riverIsland
multimodality
Stephanie Strickland:
"The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot"
Not a web version but an entirely different artistic production
Distinction between
scriptons
strings as they appear to readers
textons
strings as they exist in the text
poietics
poetry
"poiisis"
making
Freedom
Codex
Reader free to go backward or forward or open the book wherever she pleases
Hyperlink
looping structure results in repetition forced on the reader
elements of hypertext existed in print
Footnotes
Endnotes
Cross-references
Use of Markup Language
Print texts also use markup language
paragraphing
italics
indentation
line breaks
has close affinities to commercial interests of software companies
Archive
Fluid nature of digital media
paper can last for centuries
electronic literature routinely becomes unplayable
need to develop cross-platform availability
develop adequate metadata
Platforms and Types
Storyspace
Michael Joyce:
afternoon: a story
limited colours
cannot handle sound
Narratives from a collection of data repositories
Caitlin Fisher:
These Waves of Girls
Interactive Fiction
stronger game elements
Games have narrative components
User interprets in order to configure
Primary interest is narrative
User configures in order to interpret
Alternating game play with novelistic elements
Emily Short:
Savoir-Faire
Jon Ingold:
The Intercept
Donna Leishman:
Deviant
Email novels
popular in the 1990s
Cell Phone novels
Locative Narratives
(GPS enabled)
Jane Cardiff:
The Missing Voice
User listens to a Audio files
Keyed to locations in London
Route takes 45 minutes to complete
Jane Cardiff:
Her Long Black Hair
Central Park, New York City
Included
photographs
and audio
CAVE
Wardrip-Fruin:
Screen
Local file
Youtube
nonsense words
chaotic phrases
stream across the screen
words peel off walls and move into three dimensional space
user tries to bat the words back but more words peel off
shakes the reader out of accustomed place of reading
Very expensive equipment
Site-specific
Interactive drama
performed for live audiences
gallery spaces
may combine remote actors
Electronic Poetry
Pequeno Glazier:
White Faced Bromeliads
Uses Java Sript
New text generated every ten seconds
Combination of English and Spanish
Challenges hegemonic position of English in digital art
Generative Art
Algorithm used to generate texts
according to a randomized scheme
scramble and rearrange preexisting texts
Regime Change
Jim Andrews:
Stir Fry Texts
User manipulated texts
Code Work
Human language formatted as Machine language
Flash Poem
sequential screens
little or no user intervention
Robert Kendall:
"Faith"
layering letters to create new meanings
YHCHI:
Nippon
Ergodic Literature
texts in which non-trivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text
Textual criticism
Drucker and McGann:
The Ivanhoe Game
invites users to use textual evidence for creative interpolations
Cardplay
virtual playing cards to create the script of a play