Rob Wittig

Rob Wittig's background includes a degree with honors in Russian Language and Literature, Minor in Art History, and a Fulbright Scholarship to Paris to study technical, artistic, and theoretical aspects of creating visual/verbal literary works with online publishing technologies, on the invitation of Jacques Derrida, Jean-Francois Lyotard, and the Centre Georges Pompidou.

In the early 1980s Rob co-founded IN.S.OMNIA, the literary electronic bulletin board system that poineered the creative possibilities of the electrosphere and has been termed "legendary" by cyber-chronicler Howard Rheingold. Rob's book, "Invisible Rendezvous, Connection and Collaboration in the New Landscape of Electronic Writing", Wesleyan University Press, 1994, is an analysis of this heroic, early period of electronic literature.

Working in the Design Department of an educational publishing company '90s Rob put into motion the process, principles, and prototypes for a revolution in the way K-12 textbooks are designed and written, changes that are now industry-wide.

Rob now stands firmly at the intersection between literature and graphic design, doing strategy and design alongside Rick Valicenti at Chicago's THIRST, directing TANK20_literary_studio, serving on the Literary Advisory Board of the Electronic Literature Association, and teaching and lecturing in both literature and design programs.

This speaker will join the Writers Looking Ahead panel.