Jessica Pressman is associated professor at San Diego State University (USA) and a member of the Board of Direction of the Electronic Literature Organization. This interview is focused on her work in the academic field, her essays and her books as well as the project of the Electronic Literature Organization.
The Electronic Literature Collection proves that e-lit is a multiplicity that cannot be easily categorized. The information systems framework offers one coherent approach that applies to these works beyond the characteristics of any one element: text, image, sound, or interactivity. In this talk, I will demonstrate the ways in which educators and students can apply this framework to pieces as varied as Michael Joyce's "Twelve Blue," Jim Andrews' "Stir Fry Texts," and Maria Mencia's "Birds' Singing Other Birds' Songs." When read as information systems, these works not only reveal new generic differences but also present themselves as models for future works.
(Source: ELO 2008 site)
Listed as one of the main themes of the Bergen 2015 ELO conference is the following question: 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?
The notion of obsolescence has been a recurring issue in electronic literature since at least 2002, the date of the ELO Conference at UCLA. At that time, archiving became a general concern in the field. ELO responded with documents such as Born-Again Bits, Acid-Free Bits, and the ELC 1 and 2 Collections. Since that time, with the continual evolution of computational media and devices, the problems of archiving have continued to grow more complicated. The panel proposes to address issues of Archiving based on this re-wording of the conference theme: is electronic literature a transitional practice that will become obsolete as the multiplication of forms of both computational media and devices make literary artifacts more and more difficult to preserve?
The panel will include Leonardo Flores and the ELC 3 Collective, Marjorie C. Luesebrink (M.D. Coverley), Rui Torres, and Stephanie Strickland. Topics to be addressed by the panel will include the following: Stephanie Strickland, “Six Questions for Born-Digital Archivists”; Rui Torres, “Interfacing the Archive: (Ab)Using the PO.EX Digital Archive”; Leonardo Flores/Stephanie Boluk/Jacob Garbe/ Anastasia Salter, “The Electronic Literature Collection Volume 3 (ELC3) Editorial Collective presentation”; Marjorie C. Luesebrink, “The creation of Women Innovate: Contributions to Electronic Literature (1990-2010) by Marjorie Luesebrink and Stephanie Strickland”.
(source: ELO 2015 conference catalog)
Haakon Sheteligs plass 7
5007 Bergen
Norway
An exhibition addressing various aspects of the festival’s theme, the End(s) of Electronic Literature Festival exhibition at the University of Bergen Arts and Humanities Library includes kiosk displays of international web-based electronic literature, installations made specifically for the library context, an “Emergence of Electronic Literature” exhibit (documented in a separate catalog) featuring early works of electronic literature, antecedant works of print literature, posters and other ephemera from the history of the field, and an Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 3 preview exhibit.
(source: ELO 2015 catalog)
In an increasingly monolingual, globalized world, the second volume of theElectronic Literature Collection may just offer a map of the territory. The question the reviewer, John Zuern, poses is how do we navigate this terrain going forward?
(Source: ebr.)
Whereas the first volume had a necessarily retrospective emphasis, however, tasked as it was with defining a field and showing where electronic literature has come from, Volume 2 seems more intent on showing us where electronic literature is now - and perhaps even hinting at where it, along with its institutional and critical support systems, ought to be going.
Internationalization is clearly on the editorial agenda; the collection reinforces the drive to represent electronic literature as a world-wide phenomenon...
[W]e should think more about electronic literature's engagements (and complicities) with monolingualism and with the operations of global capitalism not only out of a high-minded sense of ideological duty, but because the insights we derive will help us argue for the field's contribution, indeed its indispensability, to a polyvocal discourse (nurtured in part, but not exclusively, in universities) that is responsive to innovations in communication technology and, even more important, responsible for cultivating a critical, interpretive orientation toward those emerging modalities of always-located, always-embodied human-human, human-machine, and human-world-system interaction.
301. Reconfiguring Publishing
Friday, 6 January, 1:45-3:00 p.m., Grand A Sheraton
An Electronic Roundtable Exhibiting the Future(s) of Publishing
Presiding: Carolyn Guertin, Univ. of Texas, Arlington; William Thompson, Western Illinois Univ.
This session intends not to bury publishing but to raise awareness of its transformations and continuities as it reconfigures itself. New platforms are causing publishers to return to their roots as booksellers while booksellers are once again becoming publishers. Open-access models of publishing are creating new models for content creation and distribution as small print-focused presses are experiencing a renaissance. Come see!
(Source: MLA 2012 Program Abstracts)
Two Electronic Literature Organization Board Members participated. Caroyn Guertin was one of two presiders, and Rita Rayley presented the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume Two, which she co-edited.
Digital Literature. It’s out there, I swear. The question is where? The answer is everywhere. Over the past twenty years or so, a diverse international community comprising a combination of independent and institutionally affiliated authors, academics, researchers, critics, curators, editors and non-profit organizations, has produced a wide range of print books, print and online journals, online and gallery exhibitions, conferences, festivals, live performance events, online and DVD collections, databases, directories and other such listings of creative and critical works in the field.
Bergen Public Library
Bergen
Norway
On 2 May 2011, the Electronic Literature Research Group at the Department of Linguistic, Literary, and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen hosted two special events at the Bergen Public Library celebrating the launch of the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2. The Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2 is an international anthology of more than 60 works of electronic literature published under a Creative Commons license online and on DVD.
The publication of the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 1 in 2006 had a significant impact on the field of electronic literature, giving readers and educators a common set of referents in the form of a diverse collection of literary works made for digital media. The ELC, Volume 2, published in 2011, offers new digital poetry, hypertext fiction, interactive fiction, multimedia documentaries, and a variety of other forms of electronic literature. The University of Bergen program in Digital Culture was one of the sponsors of the publication of the ELC 2 and will make use of it in its future courses.
To celebrate this publishing event, two events were held on Monday, 02 May 2011 in cooperation with the Bergen Public Library and the journal Vagant.
14:00-16:00 Bergen Public Library, Auditorium Presentation of the ELC 2:
Talan Memmott and Rita Raley, Editors. The editors will present the collection and briefly highlight a variety of works of electronic literature in the collection.
Editing Electronic Literature, a Roundtable Discussion Editors of the ELC 2 (Talan Memmott and Rita Raley) and the ELC 1 (Scott Rettberg and Stephanie Strickland) discussed the process of selecting and contextualizing works for the two anthologies, preparing the two online and disc editions, and distributing the collections to international audiences. Discussion will be led by Andrew Roberts, Professor of English at the University of Dundee and leader of the Poetry Beyond Text project.
19:30-21:30 Bergen Public Library, Auditorium Reading of works from the ELC 1 and 2 Featuring readings and performances from: Lexia to Perplexia by Talan Memmott (ELC 1) slippingglimpse by Stephanie Strickland, Jaramillo by Cynthia Lawsonand Paul Ryanl (ELC 2) V: Vniverse by Stephanie Strickland and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo (ELC 2); Letter to Linus by William Gillespie (ELC 2); The Unknown by William Gillespie, Frank Marquardt, Scott Rettberg, and Dirk Stratton (ELC 2)
Q&A led by Audun Lindholm, editor of Vagant: Journal of Literature and Criticism.
This event was sponsored by the Bergen Public Library, the University of Bergen Electronic Literature Research Group, ELMCIP: Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice, the Electronic Literature Organization, the Fulbright Foundation, the University of Bergen (Småforskmidler), and Vagant.
A Platform 2 Column published in Norwegian in Vagant as "Bokstaver i bevegelse, discussing works of kinetic poetry published in the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2.
Published on the author's website in English as "Letters in Space, At Play."
A Platform 2 Column published in Norwegian in Vagant, discussing works of kinetic poetry published in the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2.
Published on the author's website in English as "Letters in Space, At Play."
Artikkelen beskriver verker av kinetisk poesi publisert i Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2.