ELO Elects New President and Secretary

In last week’s Board meeting Jeff Ballowe, who has served as ELO’s Board of Directors President since the beginning of the organization, passed the baton to Marjorie Luesebrink, who will begin her role as President on January 1. Board member Rob Swigart will become the new ELO Secretary.

The Board expressed a deep appreciation for Jeff’s dedication, guidance, and foresight throughout his service as President. Marjorie Luesebrink writes: “Jeff’s talent and inspiration have guided our organization from the first glimmerings and will continue to inform our direction and success. Jeff was central to the initial process of incubating, defining, and forming the original ELO….. He brought the dreams we had for ELO into realization. …Jeff has been a trusted navigator through the changes. At each turning point, Jeff has helped us re-shape our ability to thrive and keep our goals clear.

“….As we conclude 2002, we are particularly grateful to Jeff for his legacy…. This year our conference, “State of the Arts,” brought together many of the most engaged people in our field. In the thoughtful discussion at this event, the question of preserving e-literature occasioned interest, controversy, and a need to address the issue further. The result was the creation of PAD, dedicated to the Preservation, Archiving, and Dissemination of e-literature. Jeff has taken the helm of PAD from the beginning, and, as he eases out of the demands of the ELO presidency (while remaining chief consultant and guru as Past President), he will be increasingly involved with building the infrastructure and engine for PAD.”

Luckily for all involved in ELO, Jeff will remain active and pivotal in the ELO. He will continue to oversee the PAD project, guiding this important, centerpiece effort.

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Unfoldings, Convergence

“Unfoldings: An Exhibition of Information Art and Architectures” will be held in February 2003 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Curator Carolyn Guertin invites submissions of interactive new media unfoldings. Preference will be given to original electronic works created specifically for this exhibit, but previously exhibited works will be considered. Deadline for submissions is December 15!

Covergence seeks submissions for a special issue on “Sexuality and the Internet and/or Virtual Reality,” slated for Summer 2004. Papers are invited on any aspect of this phenomena, with regard to topics such as pornography, oppression, censorship, fetishisation, community building, sexual utopianism, new sexualities etc. Submission deadline is 30 October 2003.

New Media Art Project Network Presents New Work

Fundamental Patterns- Peripheral Basics” is a new online show that includes the solo presentation of Calin Man, who received the “JavaArtist of the Year Award.” “Actual Positions of Italian Netart” features 26 artists. “Focus:x? – {self}_representation” includes “Mirror at the Bottom – artists portraiting themselves” with work by Coco Gordon (New York), Melissa Ulto (New York), Valerie Rose (Tampa,USA).

ELO Site Redesign

ELO is in the process of updating its web presence. UCLA undergraduate artist and designer Gabe Dunne is developing the new site, which will launch soon after the new year.

The ELO website, the PAD (Preservation, Archiving, and Dissemination) webpages, and the ELO Directory will all participate in this Re-Launch. So, look for our new interface and information in the upcoming months!

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Cauldron & Net

Editor Claire Dinsmore released the new version of the journal of the arts & new media, Cauldron & Net. The current issue features author Kathleen Fraser and book artist Inge Bruggeman. Alongside of these features is a choice selection poetry, essays, fiction, visual art, hypermedia work and sound.

ELO’s PAD Members Meet in Santa Fe

ELO’s PAD (Preservation, Archiving, Dissemination) Project is off and running! Members of the PAD committees met in Santa Fe over the weekend to discuss the project and its range, planned future steps and shared information.

In attendence were Jeff Ballowe (Chair of the Operations Committee), Scott Rettberg (Chair of the Archiving/Exhibition Committee), Marjorie Luesebrink (Archiving/Exhibition Committee), Howard Besser (Archiving/Exhibition Committee), Alan Divack (Archiving/Exhibition Committee), Alan Liu (Chair of the Technology/Software Design Committee), Nick Montfort (Technology/Software Design Committee), Bill Warner (Chair of the Copyright/Open Source Committee), Rob Swigart (Copyright/Open Source Committee), Rob Kendall (Director of the ELO Directory), Melissa Stevenson, and Jessica Pressman. Matt Kirschenbaum (Chair of Academic Dissemination Committee) phoned in to participate.

PAD will soon have a presence on the web, accessible from the ELO website. The PAD webpages will be available by the end of November. Check back soon!

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New E-Lit Creative Writing Fellowship Offered at Brown

Robert Coover writes:
When the award-winning digital artist Talan Memmott went to the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Brown University this fall as an MFA candidate in electronic writing, something new was happening. He followed upon such previous e-lit luminaries as Bobby Arellano, Shelley Jackson, Mary Kim Arnold, Mark Amerika, Matt Derby, Judd Morrissey, and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, but all of these writers were accepted as graduate fiction writers, not electronic writers. And now the unique fellowship awarded to Memmott has been converted into a permanent annual Creative Writing graduate fellowship in electronic writing, perhaps the first of its kind in the world (any challenges?). It offers tuition and a stipend, partly earned in the second year by teaching workshops, which in the case of those holding this new fellowship will be electronic writing courses, thereby expanding the university’s course offerings in the digital arts. Applicants should follow the existing Creative Writing guidelines, applying to the genre of choice (fiction, poetry, or playwriting) with a clear indication of interest in the digital field. Although there is only one such fellowship at this time, it is hoped that other electronic writers might, through the quality of their writing, be accepted within the traditional genres, thus augmenting the digital community here. In addition to providing print writing samples in one of the three genres (the electronic fellowship is not genre-specific), applicants should submit examples (or documentation) of their electronic writing by way of DVD, CD-ROM, videotape, or web address (URL).

New E-Lit Creative Writing Fellowship Offered at Brown

Robert Coover writes:
When the award-winning digital artist Talan Memmott went to the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Brown University this fall as an MFA candidate in electronic writing, something new was happening. He followed upon such previous e-lit luminaries as Bobby Arellano, Shelley Jackson, Mary Kim Arnold, Mark Amerika, Matt Derby, Judd Morrissey, and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, but all of these writers were accepted as graduate fiction writers, not electronic writers. And now the unique fellowship awarded to Memmott has been converted into a permanent annual Creative Writing graduate fellowship in electronic writing, perhaps the first of its kind in the world (any challenges?). It offers tuition and a stipend, partly earned in the second year by teaching workshops, which in the case of those holding this new fellowship will be electronic writing courses, thereby expanding the university’s course offerings in the digital arts. Applicants should follow the existing Creative Writing guidelines, applying to the genre of choice (fiction, poetry, or playwriting) with a clear indication of interest in the digital field. Although there is only one such fellowship at this time, it is hoped that other electronic writers might, through the quality of their writing, be accepted within the traditional genres, thus augmenting the digital community here. In addition to providing print writing samples in one of the three genres (the electronic fellowship is not genre-specific), applicants should submit examples (or documentation) of their electronic writing by way of DVD, CD-ROM, videotape, or web address (URL).

Review of Stephanie Strickland’s V in Publisher’s Weekly

The following is a quote from a review in Publisher’s Weekly:

“If Brian Kim Stefans’s The Dreamlife of Letters (2000)-a gorgeous send-up of Freud, lettrism and contemporary gender-bending-was the first large-scale poem using the internet animator Flash, then this book by Strickland continues to blaze trails of possibility in a new poetic medium. By putting the soul of this book solely online, Strickland reaches beyond True North (1997), which was developed in both print and hypertext versions, and seeks to fully bridge the gap between print and electronic media. The work’s bound component consists of two sections, “WaveSon.nets” and “Losing L’Una,” printed reversibly (so that either section can be seen as beginning the book, and neither ends it) with a centerfold directing readers to a third, free, interactive section at http://vniverse.com. The printed poems encompass a broad range of thematic concerns-including virginity, body, circuitry, waveforms, wormholes, engineering, parturition, mythology, fractals and witchcraft: “This is hallucinated hearing/ in the service of art, of Arthur’s table,// R2, Artemis,/ and Ursa guarding the Pole./ Welcome, then, Presence, Reflection, Shadow,/ Refraction, She Who Stands,// Gnova, Gnomon, Goose, Ouzel, Orca, Longdark,/ Hardware, Software, Wetware, a Dolphin/ leaping, responding/ to the bare boy on her back.” And as in previous work, Strickland engages with a wealth of scientific, historical and biographical source material, particularly regarding the life and thought of Simone Weil (also the subject of Strickland’s The Red Virgin, 1993). But the point here is the endless combinations created by clicking variously on the Web site’s screen filled with gently twinkling stars, which sets off a process of selection, combination, dissolve, and recombination among lines, phrases and sources in the printed text. Strickland’s interrogation of structure finally outshines her content, but readers will sense that she is also creating space for future work, both by herself and by others, bringing intelligence and legitimacy to a new form.”