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!
Call for Proposals
The Nebraska Digital Workshop
October 5 & 6, 2007
The Center for Digital Research in the Humanities (CDRH) at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) will host the second annual Nebraska Digital Workshop on October 5 & 6, 2007 and seeks proposals for digital presentations by pre-tenure faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and advanced graduate students working in the digital humanities. The goal of the Workshop is to enable the best early career scholars in the field of digital humanities to present their work in a forum where it can be critically evaluated, improved, and showcased. Under the auspices of the Center, the Workshop will bring nationally recognized senior scholars in digital humanities to UNL to participate and work with the selected scholars. Selected scholars will receive full travel reimbursement and an honorarium for presenting their work at the Nebraska Digital Workshop.
Selection criteria include: significance in primary disciplinary field, technical innovation, theoretical and methodological sophistication, and creativity of approach.
Please send proposed workshop abstract, curriculum vitae, and a representative sample of digital work via a URL or disk on or before May 1, 2007 to: Katherine L. Walter, Co-Director, UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, at kwalter1@unl.edu or 319 Love Library, UNL, Lincoln, NE 68588-4100. For further details, please see the Center’s website.
Department of English
Virginia Commonwealth University
Collateral Instructor, Associate Technologist/Online Editor
We seek to hire a collateral faculty member who will serve as production editor for Blackbird, our award-winning online journal of literature and the arts, and will provide support and development for the interdisciplinary PhD program in Media, Art, and Text. This person will serve as an educator and developer for the production facility supporting both of these and other departmental efforts in media and technology, and will act as associate site manager. The position is a twelve-month renewable appointment beginning spring 2007. MFA or master’s degree required; PhD desirable. The candidate must demonstrate masteryâ€â€creative and practicalâ€â€in at least two areas of multimodal (new media) writing and/or production, such as online publication, Web design, digital photography, audio production, and video production. Proficiency in Adobe/Macromedia products is an advantage. The candidate must have excellent writing and oral communication skills and a demonstrated interest in literary/artistic endeavors; editing experience is strongly preferred. Teaching/training experience in any of the above areas is a significant plus. The person will work closely with the PhD director and the Technology Coordinator to develop and lead workshops and training sessions for students and faculty; the position includes the opportunity for teaching.
Send application, c.v., and dossier including three letters of recommendation and a portfolio demonstrating experience in teaching or training as well as containing examples of relevant work in multimodal/new media and/or Web production to Terry Oggel, Chair, Department of English, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284-2005. Applications will be reviewed starting in late-January and will continue until position is filled. This position is contingent upon funding. VCU is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women, minorities and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
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!
The Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego is seeking candidates to fill a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level, beginning July 1, 2007 focusing on communication as a social and institutional force with an emphasis on information and communication technology, and new media industries.
We invite applications from scholars working in such areas as:
telecommunication policy; labor and the “new” economy; local and global regulation of communications markets and infrastructures; information technology governance; the Internet and the emergence of digital communication networks; and communication in comparative, historical, and non-Western contexts.
The UCSD Department of Communication is interdisciplinary and seeks candidates with a critical approach to the role played by communication in economic, social, and political life. Critical examinations of race, class, gender, sexuality, and power are central to the traditions and concerns of our department.
Salaries are in accordance with UC pay scales. If non-citizen, please state immigration status. UCSD is an equal opportunity / affirmative action employer committed to excellence through diversity. Applicants are invited to preview campus diversity resources and programs at the campus website for Diversity http://diversity.ucsd.edu.
Applicants are also invited to provide comments about his/her leadership activities and/or contributions to diversity.
Review of applications will begin on November 15, 2006, and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants should have, or expect to complete, a PhD by September, 2007. Send vita, statement of research and teaching interest, one work sample (such as a recent publication), and contact information for three references to:
Professor Gary Fields
Dept. of Communication (0503)
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0503
The Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) has now established its new headquarters at The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland, College Park. The move, which has been made possible by sponsorship from MITH, the English department at Maryland, the College of Arts and Humanities, and the University Libraries, was completed this summer.
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 Institute of Communication and Culture (ICC) at the University of Toronto at Mississauga seeks applications for a tenure-stream appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor in Cultural Studies of Digital Media and Technology with an emphasis on Visual Cultural and Communication. The successful candidate will be associated with programs in the Centre for Visual and Media Culture (CVMC) and in Communication, Culture and Information Technology (CCIT). Appointment will begin on July 1, 2007.We are seeking a specialist with an emphasis on emerging media and technologies as well as demonstrated theoretical sophistication in cultural studies of digital media and technology with an emphasis on visual culture and communication.
Applications are invited from scholars in a variety of disciplines including cultural studies, media and communication studies, art history, visual culture, humanities in computing, information studies, science and technology studies, and comparative literature, among others. Humanities based scholars and those with interdisciplinary interests are preferred. Ph.D. required. The candidate will be expected to teach undergraduate courses in visual culture and communication (including the introductory course) as well as courses in the CCIT programs dependent on the candidate’s areas of interest.
(See full job call for more details)
Edward Picot has provided a review of Broken Saints, by Brooke Burgess, Andrew West, and Ian Kirby. Broken Saints is an epic 24-part 12-hour-long Flash-animated comic book, which has been visited on the Web by more than five million people, and has sold almost 10,000 copies on DVD. A new DVD version, distributed by Fox, is published this month. The review appears on The Hyperliterature Exchange for August 2006.
Picot says this about Broken Saints: “Senecan tragedy is a useful point of reference for Broken Saints because it shares the same preoccupation with bloody violence, particularly violence within the family. At the end of Broken Saints a deranged father pulls out one of his daughter’s eyes, wires up her brain to the Internet and hangs her on a crucifix made out of computer monitors as part of his attempt to achieve world-domination: a climax so lurid and grotesque that even Seneca might have found it hard to outdo.” To read the whole review, go to http://hyperex.co.uk/reviewbrokensaints.php . The Hyperliterature Exchange is an online directory and review of new media literature for sale on the Web. More than 120 works are now listed. Please visit and browse at http://hyperex.co.uk.
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 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’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.
ELO board member, Robert Kendall, is currently working on an exciting new project that seeks “to disrupt the conventional role of words in their day-to-day life.” Keep your eyes open for Logozoa living near you, and to learn how you can participate in this project, read the full description below.
Logozoa
Logozoa.com is a collaborative Web site intended to disrupt the conventional role of words in day-to-day life. It disseminates aphoristic texts as downloadable stickers and showcases photos of these stickers in unusual contexts from all over the world.
We put labels and signs on things to tame them — identify, categorize, explain, instruct, proclaim ownership. What if instead the labels could liberate the everyday world from the literal, proclaim rather than cover up the mysteries? What if they could become Logozoa — textual organisms that infest the literal with metaphor and give impetuous life and breath to meaning?
Logozoa (textual organisms, or word animals) take the form of aphorisms, anti-aphorisms, maxims, minims, neokoans, sayings, left-unsaids, proverbialisms, poemlets, microtales, instant fables, and other varieties of conceptual riffs. More than 375 of these creatures reside at Logozoa.com where visitors can download them in PDF format for printing onto standard label sheets.
The Logozoo at Logozoa.com provides a natural-habitat preserve and showcase for photographs of Logozoa stickers. Currently the Zoo holds over 475 photos contributed by numerous photographers from around the world.
And there’s more. An E-Dopt-a-Zoa feature allows you to paste an ever-changing virtual sticker onto your own Web site, and a pair of oracles provide Logozoa in response to your questions.