The Electronic Literature Organization, or ELO, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization composed of an international community that includes writers, artists, teachers, scholars, and developers. The Organization’s focus is new literary forms that are made to be read on digital systems, including smartphones, Web browsers, and networked computers.

ELO is coming to MIT with the support of MIT’s world-renowned Comparative Media Studies (CMS) program. CMS, which has an undergraduate major, a graduate program, and several large-scale research projects, is committed to the art of thinking across media forms, theoretical domains, cultural contexts, and historical periods. The program considers media change and the rise of new forms of writing in different eras, including our current one. ELO’s supporting and collaborating organizations at MIT include the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences; the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies; the Council for the Arts at MIT; Hyperstudio; the Literature Section; and the Singapore/MIT GAMBIT Game Lab.

There is already a great deal of work in electronic literature ongoing at MIT, including that being done by ELO President Nick Montfort and ELO Director Fox Harrell, who are both on the MIT faculty. The Boston area is home to several other ELO directors and to a great deal of digital art activity, thanks to organizations such as the Boston Cyberarts Festival, Turbulence.org, the AXIOM Gallery, the Upgrade! Boston series, and the People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction.

“ELO and MIT have already been successful in advancing the state of the art in electronic literature,” said Montfort. “Now, by working together, we have a chance to sustain ELO’s core operations and projects and to further MIT’s existing commitment to electronic literature. ELO’s coming to MIT will be an chance to find new opportunities for collaboration, here in Cambridge and beyond.”

ELO was founded in 1999 by novelist Robert Coover, electronic author Scott Rettberg, and Internet business leader Jeff Ballowe. The Organization was operated from an office in Chicago until it moved to UCLA in 2001. In 2006, ELO’s headquarters came to the University of Maryland’s Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities (MITH). “ELO’s relationships with its academic hosts have been extremely productive for the organization,” said Montfort. “We’re very grateful for the ways that UCLA and MITH have helped us to accomplish our mission, sustain and add projects, and develop as an organization. With work from ELO’s directors, members, and collaborators, we’re now going to try to establish a long-term home for ELO at MIT that will allow the organization and the campus to continue to benefit from their collaboration for many years.”

ELO’s main projects are currently a biannual conference, the Electronic Literature Directory, the Electronic Literature Collection (the second volume of which was released this past Spring: http://collection.eliterature.org) and the eliterature.org site.

The posts mention ELO and ELO co-founder Robert Coover along with works by Jay Bushman and others. There’s even a mention of ELO-President Nick Montfort, alluding to his work on his IF platform Curveship.

Check out the posts and join the conversation as New Scientist readers discover e-lit.

The posts:

• Storytelling 2.0: The digital death of the author
• Storytelling 2.0: Exploring the news game
• Storytelling 2.0: Open your books to augmented reality
• Storytelling 2.0: Adventures in a virtual reality cave
• Storytelling 2.0: The epic poet of Twitter
• Storytelling 2.0: When new narratives meet old brains
• Storytelling 2.0: Read e-lit for yourself
• Storytelling 2.0: Metamorphosis of the storybook

Here you will find sample poems, reviews, and recorded readings, along with endorsements from Marjorie Perloff, Rachel Loden, and Brian Kim Stefans,

Stephanie has contributed immeasurably to the production and promotion of electronic literature through her work as a poet, as a critic and theorist, and most recently as a co-editor of the Electronic Literature Collection, Vol. I.

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.

But wouldn’t it be nice to get our arms around this thing, to get a sense of the full breadth and scope of what’s called digital literature?

The 60 works in the first volume of the Electronic Literature Collection (ELC) (http://collection.eliterature.org) – edited by N. Katherine Hayles, Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg and Stephanie Strickland – show the wide range of forms that exist within the genre.

The column describes the keyword index and discusses four of the pieces included in volume one of the Collection in detail.

The ELC has recently been reviewed internationally in a number of publications including a review in El Pais by Stefano Caldano, a review by Tim Wright in Realtime Arts, a review by Edward Picot in the Hyperliterature Exchange, and a review by Jesper Olsson in Svenska Dagbladet.

Neil Fraistat, director of MITH, said of the move: “In moving from UCLA to the University of Maryland, the ELO will provide MITH with a unique opportunity for a truly comprehensive program in the Digital Humanities, one that focuses equally on migrating electronically the cultural artifacts of the past and the production of the cultural artifacts of the future.” Thom Swiss, president of the ELO, added: “The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland, College Park, is internationally known and, together with the support of its campus partners in this venture, makes for the best possible home for the ELO because of our similar and now collaborative interests and ambitions.”

Founded in 1999 in Chicago, the ELO is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization made up of writers, scholars, educators, and technologists dedicated to exploring how computers can be used for literary expression, and how born digital work can use the computer and the network to build on and extend the tradition of literature. Landmark events in the ELO’s short history include:

* The launch of the Electronic Literature Directory, an acclaimed
database-driven resource of information about electronic literature
maintained by authors and visited by thousands of readers;

* Readings of electronic literature and outreach events in Chicago,
New York, Seattle, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Providence;

* The Electronic Literature Awards, which recognized exemplary works
of poetry and fiction and rewarded winners with substantial cash
prizes;

* The State of the Arts Symposium, which united over one hundred
international writers, scholars, and publishers of electronic
literature at UCLA for two days of panels and presentations and
produced hard-copy proceedings; and

* The Preservation, Archiving, and Dissemination (PAD) project’s
publication of two reports, Acid-Free Bits: Recommendations for
Long-Lasting Electronic Literature and Born-Again Bits: A Framework
for Migrating Electronic Literature.

The ELO has an international network of directors, literary advisors,
and members. The organization’s university partners include the
University of Iowa, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. After the headquarters of the ELO moves to
Maryland, partnerships with these universities, and the partnership
with UCLA, will continue, as will electronic literature readings,
events, and activities across the country.

The partnership between MITH and the ELO will help both organizations
pursue their related missions. The ELO will work, with MITH’s help, to
further its programs and its impact, both internationally and on the
Maryland campus.

The IF Comp was covered in The Wall Street Journal this year in an article by Vauhini Vara.