“Reading Digital Literature” at Brown University, October 4-7

If you are near Brown University this week from October 4-7, consider attending “Reading Digital Literature,” a colloquium organized by Roberto Simanowski. A description and the website follow.

A curtain of tiny screens with live quotations from Internet chat; stories generated by computer programs; narratives generated by their readers; words that disappear; texts that reveal themselves depending on their readers’ position. How shall we read such moving letters? How do we catch their meanings? How can they make us feel? The conference “Reading Digital Literature” brings together ten specialists from the USA and Europe to search for answers through in-depth analyses.

For details on the agenda, concept, etc., please visit: Reading Digital Literature

Grand Text Auto — Exhibition, Symposium, and Performance

October 4th and 5th, at UC Irvine, an exhibition opening, symposium, and performance features the work of ELO Vice-Presidents Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort and ELO Co-Founder Scott Rettberg.


EXHIBITION: Grand Text Auto

LOCATION: The Beall Center for Art and Technology, UC Irvine

OPENING RECEPTION: October 4th, 6:30pm-9:00pm, Beall Center

SYMPOSIUM: October 5th, 1:00-5:00pm, Studio Art Bldg. 712, Room 160, UC Irvine

PERFORMANCE: October 5th, 6:00-8:00pm, Winifred Smith Hall, UC Irvine

GENERAL CONTACT: (949) 824-4339 or http://beallcenter.uci.edu

OVERVIEW

Many blogs have become books – from The Baghdad Blog to Belle de Jour. But Grand Text Auto is the first blog ever to become a gallery exhibition. It opens October 4th and runs through December 15th at UC Irvine’s Beall Center for Art and Technology. The exhibition features the work of Grand Text Auto members Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Mary Flanagan, Michael Mateas, Andrew Stern, Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg, and their collaborators.

Grand Text Auto is a blog about the potential of digital media, from literary websites to experimental computer games. At the exhibition, the blog members will put these ideas into practice, showing a variety of cutting edge works. Some use the latest in artificial intelligence technology, such as Mateas and Stern’s interactive drama Facade” of which The New York Times says, “This is the future of video games.” The Beall exhibition will feature the first public showing of a life-sized “augmented reality” version of Facade, created in collaboration with Georgia Tech’s GVU Center. Virtual reality is also on display, as with Wardrip-Fruin’s collaborative work Screen, a literary game played with 3D text” never seen before outside of a research lab and presented with support from UC San Diego’s Center for Research in Computing and the Arts. On the other hand, some works in the exhibition use decidedly do-it-yourself techniques, such as Montfort and Rettberg’s Implementation, an experimental novel distributed around the world on mailing labels. Others are quirky, such as Flanagan’s [giantJoystick], a replica Atari 2600 joystick so large that two people must work together to play (this has its North American debut at the Beall show).

In addition to the gallery show, the members of Grand Text Auto are working together with the Beall Center to present a live symposium and performance evening, both on October 5th. The afternoon symposium (1-5 p.m.) will discuss the power of collaborative blogging, new directions for computer games, and the place of language in digital media. The evening performance (6-8 p.m.) will feature the disturbing and humorous interactive cinema experience Terminal Time (which automatically creates outrageously biased documentaries of the past millennium) and a live performance of the award-winning hypertext novel The Unknown (which tells the tale of a rollicking cross-country book tour). Parking for these events is available in the Student Parking structure at the corner of Campus Drive and West Peltason.

Online, Grand Text Auto (http://grandtextauto.org) is a blog with more than 200,000 visitors a month, collectively authored by six artists and scholars. Offline, Grand Text Auto members have been shown in major art museums, been written about in leading national periodicals, and shipped games that have met wide acclaim and sold millions of copies. The Grand Text Auto exhibition is the first time that these artists will show their work together. Delve into Grand Text Auto’s digital depths October 4 – December 15, 2007 (closed November 22-26) and witness the live debut of blog-meets-reality.

Purple Blurb, a New Digital Reading Series at MIT

This Fall, Purple Blurb, a new reading series for digital writing, is beginning in Cambridge at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The series is sponsored by the MIT programs in Writing and Humanistic Studies and Comparative Media Studies along with local arts organization Turbulence and the Electronic Literature Organization. The series features readings and presentations by digital writers of all sorts – poets, fiction writers, writers of nonfiction and criticism, and others engaged in language, narrative, and letters on the computer. The readings will start at 6pm at MIT in 14N–233 (second floor of building 14, in the wing that is across the courtyard from the Hayden Library). A flyer for the series lists the four events for this Fall, which are presentations by:

September 18
Robert KendallClues, Faith, Logozoa, Pieces

October 16
Vika ZafrinRolandHT, Words’ End

November 13
Barbara BarryMindful Documentary, One Degree Narratives

December 4
Andrew PlotkinShade, So Far, The Dreamhold, Delightful Wallpaper

Contact Nick Montfort (username nickm, domain nickm.com) if you have any questions about the series.

CFP for Visionary Landscapes: Electronic Literature Organization 2008 Conference

Visionary Landscapes: Electronic Literature Organization 2008 Conference

Thursday, May 29-Sunday, June 1, 2008
Vancouver, Washington

Sponsored by Washington State University Vancouver & the Electronic Literature Organization

Dene Grigar & John Barber, Co-Chairs

http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/dtc/elo08.html
Producing a work of electronic literature entails not only practice in the literary arts but sometimes also the visual, sonic, and the performative arts; knowledge of computing devices and software programs; and experience in collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and hybridity. In short, electronic literature requires its artists to see beyond traditional approaches and sensibilities into what best can be described as visionary landscapes where, as Mark Amerika puts it, artists “celebrate an interdisciplinary practice from a literary and writerly perspective that allows for other kinds of practice-based art-research and knowledge sharing.”

To forward the thinking about new approaches and sensibilities in the media arts, The Electronic Literature Organization and Washington State University Vancouver’s Digital Technology and Culture program are inviting submissions to the Electronic Literature Organization 2008 Conference to be held from May 29 to June 1, 2008 in Vancouver, Washington.

“Visionary Landscapes: Electronic Literature Organization 2008 Conference” is interested in papers that explore forms of digital media that utilize images, sound, movement, and user interaction as well as––or in lieu of––words and that explore how we read, curate, and critique such works. Topics may include:

• New, non-screen, environments for presenting multimedia writing and/or electronic literature
• Research labs and new media projects
• Strategies for reading electronic literary works
• Curating digital art
• Innovative approaches to critiquing electronic literature
• Emerging technologies for the production of multimedia writing and/or electronic literature
• Building audience for new media literary works and writing
• Digital, literary performances
• Publishing for print or electronic media connecting literature and the arts through common archiving and metatag strategies
• Artistic methods of composition used in intermedia storytelling(improvisation, collaboration, sample and remix, postproduction art, codework, hactivism, etc.

In conjunction with the three-day conference, there will be a juried Media Arts Show. Along with prizes for the most notable work, selected artists will be awarded bursaries to attend the conference featured at the show. Submission guidelines will be posted beginning August 15, 2007 on the conference website.

The keynote speaker is internationally renowned new media artist and writer, Mark Amerika, named a “Time Magazine 100 Innovator.” His artwork has been exhibited at the Whitney Biennial, the ICA in London, the Walker Art Center, and the Denver Art Museum and has been the topic of four retrospectives. Amerika is also the author of many books, including his recently published collection of artist writings entitled META/DATA: A Digital Poetics (The MIT Press), founder of the Alt-X Network, and publisher of the electronic book review. He currently holds the position of Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Deadline for Submissions for Presentations: November, 30, 2007
Notification of Acceptance: December 30, 2007

Vancouver, Washington, located in the Pacific Northwest just across the Columbia River from Portland, OR, is about a six hour drive south of Vancouver, Canada and three hours south of Seattle, Washington. The conference day events will take place at Washington State University Vancouver, a Tier One research Institution built in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains with views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Saint Helens. The official conference hotel is the Hilton Vancouver located in downtown Vancouver, Washington with easy access to restaurants, bars, and evening conference events. Special rates have been negotiated for conference attendees. A conference shuttle will take attendees to and from the campus daily. The recommended airport is PDX at Portland, which is about a seven minute drive to downtown Vancouver, WA.

The cost of the conference is $150; graduate students and non-affiliated artists pay only $100. Conference registration covers access to all events, the reception, some meals, and shuttle transportation.

For more information, contact Dene Grigar at Grigar@vancouver.wsu.edu.

The Chronicle of Higher Education Covers ELO Open Mic & Mouse

The Chronicle of Higher Education has devoted three pieces to the ELO/MITH Open Mic & Mouse event that was held as a kick-off to the Electronic Literature Symposium that was held at the University of Maryland in early May.

Click here for an article covering the event. Below the lead picture, you’ll find a link to the video story. And, on the right-hand side of the screen, under “Related Material,” you’ll see a link for an audio interview with N. Katherine Hayles.

Registration Open for The Future of Electronic Literature

Registration is now open for the Electronic Literature Organization and MITH’s May 3rd public symposium on The Future of Electronic Literature. Keynotes are N. Katherine Hayles (UCLA) and Kenneth Thibodeau (National Archives), but that’s just the beginning of the list of terrific people who will be in attendance.

Registration is free for members of the Electronic Literature Organization, but all attendees must still register. Space is limited, so reserve early!

May 2-3: MITH/ELO Symposium on the Future of Electronic Literature

MITH and the Electronic Literature Organization are pleased to announce a public symposium on the Future of Electronic Literature, May 2 and 3 at the University of Maryland, College Park, with co-sponsorship from the University Libraries and Department of English. The keynote speakers will be Kate Hayles (John Charles Hillis Professor of Literature at UCLA) and Kenneth Thibodeau (Director of Electronic Records Archives Program, National Archives and Records Administration). In addition to the keynotes and associated panels, we are planning an electronic literature slam on the evening of May 2. A number of ELO Board members and other writers and artists will be in attendance; watch the Web site linked above for more details soon, but in the meantime save the date!

E-Lit Meetup at the MLA Convention

We’re writing to invite you to a meetup and happy hour at this year’s MLA for those with interests in electronic literature, new media arts, digital humanities, text-encoding, and related areas. We will have CD-ROMs to offer you of the Electronic Literature Organization’s latest free publication, the Electronic Literature Collection volume one. We’ll be meeting at the lobby bar of the Marriott Convention Center (the rotunda bar) at 5pm on Friday Dec. 29.

–Alan Liu, Nick Montfort

AUTOSTART Festival in Philly, Oct 26 & 27

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:.. = .= ..: d1scuss1on – open house – workshop – read1ng – tour – jam
:
.
: AUTOSTART – A Festival of Digital Literature
:
. Kelly Writers House, October 26 & 27
: Celebrating the Electronic Literature Collection, volume 1
: MACHINE series # Electronic Literature Organization
: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/wh/involved/series/machine/
:
:=:#=:.#=::==.=….:…> Charles Bernstein
.#.=..=:#.=::===…:.:.> Jim Carpenter
::.=.==…::==:.=#:…#> Mary Flanagan
:#.:…:.:=#..=.=.=:==:> N. Katherine Hayles
:.=#:.===.:.:::.=..#..=> Daniel C. Howe
:=#:::=:.#:=.=.=….=..> Aya Karpinska
..:.==#==::#==:……:.> Aaron Levy
:#=.=..:..=.::=::#..==.> Marjorie Luesebrink
::=:=:…:=..#.==#.=.:.> Nick Montfort
…..:==::.=.#:.=.==#.:> Stuart Moulthrop
:=…=#:…:::=#===..:.> Jason Nelson
:#..=.==..:=.=..:#.=:::> Jena Osman
:..=.=.=.=#:=:#.:…=::> Bob Perelman
:::=..=:.===.:#:.=#….> Aaron A. Reed
:….:.:.===#=.:=:#=..:> Scott Rettberg
.==:.=…:..#.::=:.=.=#> Ron Silliman
.=…:=#.=:..=:..#.==::> Brian Kim Stefans
:#.::…=:.:.==.==:..#=> Stephanie Strickland
…=..=#=::=.=..:.:=:.#> Noah Wardrip-Fruin
:
: All events except the tour of Slought take place at the
: Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, University of Pennsylvania,
. Philadelphia, PA
:
: THURSDAY Oct 26
:
: 1:00-2:30 pm Discussion (Arts Cafe)
. A conversation about writing and literature in the digital
. age, featuring four prominent poets:
: > Charles Bernstein – University of Pennsylvania
: > Jena Osman – Temple University
: > Bob Perelman – University of Pennsylvania
: > Ron Silliman – Silliman’s Blog
:
: 2:30-5:30 pm The Open Machine Open House
: Electronic literature available for reading and discussion
: throughout the downstairs area, with guided tours at
. 3:30 pm & 4:30 pm by two Electronic Literature Collection,
: volume 1 edtitors:
: > Stephanie Strickland – New York City
: > Nick Montfort – University of Pennsylvania
:
: 4:00-5:30 pm Wet Digits Workshop
: An introductory workshop for those new to HTML and digital
: writing, led by the editors of The New Media Reader:
. > Noah Wardrip-Fruin – University of California, San Diego
: > Nick Montfort – University of Pennsylvania
: [[[ RSVP REQUIRED: contact wh@writing.upenn.edu ]]]
:
: 5:30-7:30 pm Reading (Arts Cafe)
: Presentations of electronic literature by Electronic
: Literature Collection, volume 1 contributors:
: > Mary Flanagan – Hunter College
: > Aya Karpinska – Brown University
: > Stuart Moulthrop – University of Baltimore
: > Aaron A. Reed – Salt Lake City
. > Noah Wardrip-Fruin – University of California, San Diego
.
: FRIDAY Oct 27
:
: 10:30-11:30 am Tour of Slought Foundation (4017 Walnut St)
. Slought Foundation broadly encourages new futures for
: contemporary life through public programs featuring
: international artists and theorists.
: > Aaron Levy – Slought Foundation Executive Director
:
. 1:00-4:00 pm Electronic Writing Jam (Room 202)
: A time to write collaboratively and to discuss forms,
: techniques, and technologies, hosted by:
: > Jim Carpenter – University of Pennsylvania
: Participants include readers and editors from AUTOSTART’s
: Thursday program as well as:
: > Daniel C. Howe – Brown University
: > Brian Kim Stefans – Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
: Participants by videoconference include two editors of
: the Electronic Literature Collection, volume 1:
. > N. Katherine Hayles – University of California, Los Angeles
: > Scott Rettberg – University of Bergen, Norway
: An editor of volume 2 and volume 1 contributor:
: > Marjorie Luesebrink – Irvine Valley College
: And volume 1 contributor:
. > Jason Nelson – Griffith University, Australia
: [[[ RSVP REQUIRED: contact wh@writing.upenn.edu ]]]
:
:::::::.:::::.::::…::::::::.:::::.::::.:::::::.:::::::.:.::::::::::::
:
: The Electronic Literature Collection, volume 1 is edited by
: N. Katherine Hayles # Nick Montfort
: Scott Rettberg # Stephanie Strickland
: This volume features 60 digital selections by
: Jim Andrews # Ingrid Ankerson # babel # Giselle Beiguelman
: Philippe Bootz # Patrick-Henri Burgaud # J.R. Carpenter
: John Cayley # M.D. Coverley (Marjorie Luesebrink) # Martha Deed
. David Durand # escha # Damien Everett # Sharif Ezzat
: Edward Falco # Mary Flanagan # Marcel Fr’emiot
: Elaine Froehlich # geniwate # Loss Peque~no Glazier
: Kenneth Goldmith # Tim Guthrie # Richard Holeton
: Daniel C. Howe # Jon Ingold # Shelley Jackson # Michael Joyce
: Aya Karpinska # Robert Kendall # Deena Larsen
: Kerry Lawrynovicz # Donna Leishman # Bill Marsh # Talan Memmott
: Maria Mencia # Judd Morrissey # Brion Moss # Stuart Moulthrop
. Jason Nelson # Marko Niemi # Millie Niss # Lance Olsen
: Jason Pimble # William Poundstone # Kate Pullinger
: Melinda Rackham # Aaron A. Reed # Shawn Rider # Jim Rosenberg
: Megan Sapnar # Dan Shiovitz # Emily Short # Alan Sondheim
: Brian Kim Stefans # Reiner Strasser # Dan Waber
: Noah Wardrip-Fruin # Rob Wittig # Nanette Wylde
: The Collection will be available on the web and on CD-ROM under a
: Creative Commons license – see https://eliterature.org
:
:.=.=##.##=:.#.##:#=.##:.#.:..=.::.##.:=:.=#=:.#…..#=#.:.#…:##….=:

Upgrade! Boston: Robert Kendall + Michael Sheridan, Sept. 26, 7:00 PM

If you are in the Boston area on September 26, 2006, be sure and try to attend UPGRADE! BOSTON, where ELO board member Robert Kendall will be one of the two main speakers. Full details follow.

WHEN: September 26, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
WHERE: Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Drive, at the corner of Prospect Street, Cambridge. Free parking in the lot on the corner or take the T to Central Square and walk 1 block.

ROBERT KENDALL

Robert Kendall has been writing electronic poetry since 1990. He is the author of the book-length hypertext poem “A Life Set for Two” (Eastgate Systems) and other electronic works published at BBC Online, Iowa Review Web, Cortland Review, Eastgate Hypertext Reading Room, Cauldron & Net, and other web sites. His electronic poetry has been exhibited at many venues in the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, and he has given interactive readings of his work in many cities. Kendall has taught electronic poetry and fiction for the New School University’s online program since 1995. He runs the literary web site Word Circuits and the Electronic Literature Organization’s directory, and is co-developer of Word Circuits Connection Muse, a hypertext tool for poets and fiction writers.

MICHAEL SHERIDAN

Michael Sheridan’s videosonic art and documentary films deal with themes of survival, sustainability, and the tipping point between order and chaos. His interest in these issues arises from his experiences of families, institutions, and societies teetering on the verge of collapse or recovering from conflict and disaster. Sheridan’s artwork has been exhibited at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Boston CyberArts Festival and the GASP gallery in Boston. His work on documentaries has appeared on PBS, The Learning Channel, The Discovery Network and National Geographic TV. Sheridan has received numerous awards including those from the National Education Media Network, the Columbia International Film and Video Festival, the United Nations Association Film Festival, and EarthVision.

Upgrade! Boston is curated by Jo-Anne Green for Turbulence in partnership with Art Interactive. It is one of 22 nodes currently active in Upgrade! International, an emerging network of autonomous nodes united by art, technology, and a commitment to bridging cultural divides. If you would like to present your work or get involved, please email jo@turbulence.org.