Register for the ELO UnConference (Jan 18-19, 2024)

ELO Conference: Access Works
January 18-19, 2024
online

Please join in on our (Un)conference, Access Works! Two days of informal, interactive discussions and workshops to find ways to extend access to electronic literature for all. We will be global and online—come and join the discussion when you are awake!

Electronic literature uses games, images, videos, sounds, links, navigation, and other digital qualities as an essential part of the reading experience. What can we do to make these experiences more accessible: financially, technologically, physically, internationally?

Registration is free with a current Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) membership.

Register for the UnConference

Program

This will be a 24-hour (un)conference with world-wide moderators. See the full schedule: tinyurl.com/ELoJan18-192024. Below are some highlights of what there is to look forward to.

Keynote Interactive Discussions

Access to and from Commercialized Platforms

Lai-Tze Fan will explore the asymmetry of access and accessibility in commercialized computational platforms, including those used to create and support electronic literature. As more and more platforms are restricting users’ and third-party developers’ access to code, databases, and application programming interfaces, Fan discusses social implications that may include misinformation, copyright restrictions, and biases in communication and technological literacy. What kinds of information and knowledge may still be accessed?

Barriers to Electronic Literature Works in India

Shanmugapriya T will address barriers in electronic works within the South Asian realm, with a focus on India. Shanmugapriya T is a Digital Humanities Postdoctoral Scholar at the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies (HCS) at University of Toronto. implications that may include misinformation, copyright restrictions, and biases in communication and technological literacy. What kinds of information and knowledge may still be accessed?

 

Virtual Tours

Microsoft’s Inclusive Tech Lab

microsoft.com/en-us/inclusive-tech-lab

During the tour we will share the history of the lab, explore how we intentionally designed the space to be accessible, discuss our inclusive design process, and showcase a selection of Microsoft’s accessibility hardware and software products.

Electronic Literature Lab’s The NEXT

the-next.eliterature.org

During the tour we will explore the accessible features and works of The NEXT and discuss best practices for accessibility in sharing, archiving, and preserving electronic literature.

Demonstrations

Internet in a box

An innovative hard drive to share knowledge and works in places without the internet.

Inky

inky.com

A free open-source authoring platform for writing branching narratives and dynamic text. The talk will be informed by the research and writing that went into Creating Playable Stories with Ink and Inky, an online open-education resource.

The Worlding Difference Knowledge Platform

revisioncentre.ca

Re•Vision: The Centre for Art and Social Justice will showcase the Worlding Difference Knowledge Platform, a cutting-edge, web-based platform featuring art and scholarship from the Bodies in Translation (BIT) research grant. This lively, digital born, multimedia teaching and learning platform will test the boundaries of multimedia scholarship and academic publishing.

Workshops and Roundtables

Tangled Arts

tangledarts.org

Tangled Arts will lead a workshop on Social Media Accessibility noting the various areas that need attention when creating accessible digital platforms (screen reader compatibility, alt text, image descriptions, audio descriptions, etc.)

Innovative Teaching Techniques for Electronic Literature

By sharing ways in which Electronic Literature lends itself to pedagogical experimentation, this roundtable will allow instructors to learn from one another.

Co-authoring Accessible Bits

ELO’s guide to Accessibility and Spreading the Word with Astrid Ensslin. Accessible Bits is a draft proposal for ensuring electronic literature works are accessible. Electronic literature writers love to play around the edges and push the boundaries of software. How can we engage in innovative practices while ensuring access? How can we spread the word about access and electronic literature? How can we increase visibility through documentation, analysis, and scholarship? Who can we partner with and reach out to?

But wait, there’s more!

We’ll also engage in discussions around low-vision designs (Patrick Lichty), AI issues (Vinicius Marquet), linguistic experiments (David Van Duzer) and so much more! Look forward to the full schedule releasing on December 18, 2023.

CFP: ELO 2024 (Feb 15; July 18-21, 2024)

Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) Conference and Media Festival

2024 – Virtual – Call for Proposals – #ELOnline

SUBMIT NOW!

We invite submissions for presentations, performances, and exhibition pieces at the annual Electronic Literature Organization Conference and Media Arts Festival (ELO), to be hosted fully online July 18-21, 2024 by a team based at the University of Central Florida with collaborators around the world.

ELOnline 2024’s theme is (Un)linked. We particularly encourage submissions that center on the web as a contested platform of community and computational creativity, with attention to both dystopian shifts (such as the slow demise of the platform formerly known as Twitter) and hopeful futures. As part of this theme, we invite submissions across all formats considering the 15th-ish anniversary of Twine and more broadly exploring the trajectories of hypertext and the web as a site of electronic literature making, community, and futures. Topics of particular interest include:

  • Utopian and Dystopian Imaginaries
  • Platform Deaths and Migrations
  • Sustainable Electronic Literature
  • Queer, Feminist, and Anti-Racist Pedagogies and Practices
  • Computational Creativity and Generative AI
  • Twine and Hypertext Fictions
  • Critical Making and E-Lit in Digital Humanities
  • Literary Games and Interactive Fiction Futures
  • Mixed, Alternate, Augmented, and Virtual Realities

Submissions are welcome in the following categories:

  • Panels. Panels or roundtables of 3 to 6 participants are welcome. We encourage groups proposing panels to prioritize engaging formats, rather than simply organizing a series of long talks. Panels will be scheduled live on Zoom in 75 minute blocks. For panel submissions, please provide a 350 – 500-word abstract of the session, anonymized for peer review.
  • Individual Talks. Individual talks (10 to 12 minutes) will be organized into sessions based on common themes. For an individual talk, please provide a 250-300 word individual abstract, anonymized for peer review.
  • Workshops. Workshops focused on specific skills, technologies, platforms, and techniques of interest to practitioners and/or scholars of electronic literature are welcome. For a workshop, please provide a 250-300 word individual abstract, anonymized for peer review, and any details about needs or timeslot requirements.
  • Performances. Due to the online-only format of the conference, all performances should be suitable for Zoom, and participants are particularly encouraged to make use of the distant modality and interface as part of their performance. For performance submissions, please provide a 350 – 500-word artist statement detailing the aesthetic intentions and structure of the piece. Statements should be anonymized for peer review. Performers should keep in mind the constraints of a 10 to 15-minute time slot.
  • Online Exhibition. Due to the online-only format of the conference, all exhibition pieces must be designed for web deployment using web standard technologies and hosted on UCF’s server space. We particularly encourage work engaging thoughtfully with the constraints and affordances of the web, and pointing towards the past, present, and imagined futures of hypertext literature. For exhibition submissions, please provide a 350 – 500-word artist statement detailing the aesthetic intentions and structure of the piece. If available, please provide a URL of the work or a demonstration of the concept in-progress.
  • Experimental Track. The experimental track invites participants to propose alternative platforms and modalities for sessions, ranging from text chat to in-game meetings. Hosts of experimental track sessions are responsible for access and moderation to their proposed platform for the duration of their sessions, and are asked to consider the environmental impact and accessibility of their approach as a means for exploring future conference modalities and opportunities. For experimental track proposals, please provide a 350 – 500-word abstract of the session, anonymized for peer review.

Our submission portal at https://stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2024/ are open January 1st, 2024 through February 15th, 2024. Notice of acceptances will be distributed by March 15h.

All participants will be invited to submit a longer proceedings paper for publication in the UCF STARS repository (indexed via Google Scholar); however, this type of submission is not required. All conference sessions will be recorded and made available open access in the UCF STARS Repository.

 

Cost and Impact

This fully online iteration of ELO is developed in response to concerns raised both within the community and more broadly regarding the environmental impact, accessibility, and affordability of academic conferences. Our approach is intended to reflect an intentional, impact-conscious, approach using established platforms (Zoom, Discord, and the STARS Repository) and minimizing cost both to the organizers and participants.

Membership is not required to submit to the conference. However, all conference participants will be required to join the ELO, with membership fees payable directly to the organization. There is no additional conference registration fee beyond dues: however, those able to do so are encouraged to donate to ELO in lieu of registration.

Questions?

Please direct all queries to the conference co-chairs: Anastasia Salter (anastasia@ucf.edu) and John Murray (jtm@ucf.edu) or exhibition and performance questions to Lyle Skains (lskains@bournemouth.ac.uk)

Save the Date: The ELO 2024 Main Conference is coming!

We’re excited to announce that this year’s Electronic Literature Organization Conference will be fully online July 18-21 2024, hosted by UCF and colleagues from around the world. Our team is committed to crafting an intentional, impact-conscious, conference using established platforms and minimizing cost both to the organizers and participants. We hope this will provide an opportunity to come together (virtually) and reflect on paths forward during difficult times.

Please keep an eye out for our CFP, coming December 1st!

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: ELO AWARDS

The Electronic Literature Organization is proud to offer the following four prestigious awards:

  • The Robert Coover Award for a Work of Electronic Literature,
  • The N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature, and
  • The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Career Achievement Award.
  • The Maverick Award
2023 nominations are currently open through May 1, 2023.  You may self-nominate for the Robert Coover and N. Katherine Hayles awards but not for the Marjorie Luesebrink or Maverick awards.
Submit your nomination here.

Winners will be announced online and in-person at ELO 2023 in Coimbra, Portugal!

The Robert Coover Award for a Work of Electronic Literature is an award given for the best work of electronic literature of any length or genre. Bestowed by the Electronic Literature Organization and funded through a generous donation from supporters and members of the ELO, this annual prize aims to recognize creative excellence. The Prize for 1st Place comes with a $1000 award, with a plaque showing the name of the winner and an acknowledgement of the achievement, and a one-year membership in the Electronic Literature Organization at the Associate Level. One prize for Honorable Mention is awarded and consists of a plaque showing the name of the winner and an acknowledgement of the achievement, and a one-year membership in the Electronic Literature Organization at the Associate Level.

The N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature is an award given for the best work of criticism, of any length, on the topic of electronic literature. Bestowed by the Electronic Literature Organization and funded through a generous donation from N. Katherine Hayles and others, this annual prize recognizes excellence in the field. The Prize for 1st Place comes with a $1000 award, with a plaque showing the name of the winner and an acknowledgement of the achievement, and a one-year membership in the Electronic Literature Organization at the Associate Level. One prize for Honorable Mention is awarded and consists of a plaque showing the name of the winner and an acknowledgement of the achievement, and a one-year membership in the Electronic Literature Organization at the Associate Level.

The Marjorie C. Luesebrink Career Achievement Award honors a visionary artist and/or scholar who has brought excellence to the field of electronic literature and has inspired others to help create and build the field. Bestowed by the Electronic Literature Organization and funded through a generous donation, it comes with a $1000 award that can go directly to the awardee or to a young scholar who would use the funds in support of developing content for online sources about the awardee’s achievements; a plaque showing the name of the winner and an acknowledgement of the achievement; and a one-year membership in the Electronic Literature Organization at the Associate Level.

The Maverick Award is awarded  to an independent spirit: a writer, artist, researcher, programmer, designer, performer, or hybrid creator who does not adhere to a conventional path but creates their own and in so doing makes a singular contribution to the field of electronic literature.

For more information about the Awards, contact Holly Slocum, at holly at eliterature.org.

 

Unconference 17-18 January 2023

As part of the annual New Media Writing Prize, for the first time, we are hosting a fully online 2-day “unconference” symposium, 17-18 Jan 2023, hosted by BU in partnership with with the Prize and the British Library. The Unconference will culminate in the awards evening for the New Media Writing Prize on 18 January 2023.

NMWP Unconference Theme: Social Good

How can we change our world with our digital art and literature?

Our unconference call for proposals sought creative approaches to conference activities: events, works, and activities that aim to serve a social purpose (such as projects aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals): “Digital Literature for Social Good”. Activist projects, works for education and sustainability, events to brainstorm new digital lit approaches to improving society and culture—it’s all fair game. How can we change our world with our art and literature?

Over the past couple of months, we’ve put together a fantastic two days of discussions, workshops, artists’ talks, and brainstorming sessions. (See the schedule here.)

Join us!

Registration is open to those who would like to attend and participate in these creative sessions.

Please also join us for the ultimate event in our NMWP Unconference, the New Media Writing Prize Awards Evening, which is free and open to the public. Our keynote is Deena Larsen, creator of Marble SpringsModern Moral Fairy Tale, and other frequently studied and taught works of electronic literature. The 2021 NMWP winner, Joannes Truyens for Neurocracy, will give a featured talk, and awards will be given for the Chris Meade Memorial Main Prize, the Journalism Prize, Student Prize, and the Opening Up Prize (which is still open for voting here!).

We hope to see you there!

CFP: ELO 2023 Coimbra (Extended Jan 31; July 12-15, 2023)

ELECTRONIC LITERATURE ORGANIZATION 2023 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AND MEDIA ARTS SHOW

OVERCOMING DIVIDES: ELECTRONIC LITERATURE AND SOCIAL CHANGE

JULY 12-15, 2023 – COIMBRA, PORTUGAL

Deadline January 31

(CFP: updated January 20, 2023)

Join us this summer for four days of digital art and scholarship at the ELO 2023 Conference and Media Arts Show in beautiful Coimbra, Portugal, the 12th to the 15th of July.

The 2023 conference, “Overcoming Divides: Electronic Literature and Social Change,” advocates the dismantlement of economic, political, linguistic, and cultural barriers, focusing on the relation between art and society, as well as on the subversive potential of electronic literature.

Art and literature compulsively respond to undergoing socio-political transformations. Whether overtly committed to social causes or inevitably engulfed by waves of change, writers and artists are influenced by dramatic shifts motivated by local or global issues such as climate change, economic crisis, military conflicts, and repressive or coercive government policies. The field of electronic literature, whose continuous reconfiguration is deeply intertwined with technological advancements, is no exception to this pattern. Equipped with the pervasiveness of network technology, as well as with software that can analyze and portray reality with the utmost detail, electronic literature is harnessed with adequate tools to voice environmental and social concerns and to expose oppressive and corrupt regimes. Highly experimental and focused on an introspective journey that aims to explore the creative amplitude of emerging technologies, electronic literature’s self-reflexive nature is also frequently mobilized to defy normative perspectives over literature and art, as well as to challenge deep-rooted cultural misconceptions.

During this conference, we aim to explore how electronic literature uses its critical media approach, as well as its close affinity with computation, to assume a socially engaged stance. In a time when walls are being raised once again, this conference examines electronic literature’s role in the dismantlement of new and old barriers between people.

ELO23 will be held in a national monument (Convento São Francisco), overlooking the University of Coimbra as well as Coimbra’s Uptown and Downtown areas, both designated World Heritage by UNESCO in 2013. Challenging the social asymmetry represented by the uptown/downtown divide, ELO23 will be extended from the university to the entire city center. Performances will be opened to the public, and exhibitions will take place at different locations in the city, thus integrating ELO Conference into Coimbra’s rich cultural life. Remote (online) participation will be limited to the scholarly dimension of the conference.

We welcome scholarly and artistic proposals that explore a connection between electronic literature and the following themes, among others:

  • the role of literature in social change;
  • collaborative platforms and activist software;
  • digital humanities and memory preservation (archive);
  • environmental damage caused by digital technologies;
  • the impact of climate change;
  • language barriers, translation and linguistic diversity;
  • disabilities and accessibility;
  • mental health, trauma and cognitive diversity;
  • social and economic inequality;
  • digital literacy and societal transformation;
  • gender divide and identity diversity;
  • migrations and border enforcement;
  • hybridity, recombination and multilinearity as aesthetics of subversion;
  • documentary forms and nonfiction narrative.

Organizers
Electronic Literature Organization (ELO)
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra (FLUC)

Partners and Sponsors
Center for Portuguese Literature (CLP)
Instituto de Comunicação da NOVA (ICNOVA), Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Programa de Doutoramento em Materialidades da Literatura, Universidade de Coimbra
Universidade Fernando Pessoa (UFP)
Câmara Municipal de Coimbra
Exploratório – Centro Ciência Viva de Coimbra
Museu da Ciência da Universidade de Coimbra
Berkeley Center for New Media

How to submit your proposals

How to submit your proposals

All proposals will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process. Please read the instructions carefully. You may submit only one proposal for each mode of participation (paper/panel; workshop; artwork; performance).

ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS: PANELS AND PAPERS

We welcome submissions for stand-alone papers as well as organized panels. Individual submissions for stand-alone papers should include an abstract (250-350 words), as well as a short list of references (4-6 main works). Individual papers will be presented as part of conference organized panels. Each presentation will be 15 minutes long, followed by a 20-minute Q&A. Please specify in your submission if this presentation will be in person or online.

Three or four-person panels should include a brief overview of the panel’s rationale (100-150 words), as well as individual abstracts of each presentation: abstracts (250-350 words), including a short list of references (4-6 main works). Panels will have a total presentation time of one hour, and should allow for a 20 minute Q&A section. Please specify in your submission whether this panel will be in person or fully online. Hybrid panels will not be supported.

Please submit via Easy Chair <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=elo2023> by January 31, 2023, 11:59pm EST. While proposals should be in English, panels can be presented in other languages. Note that no translation services will be offered. In case of acceptance, abstracts will be included in the program and proceedings.

Participants will be notified of acceptance by February 20, 2023.

WORKSHOPS 

We welcome submissions for hands-on and participatory workshops. Proposals should include a 250-350 word abstract (as well as a short list of references if applicable; 4-6 main works). Please specify in your proposal the structure of the workshop, any tangible outcomes (if any), pedagogical goals, expectations from participants, requirements for participants (previous knowledge, technical expertise, devices needed, etc.). Make sure you describe any technical requirements for your workshop’s implementation at the conference.

All workshops will have an allocated time of 2 hours. Please specify in your submission if this workshop will be in person or online.

Please submit via Easy Chair <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=elo2023> by January 31, 2023, by 11:59pm EST. While proposals should be in English, workshops can be presented in other languages. Note that no translation services will be offered. In case of acceptance, abstracts will be included in the program and proceedings. 

Participants will be notified of acceptance by February 20, 2023.

ARTWORK: EXHIBITION OF DIGITAL WORK
We welcome submissions for two different public exhibitions addressing (1) environmental issues and (2) social issues, i.e., repression, inequality, and segregation.

Please send proposals including an artist statement (250-350 words) detailing the aesthetic intentions, the structure of the piece, and its relationship to the conference and chosen exhibition theme (Exhibition 1 or Exhibition 2). In addition, provide documentation of the work (URLs), author name(s), biographical note(s), and specific technical requirements for display at the exhibition venue.

Please submit via Easy Chair <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=elo2023> by January 31, 2023, 11:59pm EST. Proposals should be in English, but displayed work can be in other languages. In case of acceptance, artist statements will be included in the program and proceedings.

Artists will be notified of acceptance by February 20, 2023.

PERFORMANCES

ELO23 will host two nights of performances open to conference participants and the general public. We welcome performance proposals addressing the conference’s main theme of electronic literature and social change.

Please submit proposals including an artist statement (250-350 words) detailing the aesthetic intentions, the structure of the piece, and its relationship to the conference theme. In addition, provide the author name(s), biographical note(s), and a description (250 words max.) of the nature of the performance, as well as any technical requirements.

Please submit via Easy Chair <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=elo2023> by January 31, 2023, 11:59pm EST. Proposals should be in English, but performances can be in other languages. In case of acceptance, artist statements will be included in the program and proceedings.

Performers will be notified of acceptance by February 20, 2023.

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As with any ELO event, ELO23 will follow the organization’s code of conduct. We are committed to providing an inclusive, equitable, and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, race, class, religion, or linguistic and cultural background. For more information, please refer to https://eliterature.org/about/codeofconduct/

Chairs

Daniela Côrtes Maduro (Universidade de Coimbra)
Manuel Portela (Universidade de Coimbra)
Alex Saum-Pascual (University of California, Berkeley)
Rui Torres (Universidade Fernando Pessoa)

Feel free to contact us: eloconference2023@gmail.com.

Extended Deadline for ELO 2022 Papers

Attention, all ELO 2022 participants with accepted papers:

The full paper submission deadline has been extended to May 2, 2022.

The ELO 2022 Conference accepts both abstracts and full papers. If you input just an abstract in the online form, you will be able to present your work at the Conference, and we will include the abstract in the Conference Guide.

If you also  upload the full paper, we will be glad to include it in the Conference Proceedings.

Use this form: https://forms.gle/tzDDMtiFZaWEWeq99

ELO22 Call for Proposals (May 30-June 1)

ELO22 Call for Proposals

Conference: May 30-June 1, 2022
Deadline: January 7, 2022
#ELOitalia
Submit via EasyChair.

The HStudies Research Group of the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), with the University of Nagoya, Graduate School of Humanities (Japan), the Arab Academic Institute of Education/Arab Union for Internet Writers, the Digital Culture Center of Ciudad de México (Mexico), the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Núcleo de Pesquisas em Informática, Literatura e Linguística and the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazilian Digital Literature Observatory (Brazil), the Pontificio Collegio Gallio (Italy) have collaborated to organize the ELO 2022 International Conference and Media Arts Festival.

The theme for ELO 2022 is E2Lit: Education and Electronic Literature#ELOitalia

We invite artists, researchers, scholars, PhD candidates, experts and practitioners to submit works, papers, case studies, and media artefacts for presentation at the festival and in the different venues of the in-person conference and online workshops and seminars. 

THEME RATIONALE

Our society lives in a moment of complexity, where the exponential emergence of a web-based culture has triggered a different approach in relation to the spaces of communication, relationship, and learning. During the last years, the advent of new personal and wearable devices has favoured the emergence of a new literacy, based on a convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006).

Forms of fiction and literature underwent a process of disembodiment and cross-fertilization during the revolution from the Gutenberg Galaxy — printed paper, mass distribution — to the McLuhan Galaxy — new media, hypertext, collaborative writing — (Castells, 2003). The dimension of literacy has moved from a semiotically-measured geometry (De Saussure, 1916; Hjelmslev, 1969) to a dislocation and a deconstruction of contents and channels that give expression to new products (Derrida, 1974; Landow, 1994; Bolter & Grusin, 1999). The impact of social media on narratology has redefined the meaning of readership and authorship. The author has not only lost their traditional role, but becomes an icon of themself, a collective-minded producer that is self-perceived through the extra-flexed eye of the amniotic network in which they define their narrative experience (De Kerckhove, 2003). 

Literature takes on different roles within the so-called new media. Particularly, digital literature is central to the humanities and to the culture that emerges from the digital environment (Grigar, 2021) and it may play a central role in education too.

Every generation develops blended competencies under the influence of new tools and communication frameworks (Bardi, Ciastellardi, Di Rosario, 2019). For several years now when it comes to storytelling and literature, we have seen cultural references in a continuous process of transformation and redefinition, both because of digital tools available to the public, and because of different emerging channels of dissemination and distribution that are (self)produced in an increasingly massive way. What appears is a different form of understanding and learning, and a new form of education for people at any level and at all ages (not limited, thus, to a scholarly perspective).

This conference seeks to shed light on digital literature according to the epistemological crisis of authorship and the new dimension of participation and relationship offered by both the Web and new media. The conference will offer keynote speeches and talks to examine specific case studies. Moving from the state of the art, the aim is to investigate the interdisciplinary relations in the field of electronic literature, in order to recognize patterns of theories, technologies, and social dimensions of the phenomena to offer a critical toolkit to understand and map out the emerging knowledge and practices created by this field and the multifaceted dimension of education.

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following conference’s tracks:

  • E-lit as Digital Humanities: Digital layers, multifaceted comprehension patterns and critical thought to redefine the e-lit dimension in educative environments.
  • Education beyond the (e)book: The possibilities of participatory culture in educational environments. How can e-lit promote values like democracy, pluralism, participation, diversity and sustainability…
  • Coding education: the use of e-lit to set up essential skills to adapt to the digital age.
  • E-practitioning: Literature and digital practices at crossroads.
  • We are platforms: Rethinking e-lit and its educative role and collaborative practices after the emergence of the pandemic.
  • AIrchive and UXPoetry: E-lit and its preservation between Artificial Intelligence and the need of a new poetic of user experience (UX). 
  • Digital Heterotopies: The possibilities within e-lit to present, criticize and denounce everyday social rhetoric.
  • Education on diversity and sustainability: E-lit as cultural practice to educate about integration, gender respectfulness and global sustainability. 
  • Politics and Policies: Education on e-lit as a framework for civic engagement and civil society.
  • STEAM-punk: The cross-fertilization among STEAM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics) and the different approaches to e-lit culture. 
  • Polysemy and synaesthesia: E-lit forms and works to open a different perspective of meaning and knowledge across multisensorial and plural dimensions of understanding. 
  • Electronic Opificium: The Aesthetics of Tech. Experiments and handcrafted works to revitalize the idea behind literature and its digital possibilities.

Interdisciplinary contributions are especially welcome.

Accepted abstracts will be presented in the parallel sessions of the Conference and full papers will be published in the proceedings of the Conference. The conference organizing committee will provide a selection of the best papers to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Submit via EasyChair.

Conference Talks in COMO (ITALY) & online

Submissions are welcome across the following formats: 

  • Paper (15 min – a presentation of a single paper by one or more authors – 500 words abstract). Paper submissions should be at most 3500 words long.
  • Poster (1- page poster – format A2). 250-word (max) proposal.
  • Panel (90 min – a proposal for a complete panel including 3 or 4 separate papers on the same general topic – 250 word overview plus 250 word individual abstracts).
  • Lightning Talks  (90 min – a proposal for a complete set of lightning talks, including 4-6 participants – 250 word overview plus 50-100 word descriptions of individual  5-7 minute talks).

Submissions should include the title of the submission, the name(s) and affiliation(s) of contributor(s), biographical notes for contributors, and a 500-word abstract.

The ELO22 conference will feature different synchronous and asynchronous venues. Online pre- and post-conference workshops and seminars will be organized in Japan, Israel, Finland, and Brazil.

For the in-person conference talks can be given in English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese.

The deadline for submissions is January 7, 2022. Submissions will be peer-reviewed by the members of the scientific committee.

Submit via EasyChair.

Festival Exhibition in Como (ITALY) & online

We invite proposals of digital artworks and e-lit pieces to be featured as part of the in-person ELO Conference and Art Festival on E2Lit: Education and Electronic Literature.

All forms of electronic literature, multimodal writing, digital art, playful narrative, literary games, hypertext, and screen fiction will be considered. 

Please, be detailed on any special requirements. Submissions should provide the following information: 

Author name(s) and biographical note(s); 500-word artist statement detailing the aesthetic intentions, the structure of the piece, and its relationship to the conference theme. 

If you would like your work to be considered for a performance, please indicate that on the submission with an additional description (250 words max) of the nature of the performance as well as any technical requirements.

Statements should be anonymized for peer review. Technical specification providing exact details of what will be required to facilitate the work’s inclusion in the exhibition. This should include information on the materials, technologies, and spatial requirements necessary, and what the artist will require the gallery to provide. Please, be as detailed as possible regarding physical components and needs, including wireless internet. 

Pieces accepted to either exhibition will need to be delivered (physically or virtually) prior to the exhibit’s opening, and will remain on display after the conference ends before being returned to the artist.  

The deadline for submissions is January 7, 2022.

Please, note, do to time constraints, participants may only appear in the program twice, including combinations of artworks and talks.

Submit via EasyChair.

For more information, contact Giovanna Di Rosario ELO 2022 Chair, e2lit@hstudies.net or giovanna.dirosario@hstudies.net 

Partnerships

Pontificio Collegio Gallio (Italy)

Politecnico di Milano (Italy)

University of Jyväskylä (Finland)

The Arab Academic Institute of Education/Arab Union for Internet Writers

Nagoya University (Japan)

Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil)

Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil)

Digital Culture Center of Ciudad de México (Mexico)

 

New Maverick Award goes to Talan Memmott

The ELO is proud to announce the recipient of a brand new prize: The Maverick Award.  This first ever award goes to Talan Memmott.

The Maverick is awarded  to an independent spirit: a writer, artist, researcher, programmer, designer, performer, or hybrid creator who does not adhere to a conventional path but creates their own and in so doing makes a singular contribution to the field of electronic literature.

As founder of an alternative learning institution, creator of one of the first online journals of e-lit, author of celebrated works of e-lit, scholar of digital media, and an artist who challenged every medium he worked in, Memmott is a singular figure in the world of electronic literature.

Throughout his career, Talan Memmott has blazed a path in digital literature.   He is the author of over 40 electronic literary works, and the novel My Molly De parted (Free Dogma Press). His works, perhaps epitomized by Lexia to Perplexia, have been the subject of acclaim and extensive critical analysis.

Memmott is also the Founder and President of UnderAcademy College, an unaccredited undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate anti-degree institution.  UnderAcademy College situates itself as a shadow-academic environment offering alternative courses and anti-degree programs in a variety of subjects. This alternative site of education has offered one-of-a-kind courses, such as How to Read and Write Fake News: Journullism in the Age of Trump, which Memmott co-taught.

Memmott holds an MFA in Literary Arts/Electronic Writing from Brown University and a PhD in Interaction Design/Digital Rhetoric and Poetics from Malmö University.

Memmott has taught and been a researcher in digital art, digital design, electronic writing, new media studies, and digital culture at University of California Santa Cruz; University of Bergen; Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden; California State University Monterey Bay; the Georgia Institute of Technology; University of Colorado Boulder; and the Rhode Island School of Design. He is currently Associate Professor of Creative Digital Media at Winona State University.

He has collaborated on many digital projects, including netprovs, such as, “I Work or the Web,” and the 2018 Congress of Fakes at ELO in Montreal.  He has served up computationally generated gastropoetic marvels with Scott Rettberg as part of ELO Cork and ELOrlando.

Memmott has  also given extensive service to ELO, having held a position on the Board, including Vice President.  He was a co-editor for the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2 (ELO). He was also a co-editor of the ELMCIP Anthology of European Electronic Literature.

During the award ceremony ELO Vice President Caitlin Fisher offered an origin story for the award: The idea came up at the wake for Damon Loren Baker for an award recognizing, the artists and scholars, like Damon, “amazing people, as part of the ELO Community, who are not likely to win the other awards because they are on a crazy, brilliant, genius path all their own.”

In the future, the Maverick Award is to be nominated and elected by the Literary Advisory Board. The award: $500 and a bottle of St. Germain.  Rettberg explained that the new award would go to someone “who took an unconventional path and who really colored outside of the lines, and of course, Damon is part of this prize, which is a bottle of Saint Germain, Damon’s favorite liqueur.”