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Announcing a New Platform for Collaborative Scholarship of E-lit

Announcing ACLS Workbench: A new site for collaborative research.
Site: http://scalar.usc.edu/aclsworkbench

ACLS Workbench Tour from Mark Marino on Vimeo.

ACLS Workbench is a new platform for collaborative research, which enables scholars to create, join, or clone online arguments enhanced with multimedia content.

http://scalar.usc.edu/aclsworkbench

ACLS Workbench has two novel features: the “join” feature and the “clone” feature. The join features allows new collaborators to apply to join your research project. The clone feature allows scholars to copy entire books so they can build their own interpretations.

ACLS Workbench is built on the ANVC Scalar platform, which offers special affordances for presenting multimedia content and custom hyperlinked paths through material. Combined with features to annotate video and code along with Workbench’s affordances, this new platform offers a powerful tool for collaboration. (Video introduction of the site: http://youtu.be/twMliWAt5KA )

As a demonstration of Workbench, we are launching Reading Project, the online companion to our recent book: Reading Project: A Collaborative Analysis of William Poundstone’s Project for Tachistoscope {Bottomless Pit just published by University of Iowa Press.

http://scalar.usc.edu/aclsworkbench/reading-project/

The book offers a collaborative investigation of one work of digital literature, modeling an argument for more intensive collaboration in the digital humanities by combining scholars who draw their methodologies from visual analytics, Critical Code Studies, media archaeology and others. The ACLS Workbench site presents our arguments and findings in an online multimedia format. Crucially, future scholars may clone our online book and use its assets to build new arguments.

The book argues: “Collaboration can produce understandings that are greater than the sum of their parts. Conversely, collaboration can foster new ways of understanding what we do as critics, scholars, and readers. Such reflection and innovation is vital not only to literary criticism but also to the future of the humanities more generally” (137). Workbench was designed to present and promote these collaborations.

ACLS Workbench was designed by Jessica Pressman (San Diego State U), Mark C Marino (USC), and Jeremy Douglass (UCSB) as part of an ACLS Collaborative Research Fellowship in collaboration with Lucas Miller, Craig Dietrich, and Erik Loyer. The platform is online and freely available. The demonstration book Reading Project was developed with the kind permission of William Poundstone and the assistance of Elizabeth Shayne.

Contact Us:

Jessica Pressman, jessicapressman0 at gmail
Mark Marino, markcmarino at gmail
Jeremy Douglass, jeremydouglass at gmail

For more on Scalar, see: http://scalar.usc.edu

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Pathfinders Book Online!

Pathfinders

ELO President Dene Grigar and Board Member Stuart Moulthrop are releasing a new free online book entitled Pathfinders, which features resources about foundational works of early electronic literature from some of the biggest names in the field.  This is a vast resource for anyone wishing to study electronic literature or include it in their courses.  Below is their full announcement.

In the decade between 1985 and 1995, as personal computers grew familiar and the Internet became a presence in everyday life, assumptions about reading, writing, and text began to change. Digital tools allowed increasingly powerful combinations of media. The ancestors of blogs and social networks appeared.  Experimental writers began to use tools like hypertext as the basis for fiction and poetry.

In the face of all these changes, the idea of the book remained essential in understanding the new nature of writing.  Yet the book could no longer be limited to traditional forms.  To understand the early history of electronic writing we would need a new kind of book; but what would it be like?  How would it capture the interactivity the effort now required of readers? How would it reflect the graphics, movement, and sound that that had become important narrative strategies? How would such a reinvented book make accessible works meant to run on an Apple IIe or early Macintosh computer, in these days of tablets and smart phones?

Pathfinders: Documenting the Experience of Early Digital Literature, by Dene Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop, answers these questions in the form of a multimedia, open-source web-book created for a wide array of digital devices. It features 173 screens of content, 53,857 words of text, 104 videos, 203 color photos, and various audio files, providing readers with access to four important computer-based works of literature that were among the first to be sold commercially in the U.S. — but are now seriously threatened by obsolescence.

The book, whose production was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, will be released June 1, 2015 and made available free of charge through the open-source platform Scalar, created by the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture at the University of Southern California.

Using video and still photography, Pathfinders captures demonstrations of four groundbreaking works, performed by their authors on vintage systems.  Readers accessing the book will watch Judy Malloy walk through her database novel Uncle Roger, originally published on the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link and considered by some the first example of social-media literature.  They will also see a tour of Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse, a revolutionary hypermedia novel-in-a-box by John McDaid, and a demonstration of two classics in the early hypertext system Storyspace, Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl and William Bly’s We Descend.  Extensive interviews with all four authors add an important dimension of oral history to the project.

All four are acclaimed works of fiction representing the cultural impact of digital technologies that resonate today in experimental writing, video games, cinema, and virtual reality experiences.

Pathfinders was created by Dene Grigar, Professor and Director of the Creative Media & Digital Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver, and Stuart Moulthrop, Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  Demonstrations and research took place in the Electronic Literature Lab (ELL), a working collection of electronic literature and vintage computers dating from1983 assembled and directed by Grigar. The designer of the Pathfinders book is Will Luers, faculty member in the CMDC Program. Madeleine Brookman, a junior in the CMDC Program, served as the Research Assistant to the project.

The formal book launch party is scheduled for Friday, June 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Nouspace-Angst Gallery, located at 1015 Main Street, Vancouver, WA. The works of these authors will be displayed on vintage computers and copies of the book will be on view to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Dene Grigar, dgrigar at wsu.edu.

 

The book will be available at http://scalar.usc.edu/works/pathfinders.

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ELO Prize 2015

The 2015 ELO Annual Prize

http://elo-prize.nimbus.digital/
Submission Deadline May 5

The ELO is proud to announce the 2015 “N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature” and the “Robert Coover Award for a Work of Electronic Literature.” Introduced in 2014, these awards honor the best works of art and scholarship in the field of electronic literature.  The 1st place winner is awarded $1000, a plaque, and a one-year membership to the ELO.  One prize for Honorable Mention will be awarded and consists of a plaque and one-year membership in ELO. Guidelines for submissions can be found on the announcement page for each award.

“The Robert Coover Award
for a Work of Electronic Literature”

“The Robert Coover Award for a Work of Electronic Literature” is an award given for the best work of electronic literature. Bestowed by the Electronic Literature Organization and funded through a generous donation from supporters and members of ELO, this annual prize aims to recognize creative excellence. The prize for “1st Place” comes a $1000 award, a plaque showing the name of the winner and the acknowledgement of the achievement, and a one-year membership in the Electronic Literature Organization at the Associate Level. One prize for “Honorary 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 Guidelines and Online Submission Form for this award are found here.  Submissions open on April 5, 2015.

 

“The N. Katherine Hayles Award
for Criticism of Electronic Literature”

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 a $1000 award, a plaque showing the name of the winner and the acknowledgement of the achievement, and a one-year membership in the Electronic Literature Organization at the Associate Level. One prize for “Honorary Mention” is awarded and consists of a plaque showing the name of the winner and the acknowledgement of the achievement, and a one-year membership in the Electronic Literature Organization at the Associate Level The Guidelines and Online Submission Form for this award are found here. Submissions open on April 5, 2015.

 

Deadlines

Nomination Submissions:  April 5-May 5, 2015
Jury Deliberations:  May 15-July 15, 2015
Award Announcement:  ELO Conference Banquet, Bergen, Norway, August 6, 2015

For more information, contact Dr. Dene Grigar, President, Electronic Literature Organization, dgrigar@mac.com.

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New Special Issue of Hyperrhiz Spotlights Netprov

hyperrhiz cover

Announcing the publication of Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, issue 11, guest edited by Mark C. Marino and Rob Wittig, putting the spotlight on netprov.  “Netprov” is a term Wittig coined for “networked improv narratives,” and many of the works and essays in the new issue reflect on and develop the meaning of that term.

The issue includes critical essays by Kathi Inman Berens, Lauren Burr, Leonardo Flores, Davin Heckman, and Peggy Weil and includes an hour-long compilation of interviews  with an international array of creators of electronic literature, conducted by Talan Memmott.

Along with Twitter-based netprovs, the issue also features creative works, including bot poetry authors, netprovs, to ARGs, to interactive fiction, to electronic poetry. Artists include Jean-Pierre Balpe, Mez Breeze, Deena Larsen & Maje Larsen, Peter McDonald and Patrick Jagoda, Reed Gaines and Arianna Gass, and Glen Gatin along with Wittig and Marino.

The issue also features a review of Richard Rinehart and John Ippolito’s Re-Collection by Eddie Lohmeyer and Lori Emerson’s Reading Writing Interfaces by Kathi Inman Berens.

Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, the peer-reviewed sister journal of Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, is published twice-yearly.  Hyperrhiz:  provides a forum for experimental new media projects (both critical and creative) located outside or across current disciplinary boundaries. Its editor is Helen J. Burgess of North Carolina State University.

For more about Hyperrhiz, go here: http://hyperrhiz.net/about-hyperrhiz.html

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CFP: Reading Wide, Writing Wide in the Digital Age: Perspectives on Translitatures

Please see this call from the LEETHY Group in Madrid!

Call for papers:
Reading wide, writing wide in the Digital Age: perspectives on transliteratures
Complutense University of Madrid
22nd -23rd October 2015
Organizer: LEETHY Group

The launching of Google Books and of Google Earth in 2004 could be considered a symbolical landmark in the configuration of memories and localization in space, a kind of milestone. Is there a time before and a time after 2004? Should we be getting ready for a change in literary reading and writing? Certainly, these days, we are witnessing an unprecedented acceleration of the circulation of products and materials, of people, texts and memories, while the national and global imaginaries coexist, fight and produce literatures. Commonplaces are repeated about contemporary literatures, new readers, globalization, the Internet etc., but, in fact, we do not find enough contrasted experiences and studies that support many of these assertions.

Read more CFP: Reading Wide, Writing Wide in the Digital Age: Perspectives on Translitatures

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CFP: MLA E-Lit Reading (11/28; 1/9/15)

E-Lit@Vancouver

Start 2015 with Electronic Literature! The Electronic Literature Organization seeks proposals for the E-Lit@Vancouver reading,  to be held 8pm, Friday, January 9, at the Rickshaw Theatre (254 E Hastings St). The reading is organized by ELO President Dene Grigar and ELO co-Vice President Sandy Baldwin. The event is free and open to the public, and is scheduled to take place during the 2015 Modern Language Association (readers are not required to attend the conference or be members of MLA, though they are required to be physically present at the reading).
Participations in the reading is open to any member of the ELO ( see https://eliterature.org​ for more information). We seek readings and performances that celebrate electronic literature in all its forms. To be considered, send a 300 word proposal, including technical requirements, and a brief biography to Sandy Baldwin at sbaldwin66 at gmail dotcom. Deadline: November 28. All submissions will be read and peer reviewed. Decisions will be announced by December 5.
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Off-Site ASA E-Lit Reading (Nov 6)

Off-Site Reading Logo

 

Game Over
The Fun and Fury of Electronic Literature

An evening of poetry and digital art performances

Date: November 6, 8-9:30pm, Doheny Library, USC

The Off-Site performances of digital literature for the 2014 conference of the American Studies Association in Los Angeles.
Join us for an evening of readings of electronic literature. Bots, Apps, and more from the future of reading and writing!

Featuring: . micha cardenas, MD Coverley, Max Geiger, Samantha Gorman, Jeff Knowlton, Adam Sulzdorf-Liszkiewicz, and Brian Kim Stefans.

8pm, Doheny Library.

Location: Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, 2nd Floor Doheny Library, USC

Organized by Leonardo Flores (UPRM) and Mark C Marino (USC)

Directions from the Westin Bonaventure
Take Metro Expo Line (toward Culver City) from Metro Center Station
See more directions here

Read more Off-Site ASA E-Lit Reading (Nov 6)

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ELO-DHSI Summer Courses (June 2015)

ELO-DHSI Summer Courses (6/1-5; 6/8-12; 6/15-19 2015)

We are pleased to announce that the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) will be partnering with the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) to offer opportunities for members to participate in the series of DH courses at the University of Victoria that takes place from June 1st-5th 2015, June 8th-12th 2015, and June 15th-19th 2015.

Registration for DHSI is now open. This year will see an expansion from the regular one-week Institute to three weeks of courses, in part to support those enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities at U Victoria. Participants may choose to attend one, two, or all three week-long workshops. In 2015, 40 courses ranging from old favourites to exciting first-time ventures will be offered. Each week of DHSI will include a week-long training workshop, and the core week (June 8th-12th) will also include morning colloquia, lunchtime unconferences, and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. Throughout the institute, keynote lectures will be given by Malte Rehbein (U Passau), David Hoover (NYU), Claire Warwick (UC London), and Constance Crompton (UBC Okanagan).

Read more ELO-DHSI Summer Courses (June 2015)

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CFP: ELO 2015 Bergen, Norway

UPDATED: New Deadline: Jan 7, 2015
ELO Conference PosterCall for Contributions: ELO 2015 Conference – Bergen, Norway
The End(s) of Electronic Literature

The 2015 Electronic Literature Organization conference and festival will take place August 5-7th 2015. The conference website is at: http://conference.eliterature.org. The conference will be hosted by the Bergen Electronic Literature research group at the University of Bergen, Norway with sessions at venues including the University of Bergen, Det Akademiske Kvarteret, the Bergen Public Library, the University of Bergen Arts library, and local arts venues. Bergen is Norway’s second-largest city, known as the gateway to the fjords, a festival city and cultural center with a lively and innovative arts scene.

DEADLINES

The deadline for submissions of research, workshop, and arts proposals is Jan 7, 2015.

 

CONFERENCE THEME

The theme of the 2015 Electronic Literature Organization conference and festival is “The End(s) of Electronic Literature.” This theme plays on several different meanings of “ends.” Topics the conference papers and works will explore include:

Is “electronic literature” a transitional term that will become obsolete as literary uses of computational media and devices become ubiquitous? If so, what comes after electronic literature?

Read more CFP: ELO 2015 Bergen, Norway

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CFP: E-Poetry 2015: Buenos Aires

E-POETRY [ 2015 ] : BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA : NEW PATHS, NEW VOICES / NUEVAS RUTAS, NUEVAS VOCES  [ June 9-12, 2015 ]
Submissions: Jan. 7, 2015 — Early Registration: March 15, 2015

The Heart is the Capital of the Mind— / The Mind is a single State—
The Heart and the Mind together make / A single Continent—
— Emily Dickinson

DEDICATED TO THE CONCEPT THAT THERE EXISTS ONE COLLECTIVE WORLDWIDE CONTEXT FOR DIGITAL LITERATURE — not a community by necessity broken into divisions by sea or isthmus or region — and continuing its biennial calendar to enable participants time to develop work suited to the uniquely celebratory spirit of this festival and conference, E-Poetry is pleased to present its Call For Proposals for its conference in Buenos Aires, June 9-12, 2015, the first ongoing electronic literature series to be held in South America! We celebrate greater community, new voices, and new contexts!

Proposals for Scientific/Scholarly Papers (15 minutes) or Creative (Performances/Readings/Hybrid Talks  of 15 or 30 minutes) or Media Exhibitions (Installations/Video/Hybrid Works) including: (1) full name and affiliation (academic  or independent artist); (2) two-line program listing (if full description is in Spanish or Portuguese, please also include two-line program listing in English); (3) 250 word description; and (4) technical needs/precise set-up time for proposed presentation. Indicate category of submission. Conference languages: English, Spanish, and Portuguese (simultaneous translation). Of greatest interest are literary explorations, new poetics, e-lit across borders and languages, and emergent connections with Latin America. Whether scholarly, poetically inspired, or interwoven critical/artistic works, we seek your presentations and performances! Special thanks to Claudia Kozak, Local Facilitator. ALL proposals, with subject line “E-Poetry 2015 Proposal” MUST be sent to emerginglanguagepractices [at] gmail.com with a cc: to Laura Shackelford, E-POETRY [ 2015 ] Proposals Coordinator (lxsgla [at] rit.edu). Proposal Committee listed below. Updated info available at E-POETRY 2015 (http://epc.buffalo.edu/e-poetry/2015). Due to the highly competitive nature of E-Poetry, early submission is encouraged.

DEADLINE: Proposals for scientific/scholarly papers or performances/readings/hybrid talks: Jan. 7, 2015; notifications of acceptance by Feb. 15, 2015. Early registration deadline is March 15, 2015. (Note: Latin America participants, inquire about special scholarships for E-Poetry 2015 participation!)

Please see the EPC (http://epc.buffalo.edu), or the attached, for full details!

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